A primary school teacher’s experience of teacher collaboration by EUN Partnership aisbl

Renata, Croatia

renata_pintar — 2017-10-16 12:47:09 UTC

I like the idea.
Students can spend more time with the teachers and get more individual attention. And with more than one teacher, it’s easier to teach students in smaller groups or one-on-one.

Students have the opportunity to learn from two teachers who may have different teaching styles, ideas, perspectives and experience.
The only problem I can see is if teachers disagree about how to grade students or how to teach a certain topic.

Paulo, Portugal

2017-10-16 12:48:24 UTC

Colaborative work in primary school.
Students from primary and secondary school.
Roboticsand primary teachers

Paolo, Italy

gava_paolo — 2017-10-16 13:00:20 UTC

The "co-teaching rotation" collaboration model is a very interesting approach that I have experienced a few times in my teaching especially with some of my colleagues (History and Philosophy). I agree with the need for teachers to be able to bring their best skills and practices to the team while remaining flexible in adapting them if others suggest better ways to work. In my experience, constant confrontation with colleagues was very significant in understanding the difficulties and even some mistakes, thus overcoming obstacles and creating a collaborative and efficient working group.

Işıl , Turkey

2017-10-16 13:07:35 UTC

Yes coteaching is very interesting. I have done some collaborative works but i didnt try co teaching.

Soni,Albania

sonila — 2017-10-16 13:13:24 UTC

I love the change that these teachers have made to improve their teaching ways.Though I have never taught to kids of this age (and sorry to say first time I hear about this way of collaboration between teachers),I love the way it comes out as a result.I believe that kids learn to collaborate better when they say their own teacher being an example to them.
I think that difficulties may arise while assessing kids or even in the way of approaching a certain topic by each of the teachers involved.

Maria Luisa,Genova, Italy

marialuisa_borr — 2017-10-16 13:17:17 UTC

I think that the "co-teaching rotation ", collaboration model, mentioned by Valentina, is very interesting.
I have experienced a few times in my teaching, exepecially with resources teachers.
Students can spend more times with the teachers and get more individual attention.

Emma, Italy

emmaabb — 2017-10-16 13:28:29 UTC

I did not the Lead, Observe, Assist to Teach and Reteach,

Simultaneous and Supplemental Teaching.

mentioned by valentina maybe because I teach in a secondary school and the lesson are all in the morning (except some extracurricular activities in the afternoon). Like valentina, I ve experienced Erasmus + and Etwinning projects with teachers all over Europe: I think that cloud computing 8for example Dropbox) and social networks make the colaborative work within Erasmus projects easy and possible. About using ICT for colaborative working aims in transnational project managment I would like to give you the link of my presentation last firday in Movee Conference in naples ttps://www.slideshare.net/EmmaAbbate/presentazione-move-me-coonference

Amelia De Chiara, Italy

amelia_dechiara — 2017-10-16 13:56:41 UTC

I've never experienced the "co-teaching rotation" but I've experienced eTwinning projects with italian and european colleagues. I use to work at these projects working with my school colleagues: we put together ideas, experiences, we cooperate in any aspect of the project. But, according to my experience, it's not always easy to find teachers that want to work in collaboration: there's always someone who says "I'm not interested"....

Raffaella, Italy

raffaella_pierleoni — 2017-10-16 13:57:20 UTC

Antonietta, Italy

miaaba — 2017-10-16 14:06:12 UTC

I think "co-teaching rotation" collaboration model could be useful in fostering collaboration among teachers. To me it's a good approacheven if I have never experienced it. But I also believe it needs a high level of flexibility among techers composing the team, they should share goals.

I believe there is much sense and knowledge in collaboration teaching. As Valentina said earlier on, teaching collaboratively is the best strategy that even less burdens the teacher class management and also it helps to assist the slow learner to be attended to as the co- teacher will be able to help in identifying those student so that, after the lessons teachers will again sit together and plan what would best help the student. BUT MOST importantly, it increases man power in the class as well.

2017-10-16 14:08:31 UTC

Monica

monica_donato2 — 2017-10-16 14:12:57 UTC

I think that it would be very useful for student learning.
I agree with this consideration : "In this way, teachers continue to grow in their professional skills and students gain understanding from a variety of instructional approaches." But Collaborative teachers have to spend time before and after school to coordinate their efforts!

Nadya, Bulgaria

innovator68 — 2017-10-16 14:28:16 UTC

I hink that co-teaching is a great way of collaboration and I have tried it with students from the university and hope one day to be possible for school budget... It is very useful especially in a big classes, withmore than 20 students. Teacher's constarctive criticism is usual motivative!

Lisa, Scotland

lisa131 — 2017-10-16 14:36:40 UTC

It sounds like a useful model but I can understand what she says about some teachers being quite 'protective' of their own pedagogical approach and time constraints. However, the main goal for all teachers should be to enhance the learning of the students and so I think if it achieves this it is worth the effort!

Olgica, Macedonia

2017-10-16 14:39:04 UTC

Co-teaching rotation is very interesting.It is very useful in a every classes and for student learning.

Stanley,Nigeria

stanonyedika — 2017-10-16 15:06:03 UTC

Co-teaching is a good idea in collaboration .I have not tried it but the concept is good because it maximizes the effort of two or more experts.Being open to adapt new and better methods and receiving constructive criticism with calmness is a fine way to be a better teacher

Marie-Hélène, france

mhfasquel — 2017-10-16 15:15:11 UTC

It sounds GREAT!

Paola, Italy

paoladoremi — 2017-10-16 15:20:07 UTC

In the Italian Primary School there are some hours (now very little, but some years ago there were 4-5 hours for class) when 2 teachers are in the same class and work together . In these hours you can work together in the classroom by offering study material, group work. The presence of its teachers allows to organize activities by level. When you are together with another teacher you can observe the teaching practice by giving advice and developing greater skills. To work collaboratively it is important to be able to plan activities together

Maurizio, Napoli, Italia

maurizio_scialdone — 2017-10-16 15:25:28 UTC

I've no ideas, 'cause i'm a secondary school teacher, so i'm not able to understand so young child education.
Like Marie-Helene says, it sounds great

Florbela, Portugal

2017-10-16 15:40:22 UTC

My collaborative teaching experience boils down to some short-term projects, challenges launched by the city council and the school libraries network. With two or more teachers of different disciplines, we plan and develop activities together. The activities were developed by several teachers and the teacher librarian, and take place in the classroom and in the library, to promote information literacy e media literacy. Although these experiences was very positive, we were unable to continue them and extend them to other teachers. Some people still think they may spend more work time in meeting and achieve no better results. I agree with Vasil that there are many benefits of co-teaching if we find time to connect with colleagues, remain open to new ideas, suggests and approchs, share thoughts and provide support.

Fionnuala, Ireland

fionnualalir — 2017-10-16 15:49:14 UTC

I have not had the experience of co - teaching rotation . It is certainly something I would like to try although finding time to plan may be a difficult. We do have a common plan an meet to agree on common time plans, content and strategies. Team -teaching is an area I would like to explore.

Ana,Romania

iancumat — 2017-10-16 15:50:40 UTC

co-teaching rotation, collaboration model is very interesting and great experience.

MARIA ,ITALY

2017-10-16 16:10:28 UTC

it is a very interesting model, but in my school (a secondary high school)it is very difficult to achieve, for practical reasons: the sillabus should be reworked and school timetable as well. Are our colleagues all available?

