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I interviewed my teacher in my classroom.  She said collaboration is essential.  It is important for outside services such as Speech, OT, or program specialists, it allows for carryover strategies in the classroom and enhance progress on their IEP goals.  Consultation with outsides services or preschools is important because it allows to make sure everyone is on the same page, utilizing the same behavior strategies and working towards the same goals.  It also allows for ideas and suggestions where problems arise.

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15 years, wow, he should be a surprise GUEST speaker.........

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15 years, wow, he should be a surprise GUEST speaker.........

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I interviewed a family friend who has 20 years of teaching experience in kindergarten and many of those classes were inclusive. She does not have a co-teacher but at least one if not more paraprofessionals in the room. She collaborates with many of the other teachers and staff personnel in the school or consults with the IU that serves her school. She does this readily when there is any concern for a student. She is part of many IEP meetings and knows the importance of team work and roles for this function. She is also a coordinator of her SWPBP where she is consulting and collaborating in a school wide manner.

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I interviewed our Math teacher who I work with in the classroom as her IA. She been in Special Education for 35 years and will be retiring next year. Her thoughts on collaboration was to have all teachers involved to come up with a plan to deliver services to all students. She also said the consultation is working with a special ed teacher and a regular ed teacher on coming up with the best ways to provide Special Designed Instruction for students that have an IEP. She co-taught with another teacher and absolutely loved it, It was in a fifth grade classroom in Pleasant Valley School District where her and the other was copiloting the program of co-teaching.

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Kelly                                 I interviewed my friend who is a middle school art teacher. Her education philosophy supports cross curricular collaborations. She strongly believes in project-based learning and that students learn best when solving problems together. Both teachers and students should understand that learning does not happen in silos and by allowing for collaboration, students are able to share prior knowledge with each other. With regards to co-teaching, she believes that when teachers bring their ability to facilitate learning together, students are able to have more support for acquiring knowledge. She added that because co-teaching can allow for more exposure to one-on-one or small group guidance, it can help support growth. With consultant services, she acknowledges that IF services offered can directly benefit a teacher’s ability to integrate new programs/curriculum/technology seamlessly, they can be beneficial. Best practices are always worth sharing in the education field. She explained that she has had experiences where outside consultants are brought in that were uninspiring, irrelevant, and not a good match for the culture of the school. She suggests that administration should choose consultant services based on school needs and not the ability to flex that the district is able to check boxes.

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Kelly                                 I interviewed my friend who is a middle school art teacher. Her education philosophy supports cross curricular collaborations. She strongly believes in project-based learning and that students learn best when solving problems together. Both teachers and students should understand that learning does not happen in silos and by allowing for collaboration, students are able to share prior knowledge with each other. With regards to co-teaching, she believes that when teachers bring their ability to facilitate learning together, students are able to have more support for acquiring knowledge. She added that because co-teaching can allow for more exposure to one-on-one or small group guidance, it can help support growth. With consultant services, she acknowledges that IF services offered can directly benefit a teacher’s ability to integrate new programs/curriculum/technology seamlessly, they can be beneficial. Best practices are always worth sharing in the education field. She explained that she has had experiences where outside consultants are brought in that were uninspiring, irrelevant, and not a good match for the culture of the school. She suggests that administration should choose consultant services based on school needs and not the ability to flex that the district is able to check boxes.

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Hannah Sommer-I interviewed my mom who is a seventh grade guidance counselor.  In results to collaboration, she said that her and her team have team meetings every week.  This is where the teachers and counselor and administration bring up concerns regarding students behavioral, social/emotional, or academic difficulties.  She finds these meetings super useful and she wishes that their schedule allowed for these meetings to happen daily rather than just weekly but best practice as a middle school team, she feels, should meet every single day.  She often does not have time to email issues about information about kids so she finds this is a great way  to take these notes down and give it to teachers verbally.

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Hannah Sommer-I interviewed my mom who is a seventh grade guidance counselor.  In results to collaboration, she said that her and her team have team meetings every week.  This is where the teachers and counselor and administration bring up concerns regarding students behavioral, social/emotional, or academic difficulties.  She finds these meetings super useful and she wishes that their schedule allowed for these meetings to happen daily rather than just weekly but best practice as a middle school team, she feels, should meet every single day.  She often does not have time to email issues about information about kids so she finds this is a great way  to take these notes down and give it to teachers verbally.

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They also have a child study team which includes administration, counselors, school psychs, and school social worker and there is a SAP team which includes teachers, administration, counselors, school psychs, and the social worker.

As a counselor, she consults with school psychologist when a student is having academic struggles. They have already referred students for reading support and the teachers are providing interventions in the classroom in this case but said student is still not being successful.

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While interviewing my grade partner, he told me that he was uncertain what I meant with consultation services but had input on his perspectives of collaborative activities and co-teaching. He mentioned that he had limited experience with co-teaching but he viewed the practice favorably because he saw his students benefit from the different teaching styles of both himself and his co-teacher when had was part of a co-taught classroom a few years ago. He also mentioned that he knows some teachers who have had difficult experiences with co-teaching due to conflict over planning, teaching styles, and in one case, over who was in charge of the classroom. He also views collaborative activities as positive as long as they are applicable to his content area/grade level because you can always learn from others experiences but it can also be frustrating if you are participating in something that is geared towards elementary education when you are teaching at a middle school level. He also mentioned that it is frustrating when a meeting is something that “could be sent in an email” but overall, views collaborative activities as well as co-teaching, as beneficial practices for educators. 

