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Experience and learning from others can be our best friends in terms of learning. Read Elizabeth's story to find out about some of her co-teaching trials and triumphs!

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Today I'm so pleased to welcome a special guest to the blog: instructional coach Elizabeth Stein, who is the creator of #coteachat and co-creator of #udlchat on Twitter. Elizabeth stops by today to bring you a different kind of co-teaching success story-one that's completely honest about the challenges you might encounter when a co-teacher puts up "invisible cement walls" between you. Her story is a testament to the power of persistence and optimism, and I think you'll enjoy her candor and the practical tips she shares from her personal experience.

Over to you, Elizabeth!

***

I could easily share an all-around happy-go-lucky successful co-teaching experience with you-but I won't. We all know what the traditional success story looks like. Two teachers who just make it work together, no matter what. It's the kind of success where two teachers have the respect, the ongoing communication, and the shared compassion to sustain positive learning experiences throughout the year. Those lucky students see what learning looks like and they know what successful learning feels like by participating in class every day.

When I reflect through my experiences to select one co-teaching success story, my mind naturally sifts through all recent and past inspirational and uplifting experiences. Of course many specific stories come to mind, and yet I keep returning to the experiences that were completely challenging and daunting. I keep returning to the stories that may not seem like a success at first glance. The process of sifting through to identify just one success story brought me to the awareness that each co-teaching experience has been a success. No kidding! How is that even possible, you ask?

It has become second nature for me to apply a more real-world, reframed definition of what success actually means. Typically, we think of a successful co-teaching experience as the one where students achieve and teachers co-plan, work together with parity, and collaborate in a respectful, consistent manner. I just keep thinking, Where does that leave all of the other realistic experiences? I just cannot think about all those memories as unsuccessful. My most challenging co-teaching experiences were, in fact, some of the most successful co-teaching experiences I encountered. Seriously! I learned so much about myself, all students, and my colleagues, and most important, I tapped into the ultra-innovative side of myself-the side that pushed through challenges to make sure students could have the opportunity to achieve to the best of their abilities. Through these challenging co-teaching successes, I learned how tenacious I am-and how, when I keep what is right for students as my guiding light, I can make any co-teaching experience a success.

I recall four students in this inclusive setting who were reading between three and four years below grade level. Yet, they were expected to come to class and engage in the learning. One of the students had a significant decoding weakness. The others read with strong decoding and fluency that far outpaced their ability to comprehend. They became anxious and withdrawn anytime comprehension was needed. And as you know, comprehension was needed most of the time!

My co-teacher and I had co-planning time (what a gift!). But don't get too excited, because here's what that looked like. This co-teacher would say, "Here are my plans" as the plan book was pushed across the table to me. I was then expected to either Xerox the pages or jot down what I needed. What a glorious choice! As for the instructional process, classtime consisted of us either taking turns or my co-teacher creating the territorial ground that left an invisible triple-layered cement wall between us. Any ideas I shared for incorporating strategies to guide each learner in the room, was met with the usual "This is the way I've always done it" or "We don't really have time for that." I felt like an uninvited, unwelcomed guest.

So how is this possibly a success story, you wonder? Because here's how I addressed it:

I planted seeds of Universal Design for Learning.

I continued to share ideas for strategies to include in the process of learning-like modeling .

I provided extra help to students before school, after school, and during their lunch period. The one student who had a significant decoding weakness came to me before school for explicit instruction with decoding and fluency.

I connected with students and parents through email to provide additional homework help as needed.

I did not wallow in frustration (at least never for too long!). I rechanneled all energy into doing what I could do for my students-and creating a relationship to whatever extent possible with my co-teacher.

I balanced my contributions with my co-teacher's unwillingness to collaborate. I shared ideas and then stepped back to see where the ideas would go. And in time, the co-teacher came around. Not in a perfect-world kind of way, but in a "let's do all we can-together-for our students" kind of way.

Okay, I won't lie. It was exhausting to have to spend time and energy knocking down invisible cement walls that were rebuilt by my co-teacher on a regular basis. But I pushed through this challenge. I focused on the positive aspects of my co-teacher and the situation. My bottom-line question each morning was, What can I do for and with my students today? And at the end of the day, What did our students accomplish today? What worked well? What did not-and what can I do to follow up?

I was always aware that I was an advocate for students. My voice and actions needed to guide students to strengthen their voice and actions. For example, they learned to embrace their personal gains. They stopped putting a strong emphasis on comparing their grades to those of their peers. They began to focus clearly on their personal commitments to learning-and this led to the start of closing personal achievement gaps.

