I love co-teaching and I am blessed to have colleagues who want to work with me. I have recently been working with an English teacher, Ms. Malavazos, and her students. We are both enthusiastic about the student project which helped with student engagement.
Driving home last night, reflecting on our lessons, I realized that besides learning content, research skills and how to use digital tools, students are learning life skills by watching us interact. This is not something we planned or intended but it is a organic by-product of our collaboration.
I have noticed that good co-teaching authentically teaches students:
It's ok to not know an answer. Ask for help.
Ms. M and I admit when we do not know something (we each have our own areas of expertise) and will ask each other for help in the middle of a lesson.
How to disagree.
There were times when students would ask a question and Ms. M and I had two different ideas about how to answer. Instead of trying to "the be right one", we would express our thoughts and acknowledge each other's ideas, "That's an interesting way to think about (the topic)."
You are going to be wrong sometimes and that's ok.
There were times in our lessons when Ms. M or I corrected each other, usually it was something simple like a due date or once in a while it was more substantial like how to relate a theme. We would respectfully correct each other and acknowledge our error, and thank the other for remedying the error. For some people, being wrong makes them feel vulnerable, some take it as a personal attack. I hope students are learning from our authentic interactions when these situations do occur.
Gratitude.
We both appreciate working with each other and we thank each other in front of the students for the help we give each other in planning, executing and working with students.
Share the workload.
Ms. M and I share the workload and explain to the students that after our collaboration meetings we broke out the work to execute this project. I created the planning documents for students, curating the resources and tools they would need while Ms. M created the rubric and will be grading them.
Constructive criticism makes work better.
Both Ms. M and I value student feedback and ask for their input and advice to improve the project both as we work on in it in class and for the future. We recognize that we are not perfect, we solicit constructive criticism and advice from students (while maintaining the integrity of the project), demonstrates that everyone's voice matters and that there is always room for improvement.
---------------
I hope students are learning just as much about how to work with others as they are about the content and skills we are teaching. I hope they see how working with colleagues, effectively and respectfully, can improve your work ...and can make a job more fun!
Driving home last night, reflecting on our lessons, I realized that besides learning content, research skills and how to use digital tools, students are learning life skills by watching us interact. This is not something we planned or intended but it is a organic by-product of our collaboration.
I have noticed that good co-teaching authentically teaches students:
It's ok to not know an answer. Ask for help.
Ms. M and I admit when we do not know something (we each have our own areas of expertise) and will ask each other for help in the middle of a lesson.
How to disagree.
There were times when students would ask a question and Ms. M and I had two different ideas about how to answer. Instead of trying to "the be right one", we would express our thoughts and acknowledge each other's ideas, "That's an interesting way to think about (the topic)."
You are going to be wrong sometimes and that's ok.
There were times in our lessons when Ms. M or I corrected each other, usually it was something simple like a due date or once in a while it was more substantial like how to relate a theme. We would respectfully correct each other and acknowledge our error, and thank the other for remedying the error. For some people, being wrong makes them feel vulnerable, some take it as a personal attack. I hope students are learning from our authentic interactions when these situations do occur.
Gratitude.
We both appreciate working with each other and we thank each other in front of the students for the help we give each other in planning, executing and working with students.
Share the workload.
Ms. M and I share the workload and explain to the students that after our collaboration meetings we broke out the work to execute this project. I created the planning documents for students, curating the resources and tools they would need while Ms. M created the rubric and will be grading them.
Constructive criticism makes work better.
Both Ms. M and I value student feedback and ask for their input and advice to improve the project both as we work on in it in class and for the future. We recognize that we are not perfect, we solicit constructive criticism and advice from students (while maintaining the integrity of the project), demonstrates that everyone's voice matters and that there is always room for improvement.
---------------
I hope students are learning just as much about how to work with others as they are about the content and skills we are teaching. I hope they see how working with colleagues, effectively and respectfully, can improve your work ...and can make a job more fun!
Comments
Post a Comment