Teacher Collaboration: Working Together for Success

Many people believe that Teacher Collaboration is a key element to teacher effectiveness and success in the classroom. According to Education News, a study shows that teachers get better at what they do when they work with other teachers. Collaboration does not usually occur naturally, it must be cultivated. Work environment and school climate can impact teacher quality. An article from The Teaching Channel entitled “The Power of Teacher Collaboration” believes that collaboration begins with finding time to connect with colleagues, share thoughts, and provide support. Author, Lily James provides 3 tips for successful collaboration:

1. Build Relationships
2. Find Time to Collaborate
3. Share Responsibility

Pepper is a learning community of collaboration and sharing. Teachers are encouraged to network and interact with nationwide peers, learn and share from experiences, and promote and support successes and ideas.  Pepper Professional Development Courses provide opportunities for teacher collaboration through peer discussions and sharing course portfolios. You can also search and filter for others in the Pepper community using the “People” tab. Be sure to check out all our Pepper course offerings.

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New Writing Course: Argument Writing for High School

Argument Writing for High School was released on August 3, 2015, along with 3 other new Writing Courses from Pepper.

This course focuses on teaching high school students to write persuasive arguments. Participants will learn to deconstruct, analyze, research, and write an argument essay that meets standards and expectations for high school (grades 9–12).

Teachers will also be taken through all stages of the writing process, from learning the elements of an argument writing essay to analyzing sample texts, choosing fruitful topics, completing writing activities, considering their audience, gathering research, revising and editing their work. All of these stages are designed to help participants formulate their own strategies for teaching argument essay writing. A template is provided that walks users through exploring a potential topic for writing and helps them evaluate if this is a topic they want to pursue. Click image to enlarge view:

The course requires 6 hours of work online with an additional 4 hours offline. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here.

These courses were authored by content experts from Accelerated Literacy Learning.

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed, by visiting Pepper!

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New Writing Course: Informed Opinion Letters for Grades K-2

Pepper released 4 new Writing Courses on August 3, 2015:

• Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing (Grades K-2)
• Introduction to Narrative Writing (Grades 3-5)
• Informed Opinion Letters for Teachers (Grades K-2)
• Argument Writing for High School

These courses were authored by content experts from Accelerated Literacy Learning and are an addition to our current Pepper course, Argument Writing for Middle School.

The course, Informed Opinion Letters for Grades K-2, will provide you with all of the background knowledge, experiences, and resources necessary to conduct an informed opinion letter unit of study with young children. Teachers will work through the process of creating and editing their own piece of writing, which will allow them to teach by example. Participants will experience short videos, quizzes, reflection journals, and opinion polls to build their knowledge and prepare them to teach the writing of opinion letters.

Topics that will be covered include:

• Creating a Rationale for Informed Opinion Letter Writing
• Generating Opinions in a Variety of Ways
• Letters as a Writing Genre
• Linking Opinions to Strong Research
• Revision
• Celebrating and Reflecting

The course requires 6 hours of work online with an additional 4 hours offline. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here.

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed, by visiting Pepper!

Sign up to receive "The Big Idea" directly to your email each time it's updated. To do this, simply add your email under "Follow PepperPCG Posts by E-mail!" to the right.