Collaborating with Colleagues

When you first saw this title you either thought, "Oh, wonderful! I really need help with this!" or, similarly, "Oh, great...now I have to work with people?!" Whichever person you are, you definitely do need help with this, just as I continue to do every day. 

Within my daily schedule, I am constantly searching for advice from my supervisors, case managers I work with, guidance counselors, other special education teachers, the librarians, and my regular education co-teachers. 

In order to gain some perspective, I interviewed a few teachers to find out different methods of co-teaching from regular and special education teachers, and learned how they've worked out collaborating with each other:

• "As the in-class support, it's good to first discuss what your roles are and what the regular education teacher expects of you. In all honesty, some want you more involved than others, so you need to determine that upfront. When a student comes to me for help and it's not my strongest subject area, I always try the best I can first first before consulting the co-teacher. I am new to this and still learning, and always will be!" - Sean, in-class support teacher

• "I am the math teacher, and she is the special education teacher. That doesn't limit us both to what we are, necessarily, but it definitely helped define our roles. I know the math content that she isn't always familiar with. I try to help her understand along the way so she can truly be effective in the classroom. Since she has been teaching special education for awhile, she is absolutely great at handling parent communication and the IEP information that I am weak in. In some ways, we learn from each other everyday." - Gerard, regular education teacher

• "We would look at test scores from previous years, the IEPs, and 504s together to determine who needs what. Using assessments throughout the year helped to determine weak skills and how we can modify lessons or enhance their instruction in small groups. In terms of classroom control, when I had an in-class support teacher in the classroom, we often shared the responsibility of classroom management. Although I taught the content, and she assisted specific students, we both handled issues in the room that I think helped keep us on the same level of authority to the kids. "- Ruth, regular education teacher

In my personal experience, I work with four different co-teachers throughout the day across two different subjects. I go immediately from working as a team with one teacher in one period, to being a secretary for another. As a first year teacher, it took me a little while to find out what the regular education teacher expected of me and where my "place" in the classroom is. Fortunately, two of my four co-teachers have really made me an equal in the classroom in instruction and assessment. It does take time to get comfortable in your roles, and when it's not an ideal situation, you need to work on that teaching relationship.
For effective co-teaching models, please, please, please, visit this current practice alert from TeachingLD.org and learn more!