Module 6: Co-teaching



The first time that I ever heard about co-teaching was actually in my education placement (Fall 2018). I never attended a school that had co-teachers, I’ve only ever had one teacher in a class at a time. However, I knew that aide’s were common in school, but I always thought that aide’s were considered co-teachers. But once I got into my placement, I got to experience co-teachers first hand, whether that was seeing teachers interact with each other or being in a co-teachers classroom. Through my placement, I never thought that co-teaching was something that I wanted to do at first. But the more that I experienced watching and observing two teachers working together, the more I liked the idea of potentially co-teaching in my future classroom.


As for co-teaching in my Technology 209 classroom, I got to experience co-teaching (on a beginning spectrum) first hand. At first, it was challenging to create a lesson that both of us found worked well for each of us. But once the lesson was picked, it was much easier planning with a partner than by myself. My partner gave me perspectives and ideas that I might have missed if I were to work by myself. It was a lot more fun teaching in front of a class when you have someone next to you. As a future teacher, I can see myself getting a little nervous in front of my class during my first year of teaching, but with a teacher, there is someone there with you to help students gain as much material as they can within short class periods.


However, as I got to work with my partner about the lesson that we were going to teach, I don’t know how realistic this sort of planning process is. Through what I have observed through my placement, my cooperating teacher and her few co-teachers, normally do not sit down together and plan the lesson. It has been more of a “walk in and ask what they’re teaching” kind of experience. Although, co-teaching for this class was a lot more fun than I thought that it was going to be. I found that planning with a partner made the lesson much easier and helpful because we could bounce different ideas off of each other. Planning with a partner was much more efficient when trying to teach a lot of material, but it was not efficient time wise. I could see how it would be difficult finding the time for a co-teacher and I to plan a lesson, especially after a long day of teaching and working with students.





Overall, I could see myself working with a co-teacher because it was a great experience - even if it was only eight minutes. I think that co-teaching is beneficial for classrooms because students could receive more help and attention from two teachers rather than one. Student success is the goal for all teachers, whether there be one or two - it is just more fun with two.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Module 4: SRS Tools

One of the first things that I learned about the student response tools is that they are extremely helpful in regards to teaching a lesson or wanting student feedback. A lot of the tools were useful if an educator was trying to determine how a student was doing in a specific content area as many tools could show strengths and weaknesses in a specific topic for each student. However, in regards to some of the tools that we were allowed to use, I found some of them very overwhelming in trying to figure out because of how information packed they were. Despite some of the websites being overwhelming in information, I also noticed how some of the tools were specifically for or were more aimed at a specific topic. I thought that would be useful for that specific topic, but it would not be if a teacher would want to use it for another subject. As for my own class, Technology in Education, we were assigned two tools to learn. For our next class session, it was each student’s responsibility to...
Read more

Module 4: Google Classroom, Edpuzzle, and FlipGrid

Before my class, Technology in Education, I never heard of something called a Google Classroom. And I mean, NEVER. When I was first assigned to use Google Classroom, I had no clue how to use it. But after further instruction, I became much more familiar with it. Then I began to like using it. This made me feel like I was actually a licensed teacher. I like that feeling as that is what I am going to college to become. Through Google Classroom, I can assign homework assignments and make announcements on it. I can set up my own due dates and create my own assignments. I could either let my “students” be creative or give them specific instructions for what their task is. I love how Google Classroom can be used to engage students (and teachers) in what their homework is. It made me more excited to become a teacher and execute Google Classroom in my future classroom. Another aspect that I loved about Google Classroom is how I can use other websites and link in straight into my Google class. ...
Read more

Module 2: Digital Story

        Digital Storytelling                    As it was my responsibility to create a digital story, I had no clue where I should start. Reading about what a good digital story looks like, given the resources under module two, it specified that digital storytelling should be broken down into the simplest form and that I should be cautious in regards to the amount of words being overused. I read in the article, The Science of Storytelling, that the human brain becomes much more active when a story is being told. A good story allows others to have emotions implanted in their heads, which allows connections between others. As it says in the article, The Art of Digital Storytelling, it mentioned that a good, or even great, stories are the ones told personally. A story should not be told about someone el...
Read more