Here are three tips on how to make any co-teaching experience a positive one:

1. Practice Resilience

Develop a relationship with your co-teacher. Practicing resilience is easy when co-teachers share a philosophy and are open-minded educators who enjoy sharing teaching space. If your co-teacher isn't the true collaborative type, that's fine, because you will always model collaborative, respectful, ongoing, problem-solving, solution-seeking views. This approach will either be contagious or assuage any nay-saying co-teaching partner. Resilience will empower you to stay on the track of positive learning and teaching-and giving the all students in your class all you've got!

2. Model the power of positivity

For resilience to take root, we need to experience positive emotions. And we are in charge of that! When we are mindful to exercise positive thoughts, we engage in the world with a positive outlook. Research supports that when we fill our thoughts with positive emotions, we see more possibilities and opportunities. Just think about how this can translate into any co-teaching situation.

3. Strive for collaboration and collective resilience

There's something to be said for never giving up. Embrace whatever the co-teaching situation is and always strive for shared solution-seeking conversations. Regardless of the personality or philosophical differences, you must come together for the students. If the relationship is seemingly beyond hope, return to how you view the situation. Focus on the positive aspects. Work directly with the students if a co-teaching partner is standoffish. You will be amazed at the success that unfolds!

***

Thanks to Elizabeth for being here today and sharing her tips for co-teaching success. She leaves us with these questions: How do you define success? And how do you make it a part of all of your co-teaching stories? Add your thoughts in the comments below!

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A Deeper Look into Co-Teaching Success: Guest Post by Elizabeth Stein

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Today I'm so pleased to welcome a special guest to the blog: instructional coach Elizabeth Stein , who is the creator of #coteachat and co-creator of #udlchat on Twitter. Elizabeth stops by today to bring you a different kind of co-teaching success story-one that's completely honest about the challenges you might encounter when a co-teacher puts up "invisible cement walls" between you.

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1. Equal authority among teachers
2. Share equal responsibility for teaching all students
3. Demonstrate equal status to students
4. During planning, teachers must play to their strengths
5. Alternate the leading of planning sessions
6. Work together to evaluate fair and challenging student outcomes
7. Teachers need to share, listen, and learn from each other in order for students to experience additional success

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1. One Teach, One Observe
One teacher delivers instruction while the other observes student learning and assesses student understanding

2. One Teach, One Assist
One teacher takes the lead in providing instruction while the other moves around the classroom and assists students who may be struggling

3. Station Teaching
Both teachers are actively involved in instruction and students rotate from one station to the next, learning new material

4. Alternative Teaching
One teacher takes a small group of students and provides instruction that is different than what the large group is receiving

Information gathered from http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2013/03/25/the-benefits-of-co-teaching-for-students-with-special-needs/

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1. Increased instructional ideas
2. Flexibility when grouping students
3. Lower student to teacher ratios
4. More differentiated instruction
5. Reduced stigma
6. Teachers will learn from each other

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When two teachers, a general educator and a special educator, come together to teach an inclusive class of diverse learners

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"Benigni started small—providing dedicated time each day for teachers to talk to each other, hoping to build trust that would support reinvention."

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When Mark Benigni took the reins as superintendent of Connecticut's Meriden Public Schools district in 2010, the central office was half empty-the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and personnel director had recently retired. While there was hope for change and innovation, there was no plan for how to get there.

"We were kind of being stale-doing the same thing over and over and wondering why the kids weren't buying in," Benigni said.

He could sense the teachers and students felt it too.

With a limited budget, Benigni started small-providing dedicated time each day for teachers to talk to each other, hoping to build trust that would support reinvention. But something bigger happened: Teachers started identifying and driving improvements across the district.

This shift away from top-down innovation made all the difference, Benigni said: "Collaboration is about recognizing that the best ideas don't always come from the superintendent's desk. Sometimes it comes from our students or our families, and many times it comes from a great teaching staff."

Taking direction from his staff, Benigni targeted key areas for investment: enhancing professional development for teachers and administrators; focusing on an individualized, student-centered teaching approach, backed by new one-to-one technology initiatives; and making an ongoing commitment to collaboration between administrators and teachers.

Today, the diverse 8,000-student district is humming with innovation. Throughout Meriden's 12 schools, teachers put students at the center of their instruction, directing them to take the lead in their learning process. One-to-one technology is available in most schools, and students are encouraged to use it anywhere to drive their learning. And staff are equipped to ensure that every child, regardless of needs and abilities, is empowered to achieve to his or her potential.

