Collaboration Is Not a Meeting: Redefining Teamwork for Busy Schools

One of the most common barriers I hear when supporting teams in curriculum planning is that decisions cannot be made until everyone is in the same room at the same time. The assumption underlying this is understandable: collaboration means being together, and we value the perspectives all our team members bring. But in a busy school environment, where multiple staff commitments often collide, waiting for perfect attendance is not only unrealistic, it is professionally paralysing. More importantly, it prevents us from doing what matters most: ensuring that students experience coherent, challenging, and conceptually aligned learning.

Over the past few weeks, I have found myself returning to the same observation again and again. While many teams are strengthening their Stage 1 planning, identifying the conceptual understandings, knowledge, and skills from our updated written curriculum, there is a noticeable disconnect when they move into Stage 2. Sometimes this is even omitted, and they delve straight into instructional engagements. Our process echoes the Understanding by Design model: clarity about what students must learn must be followed immediately by clarity about how we will know they have learned it. Without this bridge, collaboration becomes task-driven rather than learning-driven, and teams struggle to articulate evidence of progress toward the conceptual goals.

This is where the misconception about collaboration becomes especially problematic. If Stage 1 is completed together but Stage 2 is delayed because one or two teachers cannot attend, planning stalls. Units drift. Classrooms diverge. Students experience inconsistent expectations for the same learning goals. This erodes the very idea of a guaranteed and viable curriculum. Collaboration is not about who is in the room; it is about what we, as a team, have collectively committed to achieving for our learners.

True collaboration has three characteristics that do not depend on co-presence:

1. Shared clarity

Teams must articulate the non-negotiables: the conceptual understanding(s) being developed, the knowledge and skills underpinning them, and the criteria indicating students are progressing.

If Stage 2 criteria are unformed, everything that follows, feedback, learning engagements, and differentiation, becomes guesswork.

2. Structured processes

Collaboration is a process, not a calendar slot. It involves divergent idea generation, targeted refinement, and convergence into a coherent plan. In our PL session this week, we will explore using AI as a tool to support asynchronous collaboration by contributing to the divergent phase, enabling the team to progress rather than pause. But only human professionals can do the convergent work of aligning evidence with the learning goals.

3. Collective responsibility

A team in a busy school cannot wait for all members to be present to make progress. When planning is grounded in a guaranteed curriculum, teams can contribute at different times without losing coherence. The responsibility is shared, not sequenced. When one person cannot attend, the team should still be able to move forward because the learning goals are already agreed upon and clearly articulated.

When we reframe collaboration in this way, something important happens. Planning becomes purposeful rather than dependent. Teachers stop waiting for conditions to be perfect and instead work towards agreed outcomes. And students, who sit at the heart of this work, benefit from greater consistency, clarity, and challenge.

Over the coming weeks, we will keep returning to this idea across Middle School leadership: collaboration is not a meeting. It is a commitment. It is the collective discipline of aligning our practice with our curriculum so that every student, regardless of teacher, experiences meaningful, conceptually coherent learning.

This shift requires new habits, shared language, and the willingness to work differently. It requires us to move away from “We cannot do this because not everyone is here” to “We can do this because we know what we are working toward.” And when we reach that point, collaboration becomes what it was always meant to be: not a logistical exercise, but a professional stance.