Sunday, January 25, 2015
Collaborative Teaching: Blog #4
This week you had the opportunity to plan a collaborative lesson with a fellow classmate. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages you found when working on this project? Can you see yourself working collaboratively in a school setting- perhaps even co- teaching? Why or why not?
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Some of the advantages of this project were that we both come from different backgrounds and sharing our experiences worked well. My partner has much more experience in a traditional classroom so I was able to use her expertise to help make this lesson. One disadvantage was that I have been out of town for the past two weeks so we have been communicating via phone, email and text. It might have been helpful if we could have sat down and gone over our plan.
ReplyDeleteI think that I would like to co-teach. I would like to meet the teacher that I am working with before comminting to this. I think that some personalities clash while others blend toghether nicely. I am not very assertive and would not like to be "bossed" around by a teacher who feels she is more experienced then I am. I have worked in a class with an aide that I have treated as a co-teacher. So I embrace the sharing of ideas and trying new things. I think that the students gain the most from a positive co-teaching situation. I think that a poor co-teaching situation can have adverse effects on students also.
Nancy-Sounds like a rewarding experience where you were able to draw from the expertise of another professional since the backgrounds of both of you were so different. It's very difficult to collaborate outside of work, as most of us experienced, in order to complete this assignment. It sounds like you managed to juggle it and make it work. Nice job
DeleteI'm glad that you are open to teaching in a co-teaching situation since that is the up and coming thing in education. Personally, I think you would thrive in that type of situation and really enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI found that working with a teacher with experience in the field of special education to be very valuable. My partner was able to think of ways to differentiate instruction that I would have never thought of individually. In terms of disadvantages, I think that I work best when I can communicate in person with someone. However, both of our schedules did not allow us to meet, but we still managed to send each other drafts of the lesson to edit until we reached our final version.
ReplyDeleteI will be working in a co-teaching setting for the first time during this upcoming school year. As a relatively new teacher, I think that I will learn a lot from my co-teacher's background in ELL. I think that we will be able to brainstorm new ideas for instruction. In addition, I think that learning about the varied co-teaching approaches and ways to collaborate in this course will assist me. I hope that we will have a planning period in common, so that it will be easy for us to communicate about the lessons that we have created.
How exciting that you will be able to have this experience early in your career! I also hope that you have a planning period in common so that you can meet face to face.
ReplyDeleteSome of the advantages were that I can draw on the expertise of another professional when it came to bouncing ideas off of and sharing experiences that they may have tried. A disadvantage is that scheduling time outside of work hours made it difficult to collaborate. We did the best with what we had in order to make this a meaningful experience. I would love to have a co-teaching atmosphere where things are shared responsibilities. I find my situation stressful as I am primarily responsible for everything from start to finish with an aide that is not always on board or interested in the work. We are rounding the corner more recently and communicating better to ensure that she is able to feel comfortable leading the class and becoming more involved.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that it sometimes takes time to "round the corner" as you put it so that there is effective and honest communication.
DeleteI found out that I truly enjoy working collaboratively with other people. The advantages for me was I was able to gain knowledge from experienced professionals and learn some tips about writing lesson plans. This was a great collaborative project a way to share ideas and learn from other teachers. I liked their perspective on the lesson and ideas for the students. I would love co-teaching someday. I feel with everyone’s different approaches on teaching it would prove to be beneficial for all the students. The only disadvantage for me, is I like speaking to people in person. I learned a lot of Lindsey and Colleen!! Thanks girls!!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your group was very collaborative and worked well together- that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy working with groups or partners in these special education courses because everyone has different teaching positions within education or special education. I always find it beneficial because I get to learn from others who teach in different settings with different students. I have never co-taught, however, this project allowed me to see some of the aspects of planning for a co-taught room. The part that was definitely the most difficult was not working face-to-face with my partner because our schedules did not allow for that. I’m assuming that most co-teachers have plan time together during the school day so that they can sit down and plan together. I would definitely prefer to do that over communicating via email.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately many co-teachers do not seem to have a planning time together so it is planning together on the run or via email. I too prefer face to face communication when collaborating.