Meriden is seeing results. Suspensions are down 86 percent and expulsions are down more than 95 percent since 2011. Teachers report a more positive working environment district-wide. And in 2016, Meriden reported some of the highest test scores in its history, and was honored with a National School Board Association Magna Award and recognized as a District of Distinction by District Administration magazine.

With their safety goggles on and knowledge of chemistry in hand, twelfth-grade students in Brenda Parness's class at Maloney High School are working to identify six white mystery compounds. One student reminds her group to test whether the powdery substances are soluble and to check density and conductivity.

As they work, Parness moves around the room, listening to questions but providing minimal feedback. At the school, teachers take on the role of guides, encouraging students to think outside the box and become active problem solvers rather than passive note-takers.

The student-centered approach to instruction was identified during Meriden's teacher-to-teacher collaboration as a way to give students more "voice and choice" in their learning. While the shift hasn't been easy, it's helped increase student engagement and decrease time off task as students take more ownership of their work, according to teachers, including English language arts teacher Patrick Good.

"For 17 or 18 years, it was, 'What am I going to tell the kids today?' And now it's, 'What am I going to have the kids show me today?'" Good said of the new student-focused approach. "The person who is blown away by that is me."

"Once upon a time there was a castle," a first-grade student types on a Google Chromebook.

"Who lives in the castle?" prods one of two fifth-grade students who look on supportively during a lesson in the weekly "tech buddies" program at John Berry Elementary School.

The program, which pairs older and younger students for technological training, grew out of a need to improve students' skills after the school went one-to-one-part of Meriden's larger push to modernize teaching and learning district-wide after Benigni came on board.

In one session, fifth-grade students taught their first-grade buddies how to use Google Slides and learning apps like Padlet, Osmo, and myON to create interactive presentations on reptiles.

Partnering teachers meet once a week to plan sessions centered around what younger students need to learn to do independently. They say the program is empowering their students, improving confidence and social and emotional skills. Though the older students say teaching can be challenging, they also say it's worth it.

Walking into the "sensory room" at Hanover Elementary School, you may see a child being pushed in a large swing or crashing into soft floor mats. Another may hit a punching bag or test his or her balance on a walking path.

For students with autism in particular, the sensory room has become a safe space to get grounded and release emotions before they go back to class to learn.

In 2013, the school transformed the room as part of a larger effort to improve Meriden's special education services after Benigni realized that too many special needs students were being sent outside the district to get the care they needed. In Meriden, roughly 14 percent of the student body has an Individualized Education Program (IEP).

Students with autism attend daily 30-minute "sensory breaks" as well as a weekly physical therapy session, learning breathing exercises and calming movements that help them regulate behavior and emotions. According to teachers, the sensory room is the most important piece of their students' day, and has increased time on task and decreased negative behaviors.

"Research shows if the students are in the right mindset and they get their sensory needs met, they are going to be much better learners," said special education teacher Cheryl Cunningham. "After the sensory room, they're able to focus more and learn easier, and they retain more information."

Walking through Meriden's schools, it's hard to believe there was a time when the district was stuck in the past. The profound changes of the past several years are apparent to teachers and students alike.

It was new leadership-and the resulting shift to teacher-driven innovation-that made Meriden's reinvention possible, according to one principal, who says educators now feel confident about sharing their thoughts and trying new things.

"Leadership is about making people comfortable to take risks," said Benigni, who was recognized as a Leader to Learn From by Education Week. "If you're not willing to fail, you're never going to be innovative, and you're not going to be as successful as you should be."

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Want to Improve a District? Let Teachers Collaborate

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When Mark Benigni took the reins as superintendent of Connecticut's Meriden Public Schools district in 2010, the central office was half empty-the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and personnel director had recently retired. While there was hope for change and innovation, there was no plan for how to get there.

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Helpful Hints for Successful Co-Teaching

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Helpful Hints for Successful Co-Teaching

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Nose to the grindstone, I prepared for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday -- what to teach, what to test, and how to learn. I gave it my best shot, alone. I was the only Spanish teacher. What did I have to say to teachers of other disciplines? Other than collegial greetings, I did not seek them out. How stupid could I have been! I should have taken the time and effort to collaborate! How stupid could I have been! I should have taken the time and effort to collaborate!

I remember feeling so frustrated about classroom discipline that I had decided to teach college instead of high school. My teaching career began in the tiny town of Patagonia, Arizona. Looking back, I had an ideal situation: class sizes of no more than 15 students, in a small community where everyone knows everyone, and a four-day work week! I now wonder how different things would have been if I had taken the initiative and sought advice, wisdom, and assistance from the other experienced teachers.

