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Professional development in co-teaching is important because it allows you to learn strategies and techniques that are effective in the classroom. This year when I started to co-teach my partner and I had no idea what we are doing. Throughout the year I was able to attend PD but she was not and I was able to show her what I learned. Being the only one out of the two of use was not that beneficial because she did not always want to do what I was showing her. I think that in order to receive PD on co-teaching bother teachers need to be present and active participants.

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I co-teach and the benefits are that I get to co-plan and bounce ideas off my partner. We get to share teaching lessons and get to both teach the SPED and gen. ed students. It allows me to grow as a teacher and engage with a population that I wouldn't get to on a regular basis. We often would do parallel teaching which technically is not really co-teaching, at least I don't think it is.

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I believe that it is important to have professional development in the area of co-teaching in order to accurately learn about the different models of co-teaching (One teach/one assist, station teaching, differentiated, and team teaching). If teachers are not provided with professional development in this area, they are likely to do a poor job of implementing this practice. I know if my school when the special education teacher "pushes" into the room, what typically ends up happening is that they pull up a chair near "their" students and assist them as needed. Prior to learning about the different models of co-teaching, I saw nothing wrong with this. And, it is still not "wrong" necessarily, but I feel that other co-teaching models could/would be so much more effective and beneficial to the students. So, just as my "eyes were opened" by learning about these practices through my master's program, I think that professional development on this topic would do the same for other educators as well. An added benefit of obtaining professional development on co-teaching is that after being knowledgable about all of the models, you can pick and chose which model is right for you in various situations. You are not locked into only using one model, because that is the only one you know. You are able to become familiar with and use all of them.

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In my school there are not any teachers that utilize co-teaching. I believe this is due to our school size. We are a K-8 building with around 110 students total. There is only one classroom teacher per grade. However, there are two special education teachers. One for grades K-5, and one that services students grades 6-8. The majority of the jr high students with IEPs are in what is now the 7th grade class. I had just started my master's program in the spring of when this class was in 5th grade. I feel like if there was an opportunity to implement co-teaching models it would have been when I had that class. There was only one student not in my class that was on the K-5 special education teacher's caseload. There was a fair amount of the time that both the special education teacher as well as the one paraprofessional in our building (yes, one!) were in my room. If I had been exposed to co-teaching models prior to having those students in my class, I think I would have implemented station teaching quite often. In the article they discussed the benefits of station teaching as being able to cover a greater amount of content, as well as being able to differentiate material for students as needed. One of the biggest challenges with co-teaching can be finding time to co-plan. But that year I actually had all of the same plan periods as the K-5 special education teacher. I am really bummed at the missed opportunity to have implemented a variety of co-teaching strategies that year. We are currently in the process of hiring a new special education teacher, and the one that is staying was hired last year (So, two brand new special education teachers). The bright side of this being they might be more open and flexible to trying new ways of doing things. I can approach them both in the fall about the possibility of exploring co-teaching models with them.

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Professional development regarding co-teaching is very important! As with anything in regard to education, best practices are changing all the time. I liked that the article mentioned PD regarding assessment, because assessment can look so different for students with varying abilities. That would be a very important area, because assessment data would show how the effectiveness of co-teaching. Getting the assessment right would validate the effectiveness.

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I used to co-teach in my previous position. I loved the collaboration. I was not familiar with the curriculum, but I was able to modify for my students as well as support students without IEPs who needed more help. It was difficult to plan together, because we did not have any time together at all. We would email, but I would usually just show up and go with the flow. Not ideal!

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I definitely feel that it's important that PD should be required of all teachers, both special education and general education teachers. I had very little training in my undergraduate courses when it came to co-teaching, and my first 10 years I had no exposure to co-teaching. However, when I started my job as an ESL teacher, co-teaching was a part of the description, so I was "thrown into" it with no training at all. Thankfully, the teacher I was with has had plenty of experience with co-teaching, so she had a good system worked out. It took a few weeks to get used to it, but we got into our rhythm and it works really well. However, if I would have been with a first year teacher, we would have no idea what to do or how to approach the situation. So I definitely feel that it is important for PD. Like that article said, you can get training on how to assess in a classroom together, you can learn how to collaborate together and you can actually learn how to co-teach, and not just have one do the work, while the other one just sits there and grades.