DeleteI found out that I truly enjoy working collaboratively with other people. The advantages for me was I was able to gain knowledge from experienced professionals and learn some tips about writing lesson plans. This was a great collaborative project a way to share ideas and learn from other teachers. I liked their perspective on the lesson and ideas for the students. I would love co-teaching someday. I feel with everyone’s different approaches on teaching it would prove to be beneficial for all the students. The only disadvantage for me, is I like speaking to people in person. I learned a lot of Lindsey and Colleen!! Thanks girls!!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like many of you prefer face to face communication. In today's busy schools that is sometimes just not possible....unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed working with the two other people in my group because we all come from different teaching backgrounds and experiences. We were able to share our experiences and create a lesson that we all felt confident in. I have to agree with my classmates that face to face communication seems to always work better in my opinion, and unfortunately my group was unable to meet all together. However, we were able to effectively communicate and contribute to the lesson via phone and email, and things turned out great! I think that I would definitely enjoy co-teaching in the future. I know that I have many strengths that I could bring to a general education classroom as a special educator, and I would love to draw upon another person's strengths as well. Two heads are always better than one, even if it requires a little more planning and collaboration time.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your group worked really well together. It would be great to be in a co-teaching situation that was so positive.
DeleteI would love the opportunity to co-teach again. I have learned a lot of new skills that I think would help in a co-teaching environment. Working on this project was a little difficult. I think meeting in person would have been a better form of collaboration, but like in a school setting, sometimes that cannot happen due to conflicts in schedules. My partners and I responded to emails promptly and helped each other as much as we could. We all took an equal role and if we were in an actual school setting, this would have been a good form of planning and collaboration. Two heads are better than one, and we actually had three people working on this project. It was interesting to get everyone's input and point of view and see how they incorporated it into a lesson. I hope one day I get the opportunity to co-teach again.
ReplyDeleteI agree that meeting in person would have been better but sometimes that is not an option...and you are correct that usually two heads are better than one.!
DeleteI have really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with others. The biggest advantage of collaboration is the opportunity to bounce ideas off of another person. This allows for feedback and help with finding an approach that will work. The biggest disadvantage is coordinating schedules. We worked hard as a group to communicate as we could and I feel we made it work as best as we could. I definitely plan to be collaborating in the future.
ReplyDeleteYou hit on the greatest advantages and disadvantages of collaboration- I'm glad you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed working with others on this project. However, it was a little difficult to coordinate our schedules to plan but we made it work with the help of technology. I believe one of the biggest advantages of collaboration is the fact that you are receiving so many different ideas and outlooks on a topic that you may have never discovered. Also, co-teaching can strengthen your work relationships and model healthy relationships for the students. A disadvantage of co-teaching is that one of the teachers may not be receiving enough instructional time or they may not be willing to accept new ideas or letting go of classroom control.
ReplyDeleteYeah for technology- it is so helpful when trying to arrange difficult schedules!
DeleteCoordinating schedules and opportunities to collaborate is a difficult task at times with group collaboration. However, with working with someone who has more experience and classroom teaching time, it is an awesome opportunity to be able to learn new ways and methods that you never knew about before. Learning new material and content is not only a benefit to yourself, but to also the students you will be working with. Out of collaboration comes the "thinking out of the box" strategies, and I really think this is effective for a lesson to run smoothly in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteYour "thinking outside of the box" point is excellent and as teachers we must always be willing to do that.
DeleteKyle you did a great job on this project! Thanks for understanding my crazy schedule.
DeleteA huge advantage, I felt, of this project was the ability to share work and responsibility. We are all so busy with the internships and the fact that we all come from the same background (educational) and could comfortably share the work was a big stress reliever. Each person took on a different role and maintained focus towards our goal. I can see myself working collaboratively in a school setting because I do co-teach one class a week and I have found it to be a very good experience. I think part of teaching is accepting that others may have great ideas and keeping in mind that as long as the learners are benefiting and reaching their goals, it is a success.
ReplyDeleteI love collaboration because you both learn and accept others' ideas- we all learn to think outside of the box a bit more.
DeleteI really enjoyed your last thought, about what is success. So often, people get caught up in their own success or way of doing something that they forget that there are other ways. While I am not a co-teacher, I bet that many co-teachers find that their students may be just as excited about or successful with a lesson, even when taught a couple of different ways!
DeleteI will be honest in saying that I was stressed about finding time to meet with my group for the collaborative project. Organizing that was really the only disadvantage that comes to mind. I really enjoyed working with my group. I think that we did a really great job sharing each other's experiences to write a successful lesson plan. Kris did a great job helping Joe and I work through some of the verbiage and headings on the template, as we have not written a lesson plan that thorough in some time. Joe was able to share information about what a co-teaching class really looks like. His experiences helped tremendously when writing the classroom description. I created materials, since using Boardmaker and differentiating are both items that I am very comfortable with. I think that we all learned from each other and collaborated effectively.