Linda, Italy

LindaGiannini — 2017-10-16 16:12:51 UTC

yes, I agree
I've this experiences (for exemple):
- eTwinning
- xplora
- prema

jesús from Spain What I can say about the coteaching experience in my school so far is not done , what we have done is work together with some individual colleague that comes into the class to take care of those students that have some difficulties to carry on with the official curriculum , but I have seen some cases in which two teachers work together in the same class doing a complementary task from the subject tought . So I wont say that in my case collaborative teaching has being done , but I Keep wating to do it in the near future.

catulosade — 2017-10-16 16:46:09 UTC

Henry, Ireland

henryhurley — 2017-10-16 17:21:55 UTC

This is something I have been involved in before. It is a very useful method of teacher collaboration but must team based

Anna Maria Mulliri, Italy

morganita — 2017-10-16 17:42:54 UTC

I have never had experience of “co-teaching rotation”, a very interesting approach, and I found interesting when she says: ”We became a good team and achieved great results. As a result, our relationship with the children changed - they became more united, started organizing games on their own and helped each other.” Therefore, teachers’ good practices were a good imprinting for children.

I agree with Valentina about sharing practices and showing best practices though it’s not easy finding time to meet colleagues after schools apart from institutional meetings.

Nevertheless, I have experienced collaborative designing lesson plans and though it mainly deals with theory, I can say that the more open minded and willing to accept suggestions you are, the better you are at improving and innovating. Constructive criticism is always necessary to manage the change that is inevitable.

Daniela L. - Italy

daria_roni — 2017-10-16 17:48:51 UTC

Last year for the first time in my high school I worked in two different classes (a first year and a second year) using the co-teaching rotation model with two different colleagues. It was a new experience but we put a co-teaching partnership into practice using a variety of methods.

1- One Teach, one Observe or One Teach, one Drift

In this model, one of us instructed while the other observed students to identify issues and assessed their performance. This method allowed the observing teacher to provide feedback on which content and activities were most effective for students, allowing us to continually improve our practice and best meet the needs of all students in the classroom. In the other way while one teacher was instructing the classroom, the second teacher provided additional assistance and support to students as needed.

2- Station Teaching

With station teaching, the lesson was divided into segments as the teachers each instructed part of the lesson at independent stations or rotated between groups of students. This allowed us to provide specialized support when delivering content in areas we might have more expertise in, or if our style better fitted a certain part of a lesson.

3- Parallel Teaching

Sometimes we divided the class into two groups and instructed each group with the same content simultaneously. In this arrangement, the smaller groups allowed closer supervision and more opportunities for interaction between the students and teacher.

4- Alternate Teaching

Sometimes one teacher handled a larger group, while the other taught a small group who needed specialized attention and additional supports.

It was a success at the end of the year because none of the students had the debit of the English subject to be repaired on September.

Cristina, Romania

2017-10-16 17:54:48 UTC

When I was kindergarten teacher was to be working in step-by-step alternative, and I had a teacher aid. I remember that I collaborate very well with my aid, essential condition for teaching

Palma, kindergarten teacher, from Spain

palmagarciahn — 2017-10-16 18:14:25 UTC

In my case, a teacher works with children who have difficulties in certain areas.
Once a month we visit each other in different activities and we meet to evaluate that training and how we can improve.
Example: I want to see the teacher of four years working on problem solving

Carlo Italy

carlogino — 2017-10-16 18:46:45 UTC

Yes, I agree with my classroom experiences:
- eTwinning
- xplora

Irina, Russia

irina_golosova2 — 2017-10-16 18:48:54 UTC

I have never had experience of “co-teaching rotation”. I do agree that successful teacher collaboration begins with finding time to connect with colleagues, remaining open, sharing thoughts, and being ready to provide support. But in fact with my schedule it`s really difficult to find even a couple of hours to collaborate with my colleagues. Some of them are not ready to leave their "comfort zone" of individual pedagogical aproach. But I`m lucky to have a collegue who became even my fried in teaching for me. Elenf supports me, we shares ideas and peer review our lessons, articles, different activities.

Sean, Ireland

2017-10-16 19:06:40 UTC

I was involved in Team Teaching last year with a second year PME student. In Ireland the programme was called Team Teaching, here on this course known as Collaborative Teaching. there are a number of models in relation to Collaborative Teaching. The One shown in the video is the one I like using, where both Teachers are equally involved in the process. There are somethings that need to be considered, 1. Time for Planning, 2. Reflection/reviews of your class and performance
3. Comfortable with the Colleague and the Methodologies you both use in class, 4. Making your class active for the students learning.

Daniela, Italy

gea68_dp — 2017-10-16 19:09:00 UTC

I never was involved in Team Teaching. It can be a good idea

Manuela, Portugal

mmanuelavieira — 2017-10-16 19:17:59 UTC

I do agree in "Co-teaching" because it is a very interesting aproach. In my school in some classes we work like that. But, I must say that some of the colleages are not ready or in the mood of that kind of work. So we keep on going to promote teacher collaboration.

Irini, Greece

ikassotaki — 2017-10-16 19:23:55 UTC

In the past, I collaborated with some of my colleagues in an extra-core curriculum lesson, based on group and project-like activities. The experience was really interesting- working with teachers of different subjects and teaching styles- but it was really difficult for me and for my colleagues to undertake equal roles and responsibilities. Also, as Valentina referred in the video, you need to spend extra time with your colleagues to coordinate your efforts. In the question, how we might convince colleagues of the importance of teacher collaboration, one possible answer could be that the results of this collaboration sometimes are obvious, for teachers and students. Usually, the result of such a work has an impact not only in school and in students but also in students' family and the local community (i.e. etwinning or an Erasmus+ project).

Gaida, Estonia

2017-10-16 19:32:56 UTC

I haven`t tried Team teaching.

Katerina Papadia, Greece

aikat_papadia — 2017-10-16 19:34:46 UTC

I found interesting and useful the approach Valentina mentioned. In my experience when I worked with an english teacher in an E-twinning project we had a wonderful collaboration. I also believe that collaboration beetween teachers requires flexibility and acceptance. As an e -twinner I am taking into account my partner's view and constructive criticisms and thats why I am getting more and more profesional skills

Despoina Amarantidou, Greece

damarant — 2017-10-16 19:38:37 UTC

I have experienced Team teaching through eTwinning projects and Learning Events. It is an experience through which partners exchange and share ideas.

Nasser, Morocco,

nasqalli — 2017-10-16 19:44:58 UTC

I agree with Valentina, but the most important point is that both teachers need to have enough time to prepare the collaborative way to reach their aim.

Maria Rosaria, Ital

tafymar — 2017-10-16 19:55:52 UTC

I totally agree with Valentina,I've experienced twinning project, where collaboration is essential to reach the learning goals

Beate, Germany

2017-10-16 20:33:12 UTC

Valentina's 'co-teaching rotation' model seems very effective for pupils, particularly so since teachers have divided their tasks in simultaneous and supplemental teaching. At our school team teaching is not a practice, for supplemental teaching we have outside experts, but only for kids with special needs. My experience of collaboration with colleagues is also positive as regards project work, yet hardly ever do we collaborate in class together or prepare something together. Constuctive criticism of colleagues can only be beneficial both, for one's professional growth, but also - and more importantly - for pupils.

Tânia Serrão, Portugal

taniaserraogomes — 2017-10-16 20:55:21 UTC

The idea of the colleague is quite interesting. In order for the system that the colleague uses to function, two teachers are needed. Did I get it? I've worked in partnership with another teacher in a very complicated class. Our partnership went well and we learned many things together. Of course, when we work collaboratively there is a strong likelihood that everyone will improve their performance. However, I can not fail to express my concern in this matter, since, at least in my country, teachers do not feel that their work is recognized and sometimes it is difficult to find anyone who wants to work, as portuguese saying goes, "Por amor à camisola", meaning without being paid.

