When fellow friend and classroom neighbour, @syard2 said "let's plan one period a cycle together with our classrooms" - I thought GREAT! We'll do some stories, an art project or two......
Who knew how powerful co-teaching was. In the past, we always tried our best to plan similar activities to ensure we were using common samples for assessment and to inform our instruction. We would casually chat about similar topics and when we were teaching what themes - but once we actually started teaching together - side by side in front of both our classrooms - that's when I truly began to realize the power of what we were doing ... and wondering... WHAT TOOK US SO LONG TO DO THIS?!
After about a week or two trying out our "1 period per cycle" we started realizing that we wanted to plan more detailed projects and activities. We found that both our kids became....both our kids - so to speak. Her students would come up to me telling me things in the morning; just like my kids would go see her and tell them about their weekend. Our students started hanging out more at recess and we realized that we had not only built "community" within our classrooms separately, but we also built "a Room 14&15 community"- a joint community that shared and worked together. Our kids felt comfortable with each other and the opposite teacher.
So we decided- "we have to do more of this!"
When we sat down last week talking about what the students got out of our co-teaching, but then we started reflecting what we each got out of this new plan. We found ourselves listing nothing but positives!
Teaching next to another teacher is not only double the learning for our students, but its' double the learning for us as teachers. I'm seeing different ways to introduce things. I find the way @syard1 has a knack for higher-level questioning with students. She sneaks it in, in the perfect moment!
It was a lightbulb reminder "Oh yeah, I need to beef that up a little with my kids." I am a huge believer that teachers learn from each other - and that's exactly what co-teaching is giving me - more learning!
Our co-teaching/co-planning has come so far in 2 short months that we're already planning several activities a week together with our classrooms and...a massive field trip that kids could only dream of! We're both partaking in the #gra14 (Global Read Aloud) project and completing supporting activities together.
Co-planning --- essentially 2 heads ARE better than 1.. and you get things prepped quicker! I used to spend 2+ hours a week planning and prepping materials for the following week, ensuring I had everything done ahead of time. With co-planning, you plan together, split up the work and bring it all back, ready for teaching!
Co-teaching allows each of us to have individual accountabilities and bring them together to give our students the best possible learning opportunities both academic and social.
Co-teaching is definitely working between Rooms 14 and 15 this year. The only thing we have struggled with thus far is the thought of...... "what took us so long to do this?!"
Don't be afraid to give it a try! :)
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