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Effective Communication is more than an exchange of information; it requires being an engaged listener, clearly conveying and receiving information, and following through.
Common barriers to effective communication are:
-stress and emotions
-lack of focus
-inconsistent or negative body language

When communicating with other teachers it is important to be present in the moment; not thinking about other problems that need to be solved, not looking at our phones or computers unless it is relative to the conversation and approaching conversations with open body language (no crossed arms, make eye contact, body facing speaker).

Being an engaged listener:
-focus fully on the speaker
-avoid interrupting
-set aside judgement
-open body language
-provide detailed feedback, tuning into emotion and convey understanding

Being an effective speaker:
-make eye contact
-speak clearly
-try to stick to 1 or 2 main points
-wrap up with a summary of time sensitive information if conversation is long

In a successful collaboration with other teachers, it is important to respond in a timely manner, and to be respectful of the other person's time, experience, and teaching style.  Remember that you never know what someone else is going through or has been through, and it is important to keep our own anxiety and stresses from disrupting a successful working relationship. Take a deep breath or a long pause if you get triggered, accept compromise, and sometimes you may need to agree to disagree.

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Tracking and sharing data is essential for collaboration throughout the special education process, from the pre-referral process and the IEP meeting to the application and tracking of interventions.

Pre-Referral and Referral Process

Data gathered by general education teachers (both homeroom and special subject teachers) are vital to the special education referral process. They have access to past work done by students, previous grades,  and information on classroom behavior. They will also have information on how the student compares to their peer group in these areas. All of this is needed when making intervention decisions.

IEPs and Interventions

When an IEP is written, it's important that goals are written so that those goal are measurable. This allow data to be collected and progress accurately measured. Special educators  can record their progress monitoring  on set templates and store them on shared computer drives. This allows supervisors and other educators to have timely access to new data.

Tracking data during interventions allow teachers to determine whether chosen interventions are effective. This also allows special education teachers to  determine whether intervention are being implemented with fidelity, which allows the intervention/IEP team determine why interventions may not be working.

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Delegating in the classroom is so important.
-Choose the right person for the job.
- Explain why you are delegating.
- Provide the right instructions.
- Provide resources and training.
- Delegate responsibility "and" authority.
- Check the work and provide feedback.

Why Is It Important to Delegate?
As the lead teacher, delegating is important because I can't-and-shouldn't-do everything myself. By delegating the work empowers my team, builds trust, and assists with professional development. As the lead teacher, it frees me up to devote more time to my students, it helps me to learn and identify who is best suited for the tasks.  It also helps me to not bombard myself with excessive tasks.

My co-teacher and I share tasks. I teach the lessons, prepare lesson plans, assists the students, write IEP's, attend teacher meetings, complete progress reports, clean my room at the end of the day. My co-teacher takes the daily attendance, prepare point sheets for behavior/classwork, bathroom breaks, walking breaks for students, and assist the students with classwork.  I have 3 classroom aides that are assigned to a student that work with one-on-one.  My aides may also assist other students when needed.

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www.meistertask.com/blog/delegate-tasks-effectively/

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Multiple studies indicate that there is a significant gap in the perspectives of general education and special education teachers, particularly in the area of inclusive education, wherein general education teachers tend to have a much less positive point of view. Differing philosophies have often been cited as underlying this divergence in perspectives, resulting in general education teachers preferring separate classrooms for special needs students.

Furthermore, there is often a lack of clarity and consensus on the nature of the different roles, general versus special educators, and how best to implement inclusion.

For this reason, it has been argued that more professional development is necessary to facilitate better cooperation and collaboration, the skills necessary to do so, and to provide clarity on the nature of the roles and goals best suited for implementing inclusive education.

Additionally, especially with regards to high prevalence learning disorders relating to for example autism, a lack of training and indeed even understanding of the nature of such issues underlies much of the reticence general education teachers display towards inclusion.

It is not necessary that general educaiton teachers possess the full knowledge base or panoply of methods and techniques that a special education teacher possesses, but it is clear that teacher training is insufficient on the matter of collaboration with special education teachers, with understanding of the benefits of inclusion, and with knowledge of the most common learning disabilities, their natures and manifestations. Here, it is clear that additional professional development is necessary to bring perspectives into alignment and foster the collaboration and cooperation necessary to best serve our special needs students.

References:

Alabdallat, Basam & Alkhamra, Hatem & Alkhamra, Rana. (2021). Special Education and General Education Teacher Perceptions of Collaborative Teaching Responsibilities and Attitudes Towards an Inclusive Environment in Jordan. Frontiers in Education. 6. 10.3389/feduc.2021.739384.

Able, H., Sreckovic, M. A., Schultz, T. R., Garwood, J. D., and Sherman, J. (2015). Views from the Trenches. Teach. Edu. Spec. Edu. 38 (1), 44–57. doi:10.1177/0888406414558096

Chitiyo, J. (2017). Challenges to the Use of Co-teaching by Teachers. Int. J. whole schooling 13 (3), 55–66.

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Co-Teaching Models- Co-teaching is a collaborative approach to instruction in which two teachers, typically a general education teacher and a special education teacher, work together to plan and then implement instruction for a class that includes students with disabilities. Studies have shown that co-teaching can successfully meet the needs of all learners when the co-teachers build a trusting relationship, collaborate and plan.There are six basic models of co-teaching.

1. Team teaching
In team teaching, both teachers are in the room at the same time but take turns teaching the whole class. Both teachers provide an active instructional role, allows for lessons to be presented by two different people with two different teaching styles, and it models collaboration to students. However, this model can be challenging if the two teachers have not build trust or planning time.

2. Parallel teaching
In parallel teaching, the class is split into two groups and each teacher teaches the same information at the same time. This gives both teachers an active instructional role, lowers the student-teacher ratio, allows for small group instruction, gives students the chance to ask more questions and work in groups. However, this model can be challenging if both teachers do not have strong knowledge of the content, controlling the noise, and careful timing to ensure both teachers end the lesson at the same time.

3. Station teaching
In station teaching, the class is divided into three or more groups and the classroom has multiple learning centers. Students rotate through the stations and the teachers teach the same material in different ways to each group. This model allows both teachers to have an active instructional role, allows teachers to use flexible grouping to trailer teaching to each groups' needs, lower student-teacher ratio, resets student focus with each station rotation, and provides time for students to engage with the content. However, this model can be challenging if the teachers are not prepared with planning and materials, students may not get to all the stations, and requires setting expectations to students beforehand.

4. Alternative teaching
Alternative teaching is when one teacher instructs most of the time while the other teacher teaches an alternate or modified version of the lesson to a smaller group of students. This model provides additional support to struggling students without singling them out, and gives a chance to re-teach, review, and pre-teach. This model can be challenging if students are not grouped appropriately, students may feel self-conscious if they are often in small group, and careful planning is needed so students are not missing being in large group.

5. One teach, one assist
In this model, one teacher teaches a full group lesson while the other teacher roams and helps individual students. This model allows one teacher to teach a lesson without interruption from students who need assistance, gives real-time help for students who need it, allows teachers to keep students on task, and provides any opportunity for newer teachers to observe more experienced teachers. This model can be challenging because students may see one teacher who corrects the behavior, one teacher may appear more in charge, and requires planning so supporting teacher is used efficiently.

6. One teach, one observe
In this model, one teacher serves as the primary instructor while the other teacher is simply observing students' learning and collecting data. This model helps provide data that can inform future instruction, interventions, and student grouping. This can be challenging and create a dynamic in which students see one teacher as the "real" teacher and loses instructional opportunities in a true co-taught classroom.