After being asked to choose an administrator to interview, I did not have to think twice about whom I would be interested in interviewing to speak on the terms of collaboration. After having Mrs. Kimberly Bernard as a teacher, I was extremely curious to learn about her experiences and opinions on this subject. Mrs. Bernard is an English teacher at Elwood Junior/ Senior High School, which is located in Elwood, Indiana. Additionally, she is the head of the English department, which consists of advocating for the department. Mrs. Bernard teaches an eighth grade English class as well as a sophomore Honors class. She has also taught in Connecticut for two and a half years, Illinois for three years, Ohio for one year, Indiana for five years, …show more content…
Unfortunately, both teachers did not have much time to prepare since this is the first year that a push-in class was incorporated and both teachers found out right before school started. However, they are accommodating with the circumstances by spending one hour each day collaborating ideas, specifically incorporating strategies that Mrs. Bernard has learned at a workshop. She has had a difficult time adjusting because her push-in class has twenty-eight students with various disabilities. Overall, Mrs. Bernard’s goal is to work on creating an equal position for both teachers and to make improvements in order for the co-teaching experience to be as successful as possible. I thought the idea of a push-in class was brilliant because it does not seem appropriate to pull students out of class because it makes it more noticeable to other students. Additionally, it would be difficult to collaborate with another teacher, especially if you had completely different views than the teacher that was placed in your classroom. Overall, the push-in experience gives special education students the opportunity to feel like a regular education student, which I find to be highly important in today’s society.
Next, I asked Mrs. Bernard about the changing structure of schools, including the dynamics between general and special education classrooms. She elaborated on the fact she tries to stay out of politics, but it is difficult since
I decided to interview Mrs. Seppa first because I wanted to be able to have a basis for the questions that I would ask Ms. Villalobos, who teaches in a sixth grade special education class. I noticed after reviewing and comparing responses from both teachers how much of a difference there was not only in the grade, but also the teacher. My first question was asking if they always wanted to be in the area of Special Education. I asked this because I knew I did not always see myself as a potential special education
Co-teaching is important, especially in the school I did my special education field experience at because they are full inclusion. This school district did co-teaching for math and reading. Students receive their assistance with in the classroom while the teacher is instructing class. It takes a lot of planning and collaboration with the classroom teacher, I believe this is not the most beneficial way to teach students that have learning needs. it can become very distracting for the student because what is going on around them. Learning with their peers is important, the instructions their receiving in the classroom are above their level. I wonder how this is providing the best education possible?
Teacher Collaboration measures the degree to which teachers engage in constructive dialogue that furthers the educational vision of the school.
I used to work for Fort Wayne Community Schools as an assistant teacher for an elementary school. I know there are several Human Services Professionals who are riddled throughout the various facilities in our area. I was able to secure an interview with the school counselor at Towles Montessori/New Tech Middle School. The school counselor’s name is Joyce Paige. She has been in the school system for the past 20 years and seen many different changes within the Family and Marriage therapy. I was interested in the many things we discussed and a few of the suggested questions led me to ask some questions of my own.
I interviewed a childcare teacher engaged in the Early Childhood Development. She graduated from East Tennessee State University. She has been intrigued by children her entire life, she has volunteered with children with disabilities and worked with children since age 16. You can say that teaching has been a dream job of hers. Going through the interview I went through a series of questions as follows. What are positive and negative parts about being a teacher? What disciplinary styles work the best? And how can teaching in America be improved?
We discussed how she handles any issues dealing with disciplining students with disabilities. She shared that she always reviews school policies and procedures and then reviews the IEP
W. Edwars Deming, American engineer and management consultant, wrote “a bad system will beat a good person every time.” This quote demonstrates the necessity for a school administrator to establish a school culture that is inviting and characterized by collaboration. In order to intentionally create a welcoming and collaborative school climate, clear, frequent, and inclusive communication is fundamental. Families, staff, and community members should be afforded the opportunity to become involved in enhancing student learning, the decision making processes of the school, and meaningful school-based activities. Opening the lines of communication about possible involvement at a school promotes a good system, in which good people can thrive.
Collaboration between teachers is a key component to professional development that will lead to higher student achievement. There is a need for schools to set up time for teachers to be able to collaborate together. This allows for teachers to help each other, matchup content, teach each other new and best practices, troubleshoot student issues just to name a few of the areas that collaboration time can help foster within a school. The key is to build time for teachers to be able to collaborate during the school day or week. This collaboration time needs to be between grade levels, departments, and cross curricular when needed. For many schools this is an afterthought to the school schedule or a fleeting thought after the master schedule is completed. A principal needs to keep an open mind to any strategy that will enable the teachers to be able to collaborate for the good of the students and the school.
I asked Mrs. Barkley if she worked with other teachers to plan and jointly facilitate learning; she told me that she personally does not. She said that she never combines classes or teaches with another teacher in the same classroom. She said the only thing that the teachers do together is come together in meetings and discuss progress of their classes and test scores. This came as a shock to me, I thought that teachers would be meeting often to combine curriculum in a way that’s meaningful. I thought that teachers would want to allow for cross-curricular projects to allow students to make the connections between subjects. When I am a teacher, I would like to work with other teachers to jointly facilitate learning, if possible.
I interviewed this remarkable teacher named, Mrs. Castillo. Mrs. Castillo is a math teacher here at Frank Augustus Miller Middle School. Mrs. Castillo is an immensely captivating person and she has extraordinary ways of teaching. So here is Mrs. Castillo’s revealing of her compulsive life.
During the course of my field experience at Laster High School, I had the opportunity to discuss in great lengths about how to successfully collaborate with fellow teachers, respond to student issues, and gather data to effectively conduct assessment and teach within the classroom environment. At Laster High School, each teacher is given a planning and lunch period that allows them the opportunity to connect with others within their workspace and seek feedback over programs and requirements taking place in the school. In order to foster this collaborating environment that history department had one planning period as whole where they had the ability to meet and as a team discuses relevant issues and challenges they were facing throughout the
During my second preclinical experience at Westview Hills Middle School, I learned the importance of cooperation and collaboration among teachers at a school. I was able to observe team and department meetings during this experience. It became clear that it is important for teachers to work together in order to provide a positive atmosphere at a school and in a specific department. Although it became obvious that personalities and teaching styles were different throughout the school, the teachers still acted professionally and used each other as resources in
An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the
Collaboration in the world of education has become an increasingly popular method of addressing a variety of school issues, such as curriculum design, behavioral plans, professional development and management of resources. One of the areas in which collaboration is becoming more popular is co-teaching in special education, where special education teachers and general education teachers share the planning and instruction responsibilities for inclusion classrooms (Friend & Cook, 2010). As academic standards for the education of students with disabilities are held to the same standards as their typical peers due to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the co-teaching model has been increasingly
For my interview, I interviewed a woman by the name of Mrs. Miskell. She is a close family friend and also teaches at the elementary school that I used to attend. Mrs. Miskell has been teaching for fifteen years. She has a class of 21 including 2 special education children who are mainstreamed into her class for a few areas of study. She team-teaches one day a week with the remedial math teacher, and one day a week with the remedial reading teacher. Her children switch classes with one other class for social studies and science. In this interview, I covered her views on special education and security in today's schools.