In my elementary school, the major roadblocks to collaboration are fixed schedules, lack of time and teachers that are overwhelmed with the new curriculum. This is the first year that there is no wiggle room for collaboration or flexible scheduling. The administration layed out the schedule and classes are booked back to back. Teachers use this time for their own planning time so the librarian is left monitoring the class during checkout, which then draws out check out time. If teachers stayed with the class and helped kids find books, it would speed up the check out time and allow for some collaborative teaching. Also, the teachers are reeling trying to digest the changes in curriculum that are coming our way. Units that have been done for 10 years by one grade level are being moved to a different grade level. While this should be a prime opportunity to collaborate with the librarian, the teachers are too busy trying to figure out how to translate the grade level material and lesson plans from the previous grade level. Ack!

Since I am presently a preschool teacher I was interested in reading all the views from teachers and librarians. My Group Leader is a former Kindergarten teacher and I find it hard to believe! She is not collaborative at all and I don't enjoy being isolated from the rest of the school by association with her! I think the personality needs to change for some folks to collaborate - the chapter mentioned weaknesses being exposed and in turn your strength should shine as well.

I agree with so many of the comments above! I definitely understand the time crunch and how that makes things harder, but as for me, the biggest roadblock that I see to collaboration is a lack of willingness. I think that so often as teachers, we get a power trip where we want the control of everything and have a hard time letting others take the lead in a situation or event. I have seen so many teachers miss out on wonderful cooperative opportunities because they didn't want to let someone else have the control in the situation. Collaboration is a wonderful thing when everyone is on board for it. When you have one person who doesn't want to give up the control they have to work in a team setting, it can block the amazing potential that could be found if all of those working together had the willingness to work in that setting.

I see the biggest roadblock as being the perception that standards based education has limited the time that teachers can spend supplimenting their curriculums. I know a lot of teachers who feel as though there just is not enough time to go to the library, and they see it as a huge undertaking. I think another big roadblock is that there are many teachers who just are not accustomed to leaving their classrooms or inviting others in. But I do think that this can be overcome by starting in small steps. A lesson or two here or there, and when others see how beneficial it can be - I think the battle can be won.

For me it is that the majority of my students know how to use the internet and therefore we go to the computer lab for research, and skip the library all together. I can agree with a lot of the reasons for not collaborating. As a teacher I feel the pressure from the state to have students meet certain standards on state testing. There is less and less time for creativity and projects.

Unfortunately, there are many hurdles involved with moving a school away from the traditional model and towards collaboration. One of the biggest is simply the stubborness of teachers, myself included, to change our ways. We become comfortable with the way we do things, and to slow it down and think through things in a new way, and having to take others opinions into consideration in our planning. In our school we overcame this by being forced into it, and then slowly seeing just what a benefit it was to not only our students, but to us as well. Another big issue is that of time. Collaboration does take more time, and it is time more difficult to find, because it needs to be time available to more than just one teacher or colleague. Our school has worked to fit in specific times for collaborative planning, though, and we are finding that the more we do it, the smoother the process has become. The fear of others discovering our individual weaknesses held us back a bit at first also. We are a rather tight team at my school, and luckily we already had a great deal of trust and humor going on. The thing about collaboration, though, is that it brought even more trust to our relationships. Once we all got to know each others' weaknesses, the walls went down.

I think tradition is a major inhibitor. The older we are, the more likely we were to have experienced very individual-oriented learning in our own education. I remember when I was in elementary school, my school district implemented a program that actively encouraged learning alone and competing with peers to be the first one done with a learning unit. Collaboration was non-existent in this setting. Education experiences such as this are definitely roadblocks to collaboration -- it's hard to change. However, in today's world change is constant and inevitable, and I think we are all learning to better cope with and accept change.

Time, organization and planning are a few roadblocks to collaboration. I also agree that test scores remain a focus for teachers. In Colorado CSAP scores seem to really take priority over other things. I don’t work at a school, but I can tell from reading the newspaper CSAP is always the priority.