Ana, Portugal

anaccflores — 2017-10-16 21:09:46 UTC

I agree with Valentina. Last year I had Co-Teaching experiences with other colleagues, from the same discipline and from different disciplines. I participated in Erasmus +. These were experiences that went very well, were very beneficial for both teachers and students. But not all schools are easy to implement experiences, there are still many teachers who are reluctant to cooperate on such projects.

Luli, Italy

2017-10-16 21:11:31 UTC

I've never had any experience of co-teaching rotation collaboration model, nor of any other co-teaching methods. Actually I still am a very traditional teacher, who works basically on her class work book, even if lately I have been studying and listening to other teachers' experiences in every kind of innovative teaching idea I have heard of. I sure am flexible if (or better say WHEN, as it often happens) I get suggestions that I think can improve my way of teaching. I am eager to learn from evryone that has good ideas!

Carmen

carmenvoinea08 — 2017-10-17 01:25:26 UTC

I am not a traditional teacher. I like to experience, so I had a co teaching rotation collaboration before

Adriana Colda, Romania

adriana_colda — 2017-10-17 06:22:02 UTC

I experienced "co-teaching rotation" and it was challenging, but I can say I learned a lot in these 2 years of this kind of practice. I was lucky to met a wonderful teacher ready to collaborate and we had a good time.

Claudia, Italy 👏

claudietta_ciucci — 2017-10-17 06:27:08 UTC

This experience I like very much, I would also like to try. I did some experiences with 10-year-olds, but always on their own. This course is telling me how good the collaborative approach in teams is. My school still has a traditional look.

Isabella, Italy

2017-10-17 08:37:05 UTC

I never used this practice in my school but I think it can be very satisfactory working together. it is also true that sometimes colleagues are not very interested in doing so and very touchy about suggestions or ideas coming from other colleagues. Many school still have a traditional asset.

Maria, Cyprus

mariaconstantinou — 2017-10-17 08:40:42 UTC

Two teachers are needed to apply this model which is not an option for me. I think that having two teachers in the class can be great since you have the option to differentiate the lesson more and provide more support to students. I agree with Valentina’s comment, since sharing ideas can lead to better ideas and learning from each other. If the criticism is constructive it can make you a better teacher since other teacher can make useful suggestions, notice something that you haven’t and offer guidance.

Farah, Belgium

2017-10-17 11:28:04 UTC

The co-teaching rotation is v ery useful. It can give much of chances during the teaching. It asks much time of the teachers (prepare lessons together, teaching together and evaluate the lessons together). I think it gives many opportunities for teaching.
At this moment I'm doing this in classes with several students and it works...

Laura, Italy

2017-10-17 11:58:54 UTC

I'm used to working in team with my collegues, because I work in an International School, whose curriculum implies subjects toughts in two languages. I find it useful in order to improve my planning and organisational skills and to allow students to become accostumed to different approaches.

Anita. Croatia

anita_simac — 2017-10-17 12:34:14 UTC

This method seems very interesting, something I haven't tried before but am definitely interested in. Idea sharing is excellent because we can learn everyday from colleagues no matter how much experience they have. We need to move away from constant traditional teaching.

Florina. Romania

2017-10-17 12:59:28 UTC

Nu am fost implicata, dar mi ar placea sa incerc.

Vasiliki Psaridou/Greece

psaridou — 2017-10-17 13:38:04 UTC

I found the co-teaching rotation an interesting model, evenn though I haven't experienced something similar. Flexibility should be one of the main capabilities a teacher has. I have change my methods during my teaching career more than once. However, critisism, though constructive it might be, creates always problems. A colleague might need some time to understand but he/she will understand eventually.

Michela, Italy

2017-10-17 13:56:58 UTC

I like this teacher cooperation model.
Co-teaching can be successful if implemented in a school by teachers who have had time to define their roles and are given continued time to plan. In addition, teachers must develop tools to evaluate the success of all students in this model.

Irina, Romania

2017-10-17 14:29:26 UTC

We rarely have this type of collaboration in Romania (only in step-by-step classes, some private schools). I have never experienced that, but I would definitely love to try.

Vincenza, C, Italy

enzacolella — 2017-10-17 14:30:36 UTC

It's really important to collaborate but this is not simple and above all there is no enough time to experiment. Collaborating is also difficult because you need to trust your colleagues and avoid criticize one another.

Vanda Serpa, Azores

vandaserpa — 2017-10-17 14:35:09 UTC

I already work in co-teaching rotation and was a good experience and each one gives his skills and practices.

Sinzi, Romania

2017-10-17 14:52:11 UTC

only heard about, but who knows???

Chrissa Aggidou, Greece

2017-10-17 15:54:51 UTC

The cooperation among the teachers proposed by the Bulgarian teacher is very interesting. In the past I have worked in a similar way with teachers through programs etwinning and Comenius.
Collaboration in the school area is something which requires time and willingness of all. Surely the benefits are so much for both educators and students.

Luca, Italy

luca_mastropasqua — 2017-10-17 16:25:28 UTC

Mmmm in Italy teachers rotation is impossible: one teacher in one classroom!

Adela Gabriela, Romania

muresan_gabriela_adela — 2017-10-17 17:46:48 UTC

In my opinion, to teach every year to the same class it will be a great activity, because it will be e real progress and helpfull for the students and the teacher, also.

Milka, Croatia

milka_ivanlic — 2017-10-17 17:52:14 UTC

Co-teaching rotation collaboration model mentioned by Valentina sounds interesting and I have no experience with it. It would be nice ti see a video of a whole activities taking place.

Doinita, Romania

2017-10-17 18:34:36 UTC

Valentina's collaboration model is harder to apply in the Romanian education system where the teacher normation is done individually and not in a team. My great advantage over this collaborative strategy is that I am part of a team that agrees collaborative strategies and shares classroom experiences to optimize the learning process. In the team we find solutions to the issues raised by our colleagues, we learn about the results obtained by applying these solutions, we draw lessons in the team. Teachers who criticize this strategy end up joining the team because they too are searching solutions to the same issues.

Maja, Maceedonia

maja_informatik — 2017-10-17 18:46:27 UTC

I think that collaboration among the teachers is crucial for creating stimulative and motivational surrounding. Having constructive feedback is always good starting point for improvement

Ele, EST

ele_elav — 2017-10-17 19:19:15 UTC

If we are talking about new approach to learning it is crucial to re-think teaching.
Co-teaching is something I even told about to my principal and I wanted to try out in one class. I almost convinced my language croup partner teacher to work more systematically wiht our class. The idea about rotation is wonderful and I see there many advantages . especially in language class.

Iryna Kharchenko, Ukraine

pcv2002irisha — 2017-10-17 20:00:36 UTC

I believe collaboration among teachers can be really beneficial and useful. For example, in our school we are carrying out a huge project on Steam Punk culture and teachres of all subjects collaborate and generate a lot of extremely interesting ideas as well as some activities and tasks in the project are interdesciplinary and make students improve and utilize their knowldge in several subjects at the same time.
Besides, I have some experience of working in colabration with teachers from different countries in Etwinning projects

Natalia Grushko, Ukraine

n_grushko — 2017-10-17 20:02:22 UTC

Cooperation between teachers in one school is a great experience and benefit for students. Conducting integrated lessons helps students to better understand and comprehend material. If there is cooperation between teachers from other countries, this is a 200% success for your students. The eTwinning program gives us this. Thanks to this, children become opened for learning and cooperation. And teachers learn and share experiences.