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While interviewing my grade partner, he told me that he was uncertain what I meant with consultation services but had input on his perspectives of collaborative activities and co-teaching. He mentioned that he had limited experience with co-teaching but he viewed the practice favorably because he saw his students benefit from the different teaching styles of both himself and his co-teacher when had was part of a co-taught classroom a few years ago. He also mentioned that he knows some teachers who have had difficult experiences with co-teaching due to conflict over planning, teaching styles, and in one case, over who was in charge of the classroom. He also views collaborative activities as positive as long as they are applicable to his content area/grade level because you can always learn from others experiences but it can also be frustrating if you are participating in something that is geared towards elementary education when you are teaching at a middle school level. He also mentioned that it is frustrating when a meeting is something that “could be sent in an email” but overall, views collaborative activities as well as co-teaching, as beneficial practices for educators. 

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Brian

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I interviewed my sister, an elementary ed teacher. 

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I interviewed my sister, an elementary ed teacher. Her experience of collaborating with others within the school system can either be helpful or harmful. Helpful by sharing ideas, especially with using a lot of technology this year (Google slides, lesson plans.) Harmful because sometimes collaborating with people that might not be as knowledgeable about the curriculum as you need them to be, they are unable to assist your students with questions then. Her experiences with co-teacher was cool because she learned a lot from the other person and enjoyed sharing knowledge with her co-teacher. However, things might become a challenge when there are differences in behavior management within the same classroom. She was more strict than her co-teacher. This led to more behaviors from students co-teaching than when she had her own classroom.

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I interviewed my OT. For her consultation and collaboration is a way of life. She is working with many different teachers from many different buildings and a lot of families. Building trust is a key factor for her. She will need to try many different approaches in order to find what works best for the student. She will have to ask questions and try not offend staff. This will require working and building trust with the families, teaches, and other staff. Communication is another big part of her daily life. From email, to zoom meetings, phone calls, and in person she must navigate through a river of personalities, fears, egos, and attitudes in order to consult with staff and families.

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I interviewed my aunt who works in a special education learning center. She said that she and her co-teacher are constantly in communication about their day-to-day tasks and lessons in the classroom. She mentioned that before she was paired with another co-teacher that did not want to split responsibilities with her and it made it difficult to teach the class smoothly and effectively. She and the teacher that she is with now meet at least once a day to discuss lessons, teaching strategies, and planning for the next few days. She said that as a school they are fairly good at communicating and collaborating with one another. They share ideas that worked in class and share materials with other teachers within the school to help them with lessons as well. She shared that this has made her work life less stressful!

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I interviewed the teacher in my current ES k-2 partial hospitalization classroom. Regarding consultation services such as mental health, that it is helpful but can be difficult because these staff are not in the classroom on a daily basis and then at times want to change some of the interventions or programs. Often this happens regardless of the classroom staffs input. Regarding collaboration and co-teaching the main issue she has experienced is lack of time to meet and plan. She stated that in theory the ideas are good, but the time to do it successfully is usually not happen.

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I interviewed a few teachers from my school. Many of them had no trouble with collaborating, but rather found it essential to educational success. Being part of a team, like a faculty or a department, was highly favored and teachers typically enjoyed the collaboration and relationships they shared with their coworkers. On the other hand, many expressed that they found co-teaching very challenging. Although most admitted that the benefits of co-teaching outweighed the challenges, it did not go without saying that forming relationships and defined roles was more difficult than they had anticipated. Similarly, most co-teachers felt unprepared to co-teach a class.

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I interviewed a few teachers from my school. Many of them had no trouble with collaborating, but rather found it essential to educational success. Being part of a team, like a faculty or a department, was highly favored and teachers typically enjoyed the collaboration and relationships they shared with their coworkers. On the other hand, many expressed that they found co-teaching very challenging. Although most admitted that the benefits of co-teaching outweighed the challenges, it did not go without saying that forming relationships and defined roles was more difficult than they had anticipated. Similarly, most co-teachers felt unprepared to co-teach a class.

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I interviewed my mom, who is an SLP in an elementary school. She says consultation and collaboration is incredibly important as members of the IEP team to work together and learn from each other. She said "we all have our expertise and strengths that can be utilized in an effective manner." She also said that functional communication and implementing specially designed instruction, as part of the IEP, is important for the sake of consistency. Her experience with co-teaching has been performed with what she calls "Speech Club," where she implements speech and language skills to go along with a teacher's thematic unit in a life skills classroom, as well as a learning support class.

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I interviewed my husband who has been a special educator for almost 20 years with at least 15 of those years in a co-teaching capacity.  He is whole-heartedly in support of collaboration and co-teaching but stresses the importance of communication and delineation of roles. Additionally, school administrators need to provide sufficient prep and planning time for co-teachers to actually collaborate. His positive experiences were with colleagues who were open to the co-teaching model and welcomed his presence and collaboration in their classrooms. Negative experiences typically occurred when co-teachers were not willing participants in the process. Overall, he found co-teaching and collaboration to be a learning experience that evolved and progressed over time. As colleagues and school administration made adjustments based on what worked vs. what did not, the process became more efficient and beneficial for all.

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I interviewed my co teacher for this padlet. My co teacher agrees whole heartedly in the process of collaboration. She has been in her tole for 20 years and has seen first hand how quickly a classroom can degrade when no one is willing to listen as often as they speak.  She stated the most important thing to do at the end of the day is team; this really brings the image of what everyone wants the classroom to be into focus.

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I interviewed my co teacher for this padlet. My co teacher agrees whole heartedly in the process of collaboration. She has been in her tole for 20 years and has seen first hand how quickly a classroom can degrade when no one is willing to listen as often as they speak.  She stated the most important thing to do at the end of the day is team; this really brings the image of what everyone wants the classroom to be into focus.