The Special Educatorâ s Guide to Collaboration: Improving Relationships With Co-Teachers, Teams, and Families

"The valuable information and numerous strategies and resources make this a must have book for all teachers striving for effective collaborative relationships."
-Spencer J. Salend, Professor
SUNY, The College at New Paltz

At last, a practical game plan for productive and personally rewarding collaborative relationships!

General and special education teachers working side by side on a daily basis must move beyond basic communication to improve collaborative relationships inside and outside the classroom. Author Sharon F. Cramer delves into the art of the collaborative process through a series of practical exercises coupled with relevant research, and outlines a plan to make collaboration a life-long part of teaching. Preservice teachers, inservice teachers, and staff developers alike can use the activities in the book as is or adapt them to fit their own unique circumstances.

Whether used for personal improvement or by a group for professional development purposes, these invaluable set of relationship-building tools will empower teachers and give them the motivation, understanding, and skills to transform unsatisfactory co-teaching relationships into productive, truly collaborative relationships. Special features include:

• Case stories and data from among 1,000 collaboration projects supervised by the author
• Up-to-date research, including an overview of current literature on collaboration
• "Idea try-outs"-step-by-step reflection activities for promoting independent, innovative thinking
• "Project try-outs"-structured research and interview activities that provide readers with focused ways to test their collaboration skills

When teachers become curious, motivated learners, not only will they discover the many benefits of collaborative relationships with their peers, but they will also enrich the learning environment for their students!

Sharon F. Cramer is a distinguished service professor at Buffalo State College, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1985. Her leadership roles include serving as executive director of the SABRE Project (implementation of the Oracle Student Information System) (1999-2004), chairing the Exceptional Education Department (1995-1999), and leadership roles in state and national professional organizations (e.g., president of the Northeastern Educational Research Association, NY Federation of Chapters of the Council for Exceptional Children, publication chair of the Division on Developmental Disabilities).

She earned her PhD at New York University in 1984 in human relations and social policy, her master of arts in teaching (MAT) from Harvard University in 1972, and her bachelors of arts degree from Tufts University in 1971. She participated in the Management and Leadership Education (MLE) program at Harvard University in 2001.