Isabela, Romania

2017-10-17 20:14:21 UTC

Collaboration between teachers is very important especially in techologies high schools where most of modules are interdiciplinary. I collaborated with other colleague in the same module: I teach the theoretical part and my colleague teaches the practical part in the laboratory. Cooperation is very useful. It stimulates eficiency of teaching because it values the good parts of us. One is very technical, other is very creative, other is experienced, other is a beginner, etc.

Maria Calà, Italy

ilacrisere — 2017-10-17 20:25:51 UTC

It would be a good thing to improve everyone's work and enrich the training offer, but it often clashes with the walls of indifference and anchor close to traditional methods that seem unmanageable and incontrovertible

Vincenza,Italy

cifer2169 — 2017-10-17 20:48:17 UTC

I agree with Valentina about sharing practices and showing best practices though it’s not easy finding time to meet colleagues after schools apart from institutional meetings.

Jose Teixeira, PT

2017-10-17 21:30:21 UTC

I have experienced a kind of “co-teaching rotation”. and it was quite positive. For students it was also very advantageous. In my opinion, it is a great opportunity to collaborate with other teachers, so I think that is a very interesting approach to achieve great goals.

Teachers need to be flexible and adapt to other ways of work, but I agree that is not easy to convince some colleagues of the importance of collaboration. Sometimes is not easy to find time to work with other colleagues.

Jahidy, AveFénixAlfa. Venezuela

2017-10-17 23:25:50 UTC

I found the collaboration model of joint rotation by the teachers (exposed by Professor Valentina) to be an excellent idea for several reasons:

· Contributes to the integral formation of the student since it could capture, understand and value the meaning of the differences of individuality, methods, styles and ways of approaching a certain subject of the course.

· Develops and strengthens the adaptability of participants in a course to changes that occur, reducing the possibility of becoming an individual rooted in the rejection of changes, which stagnates people and negatively impacts on their personal life and professional.

· Enriches the learning process of the stakeholders involved in the diversity, quantity and quality of the content of the subject of the course.

Besides interesting, I find it attractive because it has somehow happened in my professional life, and as a student. I must acknowledge that for the purposes of putting it into practice it is necessary to speak clearly among professionals who are willing to undertake this model so that they are all prepared (psychologically, emotionally) to assume a positive attitude towards constructive criticism.
For your attention, thanks!
God bless you

Conceição Silva, Portugal

saolsilva — 2017-10-17 23:32:41 UTC

I have experienced co-teaching some time ago and found it very positive.
In my school, specially in the 5-6th classes, there are usually two teachers of Portuguese and Maths, which are considered the subjects where students have more difficulties. Teacher can reach all the students better and work on their difficulties with better results.

Ispir Iuliana, Romania

ispiriuliana — 2017-10-18 04:43:14 UTC

I also worked in both primary and pre-primary education. Unfortunately, I do not want my colleagues to work differently. My only pleasure is the collaboration but the classmate. It's a good idea, the Valentine method, but it would not be acceptable to us.

Natalia. Moldova

2017-10-18 05:04:16 UTC

Co- teaching rotation is an interesting method of collaboration between colleagues and teaching pupils.
I practiced similar activity during the English lesson where I invited a history teacher to help me to teach the topic about Legislative Power.
It was easier for me to explain to the students what is the mission of The Legislative Power, about its body and a lot of things ... .
It helped me very much.

Alessandro Michele, Italy

2017-10-18 07:05:26 UTC

Co-teaching rotation is an interesting way, useful also for the students: they have an other chance of learning and to value their knowledges.

Zulmira, Portugal

zulmiramag — 2017-10-18 10:27:29 UTC

I never had this experience of "co-teaching rotation" because I teach Mathematics to 7th, 8th, 9th grades and each class has one teacher only. But in my school there is a project called "PESIP" - InterPares Strategic Supervision Plan - where 2 teachers (of the same subject, in my case Maths) do peer work and, once a week, one goes to the class of the other and help students with difficulties. Teachers must previously meet and plan what they will do that week in that common hour. It's teacher collaboration and the objective is that students can improve their results. After that , teachers fill out a class observation sheet, with some items considered important, to check if this project is working. If necessary, different strategies will be adopted in each class.

Silvia, Italy

silvia_azzi — 2017-10-18 12:59:41 UTC

Silvia, Italy

silvia_azzi — 2017-10-18 12:59:53 UTC

I think the "co-teaching rotation" could be very useful, but in Italian schools it's very difficult to use, because each teacher has her own subject.

Antonella, Italy

antonellacaprarelli — 2017-10-18 13:17:53 UTC

never heard about that before but very interestin activity

Giovanna Italy

giovanna_festa — 2017-10-18 13:19:09 UTC

I have never tried to do that.But I'd like to know better this learning activity
I'll try it.

Adriana, Romania

adrianamaris201 — 2017-10-18 16:32:42 UTC

I'm not a primary school teacher, so I'm not the person to judge this approach, but I think primary school pupils need to learn how to work in teams. Their teacher has to decide which method works better for each class, since every group is different.

Flora, Italy

flora3 — 2017-10-18 17:58:46 UTC

I’ve never heard about “co-teaching rotation”, but I think it is very similar to how we work in our teams of primary school in my region: apart from the subjects we teach alone in the class, we teach geography, art and craft and sport together with the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teacher and she teaches science and music with the math colleague. For 1 hour per week I make a project with the math teacher. In some groups we collaborate with an additional teacher to be able to support children with special needs (trying to co-support them), too.

To be able to co-teaching it is necessary to plan every single hour, which is very demanding, ever after 15 years of collaboration. This is why in my team we decided to have one person responsible for each subject, she proposes a basis for the further planning of the lesson.

We became good friends, nevertheless we experienced misunderstandings and frustration. For example it is very challenging to find the time to discuss the needs of the children (and parents!) during our working time. The only way to quickly share information in the team is whatsapp, but this means that part of the group will get messages in its free time!

The good news is that, as the teacher in the video says, pupils from our classes easily learn to cooperate and give each other mutual support.

Nicoleta, Romania

marianborsa — 2017-10-18 19:32:21 UTC

Collaboration is not always a concept that is greeted with open arms. Teachers have the opportunity to assess and
differentiate their teaching for students more readily and they can learn new pedagogical
techniques from one another to expand their teaching repertoire. Collaboration requires a careful analysis from teachers. This can only be achieved if the teachers involved are willing to do so.

Laura, Italy

nannalaura057 — 2017-10-18 19:46:56 UTC

I've tried the model when doing a CLIL module with a maths teacher. Actually, we planned a and prepared material together, organising every single step and we alternated with successful results

Rosa, ITALY

rmongi74 — 2017-10-18 20:05:04 UTC

I think that ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina is a very interesting approach. Last year in my school I collaborated numerous times with colleagues on eTwinning projects, and I think that collaboration is a wonderful teaching tool. Teachers have the opportunity to assess and differentiate their teaching for students more readily and they can learn new pedagogical techniques from one another to expand their teaching repertoire. Cooperative teaching experiences also provide mutual support and assistance for planning and implementing lessons, assessing students’ progress, sharing professional concerns, and addressing students’ learning needs.

Giovanna Zito

giovanna_zito51 — 2017-10-18 20:19:13 UTC

In my school is very difficult to really collaborate. This year I won a Quality Label with my eTwinning project, in collaboration with an other teacher, working in a school 1000km far from my place. The experience was amazing, and I hope to have visibility in my school, as a result of the prize. Actually, an art teacher asked me to run a project with her for a common group of students, a project regarding Maths and Arts!!