ReplyDeleteCan you see yourself working collaboratively in a school setting- perhaps even co- teaching? Why or why not?
While I am not a co-teacher, I still collaborate a lot. The people I collaborate most with are my six paraprofessionals and my behavior team. Collaborating with these people is one of my most favorite parts of my job. WIth that being said, I think it would be very challenging to co-teach in my classroom after being a self-contained classroom for several years. After learning so much more about co-teaching, however, I think it is something I hope to have the opportunity to try out one day.
ReplyDeleteSinead, I had my own classroom for a few years and was asked to co-teach. It was very difficult to step into someone else's classroom and share responsibility coming from a self-contained room. It was not all bad, but I do prefer having my own classroom. I do not mind have other service providers come into my classroom to co-teach. Actually, I really enjoyed co-teaching with one of the speech paths and the Bilingual Lead teacher this year.
DeleteI currently collaborate with my speech pathologist who leads a weekly "Speech Group" on Friday mornings. Not only do I look forward to "Speech Group" every week, but so do my students. I feel like I have a bit of the best of both worlds.
DeleteHaving a good collaborative relationship with your paras can make or break a classroom. It can almost become a co-teaching type situation.
ReplyDeleteI am the first to admit that I do not love group projects and I'm sure it has nothing to do with me being a control freak. However, I did have a good group to work with on this project and felt we created a meaningful lesson that drew on all of our strengths and different experiences. It was an advantage and a disadvantage that we all have such different backgrounds in teaching. As I was reading through some of the posts, I noticed many people wrote that they prefer to meet in person to complete projects and collaborate. Meeting face-to-face is my preferred method of collaborating, but I have always worked with many different grade levels, teachers, and related service provider in one school year and it is impossible to meet with all of them so I am used to having to communicate via computer and phone. I have already been in co-teaching situations and would prefer to not return to it. There are two teachers at my school that I would consider co-teaching with in the future if the opportunity arises.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are able to work with either of these two teachers- I think it would be an enriching experience.
ReplyDeleteI was really fortunate to work with Annette and Lauren on this project. They were able to meet while I was out of town, but keep me in the loop and feel like part of the team. I think that is very difficult most of the time, making sure you fulfill your end but feeling appreciated at the same time. I enjoyed co-teaching previously when i had the opportunity. I am more open to doing it again, after having more time to work more collaboratively through this co-hort and having learned so much from each other. I have a better prespective on what true collaboration is now than I did before.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that your perspective on collaboration is clearer than before- it is such an important part of teaching today.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a very interesting assignment. It was a little difficult collaborating with a classmate for this project because we both are very busy. We do most of our collaboration either on the phone or through email. I am use to collaborating in person and having materials in front of me.
ReplyDeleteI am currently in a co-taught classroom and collaborate with my co-teaching on a daily basis. We had the opportunity to work with one another and we both decided to take on the co-teaching model. When both teachers agree to work with one another they know each others personalities and teaching style, so collaborating comes easy.
It is so important to know your co-teacher's teaching style!
DeleteKyle did a great job on this project! We communicated very well via email and text. We were on the same page for the class demographics and structure of the lesson. We addressed behavior as well by composing a behavior intervention plan. It would have been much easier if we taught at the same school in a co-taught setting. collaborating through technology was impersonal.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you had such positive interaction and collaboration.
ReplyDeleteSome advantages of collaborating on this project include having a support team behind you, egging you on, telling you “you can do it”. You don’ feel like you’re alone, and you have others to bounce ideas off of. It’s also important to have somebody tell you when it’s not going well, who is going to be constructive but supportive. Some disadvantages include the time constraint and being able to collaborate from a distance. If you get an idea, you can’t always get a hold of the others to share your idea (s) with. If there are issues with personalities, it may make it more difficult to complete the task. Another issue is not turning it into a social session and making sure everyone is on task. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I would like co-teaching, mostly because of the issues I’ve had with general education teachers in the past. I would be weary if I had too, but I am always opened to whatever is best for my student(s).
ReplyDeleteAnnette
If you have the right co-teacher I think you would enjoy it but there is definitely a learning curve.
ReplyDeleteI am a huge supporter of collaboration and co-teaching. This past experience of working with my fellow classmates was extremely interesting. It was interesting because it was nice to work with people that had just as much going on as I did. We worked well together and each contributed to the project in a positive way. I work in a co-taught classroom and was given insight into what a self-contained classroom looks like and works. I really enjoyed working on this project.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad this was a successful collaboration for you and your classmates.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad this was a successful collaboration for you and your classmates.
ReplyDelete