What crazy, interesting, confusing, strange, amazing experiences do I have on a weekly basis? Maybe my students made some off-the-wall comment. Some other time, I might have a story about a wonderful teaching moment. There may be some weeks that I reflect on my strengths/weaknesses as a teacher and others where I need advice. I'm dealing with the experience a day at a time.
I feel like this was a scatter brained couple of days. I actually relinquished the reins a bit and let my mentor lead on Thursday and Friday. I know I know I am supposed to be "full-time" and I was definitely still an integral part of the lesson.I like to think of it as a wonderful co-teaching experience. It seems that evenly splitting instruction time is the biggest problem with inclusion classes, Team Teaching, and multiple teachers in a classroom. The outside teacher coming in usually plays a secondary role, just circulating the room and assisting students who need it. Very rarely are the roles reversed, especially in a subject specific classroom. In today's schools, inclusion is becoming the norm and therefore it is highly likely I will be team teaching in the years to come.
For this particular activity I played the role of outsider coming in but in a good way. I still had an important duty. I was in charge of recording grades as students completed tasks. I also provided an equal hand for assisting the students as they worked. The students felt equally comfortable asking me for guidance as they did my mentor. Several times throughout the day she also left me alone to handle the lesson. I was completely fine with that because we had planned and created the lesson together. I am a firm believer that if you are passionate and knowledgeable about something then you should be able to pass it along and help others understand it. That is how I feel about teaching, and more specifically teaching math. With this lesson, I was included in it from the beginning and I know how to direct students for a smooth ending.
I just briefly want to mention that I also planned another co-teaching lesson this week. I taught half the students one method while my mentor taught the other. My next challenge is to plan a solid lesson with the special educator in one of my classes. That is an area where I could use more experience.
It has been great to practice team teaching and the planning behind making it a success. Hopefully it will not be as stressful or frightening if I am faced with a situation where team-teaching is the regular. What could be better than having 2 teachers rather than just 1 in a classroom of 25 very unique students?
I feel like this was a scatter brained couple of days. I actually relinquished the reins a bit and let my mentor lead on Thursday and Friday. I know I know I am supposed to be "full-time" and I was definitely still an integral part of the lesson.I like to think of it as a wonderful co-teaching experience. It seems that evenly splitting instruction time is the biggest problem with inclusion classes, Team Teaching, and multiple teachers in a classroom. The outside teacher coming in usually plays a secondary role, just circulating the room and assisting students who need it. Very rarely are the roles reversed, especially in a subject specific classroom. In today's schools, inclusion is becoming the norm and therefore it is highly likely I will be team teaching in the years to come.
ReplyDeleteFor this particular activity I played the role of outsider coming in but in a good way. I still had an important duty. I was in charge of recording grades as students completed tasks. I also provided an equal hand for assisting the students as they worked. The students felt equally comfortable asking me for guidance as they did my mentor. Several times throughout the day she also left me alone to handle the lesson. I was completely fine with that because we had planned and created the lesson together. I am a firm believer that if you are passionate and knowledgeable about something then you should be able to pass it along and help others understand it. That is how I feel about teaching, and more specifically teaching math. With this lesson, I was included in it from the beginning and I know how to direct students for a smooth ending.
I just briefly want to mention that I also planned another co-teaching lesson this week. I taught half the students one method while my mentor taught the other. My next challenge is to plan a solid lesson with the special educator in one of my classes. That is an area where I could use more experience.
It has been great to practice team teaching and the planning behind making it a success. Hopefully it will not be as stressful or frightening if I am faced with a situation where team-teaching is the regular. What could be better than having 2 teachers rather than just 1 in a classroom of 25 very unique students?