Ondina Espírito Santo, Portugal

ondina — 2017-10-18 22:08:16 UTC

In the current Portuguese teaching scheme, it is very difficult to have worked with the Coteaching Rotation. Each discipline has a fixed schedule and it is not possible to implement this type of cooperation between teachers. There is cooperation in planning activities, the topics are interdisciplinary but each teacher works with the class at different times. This year we will try to work with two classes and two teachers from different disciplines at the same time, but unlike the given example, they are the same age. We believe that we will have very positive results both in students and in teachers.
Teachers, unfortunately, are accustomed to working alone. Working with other colleagues, brings us new experiences, new approaches, do better for our students.
The sharing, the positive criticism between teachers, is essential to better teaching, contributes to growth as a teacher and a better quality of learning.

Diana Oliveira, Portugal

2017-10-18 23:18:47 UTC

For students to learn to be collaborative is fundamental that teachers also know how to collaborate in their professional practice. One of the benefits of the collaboration is uniting the teacher community and ends with rivalries between classes for example, and also produces a true equality in teaching, even with pedagogical adaptations, since the contents, activities, strategies, methodologies, are thought together.

Dulce Seita, Portugal Teacher collaboration

dseita — 2017-10-19 03:01:51 UTC

I`ve experienced both collaboration in the classroom and lesson planning and preparing didactic materials and both are, when they work, enriching for the teachers and for their students – it promotes better teaching practices and new approaches to our job. We can learn a lot with other teachers and sometimes the solution to a difficult problem can be found with the collaboration of others.

Co-teaching must be based on mutual respect and pre-planning, it involves establishing clear rules before going in to the classroom.

Most teachers from secondary schools’ don´t usually work as co-teachers and teaching is often considered a solitary job (me – and my class) so difficulties can arise if they have to work in collaboration. So, teachers, that know that collaborative learning/teaching is productive, must show others the way…

Ioanna, Greece

ziakaioa — 2017-10-19 04:34:15 UTC

Collaboration between and among teachers is the norm in my school and is always a source of pedagogic discussion. It also sets an example to students who are asked to collaborate with their peers.

Betty-Greece

bettyaggeletaki — 2017-10-19 06:36:29 UTC

I do not have any experience as i am not teacher but my personal view is that collaboration between teachers consists a good practice example for the students. Open mind and self esteem can help teachers to co-teaching to find new methods and to adapt in changes that this era demanded. Inclusive schools are prerequisite teachers collaboration.

Maria Luisa, Italy

2017-10-19 06:59:20 UTC

Co-teaching rotation is not a daily pratiche in Italy as our teaching methods are constructed individually but I think It's an eccellent way of changing our perspectives and help us collaborate and negogiate and be critical. I am collaborating with other teachers doing a CLIL session and we are trying to use new methods of teaching in order to motivate our students and make them collaborate, too.

Rosy, Italy

rositone73 — 2017-10-19 07:44:44 UTC

In my school there is a sort of collaboration among teachers when we realize project with our students. Every teacher gives his or her competence in ordeder to propose the best we can to our class, every one of us is different but useful. It is very difficult for dure and the renault depends the feeling teachers instaurata a Hong themselves.

Eleonora, Italy

2017-10-19 08:38:55 UTC

Cooperation among teachers is really good, but not always teachers of the same school want to collaborate.

Krunoslav, Croatia

2017-10-19 09:21:21 UTC

It could be problematic in schools as in my school, where there is only one teacher of subject. We're small school, so we should collaborate with someone from other school which is expensive and hard to organize

Snjezana Kovacevic

knjiznica_zlata — 2017-10-19 11:39:48 UTC

I work in school library and I have to collaborate with other teachrs when we do my class of library information literacy. I often collaborate with colleagues from Art, Croatian language and simmilar school teachers. We sometimes write lesson plans together. Also, we collaborate during projects and other activities and so far, it is going on well.

Lúcia Ferreira, Portugal

luciamealhada — 2017-10-19 14:19:56 UTC

I think sharing classroom space with another teacher is a plus for everyone (students and teachers). In Portugal we are now benefiting from classroom support, especially at the beginning of schooling but I am afraid that the work developed is still not collaborative in the true sense of the word. Still prevails the division of labor between teachers, I teach this content and the colleague teaches another ... I teach the group 1st year and the colleague stays with the 2nd year.
I am performing these functions and I have tried to find time to plan activities with colleagues but it has been difficult ... they do not always show availability to stay at the end of the day ... But we have made progress and talked about the performances of children and we have analyzed situations together to identify problems and seek solutions.
I think the way is this, but it's still begun ...

Annamaria, Italy

2017-10-19 15:30:31 UTC

I've rarely had a chance to share classroom space with a collegue, whe I worked in the secondary school of 1st grade. Now , in the secondary school of 2nd grade, it's impossible co-teaching rotation because there aren't co-teaching hours ( each teacher in engaged in his classroom), then because the competition among teachers is very strong, at least in schools where I teached

Elena Italy

elenabortoluzzi — 2017-10-19 15:46:20 UTC

In my experience collaborating with other teachers is a great experience only if both teachers share he same methods and objectives. I once had to collaborate with a lecturer who was not a teacher and treated students badly.Students just hated her and she was constantly trying to impose her views. It was horrible for everybody.

Bibiana, Romania

codos_bibiana — 2017-10-19 16:39:07 UTC

I work under this form. My students are in a step by step class, which is an educational alternative.

Georgia, Cyprus

gtheopha — 2017-10-19 17:07:48 UTC

Some of our staff members work with this method. Sometimes it is good, but it is difficult, because it needs a lot of coordination among the teachers and if they have different teaching methods they are confusing the students instead of helping them.

Georgia, Greece

zazouki — 2017-10-19 17:35:59 UTC

The Co-teaching rotation model is very interesting and certainly have many benefits both for teachers and students . I have experience it once , as I was working on an etwinning project and was collaborating with another teacher of my school. As our goals and attitude regarding the project were the same , the experience was very positive , especially for the students . Watching us collaborate , negotiate , exchange ideas, respect each other ... in real time in front of them , make them understand faster and in a more efficient way how to collaborate and work in groups :the whole class was transformed .

Erica, Italy

nickregata — 2017-10-19 17:39:22 UTC

The co-teaching rotation collaboration model is a very interesting approach. I have esperienced a few times in my teachin, especially with resoures teachers. I'm work like a cross teacher in a Secondary School, so there are often two teachers in the same class and work together. When you are together you can observe the teaching practice by giving advice and developing greater skills.

Anna Bottari, Italy

anna_bottari33 — 2017-10-19 20:12:18 UTC

In The "co-teaching rotation" collaboration model two teachers work together in the same classThey have to meet the needs of students with disabilities and without disabilities. I esperienced this approach last year and it was an interesting situation. My colleague and I shared responsibility for planning, delivering instruction, assessing and managing students' discipline. IN Italy collaborative teaching is not practice because teachers can't share ideas, information, responsibility.

Niyazi ALKAN

niyazialkan1549 — 2017-10-19 21:48:30 UTC

First of all until ı began the etwinning projects ı have never tried a collaborative activity with my collegues but after I realised that both collaborative and co-teaching rotation collaboration is one of the most useful and effective methods that we should experience.

Angela, Italy

angela_bertolini — 2017-10-20 07:34:27 UTC

I have never tried the co-teaching rotation collaboration model. Nevertheless I think it might be a good way to help students find their own way of learning and it might set an example for students of an effective collaboration between peers. Such a method would be difficult to introduce in my school ( lower secondary school) because of the structure of our timetable. Anyway I find it an innovative and effective methodology.