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This is going to be my third year co-teaching with the same teacher, and I really enjoy it! It is nice because there are two of us in the room at all times, and when one of us is teaching the main lesson at the front of the room, the other one of us is walking around and keeping the students on task and answering individual questions. It is also nice because we split up the menial tasks such as grading, so that we each are responsible for taking care of certain things and we aren't overwhelmed. I also like the fact that there are two sets of eyes in the room at all times. The students know that they can't get away with doing certain things that they would maybe try in another classroom with only one teacher. And it also helps when we have conferences with parents, or have to communicate with parents. We each can make observations and compare notes, and we have a unified front when we talk to the parents.
The only thing I would may
be like to change in terms of the relationship between me and the other teacher is to maybe have her see me as not just a copy/errand person. Overall, we have a wonderful relationship with mutual respect, but there have been a few times where she has thrown trivial tasks at me that maybe a student could do, and she would only give me a short amount of time to do it.
Other than that, I really enjoy my one class that I co-teach in! It breaks up the day and give the two of us a break from running the class solo!

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I think it is important for co-teachers to have professional development, because in my case it felt like something I was thrown into my first year. At least for me, co-teaching was only briefly discussed in undergrad. However, as there is a push for inclusion, teachers need to know how to work together to play to each others strengths. The article mentioned how the special education teacher has knowledge on accommodations and IEPs, while the general education teacher has knowledge of the content and delivery. This was the case for my co-teacher and I, but as we learned from each other, we became more comfortable with the others specialty. Professional development allows teachers to learn how to more effectively co-teach. While there are many strategies to co-teaching, if the teachers are not comfortable with them, I doubt they will be used.

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I have co-taught for 3 years with the same special education teacher and love it! I think the students really benefit from co-teaching as they are exposed to different styles and personalities. As mention in the article, it also makes it a lot easier to try different group activities and do small group instruction within a general education class. When we split classrooms for instruction, the students also comment how much they love having a small class size. In addition, my co-teacher and I are able to learn from each other and that really benefits all of our students. An area of struggle that we had at the beginning was how to divide the work load. It took us a while to figure out our responsibilities and how to share the load.

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Brittany- I think that is very interesting! I can imagine that you would feel very tied to your student, simply because you are his method of communication! I can't imagine how difficult it would be to do a different type of co-teaching model than the 1 teach/1 assist simply because of that. I should've read your 2nd response before responding to your 1st article response, because you just answered my first question!!

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Brittany- It sounds like you had a really great partner last year & a great co-teaching experience! I truly hope the same applies for next year. Do you feel like you did half of the teaching, like a truly shared teaching role? Or was it more of a support type role?
-Cassie Lee

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Referring to my answer from question 1, I thin kit's super important for PD because of that misunderstanding of a co-teaching placement. The gen ed teacher is the teacher, and the special ed teacher is the aide. That is simply not correct, so having the proper training to change that mindset would be awesome! I also feel like PD would be helpful to give the gen ed teachers more of an understanding of their role to teach ALL the students in the class & all that entails. Additionally, the special ed teacher would benefit from PD in order to understand that their role, too, is to teach ALL the students in the class. The whole mindset needs changed, and PD in that area would do all the co-teachers well in that regard.

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I don't personally co-teach, but several of my co-workers do. I feel like the biggest struggle is that the gen ed teacher does all the teaching, and the special ed teacher acts as an aide in the class. Some special education teachers enjoy or don't mind that, but I feel that it is not truly a co-teaching experience! I do feel, though, that the students who are serviced in the gen ed classroom have the potential to benefit greatly from the co-taught class. They are able to interact and be with their gen ed peers but at the same time, they have access to their teacher who is able to modify/adapt and meet their needs very well in that classroom.

