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Friday, February 19, 2010
Questions for a Co-Teacher?
What questions would you have about working in a co-taught general education (inclusion) class?
environmental
relationship
implementation (meeting the needs of diverse learners)
I admittedly know little about co-teaching classrooms. I am most interested in the strategy that teachers use for each class. For instance, does every student receive the same amount of attention from both teachers or are there some lessons that call for the teachers to concentrate on a specific population of students? Even with co-teaching, do you still feel that higher achieving students may be under-stimulated or lower-achieving students may be lost? What is the most common source of conflict that arises between teachers who are co-teaching?
Given the condition of some students with disabilities, is there ever the fear of crossing student/teacher lines of appropriateness?
Do you feel that differentiated instruction is a lot of extra work for the instructors? (coming up with specified lesson plans for various type learners)
Have you ever run into problems with students or parents of students who feel that they are being hindered by this environment? How did you/the school deal with this issue?
What is the most challenging thing about teaching in this environment?
My biggest concern in a co-teaching scenario is being effective at communicating the information without being distracting. From what I have observed, and previously stated, a second teacher whispering to a few students in the room would be distracting for me as a student and as a teacher. So I guess my question is what does an effective co-taught classroom look like? How much is planned and talked about before the lesson and how much is it just "working off each other?"
I also wonder if the regular students feel slighted or jealus that they're not recieving the same specialized adult attention.
How is disapline and classroom management handled? Is it good cop bad cop? Does one teacher handle those situations specifically? Is the class split so each teacher is responsible for certain students?
I was in one class that was co-taught and the teachers took roles of opposing each other and it was sort of odd. They wanted us to debate and oppose each other as well, but I don't think this type of teaching would be suitable for inclusion classes. How do you co-teach, would it be very structured and back and forth , or is it more go with the flow and feed of one another??
What happens if your co-teacher disagrees with some of the things you pose and vice versa? How can you create a good environment and atmosphere when you don't agree with the person you have to teach with?
Before the school year starts do you sit down and make your lesson plans together? Or how does that work? How can you be sure to meet the needs of different learning styles in the classroom?
How do you handle relationships with students in a co-taught class? Say my partner has a better relationship with a student than I do and that student isn't doing their work or goofing around, do I say something and probably make the student angry with me, or let my colleague handle it and resolve it, possibly non-strenuously??
Some question I would ask are: Is one teacher the "head" teacher? Do you share jobs/responsibilities or does each teacher have her own? Do you have any must do's or don'ts for teaching in this type of classroom? How do you mesh your two different/individual teaching styles to form a well balanced classroom environment?
Just like Billy, I have not been that knowledgeable about co-teaching at all until I began my student teaching this year. As soon as I realized that the man in the classroom that I was observing was in fact a TA and not just a teacher joking around with the kids a bunch of questions immediately jumped in my head.
How exactly do you and the head teacher work together? Do you meet before class to prep for the lesson? Do you meet after class or during free period to discuss the lesson?
Do you ever have a conflict with the practices of the head teacher? What do you do when you disagree?
What are the best strategies to take to make co-teaching most effective?
What are the greatest difficulties in a co-teaching environment?
Does co-teaching work in your classroom? How would you change what you are doing now in your classroom to improve the goals of what co-teaching is aiming to reach?
8 comments:
I admittedly know little about co-teaching classrooms. I am most interested in the strategy that teachers use for each class. For instance, does every student receive the same amount of attention from both teachers or are there some lessons that call for the teachers to concentrate on a specific population of students? Even with co-teaching, do you still feel that higher achieving students may be under-stimulated or lower-achieving students may be lost? What is the most common source of conflict that arises between teachers who are co-teaching?
Given the condition of some students with disabilities, is there ever the fear of crossing student/teacher lines of appropriateness?
Do you feel that differentiated instruction is a lot of extra work for the instructors? (coming up with specified lesson plans for various type learners)
Have you ever run into problems with students or parents of students who feel that they are being hindered by this environment? How did you/the school deal with this issue?
What is the most challenging thing about teaching in this environment?
Is there a situation that happened in the past in the classroom that looking back on you wished you handled differently?
If in an inclusion classroom, are certain students given different homework assignments based on ability? Do parents find this fair?
How do you decide which role each teacher plays in the classroom?
My biggest concern in a co-teaching scenario is being effective at communicating the information without being distracting. From what I have observed, and previously stated, a second teacher whispering to a few students in the room would be distracting for me as a student and as a teacher. So I guess my question is what does an effective co-taught classroom look like? How much is planned and talked about before the lesson and how much is it just "working off each other?"
I also wonder if the regular students feel slighted or jealus that they're not recieving the same specialized adult attention.
How is disapline and classroom management handled? Is it good cop bad cop? Does one teacher handle those situations specifically? Is the class split so each teacher is responsible for certain students?
I was in one class that was co-taught and the teachers took roles of opposing each other and it was sort of odd. They wanted us to debate and oppose each other as well, but I don't think this type of teaching would be suitable for inclusion classes.
How do you co-teach, would it be very structured and back and forth , or is it more go with the flow and feed of one another??
What happens if your co-teacher disagrees with some of the things you pose and vice versa? How can you create a good environment and atmosphere when you don't agree with the person you have to teach with?
Before the school year starts do you sit down and make your lesson plans together? Or how does that work? How can you be sure to meet the needs of different learning styles in the classroom?
How do you handle relationships with students in a co-taught class? Say my partner has a better relationship with a student than I do and that student isn't doing their work or goofing around, do I say something and probably make the student angry with me, or let my colleague handle it and resolve it, possibly non-strenuously??
Some question I would ask are:
Is one teacher the "head" teacher?
Do you share jobs/responsibilities or does each teacher have her own?
Do you have any must do's or don'ts for teaching in this type of classroom?
How do you mesh your two different/individual teaching styles to form a well balanced classroom environment?
Just like Billy, I have not been that knowledgeable about co-teaching at all until I began my student teaching this year. As soon as I realized that the man in the classroom that I was observing was in fact a TA and not just a teacher joking around with the kids a bunch of questions immediately jumped in my head.
How exactly do you and the head teacher work together? Do you meet before class to prep for the lesson? Do you meet after class or during free period to discuss the lesson?
Do you ever have a conflict with the practices of the head teacher? What do you do when you disagree?
What are the best strategies to take to make co-teaching most effective?
What are the greatest difficulties in a co-teaching environment?
Does co-teaching work in your classroom? How would you change what you are doing now in your classroom to improve the goals of what co-teaching is aiming to reach?
How much time do you and your co-teacher set aside for lesson planning? Do you find it sufficient enough?
What co-teaching strategy have you found most effective?
Do you think co-teaching in an environment like an art classroom should be dealt with differently than in a "core" class?
What do you think is the most common misconception about co-teaching?
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