Anna, Austria

msb_grg11 — 2017-10-20 10:32:52 UTC

During the last year I worked in a middle school. All three classes I taught there, I had to teach with another teacher. Unfortunately, both were not happy to have a young teacher working with them and that lead to a lot of troubles. It took until Christmas until the pecking order was sorted out and the result was that the students suffered a lot due to this. I was eager to collaborate, but it turned out that both colleagues felt it was more of a burden to exchange ideas and discuss teaching. They have had a fixed model they re-apply every single year. Valentina mentions that during her video. It is absolutely essential that the teachers that collaborate are free to choose if they want to collaborate and who they want to work with.
I'm happy to say that I figured out a nice way to deal with collaborating in two classes. I was able to learn a lot from my colleague and vice-versa. However, with the other teacher it was still a horrible experience, and I'm glad that it's over.

Nicolina, Italy

nicolina_graziano — 2017-10-20 13:10:47 UTC

I think the “co-teaching” rotation is a very positive approach. I experienced it with my colleagues when I was teaching in the Primary school. Confrontation with other colleagues was very significant in understanding the difficulties , overcoming obstacles and creating a collaborative and efficient working group. In the lower middle school, where I have been teaching since 2001, I have experienced etwinning projects with Italian and European colleagues. Last year I worked with my French colleagues at an etwinning project with French, Spanish and Greek schools and It was a very inspiring experience . This year I am working at an amazing project with a French School on the history and traditions of our cities. I am sure it will be a very positive experience both for me and my students. A “co-teaching rotation” isn’t easy but achievable. It needs a high level of flexibility among teachers composing the team and sharing the same objectives.

Mariella Brunazzi - Italy

mariella_brunaz — 2017-10-20 14:41:34 UTC

The co-teaching rotation collaboration model is interesting and it is really useful in classes where the teachers have the role of facilitators as they can better monitor and support the students working in groups. They can also compare and merge their different teaching styles and experiences and decide the best strategies to be adopted for a particular set of lessons. I collaborated with a team of colleagues at the school where I worked for about twenty years before leaving it due to unexpected changes that made us all move to different schools (we had to split up). The collaboration was great and it led to experimentation with new teaching techniques and to the writing of projects that allowed us to work with European colleagues thanks to eTwinning projects and a strategic partnership we coordinated. It was a close-knit group of teachers, we shared experiences and ideas, we attended training courses together and working together was a pleasure. Teaching upon the constructive criticisms of other colleagues made us flexible and ready to change what didn’t work to try to improve.

PAOLA PATRIZIA CARDO

paolapatrizia_cardo — 2017-10-20 15:13:15 UTC

ITALY

The co-teaching rotation personally I have never adopted, but from viewing the movie and from some readings, and courses, I consider it a great educational form. The idea of having a teacher who runs the lesson while the other looks closely students are collecting data and then analyzed is a great collaborative methodology. It is obvious that all this involves careful joint planning and a shared reflection afterwards, and therefore requires a very important investment of time by the teachers, in addition to a particular feeling. I think they can have better conditions as a peer-peer relationship, lack of judgment and freedom of expression. I appreciate in particular the fact that they can have an outside view of the classroom and be able to evaluate the situations created in 2 and not alone as it normally does.

Silvia, Italy

emanuelesilvia797 — 2017-10-20 15:44:27 UTC

I like when Valentina says "the art of collaboration" : it is just an art to be able to collaborate with other teachers. In my experience I noticed that flexibility and curiosity are the most important qualities of a teacher. Even if he knows little about learning methodologies, the most important thing is to show availability to get involved in something new and to accept the challenges of the work together.

Ad, Belgium

2017-10-20 16:03:59 UTC

Co-teaching is a very useful method to help students (and teachers) learn more. I believe it is a very powerful tool to break through classroom walls (even literally!). Why do we put children of the same age in classrooms while they could learn so much from other students? In my school students are sitting together in homogeneous groups, but I've seen examples of heterogeneous groups (in age and 'strenght') and it works great. I'm all for co-teaching and co-learning, because interacting with other people (older or younger doesn't matter) is the best way to learn things.

David, Spain

david_galiana — 2017-10-20 16:29:29 UTC

I think co-teaching could be very useful but it needs two teachers in one classroom. It's not usual in Spain. I'm in favour of promoting it as a way of keeping students engaged and being able to adapt teaching to the particularities of every student.
During my teacher training I was in a class with an expert Math teacher, teaching with him. Without knowing about co-teaching, we actually did it and it proved to be really useful for students because, as one teacher was explaining to the whole group, the other was solving doubts or helping individuals who required attention.

Mihaela, Romania

michaela_balint — 2017-10-20 18:19:16 UTC

I teach in a private primary school. We are two teachers in the classroom. We collaborate in all aspects: daily program, didactical materials, meetings with parents, educational programs, extracurricular activities and so on. Two teachers for 18 students allow us better monitor the students' progress and to apply the most suitable methods and best practices in each case.

Marília , Portugal

mariliabacao — 2017-10-20 19:27:18 UTC

I think it's good whwn it's possible but we don't have this in my country. That's why I haven't experienced it. I have 30 or 31 pupils in my classes and I have 7 classes.What we do, in Portugal, is to define and plan some activities with other teachers of the same class. For instance, puplis can study monuments in History and Arts and write about them in portuguese and then translate or write about them in english and french.

Ana Cotovio, Portugal

lc_anapaula — 2017-10-20 21:07:02 UTC

The co-teaching rotation model is very interesting and I think that it was many benefits for students and teachers.
I have esperienced with adults, because the teachers worked whith curricula differents from regular education, which required collaborative work among teachers in the planning of activities, in the creation of materials and activities correction andassessment.
I would like to implement this practice whith colleagues that teach students aged 10-12.

Michaela, Austria

michaela_friess — 2017-10-21 06:12:04 UTC

We do co-teaching rotation since many years, because there are always two of us in the classroom. We determined that for some pupils in the beginning this was hard. They had to get used to this.

For us, it is much better. We can support everyone more often. We also encourage our pupils to take the teacher’s role in some situations, especially for the ones with special needs.

Elisabetta, Italy

deganoelisabetta — 2017-10-21 07:37:15 UTC

I find Valentina's experiences very interesting and I appreciate her interest and idea to try a different type of teacher collaboration and organization of the school day. In fact, collaboration among colleagues and students increase easily.
It is important to be flexible and to be open to different approaches, so that students can receive a lot of benefits and, at the same time, teachers can work better.

Silvia, Italy

silvianardisilvia — 2017-10-21 07:55:51 UTC

"Collaboration is a wonderful teaching tool. Teachers have the opportunity to assess and differentiate their teaching for students more readily and they can learn new pedagogical techniques from one another to expand their teaching repertoire."

Micaela, Portugal

mail_micaela_pereira — 2017-10-21 08:13:56 UTC

I have never tried the “co-teaching” rotation collaboration model. However, I find it very interesting. Of course I agree there is always time to do better, and that other’s opinions can let us know somethings we could do better and other approaches do teach.

MARIA, Italy

mariadeleo77 — 2017-10-21 10:12:56 UTC

The model mentioned by Valentina is a good way to carry out an efficient and gives more benefits to the whole learning process.
In my experience in my current school, we have a similar approach called "compresence", that is two teachers collaborate in the same time in the activities providing supporting, leading and giving useful feedback to the pupils. The teaching collaboration needs both sharing designing and opening towards innovation that more enterprising colleagues give to the teachers equipe.

