Collaboration and Co-teaching

1. CollaborationandCo-teaching Shannon Reed Megan Reese ITL 602: Context: Education in the U.S.

2. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. - Helen Keller

3. 01 02 03 Co-Teaching Emphasizes collaboration and communication To meet needs of students By organizing among groups of two teachers to service a group of heterogenous learners

4. ◤ ◤ Benefits of Co-Teaching • Greater exchange of strategies among colleagues • Increased understanding of students • Stronger instructional content in general education standards for special education students • Increased acceptance of special education students • Decreased burnout of educators This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

5. Types of co-teaching Relationships 1. Special Educator and General Educator 2. Paraprofessional and SpEd or General Educator 3. 2 General Educators 4. Speech/language and SpEd or General Educator 5. Social Work and SpEd or General Educator 6. Elective teacher and SpEd or General Educator Typically to meet wide range of learners more effectively

6. ◤ Keys to success in Co-teaching • Planning—time and commitment to planning process • Disposition—discussing important details like fairness, grading, behavior management, and philosophy of teaching with the co-teacher • Evaluation—systematic; ask two important questions: Is this meeting the needs of both teachers? And is what is being done good for ALL the students?

7. TIME Having time for planning, structuring co-teaching, preparing students and teachers, developing the interpersonal relationships STUDENT READINESS Prepare students with deficits for transition to the co-teaching classroom. BARRIER TO EFFECTIVENESS GRADING Work together before the period begins to figure out how grading will occur for the students! TEACHER READINESS Allow collective autonomy in a structured classroom

8. Collaboration

9. DEFINE COLLABORATION ◤ • Teams of teachers • Working together • Achieving common goals • For which members are held mutually accountable • Support from another co-worker • Exchanging of ideas • You build your own community through collaboration

10. ◤ Stages of Collaboration • Forming –group comes together • Storming—in early stages, conflict is to be expected; personal teaching styles will be in conflict and collaboration may be difficult. This is normal • Norming—increase in productivity, relationships improve, and meetings begin to focus on consensus • Performing—progress becomes easily identifiable; start to readily work toward goal of improving education environment for everyone

12. Collaboration: Step by Step for Success! • Look first to existing networks, relationships and organizations for your ideal global partner. • Establish your partnership based on socially responsible and culturally responsive foundations. • Partner your classroom for the sake of authentic connection over "exotic" cultural differences or distance. • Don't expect immediate success—deep, constructive global relationships require a marathon, not a sprint. • Keep your expectations realistic in year one—consider small successes significant successes, and build something bigger from there. • Consider building smaller experiences and "one-offs" with individuals to fill the gaps while deeper partnerships develop. • Remember that communication will take patience and inter-cultural skills, particularly in cases where teachers don't share a common language. • Read what's out there and learn from what others have tried; more progress happens when we stop reinventing the wheel.

13. Keys to Success with Collaboration! Collaboration with a co work may not come easy, but just think of the management steps in the diagram to the left! • PLAN - You and your partner come up with a plan of action for collaborating with your classes. • ACT - Act on your plan. Start the lesson, or activity with all the plans in hand! • MONITOR - Each partner will monitor how things are running! Give feedback for each contributer! • ADJUST - It’s not going to be perfect. So now it’s time t oadjust. Think about the changes and try again! This is a method that can be used in all situations in a classroom, office, management, or day to day stuff!

14. Exposure to improved practices by many teachers Why should teachers collaborate? ◤ Leads to stronger pedagogy The more effective teachers are the more students benefit Improved teacher performance leads to improved student performance Teamwork is better than single work

15. ◤ Shannon’s Collaboration Story • I have collaborated with many of my peers over the course of my education. Particularly in my Masters program, we were required to get to know our cohort and spent a lot of time working together on different projects and in class assignments. I thought it enhanced my educational opportunity because I got to learn a lot about my peers and their perspectives on different things and this helped me to broaden my own horizon on a lot of different topics.