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Amanda Armstrong: I can imagine how you would experience anxiety with co-teaching based on what you've mentioned! I think finding a cohesive time to plan is just extra stress on top of the actual planning. I definitely agree that PD for co-teaching would be beneficial because collaboration is so important but without specific supports or training it can become more stressful than helpful. -Danielle Burge

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Andrea Lenz: I have had similar experiences to what you described where I work with the other pre-k teacher during holidays or special events. This past year, we made a curriculum map for the whole year and worked really closely together. I think it's great to be able to bounce ideas off of each other, but I agree that planning can be very difficult with everyone's busy schedules!  -Danielle Burge

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Amanda- I agree that it was interesting. I know that a lot of my friends experience with co-teaching hasn't been positive. Mostly, because they are treated like a paraprofessional rather than a teacher, or they are treated as if they are teaching a mini-class within a class and that their students aren't actually being included at all. Without a shared responsibility of all students (Sped of students without disabilities and gen ed teacher responsibility of students with IEPs) as well as a mutual respect for each other's role and expertise, co-teaching can't work effectively.

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When co-teaching in which there is a special education teacher and a general education teacher, it is easy to fall into the idea that the special ed teacher is responsible for the students with IEPs and the general education teacher is responsible for the other students. This is not to say that the Sped teacher doesn't help the students without disabilities. Nor that the gen ed teacher doesn't feel responsible for the students with IEPs. It's just very easy to co-teach where it becomes a 1 teach 1 assist model and that's it. Professional development would help to inform teachers of different ways to go about co-teaching and how those models can be implemented. I know, I for one, struggle with doing anything beyond 1 teach/1 assist because I'm acting as both the co-teacher and the interpreter fro my student. If I work with anyone who isn't my student, he doesn't have the ability to communicate with anyone else because he only communicates through sign language.

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Amanda- it sounds like you and I are in a similar boat with co-teaching. My first year co-teaching was this past year and it's been a bit of a learning curve. It had been incredibly great to be able to learn from more experienced teachers than myself - especially ones that are content specialists. As a special ed teacher, nobody ever really taught me how to teach math or science- so getting to watch seasoned math and science teachers teach on a daily basis has been very eye-opening. I too didn't sit down and talk about a co-teaching model before we started. Because I have to act as an interpreter for my student as well as a teacher, it makes it difficult for me to do anything but 1 teach 1 assist. However, I know my team and I really want to be able to try other styles.
I like that you said a benefit has been being better able to help during resource/study hall times. I didn't think of that in my response, but being in the gen ed classroom everyday has made it significantly easier to help during resource time. Next year, one of my students that is fully-included and only comes to me for resource will be in 7th grade. The benefit to me having taught 7th grade math and science this year is that I'll already understand the curriculum as well as the projects and assessments.
-Brittney Tarr

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This past year, I co-taught 7th grade math and science and next year I will co-teach 8th grade math and science with the same 2 teachers as last year. This past year was not only my first year co-teaching, but it was my student's first year being included in math and science. One of the biggest strengths I found was just the wide variety of resources that the gen ed teacher had access to. I was there to provide insight on how to properly accommodate for the IEP needs of my student and also provided assistance in accommodating for our student's with 504 plans. The improvement in my student was drastic, and I account that to the fact that there was a content expert there to lean on for support. I could come up with several ways to modify an assessment or accommodate, and the gen ed teacher could provide insight on how each one would impact the student's mastery of a standard. Together, we were better able to provide appropriate accommodations and modifications to the student. This can happen without co-teaching, however, the benefit of being in the same room is that we are much better at coming up with on the spot modifications as roadblocks arise.
One of the greatest challenges of co-teaching for me has been finding the balance between helping my student with the IEP who I'm primarily responsible for, while also helping other students. There are plenty of students in that class that would struggle with various concepts. As a special ed teacher, I always want to step in with more simplified directions or assistance, but it's difficult to help everyone at once. I wasn't trained like a gen ed teacher was to juggle 25 kids in a room- I was trained to juggle 25 needs in a handful of students! But that's another benefit of co-teaching, getting to learn from your colleague as you go.