Nope, I was intent on saving the world by myself. What did I need from my fellow teachers?

A lot of help! What did they need from me? Being a newbie, I couldn't really share pedagogy, but what they could have used to their benefit was my eagerness, energy, and enthusiasm.

Avoiding Teacher Isolation

Perhaps I am an extreme example of what not to do, but I have witnessed a general sense that teachers, when it comes to their performance in the classroom, tend to stick to themselves. This could be because of self-consciousness or embarrassment, but the attitude of professional privacy is not conducive to professional development. I was lucky to have a mentor in my next school that knew what teaching was all about. He would actually seek me out, ask me for advice and would share what he was working on in his classroom. I felt comfortable doing the same with him. I learned a lot from him. I could have learned even more if I had realized how much my professional development depended on effective teacher collaboration.

Personal Steps to Effective Collaboration

If I had it to do again, this is what I would do to get the most out of my formal and informal collaborations with other teachers:

Build relationships

Observe the best

Ask questions

Share

Come prepared

First of all, I would get to know them and not wait for them to get to know me. Even though I might be overwhelmed with paperwork, planning and preparing, I need to be with other teachers, not by myself. I must seek them out, spend time with them, help them, and build relationships. One of the benefits of this is that rather than simply having the other teachers know me as the "new guy," or the "weird guy," they will know my name and consider me a colleague.

Secondly, I would observe as many teachers as possible, and seek out the ones that I would like to emulate, regardless of the academic discipline in which they teach. I would arrange to visit teachers on my conference periods to watch them and see how they go about the business of teaching and learning, looking for things that I could use. Afterward, it would be beneficial to ask them questions about how to imitate what I saw, though care must be taken to not be inquisitorial, or judgmental.

Thirdly, I would develop a list of "how to" and "why for" questions regarding student data, instruction, discipline, etc. that I would ask these colleagues on my own. In those cases where I am lucky enough to have formal opportunities to collaborate, I would bring my list of questions pertinent to the agenda in order to pick the groups' collective brain for answers.

Fourthly, rather than wracking my brain for answers that others have already solved, I would share my frustrations, with these colleagues and get the answers I need quickly so I can go on to other important matters. In my informal meetings with teacher colleagues and in the formal "collaboration" meetings, I must be prepared to share what I have learned. Though my idea may not be 100 percent useful, it may spark other ideas from which the other teachers may synthesize even more powerful ideas. Common lesson planning is powerful especially when combined with common assessments, but even if all I do is share them with a colleague, I find that they always have a suggestion for improvement and can save me embarrassment and frustration by correcting mistakes in content or judgment.

Preparation is Key

Finally, and especially in formal collaboration meetings, but not solely, I would have to be prepared. What I mean by this is that one of the reasons that schools do not improve as fast as we would like them to is that when teachers get together for a purpose, rarely has research been done by the teachers, neither have ideas been mapped out prior to the meeting. So everyone in the meeting is flat-footed, and in the course of the short meeting, they are expected to come up with some grandiose solution from the top of their heads.

I remember spending a summer doing this for "restructuring" and the best that 100 educators could come up with were portfolios and an advisory period! So, for formal meetings, I would look at the agenda and do some thinking and research so I have some valuable things to share.

My experience has been that my preparation sparks much deeper conversation, more complete answers and better solutions. For informal collaborations, before I attempted to try out any new idea, I would ask one of my esteemed colleagues what they thought of it. In terms of assessments, the easiest way to improve the validity of the assessment is to have a colleague or group of colleagues review it. Of course, this assumes that I am on the ball enough to have prepared my assessment before I begin instruction (Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins of Understanding By Design would be proud).

What does this add up to? Teachers must take the bull by horns, and be deliberate in how we collaborate (i.e. work together in the business of teaching and learning). Michael Fullan, author of Change Forces, states emphatically that every teacher "...must be a change agent." The skills of individual and collective inquiry, as well as moral resolve that Fullan refers to do not come from the administration, they have to come from the true instructional leaders of the school: the teachers.

What have you found works best to get the most out of collaborating with other teachers?

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Making the Most Out of Teacher Collaboration

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Blogger Ben Johnson stresses the importance of collaboration and offer strategies for teachers working together.

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"I am positive many of my students would not experience the success they've been able to experience without having my co-teacher in the room." - Licking Heights Middle School Math Teacher

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Does your staff need Co-Teaching training ? The K-12 Teachers Alliance can help you plan your in-service professional development at no additional cost.

