Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

 In this part of my mini-blog series I will share out a crucial part of co-teaching... Managing! When my co-teacher and I put together our presentation this summer on co-teaching, we paused to reflect on all of the time and effort put into managing every facet of what we do. I believe we lived up to the line "no stone left unturned." Managing and planning work symbiotically in that in order to manage yourself, one another, and of course your class, you need to have a plan in place, and plan for that plan (go ahead and laugh, I just did, but it's true!)  One of my repetitious lines in this series has been "it didn't happen overnight" and I'll stick by that statement! My co-teacher and I worked diligently from the very first day on discussing how we wanted to manage everything in the classroom. We knew being on the same page with classroom management was important for the students (and for us) to have consistency. We also realized that we too had to estab

 In my first post on co-teaching, I provided a glimpse of what my co-teacher and I discussed in our webinar on this topic. At some point, most of us educators will work with a co-teacher, or a support teacher or paraeducator. You might ask yourself, "where do we even begin?" This is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of interest and caring.  From our experience, the first place to start is communication and trust. As with any relationship, this takes time to develop, however investing the time (as often as you can) to learn about one another personally and professionally will establish that foundational layer of trust early. Then you continue to build from there. My co-teacher and I always have our calendars out and daily schedule to plan times for meeting and debriefing (more of that to come in the managing post!). We use every opportunity we can from prep time, before/after school hours, lunch, and even weekends to discuss the class, student needs etc. Through these

 Recently, my co-teacher and I were asked to present a webinar on co-teaching. We shared our experience teaching this year and in 2020, which was mostly (as we know) virtual teaching. The lessons we took away from this experience helped us to grow individually, and together as a team. We had to adapt our typical strategies, modifications, accommodations, and instructional delivery into a different learning landscape that was challenging, however it forced us out of our comfort zone, and we now have more tools in our toolbox to use in the classroom.  What I enjoyed most about presenting for this webinar was the chance to share with others what we did, and show them they too can be successful in a co-teaching partnership. I truly believe that it begins with establishing the relationship from the start, and getting to know each other, both personally and professionally. Building trust is the key to being able to work together. I am fortunate that my co-teacher and I agreed from the very b