A year ago I wrote a post about the feelings librarians get when students trust us enough to recommend books, but I think the same can be said for the feelings we get when teachers trust us to collaborate in the classroom.

With one last element being done today: a reflection by the students about the week-long project that I’m eager to read, yesterday’s culminating activity was a resounding success. Students were overheard saying “I’ve never been so nervous”, “I’m glad I did it,” and “I surprised myself”. The teacher said “They’re so engaged with one another, I never see this kind of connection between them all.” And in my head, I was thinking

“Another successful collaboration.”

The project began with the teacher stopping with an idea for a mini-project to include in a fairly new elective course for juniors and seniors called Medical Science. Mostly, students who are enrolled are interested in a medical field. So, how can we flesh out a project that involves some research into their chosen field, and what should be the summative activity? We met several times during planning periods and both walked away each time with some questions to answer and actionable items using our own expertise to build the project. Google Docs was our friend.

Yesterday was the culminating activity and students were buzzing for the double-period that they were in the library. Students were happily nervous, furiously reviewing their resumes (and finding additional mistakes that needed correcting), reassured their classmates that they’d do fine, fretted about their appearance, and even humorously voiced their annoyance about the project because it was affecting them- basically a job well done that connected previous learning that all of them engaged in in their freshman year taking a half-year course called College and Career Readiness and applying it to their current course and college/career path. And with the remaining fifteen minutes of the second period, the students had a chance to hear general feedback from their interviewers and tips for college and career preparedness– everything from figuring out your verbal ticks like like and finding a buddy to help you STOP saying it to learning about the aggregation of marginal gains (look it up!).

Watching the students walk over to the interviewer nervously and then walking back with a big smile of accomplishment was all I needed, but then the comments started. Today, as I mentioned, they’ll be writing an official reflection that I’m dying to read. And the teacher was extremely proud of his work that started with a seed of an idea. Job well done.

What does successful collaboration look like for you? For me, that was pushing students’ limits and working together to create a well-executed project with satisfactory results and real-world connections. It will look different every time, but they all fall under the umbrella of successful collaboration.