With inclusion on the rise, teachers are sharing classrooms more than ever and becoming an effective co-teaching partner is a teaching essential. With the onset of a new school year right around the corner, meanwhile, it's imperative to begin devising and building positive co-teaching strategies.

A co-teaching team typically includes a general and a special educator who teach the general education curriculum to all students as well as implement Individual Education Programs (IEPs) for students with disabilities. Both educators on the co-teaching team are responsible for differentiating the instructional planning and delivery, assessment of student achievement, and classroom management.

Several collaborative teaching approaches have proven to be successful to guide educators who work together in co-teaching partnerships to differentiate instruction. The approaches include:

1. Supportive Co-teaching - where the one member of the team takes the lead role and the other member rotates among students to provide support

2. Parallel Co-teaching - where support personnel and the classroom teacher instruct different heterogeneous groups of students

3. Complementary Co-teaching - where a member of the co-teaching team does something to supplement or complement the instruction provided by the other member of the team (e.g., models note taking on a transparency, paraphrases the other co-teacher's statements)

4. Team Teaching - where the members of the team co-teach along side one another and share responsibility for planning, teaching, and assessing the progress of all students in the class.

Some co-teaching approaches (e.g., complementary and team teaching) require greater commitment to, comfort with, and skill in collaborative planning and role release (i.e., transferring one's specialized instructional responsibilities over to someone else). It is recommended that collaborative teams select among the co-teaching approaches, as needed, based up the curriculum demands of a unit or lesson and student learning characteristics, needs, and interests.

When deciding which approach to use in a given lesson, the goal always is to improve the educational outcomes of students through the selected co-teaching strategies. Many beginning co-teachers start with supportive teaching and parallel teaching because these approaches involve less structured coordination among the co-teaching team members. As co-teaching skills and relationships strengthen, co-teachers then venture into the complementary teaching and team teaching approaches that require more time, coordination, and knowledge of and trust in one another's skills.

Co-Teaching Strategies Chart

Two or more co-teachers in the classroom.

Capitalizes on specific strengths & expertise of co-teachers.

Provides greater teacher/student ratio and brings additional 1-1 support for students in the classroom.

All approaches have benefits and cautions associated with their use.

Students are heterogeneously grouped by mixed abilities and interests.

Shared responsibilities.

Requires trust, communication, planning time, and coordination of effort.

(Note: The need for all of these elements increases as you move from supportive to parallel, parallel to complementary, and complementary to team teaching co-teaching.)

Co-teachers work with different groups of students in the same room. (There are numerous different options for arranging the groups.)

One co-teacher may pre-teach specific study or social skills and monitors students' use of them; the other co- teacher teaches the academic content.

Additional Co-Teaching References

Villa, R. Thousand, J., & Nevin, A. (in process). More students, More Resources: Unleashing the Power of Students in Instruction, Advocacy, & Decision-Making. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Pres.

Nevin, A., Villa, R., & Thousand, J. (2009). A Guide to Co-Teaching with Paraeducators Practical Tips for K-12 Educators. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Pres. (800) 818- 7243

Villa, R. Thousand, J., & Nevin, A. (2008). A Guide to Co-Teaching: Practical Tips for Facilitating Student Learning (2nd. Ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Pres. (800) 818- 7243

Villa, R. Thousand, J., & Nevin, A. (2008). Co-Teaching: A Multimedia Kit For Professional Development.? Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Pres. (800) 818- 7243

Villa, R., Thousand, J., & Nevin, A. (2008). Co-Teaching at a Glance. A laminated Tri-Fold Reference Guide. Port Chester, NY: National Professional Resources. (800) 453- 746

Thousand, J., & Villa, R., & Nevin, A. (2007). ?Differentiated Instruction: A Multimedia Kit for Differentiated Instruction. California: Corwin Press (800) 818- 7423

Thousand, J., & Villa, R., & Nevin, A. (2007). ?Differentiated Instruction: Collaborative Planning & Teaching for Universally Designed ?Lessons. California: Corwin Press (800) 818- 7423

Villa R., & Thousand. J., (Eds). (2005). Creating an Inclusive School. ?Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (800) 933- 2723.

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Does your staff need Co-Teaching training ? The K-12 Teachers Alliance can help you plan your in-service professional development at no additional cost. With inclusion on the rise, teachers are sharing classrooms more than ever and becoming an effective co-teaching partner is a teaching essential.