Co-teaching: From Geometry to English

Oh the places Special Education Teachers go! Seriously, from Geometry to English? Well, much like my quote on the blog, "the tree on the mountain takes whatever the weather brings." My job now is to make the best of that weather and to again put down roots as deeply as possible (which translated into teacher language means to quickly develop a whole new repertoire of lesson plans lol). This year I co-teach all of my English classes, so the transition is even greater from pull-out Special Education classes to integrated classes. What's more, it is difficult to transition from my way to our way, but I am really enjoying the experience. I have three great co-teachers who teach three completely different ways, and I add in my two cents where and when I can. 

Some of the practical benefits of co-teaching:

1) Somebody can call in sick and still have the lesson taught how they want it taught and classroom control can be maintained. 

2) I can collaborate with three other teachers daily. 

Next semester, I can collaborate with three new teachers daily as well. So I can steal their classroom management styles, ideas, and lesson plans:)

3) Classroom management is a lot easier. 

Students don't really take as much advantage of two teachers.

4) Students (all students) get more help. 

Most of the time, co-taught classrooms are not stacked with A.P Honors students. There are a few, but really most of the students in that class need help from time to time and they can get it with two teachers. Especially with the freshmen classes, this is key!

5) We have more time to do everything. 

In English classes there is tons, I repeat, tons of grading. However, with two teachers, we can split the grading, and we can be more thorough with the feedback we give when we do grade. We also can split lesson planning (although more of this falls on the Regular Education Teacher), grade inputting, parent contacts (What a relief to split this!), teaching, copying, documenting and the list goes on. It is really convenient, although it would be more convenient if I co-taught with one teacher all day, and we could really get in sync. Juggling three co-teachers makes it more difficult to perfect the trade.

6) I can enjoy other duties like bus-duty because I am not overly stressed all of the time!