Claudia Murelli

claudia_murelli — 2017-10-21 10:18:34 UTC

Do not share Co-Teaching Valentina's example is for cooperative learning assessment.
There must be cooperation between teaching students of the same class in the same school to free intellectual and competence energie
The cooperative learning information network leads to self-information
a theoretical and laboratory knowledge
Everybody has to have a curricular competence knowledge

136/5000

Daniele - Italy

danvir — 2017-10-21 10:45:05 UTC

What do you think about the ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina? Do you find it an interesting approach, and is it one you have experience with? Valentina mentions the need for teachers to bring their best skills and practices to the team while remaining flexible to adapt them in case others suggest better ways of working. Do you agree with this, and what are your experiences of acting on the constructive criticisms of other teachers?
The co-teaching model is quite interesting, though in secondary school is not really used, especially for lack of funds. For one year I worked in co-teaching with other colleagues and it was a really good experience. I learnt a lot from colleagues and I enriched my way of working. In addirion to this it helped us also with the psycologichal support we made each other. We felt less isolated and stronger in facing class' problems. School should apply more this methodology granting some opportunities to share our ideas with colleagues. Nowadays the so called "dipartimental reunions" are usually ridicolous.

Anastasia Botou, Greece

botouanastasia — 2017-10-21 12:01:28 UTC

I think “co-teaching rotation” has a lot of benefits. First of all, it provides more opportunities in low achievement students. The present of two teachers in the classroom helps to support more students with learning difficulties. Moreover, it helps in classroom management, so there is more time for effective teaching. Finally, I believe that ‘co-teaching rotation’ increases competition between teachers, improving teaching. Teachers have to take training in new pedagogy accepts and interacting their experience and knowledge among them. Constructive criticisms are always useful and acceptable.

Annalisa Di Pierro, Pisa, Italy

adipierro — 2017-10-21 14:41:10 UTC

Have never tried "co-teaching rotation" maybe it's a good model for the Kindergarten and primary school but it's not possible to use it at the high school where I teach, but I have achieved good results with something similar, that is co-presence, two teachers in the same class, teaching and helping the students' learning, together. I think that when there is collaboration among teachers, students always get a lot of benefits for their learning and the class atmosphere improves a lot, in a positive way.

Greta, ITALY

greta_romano — 2017-10-21 15:53:27 UTC

I think that co-teaching rotation is really interesting, it can help students who struggle the most to get good results.
I appreciate when I get feedback for my activities, but only if it's constructive, which means that I must get some benefits from it (and it doesn't always happen).

Gabriella, Italy

GaDiBi — 2017-10-21 18:22:59 UTC

Very interesting. While listening to the video, I wondered how to bring this kind of teaching. In the classes, where I teach, there are one-two support teachers. At the moment, I do not know how to resolve the role conflicts that arise. I would like to learn more about the co-teaching rotation' collaboration model.

Ana A., PT

anaparreira — 2017-10-21 21:57:46 UTC

In Portugal one begins to see some change in the way the primary school works, the different areas of teaching begin to be taught by different teachers. But in most schools it remains a single teacher teaching different areas. I agree with this division and rotation of teachers. The students only have to gain from this because the fact of being with different teachers will prepare them for the fifth year, where each discipline is given by a different teacher.
Working collaboratively and working on the criticism of other colleagues is also very positive.

Ame, Italy

2017-10-22 06:51:51 UTC

It is a very interesting idea, the problem is how to do it. We should change our way of teaching starting from the head teacher

Laskarina, Greece

laspolemi — 2017-10-22 06:58:27 UTC

I believe the Co-teaching rotation approach would be more than welcome in most learning environments, as not only teachers but also students undertake a most valuable role. Teacher is no longer the only source of information.

Anna, Italy

2017-10-22 09:32:52 UTC

4.1 A primary school teacher’s experience of teacher collaboration

I agree with my Italian colleagues that this model of teachin is difficult to implement in Italian schools.
A few years ago we had a longer school day and teachers had lessons they could share . They had the possibility of devising a project and carrying it out working together in the same class. My experience of these teaching situations is partially positive. The key to the success of the initiative is the collaboration among teachers. When we were able to share our ideas and plan together it was really successful and apart from stimulating students and involving them in the lessons we learnt a lot from each other and from our methodological approaches.
On the other hand when colleagues with different objectives and styles had to work together we didn't succeed and the students didn't get much benefit from the activities. I found that we worked together only nominally because in fact we were working on our own. As Valentina said in the video some teachers feel that working together is an invasion in their pedagogy.
Nevertheless I am a strong believer in collaboration and I'll keep trying!

Izabela, Poland

2017-10-22 10:40:54 UTC

I think that this method is interesting and it is worth to practice at school. But this method is based on very close cooperation between teachers. I have a lot of experience of it, and to be honest it looked different, depending on the personality and skills of the teachers and their free time. Sometimes teachers compete with each other, because the head teacher clears the teachers for teaching results separately

Emiliano Pancaldi, Italy

emilianopancald — 2017-10-22 10:41:46 UTC

I've never had the oportunity to make a teaching collaborative lesson, and in particular with "co-teaching rotation". Perhaps I've maked a similar activity when, with my colleague of French, I've tried to make a history lesson (in French). In that case I was like an assistant, because was my colleague the speaker (I don't know French). Sometimes I talked about of particular aspects of the argument and this style was appreciated from my students.

Regarding the sharing of our best experiences with the other colleagues, I think that it's important to find a unique language, a sharing platform, scheme or language for talking about collaborative activities. And try again & again & again because each teacher " who have had success working in isolation may view this process as an invasion of their pedagogy and a waste of time".

Ana Pereira, Portugal

2017-10-22 13:01:55 UTC

Interesting Method and it's very easy to implement in our schools if we are opened to new ideias.

Lina Tetradi, Greece

2017-10-22 13:44:40 UTC

I haven't experienced the co-teaching rotation collaboration model myself, but I know teachers here in Greece who have tried it and had only good things to tell me about it. I agree with Valentina that teachers need to be flexible, agrreable to adapt new and sometimes better ways of working and mainly receptive to criticism, so we can learn from it and improve our teaching.

Stefania Altieri/Italy

stefaniaaltieri73 — 2017-10-22 15:14:14 UTC

Teresa, POrtugal

2017-10-22 15:32:40 UTC

Never experienced co-teaching rotation, although I find it pretty intersting. I´ve only experienced cooperative teaching, which can be useful in some activities. Last year we had a project in which, in each session, one teacher presented a good practice (in his/her perspective), we would assist to a class in which that practice was applied (sometimes we would cooperate) and then we discussed in group its effectiveness. We learned a lot. In my school we have na hour per week in our schedule to collaborative work, but it is a voluntary activity and most of the teachers reject that opportunity (because of the time and because they don’t think there are so much advantages in collaborative work).

Marta, Portugal

martaisabelconstantino — 2017-10-22 16:04:15 UTC

I've never tried this model of co-teaching rotation 'collaboration. I have worked with other colleagues and found it to be enriching.
This model of co-teaching rotation seems to me very enriching both for students and for us teachers.

Daniela D'Arrigo, Italy

2017-10-22 16:09:56 UTC

I 've never tried this kind of activity because I work in secondary school and it should be more difficult. I worked with others colleagues, so I consider this metod very interesting and useful for my student.

