Grizelda is right.  The quesiton of the moment is how do we take this and expand it so that everyone is able to benefit from our experience with collaboration. 

About 10 years ago I took a workshop on time management (BT-Before Teaching).  The facilitator taught us to prioritize using the concept of "boxes" on our desk.  What was in the center box had the highest priority.  It was a very good workshop.  I still use the center desk idea when I want to focus my attention on something.  My manager then asked me to give a mini-workshop to my coworkers.  We ordered breakfast and I gave an enthusiastic presentation with the vision that we could improve our time management together.  I imagined a well oiled machine that worked in synergy just from the one workshop.

Instead people learned a little and then quickly forgot about the workshop.  What we should have done was to have gotten other people involved in giving periodic workshops that related to time management and communication skills, etc.  If more people had been involved in the planning then there would have been more buy in and a better outcome. 

The benefit of this last trip to New Orleans is that school administrators and directors were included.  The isolated teacher on the lonely road is not going to work anymore.  Teachers are talented at tapping into resources and make a lot from a little.  We need to tap into the resources of a supportive princial, AP or director and plan workshops or professional development for our colleagues.  This can't be a one time thing.  We need to continually work on the collaboration and work on involving more people.  Then I think we will see the synergy.

     The night before my very first day as a teacher I turned to my husband at dinner and pronounced that "I don't think I can do this, I've changed my mind".  I had just left my job of 12 years to pursue my dream of teaching.  However, the thought of being locked in a room with 30 teenagers and keeping their attention for 2 hours was the most frightening thing I had ever faced.  I imagined the crickets coming to life in the corners when I had no idea what I was supposed to say or teach or do.  Of course it turned out to be a really great thing.  It was however a very lonely time that first year because teachers work in isolation a good bit of the time.  There are no conversations around the water cooler or coffee pot.  Occasionally you see colleagues in the hallways in the morning and can exchange pleasantries.  You also catch up at the copy machine at lunch. 

     That all changed when I became a NAF/Pearson Foundation Curriculum Fellow.  The focus here is on collaboration and discussion with peers.  It is a happy place where teachers take all that great information back to their classes and the sharing spreads.  Make sure you write to the curriculum fellows a lot.  We all love talking to other people interested in improving education and the lives of our students.