TIME is big reason and also the rising stakes of test scores is a big reason that collaboration may not be a priority. I work at a Title 1 school, teachers have so many things on their plate. Even with the required ISTE standards for teachers and students, the 8th grade tech assessment, and the new teacher tech assessment in my district, administrators do not see collaboration with teacher librarians a priority. Teacher Librarians should make collaboration around literacy a priority. It is proven that Power Libraries do lead higher test scores. :o)

I think the greatest roadblock to collaboration lies in a teacher's priorities. I have to admit that I have to put forth a lot of effort to meet with my partner on a regular basis in order to collaborate. With so many demands placed on me, I have to make it a priority to collaborate with my partner, no matter how many projects I have to put on hold. I am guilty of resisting collaboration while I squeezed precious minutes out of my planning time to prepare for lessons, make photocopies, or grade student work. However, after experiencing the positive benefits of brainstorming with my partner- we have both made our PLC time a priority. With increased pressure with standardized tests, and accountability we have started documenting our meeting time; briefly describing the work we complete. I believe that teachers have to experience the success of collaboration before they will make it a priority in their daily schedule.

The greatest roadblock to collaboration is ignorance. If we all only knew the benefits firsthand, we would be using it every day, for every lesson, without hesitation. Once we embrace collaboration, everyone from administrators to classroom and special education teachers, and all "specials" teachers, will be able to more affectively produce lessons that leave a lasting impression on students.

Not to beat a dead horse, but yes, time is an issue. But, I think of all of the other things for which educators make time, and I wonder why just those things? Why do we choose to make time for the planning, grading, and administrative tasks that go along with teaching, but not collaboration? I think for me, it is a questions of two things: 1) what will benefit my students the most, and 2) what my administration expects of me. In order to tackle the roadblock of time, we need to look at collaboration using these two "tests." Collaboration just for the sake of collaboration isn't always good for students; as Ryan pointed out, there is a greater possibility for conflicting messages to students if you have two people leading the class. So, divide up the "leadership" - this is a great model for kids. Also, I think that collaboration needs to be an expectation in evaluations. If administrators supported collaboration with more than merely paying it lip service, perhaps we'd see more teachers embrace a more flexible teaching philosophy.

I think that there are many roadblocks to collaboration. I switched schools and districts this year--going from a High Achieving Power Library to one that is definitely far from there! My roadblocks for collaborating with the school librarian is that she is stuck in a fixed schedule, which means we have little time to plan together and she has little time during the day to team teach with me. The available time in the library is also very limited because of the scheduled class times.

Another roadblock that I have seen exist in other people is COMFORT. Some of my teammates in the past have been too comfortable with the way they do things. They do not want to put the time and effort into getting better. This roadblock scares me the most because I am not sure how to fix or overcome this roadblock . . . at least not in a nice way! ;-)

Even collaborating with our math and literacy coaches is a challenge in my new building. We have to share our coaches with multiple other schools, so it is hard to get enough time with them to plan, co-teach, follow up, collaborate, etc.

I have talked to many people about how to encourage more people to collaborate. The best answer that I have heard is to "publicize" the successful collaborative experiences of people who feel comfortable with collaboration. The hope is that other people will see the benefits of this kind of teaching and will try it out for themselves. My current school and district requires a certain number of collaborative experiences with your building coaches. I don't know how well this will work. I am hoping that it will not turn collaboration into another chore to be completed and checked off the teachers' lists.

I agree with pretty much everyone that the biggest roadblock is time.

I also agree that the bigger (more difficult to overcome) roadblock is teacher ego/reluctance to change. I see though, as fear in many ways. We have soooooo much we feel like we need to cover, and combine that with a lack of time, and we are/become afraid that we won't get to everything. What I've found in my experiences is that good collaboration ends up taking less time (in the end....at the beginning it is a lot of front loading).

