In 2016 I was asked to plan the whole student course for my subject. I dutifully sketched out a plan on Google Sheets. For no other reason than I only had a Chromebook at home. I came into work and my manager said, "oh share that with me." So I did. Unbeknownst to me he then shared it with every staff member in the team, mentors, coaches, TA's and teachers. Everyone threw their two penneth in and the next time I looked at it the document didn't resemble anything like I had planned. Thankfully I used version history to revert to my version, saved a copy for me, restored their version and moved on doing my original plan. I hadn't been asked to collaboratively plan and I wasn't ready to let go. I knew what my end vision was but we hadn't discussed it as a team. I wish we had and I wish we had been given the time but we weren't and I felt that I had to just move on with my plan.
In 2017 I was asked to plan with the same team again. I established from the beginning some roles and duties with my manager. I added columns with each staff members name on and we began. Three weeks later, nothing. Not a sausage. No one contributed. I asked my manager what to do and he said, just do what you did last year. So again I wrote my version of what I thought should happen for our learners in the coming year. Instantly the sheet was filled with thoughts, tweaks, changes and amendments. It ended up in a mess. I tried to tidy it and move bits under each person's column but it still wasn't a practical document. For example, I would pop the session title in and some key bits to cover. There would be an extra row added from the mentor saying that she was on holiday that week. There would be a comment added by the other teacher from the other group saying they wouldn't cover this then as they had their own plan. In the column under her name the mentor wrote "Student B didn't like this topic last year, can they do something else?" You get the picture. Not a practical document in terms of something to pick up and run with in the classroom. Most of the teams contributions had some merit or relevance. My manager hadn't asked us to collaboratively plan though. He had asked staff to contribute to my plan. They weren't invested, it wasn't their end vision.
In 2018, my last year with the team, I was asked to start planning again. This time I added a column for key dates, meetings, trips, staff absence, hoping this would avoid extra rows being added. I added a column for the other teacher to put her topics in to see when she taught what and to see if we could move some stuff around to tie up a bit. I added a hooks column and asked staff to contribute. The hooks were meant to be things that were exciting about that topic in the real world. I was hoping that by focussing on how to engage learners we would avoid the negativity of Student B didn't like this comment. Again I sat and waited with my blank document of columns, nothing. I added in my part. Nothing. I tracked down the other teacher, we sat together and we came up with a plan where we both taught the same topics each week. We then talked about sharing the planning and resources. We recognised we both taught differently but agreed the resources would always be similar so shared the planning of those taking a week each. We then asked our manager to share the document again in the team meeting, we asked him to ask the team to contribute to our plan. On paper copies everyone else contributed and I typed them up onto the document afterwards. We ended up with a column for my class, a column for the other class, a column for who was responsible for planning, a column of hooks and a column for key dates. It was beautiful.
In the beginning my manager had mistaken the fact that a document can be shared for a collaborative document. I wasn't asked to collaboratively plan and not were the rest of the team. They probably felt aggrieved that I had planned so much of it already without asking. In 2017 I learnt that the team didn't didn't believe we were collaboratively planning. They hadn't been asked to. They felt, rightly, that they were contributing to my plan. We still didn't get it right but by sitting down and discussing things we moved a lot faster and closer to what we were trying to achieve in 2018. We never truly collaboratively planned. We contributed to a shared plan.
Collaborative planning is more than working on a shared document. It is about setting working parameters, assigning roles, discussing and aiming for the end goal and vision. Everyone will come to planning from a different viewpoint. You need to agree and establish what it is you are aiming for as a group to then allow the plan to support your vision. Without roles and an end vision established collaborative planning will probably always end up in a mess like my 2016 document.
Things have moved on since then and now we are asked to virtually collaboratively plan. Unfortunately I am seeing documents being shared with "pop any bits you want to add on", that isn't collaborative planning. That is sharing a document and asking for ideas. Collaborative planning, virtual or face to face needs a planning meeting, an opening discussion. This doesn't have to be face to face, it can be on a Google Meet. It doesn't even need to be a meeting, it could be an opening email of "we are about to start planning...and I wanted to see what roles and ideas everyone wanted to bring." It gives everyone an opportunity to get their barriers out of the way. An opportunity to establish roles. An opportunity to clarify and aim towards the same end point. It's personal!
However if your email is looking mahoosive and you fear that the focus will be lost, you may want to pick up the phone. You will be surprised what a difference it makes hearing people's voices rather than reading their words and it may make planning a more enjoyable experience. SJ
