The year was 2017.  I was the new Director of Learning at an international school where collaboration among staff was limited.  I was introducing a formal curriculum review process that we knew would affirm the many strong aspects of teaching and learning at our school.  We also knew that if done well, the process would inspire us to revise, enhance and innovate our curriculum, assessment and practices for teaching and learning.  All of this would require true collaboration and a spirit of inquiry.  I wondered if the current culture (or lack thereof) of collaboration was due to the limited and less than optimal meeting spaces for teachers.  Or perhaps it was due to lack of collaborative planning time built into the schedule.  Maybe it was more than lack of space and systems.  Were meetings and professional learning sessions designed and facilitated in a way that promoted collaboration? Were school leaders modeling this? Were we building capacity in teachers as learning leaders? 

 

I then developed a vision.  I imagined teams of teachers coming together to question the status quo, push each other’s thinking, reflect, design, problem solve, take risks, innovate, make mistakes, and make decisions. One night at dinner, I was describing this collaborative and lab-like environment to my husband Casey, and…the name was born.  He suggested we call our (not yet secured) space, The Collaboratory.  

 

And so, you might imagine that to my delight, a year later the Head of School came to me with blueprints for a new building project and pointed to a large space, labeled The Collaboratory.  

 

Collaboratory Consulting embodies these values of collaboration and connection, creativity and innovation and I bring these into the work I do with schools.