In the January 28, 2016 issue of ASCD EXPRESS, Kathy Schrock discusses using technology to provide academic support and individualized instruction for all students. She recognizes that the plethora of technology can overwhelm teachers and their students and provides a few ways to integrate technology. She reminds teachers that designing formative and summative assessments with higher order thinking skills is one way that instruction will drive the conversation, not the technology. Even with this suggestion, however, I fear that the wealth of technology can incapacitate a teacher as s/he tries to implement various technology without the benefit of working side-by-side with an experienced colleague to collectively problem-solve and collaborate about what works in classrooms.

The December 2015/January 2016 Educational Leadership journal focuses on co-teaching: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Is it the panacea for what ails education? Absolutely not, but can a co-teaching environment build teacher capacity, increase student engagement, and improve student achievement? A more revealing question for me is whether a collaborative community yields noticeable changes in classrooms, instruction, and student outcomes.

What an interesting opening of the October 23, 2015 EdWeek online commentary “It’s time to Restructure Teacher Professional Development” … Despite being an $18 billion industry, with costs for services of up to $18,000 per year, per teacher, professional development doesn't appear to have much effect on teaching quality. How could PD have an effect on teaching quality if the PD is not tied to standards, research, teacher practices, and student needs? How effective can we expect the professional development if there is no time for teachers to learn together, practice together, give and get feedback, and reflect together? We want to “give” teachers best practices so they can parrot what they’ve learned but do we really give teachers an opportunity in their day to think about what they are learning and how to “make it their own”?

In the September 28, 2015 online Education Week issue, author Anthony Rebora discusses collaborative teacher team meetings and the effectiveness of meeting together as a form of teacher professional development. He claims that although team meetings are an important part of the teacher professional environment, some evidence indicates that teachers are not satisfied with this time spent together. That, in fact, some teachers think team meetings are a waste of time.