Co-Teaching for Success with Special Needs Child
Teachers Working Together for Student Achievement
Oct 13, 2008
When put in a co-teaching classroom, where both a regular education teacher and a special education teacher are teamed up to teach the whole class, the most important thing to remember is purposeful, open communication. Also to consider are common planning times, and constructive criticism. When done right, co-teaching can effectively teach every student.
Communication is Key
When in a co-teaching situation, you need to be purposeful and open in your communication. With this type of communication, you will set the ground work for planning, teaching, disciplining and ultimately a successful year.
Discuss what you hope to accomplish through co-teaching. Review teaching styles and how you hope to work together in the classroom to create the optimal learning experience for every student. Discuss how you will together handle discipline problems, how you will handle paper work, parent teacher conferences and data collection. Make sure your expectations are clearly understood and are reasonable.
Important things to remember: both of you are highly trained. You both have enough experience to be considered equals in the eyes of your principal, and you both have different skill sets to bring to the classroom. You do not need to be best friends or share common after school and weekend activities, but you need to be able to work efficiently together in the classroom.
Common Planning Times
When co-teaching, it is very important to find a common time to plan together. Whether this time is before school, during your scheduled planning time, over lunch or after school, you need to both agree on the time, and stick to it.
It is extremely important to plan together so that both highly trained teachers have input on the lessons, activities and time frame for teaching each concept. This time should also be used to discuss any problems you have seen among the students, and any changes made to student's Individual Education Plans. Once again, be sure to communicate purposefully and openly with each other for the benefit of your students.
Constructive Criticism
As a teacher, you should be constantly reevaluating your strengths and weaknesses in order to become better. Having supervisors observe teachers is another way to identify weaknesses in order to improve. When co-teaching, you have a valuable resource in the room with you, so be sure to utilize that!
Observe each other teach and when possible, offer and accept constructive criticism in order to improve your teaching abilities. This should not be considered negative, and should be communicated in a way that enables the students to find success in every area possible.
When open communication, common planning times and constructive criticism are all a part of a co-teaching classroom, the students and teachers will all benefit.
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