KYCTEPS 2016-2017

Two Teachers, One Journey

Bobbie Jo Vice

In my elementary school, we meet weekly in PLCs with a focus on improving student achievement.  As primary teachers, we typically take information from this collaboration to use within our own homerooms or RTI groups, but what if we shared further shared the responsibility of this information for the benefit of the whole grade level?  What if we made the decision to move toward working together in our classrooms as well?  I’m not talking about our daily teacher conversation.  I’m thinking along the lines of immersion into your colleagues classroom.  Imagine the impact two teachers could have on our students’ success and our professional growth. Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sanchez tells a powerful story of the benefits of collaboration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmQVNE-MbKI

  

Co-teaching with a special education/regular education teacher has always been my experience in my primary classroom. This school year brought an opportunity to try a new co-teaching design.  I was assigned a first grade classroom, while my teaching partner was assigned a transition classroom. We met informally and decided the best way to address our students’ needs was through collaboration.  The principal approved our decision, and planning began.  We do not always teach together in a classroom, so we have essentially restructured the term co-teach. Students work with both teachers on a daily basis. They trade groups and times depending upon the needed instructional focus.  We also choose times to teach within the same space.  Our students have the opportunity for flexible grouping on a daily basis.  We began with three transition students who were moved into the first grade group for core study in language and math.  As the year progressed, other students were moved for particular units of study or for short blocks of time in order to best address their academic needs. Students and parents understand the school day is a team effort.

Our daily routine consists of on-going conversations about students’ needs allowing us to fill instructional gaps.  No judgements - just listening to offer an instructional viewpoint based upon our own teaching experience.  Many times, small conversations lead to a boost in student achievement. Our PLC conversations are more focused and we are able to talk about both sets of students as if they were our own homerooms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pnxst7dkLk

The benefits of knowing in-depth information about both classes allows for growth goals that drive instruction and form new assessment options.  I learn new instructional viewpoints from my partner teacher because she looks at student learning in a different way.  I take our conversations and adjust my own teaching.  We support and push each other forward everyday.  What if all teachers could choose a strength of a partner and use that as professional growth?  To extend this idea, kindergarten and first grade teachers in my school volunteered to co-teach. All K-1 teachers were willing to try at least four co-teaching sessions this school year.  Fortunately, our district also supports collaboration in many forms so we were able to use the collaborative release time to implement the project.  My colleagues chose to begin implementation in a variety of ways.  They observed, pulled small groups, used parallel teaching, and created their own style to best meet their needs.

Co-teaching and collaboration should be the norm in our schools.  My teaching partner and I have already made plans to continue the co-teaching into the next school year.  We plan to expand by moving toward a more focused integration of science and social studies into our groups and by exploring ways to be in the same space more often. One pair of volunteer teachers are considering a similar approach into the next school year as well. Overcoming barriers was sometimes difficult, but the benefits of working with and learning from a colleague far outweigh little bumps in the road.  One teacher from our group sums it up:  “Co-teaching is exchanging our best experiences.”