Running

head: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION 1

Effective Communication and Collaboration

Victoria Sandridge

Regent University

In partial fulfilment of UED 596 Field Experience ePortfolio, Fall 2019

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Introduction

Being able to effectively communicate and collaborate with other teachers, staff,

parents, and the students. Effectively communicating refers to expressing ideas and concerns

with clarity and being open to other suggestions. Collaborating, “is both a process innovation

and a product innovation, and it entails institutional development and change” (Lawson, 2004).

This means being able to discuss new and innovative ideas as well as executing those ideas. This

is pertinent in education because being able to work with other people is at the best interest of

your students. Within the past week, I had the opportunity to have good communication and

collaboration with parents through an IEP meeting as well as a parent teacher conference.

Rationale for Selection of Artifacts

The first artifact I have chosen is my notes from the IEP meeting that I went to this past

week. There was an incident with this student in the lunch room a few weeks prior, so the

parent called for the IEP meeting. We were also there to discuss his academics and how he is

doing in the class. Due to confidentially, I will refrain to going into the specifics of the meeting.

The meeting in itself was very intimidating for me. I went in there thinking that I would just sit

and listen, but the mother was open to me discussing my opinions on her student. I didn’t go

into depth because I didn’t find it to be my place. However, the fact that she wanted my

opinion made me feel like I really was important in this student’s life. With the meeting itself, I

could have never imagined how in-depth and honestly confusing these meetings are. I am

happy however that the communication with the parent was good and that I was able to

collaborate with my cooperating teacher and the special needs teacher before to help prepare

me for the meeting.

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The second artifact that I choose was the notes from my parent teacher conference this

past week. This conference came to light because I had called the parents previously about a

behavioral incident with her student, and she asked to come in and speak to us about her

academics. When she came, we briefly discussed the behavioral incident and then we went into

her child’s academics. I had prepared information about her DRA, Lexil score, a math

assessment, and a content assessment. All of these scores showed that they student is below

grade level. The parent had no idea that her student was behind. She assumed she wasn’t

because the students brother is above grade level. I was very nervous telling the parent this

information, my cooperating teacher had me take over this meeting, but it was not as bad as I

thought it would be. The mom was very supportive of me being nervous and this being my first

conference which I am very thankful for. After discussing the child’s academics, I gave her ideas

of how to help at home. This included using Achieve 3000 at home (online reading resource),

splash math (online math resource), and just reinforcing information learning in school with her

student at home. She responded well to these ideas and it over all seemed to go well. I’m glad

that we were able to have a good experience because it is very important to keep a good

relationship between parent and teacher. A study on parent teacher relationship on student

behavior suggests that, “improvements in teacher-reported relationships with parents

mediated the effects of conjoint behavioral consultation on positive changes in children's

behaviors” (Sheridan,et al., 2017). Meaning, if the teacher and the parents have a good

relationship, it is more likely that they student will have better behavior in school, which is

often connected to academic progress.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

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Throughout my classes at Regent, collaboration and communication have been widely

used. Most of my work in my major classes were done in partners are groups, forcing us to

communicate and collaborate with each other. I had a few professors that told us we that they

wanted this because in real world teaching, we will be working without teachers and sharing

ideas constantly, which was definitely good practice for what I am doing now. I am thankful for

the experience that I got through my classes that prepared me for my student teaching

experience.

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References:

Lawson, H. A. (2004). The logic of collaboration in education and the human services. Journal of

Interprofessional Care, 18(3), 225–237. doi: 10.1080/13561820410001731278

Sheridan, S. M., Witte, A. L., Holmes, S. R., Coutts, M. J., Dent, A. L., Kunz, G. M., & Wu, C.

(2017). A randomized trial examining the effects of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation in

rural schools: Student outcomes and the mediating role of the teacher–parent

relationship. Journal of School Psychology, 61, 33–53. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2016.12.002