Relationships among educators within a school range from vigorously healthy to dangerously

competitive. Strengthen those relationships, and you improve professional practice. (Roland S.

Barth,2006). In the various modules we learnt from this course we have seen that the level one

of our education system is students which form a very crucial part of the system. These weeks

we also studied about the relationships between the fellow teachers, administrators and

parents for the positive growth of the student. The realization of why this relationship should

be established has to be very clear in the mind of the teacher. I would like to describe this issue

by taking a teacher as a central entity and would explore the factors which are parents and

fellow teachers in relation to effectiveness to the students.

Fellow Teachers

When I visit a school and look for evidence of collegiality among teachers and administrators

signs that educators are playing togetherthe indicators I seek are (Roland S. Barth,2006):-

Educators talking with one another about practice.

Educators sharing their craft knowledge.

Educators observing one another while they are engaged in practice.

Educators rooting for one another's success.

The reference above states it very clearly those fellow teachers are immensely responsible for

an overall success. Here I would share an experience from my teaching career to strengthen the

point above. The university which where I work presently has helped me immensely in my

research career which I would precisely say academic writing and publications related to my

research. Before joining work in this university I had a very weak aptitude for publishing and

research as I had not discovered this side of my career as I didnt know understand the

importance of this area. But the university is not solely responsible for this addition to my

career. As I changed my jobs I realized gravity of research and moreover by observing my

surroundings I begin to be curios to ask my fellow teacher to as how to be a part of the global

publishing community as to share the academic researches. The fellow teachers not only

defined a way for me but also guided me step by step to publish. Gradually I leant to publish

papers and also present in conferences locally and globally. Now how does this hold importance

for teaching and learning is when a teacher doesnt perform research in the respective area, it

decreases the career of a teacher because the subject is not up with the recent times and

developments and the students get to feel bored with the same topic that the teacher has

taught over years. This is a very classic example of learning from the fellow teacher and a very

progressive ideology of teaching and learning which I learnt from my fellows, but very

important here is respect to the fellow and to make this learning a part of daily or weekly

discussions to progress ahead. I firmly believe that human to human learning is far more

efficient then what books can provide, also its faster and more effective as the absorbing

capacity is higher. As mentioned above a fellow teacher teaches you not only the parameters

of learning but also a lot about the behavior of the students if they teach the small class. Hence,

an overall exchange of both academic and behavioral views for a class is a very effective

discussion between two or more fellow teachers.

Parents

When a student goes home he carries behavioral and various academic and non-academic

practices which might be correct or extremely harmful as far as impact on the childs brain is

concerned. This is true vice-versa also, when a student reaches schools, he/she gives a picture

of behavior at home to the teacher or the peer. Hereby, a parent is responsible not only for

correcting the actions but also to closely monitor the actions which are taking place in a childs

life. I am sure each parent today is very concerned about the habits learnt in school and the

behavior of a child in the society. A teacher is not only responsible to the parent for effective

communication of discrepancies of a child but also to make the parent a part of the effective

teaching and learning process by making the parent a partner instead of a consumer of the

schools facilities offered to their child. Parents today are generally found involved, some are

very deeply involved as well. I do not come in contact with parents generally as I deal with

college education but I remember as I was in school the parent-teacher meeting day was one of

the most difficult days in my schooling career as the teacher would read out my horror-scope to

my parents and would receive severe confrontation as I reach home. But today I realize that

Indian schooling system (where I graduated from) is a very intense teacher parent lock which a

child cant escape and somehow this is largely responsible for a better overall academic and

non-academic progress. Its the effective two way flow of information for parent to teacher and

vice-versa which makes this relationship effective for the student in actual realization.

Lastly I feel as said It takes a village to raise a child holds very true. A community, teacher

and parents together through an effective relationship help a student to grow in all aspects and

to be fit for the society in the future.