Collaborative Team Teaching: A Professional Marriage

I am thrilled to share that today's day-long session of the New Teacher Orientation was much more exciting and useful... I didn't have to pull out either of the two books I brought to read or the Sudoku from either of the two newspapers I picked up this morning... I didn't even have to resort to secret texting, and I only looked at my phone two times during the sessions today! (Wow, do I sound like I was scheming to be a teacher's worst nightmare or what?!)

Since being told I would be in Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) room, I've been a bit nervous and unsure what exactly this would look like. My experience with team teaching hasn't been the best, and most of them were during student teaching semesters in college. I was blessed with a few good partners, but I was also tortured with a few not-so-good partners. This afternoon's session on the CTT Model helped to alleviate some of my nerves and give me excitement for all the possibilities Ms. B and I will have in our classroom together.

So, what is Collaborative Team Teaching? It is not something you often see in Kansas, that's for sure. I'd be interested to see if there is cooperative teaching to this extent in any schools in Kansas. Maybe some classes have a taste of it here and there or in certain subjects... but here, in our classroom, it will taking place every day, in all the classroom subjects. It may look different from subject to subject, but Ms. B and I are both teachers of room 206. One more note, there is one teacher who is special ed. and one that is general ed., but it will look like we are both equals. In the classroom, it will not be specifically categorized as who is who. We are both the teachers. We'll also both be using special ed. techniques and strategies, but Ms. B is definitely the expert in special ed. In our room, the kids don't even really know who has an IEP (Individualized Education Program for special ed. students) and who doesn't. Here are 6 ways we will be implementing team teaching into our classroom:

NOTE: The ovals in the images are the teachers and the circles are the students sitting in their seats. The images are credited to the Office of Special Education Initiatives.

1. Team Teaching - Both teachers are teaching together. This can be used to model partnership and instructional conversations. It should not be used too early, because the teachers need to be comfortable with each other and the lesson needs to be well planned. Some ideas of how to use it include acting out a scenario, modeling team work, showing a demonstration, modeling a debate. The workload needs to be equal in this teaching model. It also is the most complex model but can bring energy into the classroom.

2. One Teaches, One Observes - This is especially good in the beginning of a co-teaching situation. It is also great to use occasionally to get feedback about teaching and the students. The teacher observing can also be used to observe and collect data on certain students. Other observations can be made including the students' engagement and involvement in the lesson or activity.

3. Station Teaching - This particular model is one that Ms. B and I have already shared our excitement about. We can set up stations and cover specific topics in the small groups. For example, with Math, she can be working with students on one area while I'm working on another. The other groups, without teachers, will be doing work in their books or playing math games or a variety of other activities that can be self-directed by the students. This model requires extra planning because instead of planning only one thing for the whole group, we'll be planning many smaller activities for many groups. It will also require us to make sure our students are familiar with the procedures and expectations of the classroom and stations.

4. Parallel Teaching - If we used this, we probably would not set it up like the diagram shows. It seems that it could be very distracting being so close, but if we were in separate corners and working on a quieter lesson, this could be a cool model to use. The nice thing about this model is that it decreases the group size. This gives students more chances to participate in the conversations during the lesson, and it might help alleviate some of the behavior problems. It provides the teachers with the opportunity to teach how they are individually comfortable within their group. This could also be fun to use if we wanted to have a debate. One teacher could teach students all the facts about one side of the issue and the other teacher teaches her group about the other side of the issue. The students could then come back together and discuss the topic with the knowledge they have gained.

5. Alternative Teaching - One teacher teaches the class while the second teacher teaches a smaller group as enrichment. This can be helpful because it gives students who need some extra direct instruction and assistance the chance to get it from the teacher. We have to be careful to vary the groups, because we don't want to segregate the groups or single out students. It can also be effective in providing students the opportunity to get caught up on work if they were absent.

6. One Teaches, One Assists - This is also good for new co-teacher groups. I'm sure we'll be using this more at the beginning of the year as we get to know each other as professionals. It can also be used in a situation where one of the teachers particularly favors a certain lesson or a certain part of a particular lesson.

These are the six models of co-teaching as outlined by Dr. Marilyn Friend. Also note that I used wording from the packet provided by the New York City Department of Education, Office of New Teacher Induction to describe the models as I learned them at the New Teacher Orientation.

Some other information I learned about teaching in a CTT room:

• One teacher cannot always teach the same subject. Teachers should use the teaching models and often switch subjects up so that students don't start seeing one teacher as the math teacher and another as the assistant teacher.
  
• The teachers should not divide the students as "my students" and "your students" or as "general-ed. students" and "special-ed. students".
• The teachers are equals.
• There are times of give and take and it's important to pick your battles.
  
• Communication is KEY!
• Two brains are better than one. Our planning and ideas will be excellent, because we'll have each other to bounce our ideas off of.

So... as we were told today, we've entered into what may seem like a professional marriage. Maybe the first day of school I need to bring my something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Any suggestions for what I can bring to kick of my professional marriage?? Click below to leave your suggestions and comments!