Personally, my biggest issue with collaboration is the often imbalance of work. I've collaborated with teachers who like the idea of collaboration, as long as they aren't the one doing the extra work. It's a difficult situation to be in because it stops being collaboration, and starts being...I don't know what you'd call it. It frustrates me because the purpose of collaboration is that everyone bring their strengths to the table and we "borrow" each others' strengths. But when colleagues don't share their strengths, the collaboration ends up lopsided. And I end up tired.

I can think of a couple of roadblocks to collaboration. The first (which happens to be a roadblock to many things in education) is time. Where there is a will, there is a way, and the lack of time issue can be solved with creativity. The building administrator would probably have to play an active role in scheduling regular times for staff members to collaborate. Another roadblock to collaboration is EGO! I have observed that it can be difficult for people to let go of their ideas and listen to others. This is an obstacle that can be overcome by spending time building trust before attempting collaboration.

The first one that comes to mind is teacher comfort. Some teachers feel threatened when a new idea comes along, the are set in their ways and approaches. That is why PLC's need to happen gradually and there needs to be a lot of support from administration, technology, and the teacher-librarian. Second, I could see teacher's reservations about "Empowering the Students". For some teachers, teaching is all about control they posses over their classes. It would be difficult for these teachers to let go of the power and give it to the students. Lastly, I see time and funding being a roadblock. Collaboration takes time and that is the last thing that teachers have. Also, technology needs or support staff have high price tags on them and funding can be a challenge for these items.

I think that the major roadblocks to collaboration are time and reluctance to change, or perhaps confusion about how to change. Having a positive example of how collaboration can work effectively can help to ease the confusion and reluctance. Time just needs to be made, but that is not a simple task. Teachers that have not been using collaboration may not see it as a way to save them time in the long term, so they may not value collaboration. There are so many things that need to be done and adding another one to the list may seem overwhelming. I am helping to coordinate a program at my daughter's school where each teacher picks a few students that are struggling to keep up to have 30 minutes a week with a volunteer math tutor. I have a few teachers that haven't gotten me their student names and the times that they are available. I know that this program will help them as well as the students, but they have so many other pressing needs that this is just one more thing to do and sits at the bottom of their to do list.

Time is HUGE, especially when teachers view it as just another responsibility thrown on their plates. Money is definitely a factor when you have to squeeze the additional time for faculty members to meet on a regular basis and not have students to deal with at the same time. How do you schedule more and more meetings and planning sessions without extending the day or cutting something else out? Finally, I think the leadership by administrators is lacking in many schools. Just as teachers find themselves feeling comfortable and digging a rut as the years roll by, administrators can do the same thing. They need to push the standard higher, reward innovative teachers, and lead the way.

I believe that current roadblocks for collaboration are time restraints and a lack of willingness to change teaching patterns. Creating time during the day for teachers and librarians to collaborate is a necessity to creating these successful experiences. As we all know, teachers have A LOT on their plates. While I believe, and I'm sure most others reading this believe, that collaborating with librarians will eventually lead to more time and support for teaching classes, I do see that this is something that will take time in the beginning to make time in the end. Principals and teachers have to be willing to commit some time to collaborating so that our students can gain from these experiences. The other roadblock that I see in some teachers is an unwillingness to step up to more modern ways of teaching. We all know the teacher that has held the same position for the last twenty years and is quite comfortable teaching the same lessons over and over again. In order for all students to have a chance to learn from collaborative learning experiences, all teachers need to step up and except that times are changing and that they need to change too.

As others have said, time is critical. I also think that if a team is not united in a basic philosophy to start with, collaboration may be very difficult, and frustrating rather than rewarding. This goes to school leadership, and expectations set from the top. Everyone involved also needs to buy into the idea that this is worth doing, and committed to constructively participate. I think that often a mandate to participate in a project hurts more than helps. The text pointed out many other very valid barriers. Additionally, we are all creatures of habit, and habits are hard to change. How do we change any habit? Working by oneself, versus collaboration, will probably happen in baby steps over time, with bigger steps being taken as success is met.