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Amanda Armstrong:
Andrea, I like that you brought up assessment of students in a co-taught class. I would be interested in wondering how co-teachers decide who evaluates assessments as well. I think that word efficiency you brought up is also important since we've all discussed how co-teaching requires time we don't have!

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Amanda Armstrong: I find it interesting that the second article didn't really have an overall positive finding of co-teaching. It did state that "some" teachers find success with co-teaching, but it would be interesting to see what your other research says. Professional development for co-teaching is important because, while collaboration may seem like a simple skill for educators, it's really not. Models of co-teaching, establishing expectations and times to plan for co-teaching, relationship building for co-teaching, and so much more would be topics of PD I would attend since I felt I was drowning in my first co-teaching experience. The benefits would be that teachers could feel more effective when working together than alone since you have another expert, and PD would allow teachers to figure out how to lean on one another.

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Amanda Armstrong:
Danielle, I can definitely see how teachers could have some personality and power struggles in the classroom. While I did not experience this with my co-teacher, I was not nearly as knowledgeable or experience as she was, so if she wasn't the caring, understanding person she was, I could see how the co-teacher wouldn't really contribute or would feel unappreciated.

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Amanda Armstrong:
I have co-taught the past two years with a 7th grade language arts teacher. While I learned A LOT from such an experienced and awesome teacher, this class was a source of anxiety for me for many reasons. One was that we never had enough time to plan, so I never felt prepared and was still learning LA curriculum. We never chose a co-teaching model like the article talks about. I guess our model was more like the "one teach, one assist", and I would sometimes lead lessons. A huge benefit I see to co-teaching is that I see a variety of skills and subjects that I wouldn't otherwise know about. This knowledge helps me support students in their study hall and language support periods. I will switch to 8th grade social studies next year, so I'm ready for the change and opportunities!

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Andrea Lenz:
I think that PD is always a great thing! I think that by learning how to work together and learning ways to do it more efficiently it allows for a better experience and makes it more effective for students and teachers alike. I'm sure they have so many strategies on how to work together, how to assess and management of that program and how to use each teacher in the most beneficial ways!

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Andrea Lenz:
Our first grade team had a few co-teaching opportunities for just fun things we did around the holidays but it was really a great experience.  It was nice to share the lessons and bounce ideas off each other.  One thing that was hard was the time it took to sometimes plan just because to get the ideas going and changing constantly it did take a lot of time to plan.  But i think it made for better learning.

I also think that a lot of special education teachers come into my room or paraprofessionals do too and we are missing the boat with not co-teaching!

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Danielle Burge:
I think it’s important for professional develop in the area of co-teaching because there’s always room for improvement no matter how long or short you’ve been an educator. I think specific to co-teaching learning how to work with your co-teacher to instruct and assess is really important because those are very important to your classroom and will guide your day to day teaching. The benefits to receiving PD in the areas of assessments could be thinking of ways to organize and assess students with various needs. In the area of instruction, you and your co-teacher can work together to best instruct your students on various topics, share ideas and plan together. Working together with others can be hard sometimes, so I believe PD for co-teaching would be very beneficial.

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Danielle Burge:
I don’t personally co-teach, but I do have a full time classroom aid. She doesn't have any instructional, assessing, or planning responsibilities but more of just general support for the classroom teacher. None of the teachers in my building currently co-teach, but I do know some other educators that co-teach in their district. I sometimes hear about the “power struggle” between the co-teachers, as it’s hard for different personalities and experience levels to work together sometimes. I think it’d be really difficult and you’d have to set expectations for each other from the beginning so one isn’t doing more work or taking control of the classroom more than the other. A benefit that I can see coming from co-teaching is being able to bounce ideas and work together to best suit the needs of the students! I am always working closely or strategizing with the other pre-k teacher on things to do in my classroom so I think that'd be awesome to always have someone there to work with.