Ms. Yoer Reflection

I approach collaboration as a team player, and I believe students need more than one person to guide them to their full educational potential. Also, active and prepared participation of weekly PLC meetings with the teachers of my special education students to plan collaborative curriculum have increased results in math and reading substantially. Participating in co-teaching furthers my repertoire of knowledge to assist my students. I have learned a vast amount from sharing and consulting with colleagues regarding students, observing mentoring teachers, and planning activities to ensure growth in students.

Co teaching and collaboration support inquiry based learning by providing an opportunity for LIMS and teachers to work as partners. The partnership provides learning opportunities for students to become engaged, and immersed in what they are learning. By each person assisting one another they are able to offset one another's weaknesses and strengths while instructing lessons together. This helps everyone involved to be successful. According to Harada and Coatney (2014) "When we make connections beyond the walls of the library to connect our work with classroom teachers and specialist and content'area standards we have the opportunity to become full members of our schools literacy teams. " (p.64)

Co-teaching and a marriage have to display the same philosophy and values for any relationship to work. It is a give and take situation. There should be a great deal of respect for each other. Both people view each other as equal with the same attitude and expectations.

Her flexibility is an important key in being able to reach every student individually. Mrs. Thompson mentioned in conversation although the children are grouped by the school based on commonality of skill level, she finds every year that the skill level is still very varied. With that said, it is imperative as a teacher that creative ways be implemented to allow each student to learn equally verses “teaching to the middle.” By “teaching to the middle” often times the children who fall behind continue to struggle while the students who are more advanced lack a challenge. Chanel mentioned one way to combat this would be to pre-plan agendas because organization is a key component to a successful classroom

Sheena Washington has a very interesting perspective. Her opportunity to work as a co-teacher distinctively points out how important is to work as a team and keep and open communication with teachers, school psychologists, and social workers. Firstly, an important lesson that will reflect in my work is to build strong relationships with teachers and other professionals. I will keep in mind that building these connections is an ongoing process, and that is important to be open minded to other teaching styles, personalities, and expectations for classroom norms. Secondly, I will certainly implement different

In the co-taught classroom, I use specially designed instruction. For example, I will give the students word banks to use or give note skeletons. Actually, the science teacher has me give all the students the word banks because they are good study guides. I also make accommodations during tests, such as crossing out two of the multiple choice answers. Being in the science classroom, allows me to check on each students’ progress with their homework.

I have had opportunities to co-teach n which some were excellent experiences and some were not so good. In the excellent experiences, they were always with teachers I was very comfortable with and that I knew well. We were able to bounce thoughts and ideas off each other, even during the lesson. The students were engaged and really seemed to enjoy those experiences. In the opportunities that were not so good, it created a very uncomfortable environment. The two teachers did not appear as equals. One teacher appeared more as the extra in the room. The students could sense this and typically only engaged with the lead teacher. Students can learn so much by having the experience of two different teachers, two different strategies, two different learning styles. It gives the students the opportunity to look at things in different ways. This promotes an overall stronger understanding for all students. It can be accomplished with an open, accepting understanding that both teachers are working toward the same

This piece of assessment has allowed me to gain a greater understanding of co-teaching, and I believe it has been an incredibly valuable experience. I now feel more confident to use co-teaching in the future if I am given the opportunity to do so. Research states that strong teacher networks and relationships between teachers, can help improve teachers’ confidence and may also benefit student achievement (Moolenaar, Sleegers & Daly, 2012). Therefore, in my future practice, I will engage

Co-operative learning strategies can be very helpful in acknowledging “the recognition of difference” (AATE & ALEA, 2013) amongst students who find it difficult to achieve the prescribed learning outcomes of the set curriculum. These strategies aim to assist these students to: • Think aloud, take risks, develop deeper understandings and higher order thinking • Build self-confidence as

Working collaboratively also fosters a culture of community in the classroom” (Equity for English Language Learners). When teaching in an elementary school, like Glencairn, it is critical to understand that not everything you say will be understood and you have to be flexible with your lesson plans.

The administrators should fully understand their administrative responsibilities in order to provide support and understanding to the teachers. In the case study, when Sharon spoke to the principal about her co-teaching concerns with Betty the principal told Sharon, “Don’t rock the boat and see what happens”. Administrators should be trained and have adequate knowledge about collaborative teaching in regards to the benefits and challenges that educators may deal with in the classroom. If the administrators are aware of any potential concerns, then they can better communicate with teachers to ensure the appropriate steps are taken to encourage co-teaching and successful outcomes in the

During this collaborative unit and programming planning I found having a partner to be very beneficial. Coordinating times to talk and text was key to this project due to me and my partner living out of town and working full time as teachers, but we have learned a great deal from this project. Two heads are better than one due to us being able to bounce ideas off of one another that sparked so many wonderful ideas. At times we found ourselves getting ahead of ourselves but had one another to help refocus us on our state standards for our target grade level. By working as a team I knew that we were both invested in these lessons and had the same goal in mind therefore knew that the time spent creating these lessons was going to be effectively

Each child is unique, depending on their roles, skills, and impediments. The co teaching needs to be properly prepared with all the necessary trainings, all the information necessary, about the child to who is going to work on, she will be part of the meetings, she needs to be informed all about the child who’s going to work on that will the co teaching develop and perform their work in a professional manner and let her to achieve the goal set for each

Here are a few suggestions for how we might accomplish the goal of greater collaboration. Increasing communication between us is a large component of this goal, and by using our most powerful communication tool, the school intranet, we can share recent ideas and our most successful methods. This will encourage a dialogue

Lauren Dursky and I decided that we would implement different forms of co-teaching for different subjects. It did not seem efficient to use the same method for each subject, so we decided to vary the instruction. For math, we decided to use station teaching. This allows students to discover a true understanding of each concept through different activities. This style of co-teaching also allows each teacher to incorporate his or her own unique perspective into the classroom. This style could be challenging for math because it requires extra planning and you have to make sure both teachers are teaching similar methods at the same time so movement from one station to the next is smooth.