Dos and Donts
Do
- Be flexible, creative and responsive;
- Negotiate and agree with your partner colleague on the relationship’s scope, boundaries, expected commitments and tasks at the outset;
- Set up a Student Management Team (SMT) to share the workload;
- Communicate clearly, openly and regularly with your partner colleague in the early planning stages of your involvement;
- Think outside the box and try to use a variety of media and technologies in your communications if you have access to these;
- Try to theme and plan ahead so that the relationship can be sustained for the life of the BRIDGE Project (and beyond);
- Ensure your students have a clear understanding of netiquette/etiquette, their ethical responsibilities and safety issues when communicating long distance;
- Draw upon all the resources in your classroom, your school, from the BRIDGE website and beyond, to help you in your work.
- Understand the holiday breaks, term dates and time zone of your partner school and how this may impact on your planning and collaborative activities.
Don’t
- Expect to do everything yourself;
- Expect it all to happen immediately – small steps is a good way to start and as the relationship develops you will start to see patterns emerging and begin to be able to plan new things.
