11. Teaming and Collaboration in Inclusive Settings

Teamwork and collaboration are essential practices in inclusive early childhood education because they help us provide comprehensive support, promote a positive environment, and ensure that each child and family gets what they need.

Collaborative teams are also better able to meet the needs of children and families by bringing diverse viewpoints and experiences into a program. Most importantly, members of collaborative teams can easily communicate about everything that happens in an early learning setting. This might include the occasional hard conversation and potential disagreements about a child’s behavior, an activity, or a plan. Plus, our work in inclusive early childhood settings can be tough from time to time—having a team to rely on makes things feel so much better!

But collaboration is an intentional practice that doesn’t happen without planning. At the Haring Center, we believe that relationships are at the heart of everything we do—and that collaboration is grounded in strong and trusting relationships. Of course, building relationships takes intentional time and effort.

Teams can do this by doing some “getting to know you” activities, intentionally checking in on how things are going outside of work, planning team-building activities, or even simply eating lunch together. We include some tools and ideas for this in our resources.

Teaming starts with relationships, but collaboration is much easier with specific tools—let’s talk about those now.

We’ll start with staff matrices. Jen, Luis, and Kristin are preschool teachers and have 18 children in their classroom. To help organize their time and responsibilities, they create a staff matrix.

A staff matrix outlines what needs to be done before, during, and after any program, and who is responsible for completing each task. Using a staff matrix reduces confusion about where staff members need to go and what they need to do.

Here is an example of their staff matrix. Notice the schedule is listed in a column down the left-hand side, with teachers across the top row. For each time of day, the team has different responsibilities. Before school, Jen checks notes and texts from caregivers, Luis preps the classroom areas and gets breakfast ready, and Kristin greets children and families as they arrive.

As the day goes on, this staff matrix outlines what everyone will do in each activity. An important part of creating this matrix was talking openly and honestly as a team about what each teacher likes, and doesn’t like to do. For example, Luis is an artist and loves teaching in the art center, so he wanted to be there every day. Kristin loves leading circle, while this isn’t Jen’s favorite thing to do.

They also talked with speech and physical therapists, Kelsey and Kathleen, about when they would come into the classroom and work with specific children who receive individual services in the classroom. Notice how they are added in the two right-hand columns.

With this staff matrix in place, it is clear what each teacher is supposed to be doing the entire day. And of course, having clear roles makes all of us feel better about our work and helps teams work more efficiently.

This tool can be used outside of a school setting too. Here is an example of how the Sunday school teachers at Isabella’s church used a staff matrix to organize the teachers and volunteers. We see the schedule down the left column, and the adults across the top. Just like with the previous classroom team example, the Sunday school teachers create a plan for how they will support children during each activity and what each adult’s role is across the morning.

And finally, here is a matrix for a gymnastics class with two coaches. While the setting is quite different, using a staff matrix makes it much easier for all the gymnastics coaches to work together and feel organized in a very lively space.

With staff matrices, we always have the schedule down the left side and the teachers across the top. While the schedule and time will vary, this is a useful tool for supporting collaboration in any setting.

Another teaming strategy that helps us work efficiently is called zoning. Zoning involves dividing a larger space into smaller areas or “zones” and assigning adults to those specific zones.

Let’s look at how the teachers at one outdoor preschool use zoning to organize their space. Washington Outdoor School is a preschool program for children ages 3-6 that meets at a large park with wooded areas, a playground, many trails, and beach access. In this large, open space the team has to be very attentive to where every child is, every minute of the day.

Zoe, Willow, and Daniella, the teachers, have created a zoning chart to divide up the space. Zone 1 is the parking lot, where the teacher gets children from caregivers and helps them begin engaging in learning activities. Zone 2 is the play structure, and Zone 3 are the picnic tables where children can look at books or use art materials. With these zones, each teacher has an area of the park where they supervise and support the class, or connect with families as they drop off children.

The class then has circle and snack time, and either goes on a hike or plays at the beach. When playing at the beach, the teachers use another zoning chart to organize the space. Zone 1 is the large log and the tide pond, Zone 2 is the section between the tide pond and the fallen log, and Zone 3 is the area north of the fallen log.

In a busy outdoor setting, zoning charts really help teachers be organized around how they are supervising and supporting all children. Zoning is a way to organize staff to help keep children safe, which is especially important in an outdoor preschool, but zoning can also be used in many other settings, too.

Here is an example of the free play zoning chart for a preschool classroom with two teachers. Teacher A supports the children in the dramatic play, block, and sensory table areas, while Teacher B supports the children in the art, science, and book areas.

To create a zoning chart in your setting, consider the space and where children play. Divide the area into sections for each adult, and talk as a team about who would like to be in a certain section. Some teams change zones every week, others change every day—it’s completely up to what works best for the team!

In some cases, we have to rework our zones. For example, if more children end up playing in the art, science, and book areas and fewer kids spend time in the dramatic play and block areas, the team could rework their zones to create a more evenly distributed zoning chart, like this. Here we see the zones have now changed—Teacher A takes the art and sensory table, while Teacher B takes the blocks, science, dramatic play, and book areas.

The most effective collaboration practices are the ones that help teams work together! While the specific staff matrix and zoning charts will look different depending on the setting, the schedule, and the type of activities children do, the basic premise is the same. They give us tools to work together. But of course, this all starts with the people on a team having trusting, supporting, and safe relationships with each other!

How might staff matrices and zoning work in your program?