RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

Effective Communication and Collaboration

Niyoria McKinnis

Regent University
RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

Introduction

The most important thing to remember when being a teacher is having effective

communication and collaboration every day. Every day teachers are communicating with not

only students but parents and staff to have a connection. Communication with everyone is very

important for students learning process. This communication also goes out to the community

also. Being a teacher requires you to be able to work well with others.

Rationale of Artifacts

The first artifact I chose to share is my introduction letter that went home with students

the first day of school to introduce myself to everyones parents. In this letter I provided parents

with my background and experience. I also included when I am graduating and how long I would

be in the classroom with their child. This letter also would help parents know who I am if I have

to make a phone call home at any point during my placement. In my letter I also included a

picture of myself in case they visit the classroom, so they know exactly who I am. Effective

communication with parents is very important, even though this school has very little parent

involvements I wanted to make sure I introduced myself. Even though I am only in their

classroom for eight weeks it was just very important for me to write this letter to show that I am

committed. I have had many experience communicating with parents because my last job I was a

preschool teacher and I communicated with parents through notes and in the morning during

drop off. Parents want to know who their children are in the hands of and having that first initial

contact will go a long way and parents will appreciate you as their childs teacher. In my second

placement at Deep Creek Central Elementary I plan on creating a similar letter for parents on my

first day there.

RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

The second artifact I chose to share were some of my notes taken during math and

science CLC. In these meetings I met with all the 5th grade science and math teachers to

collaborate on what is going well in our classrooms and what approaches we took in our lessons

to learn from each other. I feel that working with grade level teachers is very important because

you get to see what works and what doesnt work and gain ideas for your classroom. Some

teachers many have ideas to a lesson that you never thought about. It was also fun to share some

of my ideas during these meeting. All the teachers loved my creativity and some of them

tweaked their lesson to add on some things I said I did in my classroom. It felt great being able to

contribute creativity in student learning. I love that all the teachers in the meeting supported one

another each and every week.

Throughout my years at Regent I learned that it is very important to have effective

collaboration not only with students but teachers as well. These meetings actually reminded me

of collaborating with my classmates in my classes at Regent. This is very important when you

become a first year teacher. I know I can come off as a shy person at first, but it was important

for me to open up and share ideas and I am very proud of myself for overcoming this while at

Bettie F. Williams. Sometimes in the collaboration meetings we worked in pairs or in whole

group. The thing I liked most about these meetings was actually getting a chance to try out some

lessons and acting like we were students to actually see how it would go in the classroom. I

loved having the opportunity to act as a student and answering how students would typically

answer in the classroom. Every teacher needs support new teachers and even old teachers.

Reflection
RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

Overall, communication is most important when you become a teacher. Building

relationships with students, parents, colleagues, administration and others around will help build

success in the classroom. Regent has really helped me open up and communicate more.

Practicing with small group and whole group communication has really helped me in this

process. When I walked into my first placement on the first day I was able to greet everyone and

introduce myself to everyone I walked past. I would not have been able to do that if it wasnt for

Regent preparing me for this. I am proud of myself that I have grown over time and I look

forward to meeting all the staff at my new placement.

Teachers communicate every day, whether communicated face-to-face, on the phone, in

print, electronically or through the public address system (Silver). Good handwriting, spelling

and grammar are very important in all forms of written communication when communicating

with anyone. Communication not only involves speaking, but it involves listening as well. I feel

that communication between parents should be an ongoing thing and not just when something

bad happens.

Listening plays a huge part in communication. For example, as we communicate with

God, the first part of that communication is listening. Gods primary ways of communication

with us are through the His Word (Romans 10:17, NIV) and by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26,

NIV). In order to fully understand Gods communication with us, we must read, study, memorize

and meditate on His Word. As teachers, we need to communicate like, we communicate with

God through prayer. We all go to God, in prayer for all our needs. Just as we communicate with

Him, we must communicate with our students, parents and colleagues. We should also examine

our form of communication. Another important thing to remember is our body language and

facial expressions toward others.

RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

Works Cited

Bible Gateway passage: Romans 10:17-New International Version. Retrieved October 8, 2017

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans+10%3A17&version=NIV

Bible Gateway passage: John 14:26- New International Version. Retrieved October 8, 2017

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+14%3A26&version=NIV

Silver, Freddie ,What Are the Benefits of Communication Skills to Teachers? Chron,

https://www.work.chron.com/benefits-communication-skills-teachers-4493.html.