Teaching Together--Oh, The Possibilities!

In the teaching profession we tend to label ourselves with the usual stamp of teacher or educator-but why don't we say that we are collaborators too? I think about how much time we truly do spend with our colleagues, and I feel that we are putting our talents to waste if we don't try to work together. We tend to just email one another, locked in the chair at our desks- grading, plugging in grades, going over grades, explaining grades, changing grades, getting yelled at becasue my kid doesn't have this grade,stacks of grading on the desk-oh, sorry- random tangent!); for as much as we see each other, we should think about how great it would be, in small doses at first, to intertwine each other into our units or in an entire semester. In the ideal situation, (time/schedules, personality differences and curriculum mandates aside)think about what we could do if we came together and taught in a way where we could present our content from varying perspectives across the curriculum.

Here we have this amazing staff- some of the most creative, intelligent, and caring individuals when it comes to their profession, and how much do we use each other's expertise and knowledge to better our own(and not just the department around you)? Even more so, how are we using each other or working together to benefit our students' learning and help them to see a wide array of issues/information/points of view when looking at the things we teach?

A few questions: Is collaboration or team teaching something you could apply in your content area or across contents? What would you need to make that happen? What would need to change? Do you see this method of teaching as something to consider when looking at learning/teaching in the 21rst century? What are your worries about working with someone else in the classroom?