During my field experience, I complete an action research project with the librarian at the elementary school that I work in. There is little to no collaboration in any aspect in the building, so I thought that by creating a plan for the librarian and the teachers to try to establish a way to connect and work together, would be a great start and may open the doors for other new and exciting projects in the future.
During this project, I interviewed the librarian, as well as the teachers, to get some ideas as to what they are concerned about and what projects they would be willing to collaborate on. One of the main concerns for both parties is plan time. Neither the librarian nor the teachers want to lose their individual plan time, but even if some plan time is lost, what each teacher will gain, not to mention what the students will get out of it, would be well worth it.
In my research, what I found to be the most important aspects of collaboration is that both parties are willing to work together and both need to take an active roll in the planning process. When both teachers are involved, the lesson will naturally include all necessary parts and go above and beyond a normal everyday lesson. What both parties need to realize as well, is that what they will gain from collaboration will far surpass the small amount of plan time that they may need to give up.