Co-teaching: Tips for Improving Myself and Our Team
Co-teaching is a unique experience that only others who are in it will understand. It’s true what they say: “Co-teaching is like a marriage.” It takes cooperation, compromise and a whole lot of TLC for a co-teaching team to be successful. Cultivating your relationship takes time and making sure you both have a common goal is essential. If that remains central to all that you do, everything else will fall into place. Before you know it, you’ll be two peas in a pod! And when you get to that place, it’s just as important to continue to nurture that relationship.
We’re a new team, how can we get off to a great start?
Whether you volunteered or were chosen to be a part of a new co-teaching team, it is essential that you go into it with a positive attitude. There are so many benefits to co-teaching for both the students and the teachers. When I was in the classroom alone, there were countless times that I wish I had someone to share the good times with-especially when funny things happened. It’s great to laugh, but even better to have someone to laugh with. The workload no longer falls on you and you alone. You also get to learn a lot from someone who has different experiences than you. So be open-minded and ready to have a wonderful year. Below are some tips for how to start your co-teaching journey with your best foot forward:
Take the time to get to know each other. You can start off by taking a co-teaching survey and use it as a conversation starter. This can help you to learn about each other’s personalities, experience, and non-negotiables.
Respect that you both have different personalities and unique teaching styles. View your lack of knowledge-whether it’s about the curriculum, each other, or the concept of co-teaching-as an opportunity to learn and grow! Together, plan on how each of you can utilize your strengths to support your students and learn from each other.
Be prepared to disagree sometimes but ALWAYS remain professional. As you establish yourselves as a team, discuss how each of you communicates best so that when disagreements arise you can work through them successfully. Everyone works better when they feel respected.
Divide responsibilities from the beginning so that there is no confusion about who does what. BOTH of you should be seen as the teachers therefore make sure that as you plan to divide and conquer, each of you has face time with students and families. Utilizing various co-teaching models can help to do this within the classroom.
Attend professional development! No matter how many years you have been teaching, there is always more to learn. There is so much great information out there for new co-teachers focused on team building, co-teaching models, etc. Learning together will also help your co-teaching relationship to strengthen.
We’ve been together for a few years now, so how can we take it to the next level?
You have gotten to know each other and establish your co-taught classroom. Now may be a good time to evaluate what you do well and what you’d like to improve upon. Below are some tips for pushing your team to be better:
Look at the 6 different co-teaching models and discuss which ones you use more than others. If there are more highly preferred models you find yourself not using enough, make it a point to plan for those more deliberately in your lessons. If you’re unsure about where to start, track your use of the models over a month. This will be a great way to see which ones are being used more than others.
You may have gotten to know each other better since you started, but continuing to build your relationship will only benefit you both in the classroom. Find opportunities to get together outside of the classroom. You can go out to dinner, find a common interest to enjoy together, or be daring and pick something that neither of you have done to try.
Seek out opportunities for professional development. The professional development you attend can not only be about co-teaching but about how to support your student’s specific needs regarding behavior, disabilities and instruction.
Continue to communicate! Set aside a planned time to talk. It can be once a week, once a month…Whatever you feel is necessary. Use this time to reflect on your instruction, decide on next steps, share frustrations and problem solve.
Read. There are so many great resources out there! You can read books, blogs, scholarly journals or even social media pages. Connecting with other educators enables you to hear about similar experiences, find support, and learn from others.
It feels like we’ve been together forever, is there really anything else we can do to be better?
You are now the team that all other teams aspire to be. You finish each other’s sentences, wear the same clothes without planning it and where one of you goes, the other is sure to follow! After being together for so long is there really anything else to do? Absolutely! Below are some tips to continue to enhance our co-teaching relationship as “an old married couple”:
Professional Development (noticing a pattern yet?)! Similarly to teams that may be new or only together for a short time, learning as an educator is never done! Together (always preferable to going alone), attend professional development on topics that you lack sufficient knowledge in. It can be a refresher on team building, more advanced variations of the basic co-teaching models or about a topic you are interested in learning more about and would like to incorporate into your classroom.
Don’t get so caught up with what has been working, that you forget about changing it up sometimes. It is so important to reflect on your students’ performance and all that you do to support them. Compile what you have done for your students, families and co-teaching in order to think about successes, challenges, celebrations and next steps. This will help you to take a step back and create future goals to continue moving forward.
Invite a colleague, administrator or even your co-teacher to watch a lesson in order to give feedback. I promise, it’s not as scary as it sounds, and you will be better for it! No matter how many years you have been teaching, it only helps to be open to suggestions.
Explore opportunities for you to watch other co-taught classrooms- within your building, district or even another local district. What better place to learn from than the other brilliant teachers around you? My favorite places to “steal” ideas from are other teachers.
Record yourself teaching. I’ve done this a number of times and once I got past having to listen to my own voice (yikes), I was able to gain so much knowledge about my own teaching. I saw effective strategies I used to support my students and how my co-teacher and I worked with each other. Most importantly, I saw areas I could improve on.
Co-teaching can be so much fun so buckle up, be open and enjoy the ride!