16. Shannon’s work story • I don’t think I would consider my work experience so far to be one of collaboration. I hope that changes some once I become a teacher. I have some experience co-teaching as a substitute teacher. I think that experience was enriching for me, and also think it was enhancing for the students who took part in that as part of their education. I think co-teaching is a great part of a student’s education. I think it benefits both the Special Education children and the General Education children. I use this as an example because this is how I experienced it.

17. ◤ Megan’s Co-Teaching Story • As I have not worked in a classroom yet, my experience in co teaching in slim to none. But I have observed a few co teaching classrooms. In my observation, both third grade teachers evaluated there class and split them into groups by the testing levels. After split the class up they rotated the group throguh each classroom. So instead of the students being stuck inteh same class all day they moved back and forth and the best part was the levels were close so there was more focus on group that were struggling! • From this experience just watching I believe co-teaching would be something I would be interested in doing with a future co worker!

18. Megan’s work story • I currently work in a school district, but at the district level. So any chance I get to go to the school sites I take! I work in the Nutrition Service department and working with my co-workers on nutrition education is one of the best! We co-teach about health meals or how to cook at home and the students just love it! I do believe co-teaching is something everyone should try because you never know, it may come easy to you to teach together and make it fun and entertaining fo rthe studetns. My co-workers are not as creative as I would say I am so we mesh very well together! I bring the creative ideas and they help put it all together for the lessons!

19. Peer-to-Peer Practical Application • Group Tests, for example, as are used at College Preparatory School in Oakland, CA • Tests can be harder when students can work together to achieve the responses • In English classes, students are encouraged to discover multiple interpretations of the same questions identifying that there can be more than one correct answer to a question • Different ways to communicate • In math, it’s not about finding the answer it’s about how you got there! How many ways can you find the right answer! Peer to peer communication and collaboration.

20. Educator Practical Application Suggestions • Wikis - share documents and hold discussions; post and hold meetings; post progress reports; • Social networking for collaboration -Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; called social collaboration; messages explicitly directed to the group and group activity seen the same way by everyone in the group • Class DoJo - collaboration with students via a virtual classroom. Helps students communicate with teachers. • Gmail Apps - Google now has so many applications were you can co-teach and collaboration seamlessly!

21. References Bhaskar, Santosh. (2013, Nov. 15). Great ideas to promote collaboration among students. EdTechReview. Retrieved from http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/766-great-ideas-to-promote-collaboration-among-students Davis, Matt. (2012, Dec 5) How collaborative learning leads to student success. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/stw-collaborative-learning-college-prep Dieker, Lisa, PhD. Cooperative Teaching. The University of Kansas. Retrieved from http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/?q=collaboration/cooperative_teaching Perez, Jason. (2015, Jan 7) Taking the Doors Off the Classroom Through Collaboration. HotChalk. Retrieved from http://www.hotchalkeducationnetwork.com/collaboration-with-purpose/ Stamler, Jessica. (2012, Aug. 1). Co-teaching: Avoiding the Clash of the Titans: Jessica Stamler at TEDxMCPSTeachers. YouTube video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_k8rbv9ccY Klein, Jennifer D. (2016, April.11).Building Partnerships Outside the Classroom That Work. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/2016/04/building_partnerships_outside_the_classroom_that_work.html

22. Photo Credits • Untitled photo Most Valuable Resouce…, Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/WeAreTeachers/photos/a.10150774463388708.469877.93919173707/10155505280108708/?type=3&theater • Untitled photo Team Work Makes the Dream Work, Retrieved from https://vowsweddingevents.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/team-work-makes-the-dream-work-wedding-vendor-relations-tips/ • Untitled photo Together we can, Retrieved from http://releasing-the-magic.blogspot.com/2015/01/together-we-can-pass-it-on.html • Untitled photo Ants on a log, Retrieved fromhttps://gofreedompestcontrol.com/pest/ants/ • Cycle of Learning. Retrieved fromhttps://natomasunified.org/