I also agree with all the posts about not having enough time and common planning time. That seems like it is the major roadblock that keeps us from collaborating with other teachers. I belive that it should be a goal of every teacher each school year to create a collaborative unit. Once we get past the time issue, collaborating in the end saves time. There are two or three teachers working on one unit-- think of the possibilities that can emerge! The unit soon becomes much more engaging for the students while each teacher can focus on one particular area that he or she is an expert! I was recently visiting a school in which the librarian served "cookies in the copy room" to help her build her collaboration goals for the year. Teachers who came down to the copy room found a plate full of cookies and an were engaged in a collaborative conversation about how the libriarian could help the classroom teacher. An everyday task of going to the copy room became a common meeting place and no extra time was needed.

I missed this challenge which may be the greatest given our current crisis: school budgets; with jobs being cut in so many places, schools may be reluctant to encourage collaboration.

By experience I can say there are numerous things getting in the way: time (as mentioned earlier), approval from administration, maintaining the collaborative effort across time (weeks, quarters, semesters, years), maintaining collaborative efforts across curriculums, ego and sense of control by different educators, buy-in of the staff, grading expectations, poor communication by collaborators, communication from student to teachers (double talk), different ideas of managing a classroom, different cultural backgrounds of the collaborators (age, gender, race, politics, religion--fortunately differences here can also be a huge strength), and perceptions of staff to other team members as well as to the collaborative process in general.

I agree with Sarah that a major roadblock to collaboration is the lack of time but another serious challenge is differing philosophies and priorities between staff members, especially if the differences are between the teaching staff and the administration. With the pressures placed upon schools and the leaders in buildings, there are times when the focus becomes narrowed and the ability to collaborate and share strengths is not supported in an attempt to raise test scores by creating restrictive schedules and prescribed instruction.

Within my building the biggest roadblock for collaboration is time. Trying to plan units with teacher without allotted time is challenging. We end up meeting 15 minutes here and 5 minutes in passing in the hall. This leads to ineffective planning that does not always have the desired impact.

An additional challenge I face is having trouble aligning the goals and objectives to meet both the teachers’ needs and mine. My goals often could be achieved in a more technologically savvy fashion but the teachers are often hesitant to try new methods with their primary students. In the end my goals are often second stage to the teacher's.

At my school lack of a common planning period has been a real threat. I created a collaboration wiki to attempt to get around this roadblock, but many teachers prefer to tell me in the doorway as they drop their class off what they need. This year I have changed my schedule to be available once a week for two hours after students get out of school so teachers can come in and plan with me. Last week was the first session; I had invited teachers with a teaser that I could show them how to find books which meet the standards in our collection. It was a lonely two hours. I think I might have to offer food. I am attending more staff meetings to participate, but with California's budget problems many of us are 50% or work two schools. We need to conduct some training in the library to get more people in. My new Tech team will invite any teachers to learn applications along with our students so that may also get the ball rolling. Another problem is that so few teachers have worked at a site with a teacher librarian they may not realize we have classroom experience, coupled with the fact that many of us a prep time teachers so many teachers never see us conduct a lesson.

For me it is time, time, time and more time. Processes are so unique to the individual students prior experience and motiviation. In California the librarian-student ratio is 4,531 to 1. At my school it is literally 4,400 to 1. When i think of the collaboration goals of the school, I know it has to start small with collaboration in maybe 2-3 full scale collaborative projects per year. I also know that my time is limited. I work full time, teach one adjunct AP course, coach academic decathlon and go to graduate school (2-3 classes per term). Something has to give. Reflecting on what can realistically can be done is priority one. Burning out and thinking I can do it alone is foolhardy