Adnan AKYÜZ, Turkey

adnanakyuz — 2017-10-22 18:05:15 UTC

In co-teaching, the pair (teacher candidate and cooperating teacher) is encouraged to co-plan and quickly incorporate the co-teaching strategies in their practice, providing more opportunities for the students to engage with both adults in the classroom. The mentor teacher remains engaged, using the strategies to support student learning and engagement. The co-teaching pair collaborates throughout the experience, with leadership in responsibility and decision-making shifting over time to the teacher candidate. Ultimately, the teacher candidate assumes leadership in all aspects of the classroom, including directing the activities of the cooperating teacher and other adults working with the students, for a pre-determined amount of time. It is important that the teacher candidate does have opportunities to solo teach too, but the goal is to co-teach once the candidate has established classroom leadership skills and students interact with both adults as their teachers.

Sabrina (Caserta)

sabrina_poli — 2017-10-22 18:38:02 UTC

Wow... a co-teaching rotation... a very interesting model... I've never used it. It enriches students and teachers... supporting learning and teaching.

Hasime, Macedonia

hasime — 2017-10-22 19:55:08 UTC

Co-teaching rotation is very great model, I will try it with my colleagues. Teachers in schools for gating better results must collaborate. They exchange ideas, make a lesson plans together, in this way they can build better education for pupils.

Maria Concetta Fusco, Italy

mcfusco_mail — 2017-10-22 20:57:25 UTC

The model of co-teaching rotation presented by Valentina is indeed interesting. I’ve never experienced it and I think that, apart from specific projects, it will be hardly feasible in my school. I also think it’s more suitable for primary school. Anyhow, collaboration between teacher should always be sought after and improved, because it can only bring successful learning.

Damla Güder, Turkey

dml — 2017-10-22 20:58:15 UTC

Co-teaching rotation collaboration model is interesting. We collaborate with the other maths teacher at school but not in this way, It can be tried.

Sandra Leite, Azores - Portugal

leite_sandra — 2017-10-22 22:31:16 UTC

The co-teaching router model is very interesting and I think it has many benefits for students and teachers. I have never tried this method of teaching but I believe it has immense potentialities. I always work in the classroom in pedagogical terms and I find it extremely beneficial for students, for both teachers and school.

Simona, Romania

simona_petrescu — 2017-10-23 08:53:23 UTC

Apart from the fact that what the video says is stiking true, I stick to the idea of collaborative teaching....but among different ages pupils! I love the idea of joining groups of pupils of different ages and offering the older ones the occasion to teach their younger colleagues something they learned already.
As for my personal experience, I once or twice collaborated with a colleague, teacher of French, but in extracurricular classes. In my school, it might be hard to find teachers willing to spend some of their free time, in order to teach collaboratively. It is simply a matter of resources, both material and mental.

Francesco, Italy

boffra — 2017-10-23 10:42:58 UTC

The co-teaching rotation could be an effective way to improve teacher's skills using different roles and adapting teacher's work to the demand of learning for students. I agree with Valentina about the necessity of work in a team with an open mind, ready to accept constructive criticisms by our colleague and to offer our skills to improve our colleagues' competences.

Sara Gamito

sgamito — 2017-10-23 10:44:47 UTC

The cooperation between the teachers is really good, but the school teachers do not always want to collaborate.

Mahesh Bhardwaj (India)

maheshbhardwaj9 — 2017-10-23 12:57:50 UTC

the cooperation between the teachers is really very good idea, but all the time fellow teachers are not interested in the Collaboration. the cooperation between the teachers in teaching area is very difficult.

Florina Romania

2017-10-23 13:54:56 UTC

Este foarte cu multe beneficii

Valeria - Italy

valeriavaccaro1983 — 2017-10-23 15:35:32 UTC

In Italy in secondary schools we don't have two teachers for the same subject in the same class, but sure the co-teaching rotation is an interesting approach. I think that we can somehow use it in a interdisciplinar way. But of course you need to be willing to. You need a looooot of time, your best practises and your will to learn more and more. I had wonderful experiences of collaborative teaching but it was impossibile to involve everybody. Since I was young (and still I am given Italian standards) I had to be very careful and respectful using constructive criticism.

Agata, Italy

agatella64 — 2017-10-23 17:47:06 UTC

Teacher's collaboration is essential not only for our students but especially for us. Confronting our methods, sharing our ideas let us grow and become better educator; this way our students could profit better. The negative thing is that is very difficult to find time for our collaboration.

Gökhan ARIKAN, Turkey

gokanhoca — 2017-10-23 19:37:58 UTC

I agree Valantina.

There are 2 teachers in our country in vocational education. Help is very good. Every teacher supports a kind of person and we can develop new practices. Of course, the communication before and after the lesson needs to be very good.

Lia, Italy

lia_molini — 2017-10-23 20:04:04 UTC

I know this approach and the experience she talked about. I have been working at European projects since 2000 and they are relevant to promote collaboration. I believe in teamwork and sharing expertise.

Ana Paula Loureiro, Portugal

ana_loureiro — 2017-10-23 21:33:48 UTC

In my opinion the co-teaching rotation can be very useful in order to share ideas and ways of thinking. I think it is a very interesting approach.

Gabriela Bruno, Portugal

gabrielabruno357 — 2017-10-24 01:31:22 UTC

The co-teaching rotation collaboration model is only useful if the teachers have the time to meet previously and after the class to prepare it correctly. I think in most cases that is what's making the majority of teachers not wanting to work in collaboration with others.
Nevertheless, I believe that we will always have this kind of problems and it's up to us to start taking steps to change it. We need to collaborate with others so the students can understand why collaboration is important. In my school there is a model for math classes (7th to 9th grades) where two teachers are teaching together for one class a week. The two teachers prepare it as they like but in most cases, they set up groups of students doing different tasks according to capability. One of the pairs however does a real great group class, they use a kind of jigsaw technique, where each group studies a part of the main subject. Both teachers go from group to group and explain what they need to learn and take doubts when they are doing some exercises. In the end one student from each group has to explain to the class what they have learned. It is working so well that in ther classes students are already asking if they can explain it to the class and if they are allowed to discuss the subject with their colleagues.
I think I've lost myself but in conclusion, the co-teaching rotation is very good but other techniques can also work very well, I think it depends on the group of teachers who is working collaboratively.

Manuela, Italy

emanuela_antezza — 2017-10-24 12:28:00 UTC

I think it is a very interesting approach that requires multiple skills and knowledge

Seyide eroğlu, TURKEY.

seyideeroglu — 2017-10-24 13:10:43 UTC

I think Valentina's approach is very creative. but the co-operation of the two teachers often creates distress. if the teachers did not focus on the same thing, unfortunately no full cooperation will take place. but if the teachers support each other and complete it, wonderful things will happen.

Mirela-Emilia Pop, Romania

mirelaemiliapop — 2017-10-24 14:40:09 UTC

Very intersting. I like whwn Valentina says ,,the art of collaboration is the just an art to be able to collaborate with other teachers."

Olga, Spain

2017-10-24 15:35:33 UTC

Sharing the classroom with other teacher(s) is very enriching, although it demands good coordination. It works as a model for our students as they see that real collaboration requires compromise and planification. I find it a very fruitful practice and possible through project based learning. My experience acting upon the constructive criticisms are very good, even in difficult cases, without good initial agreement, it is a very important practice to improve assertivity and other relevant social skills.

Manuela, Portugal

mmanuelavieira — 2017-10-24 15:43:43 UTC

I think it is very interseting and important to work in that way. For younger students I think that is a sucessful way of working. In my country some times we have two teachers in the classroom but not working that way. I think i am going to try to implement that idea.

Vanda Serpa, Azores

vandaserpa — 2017-10-24 18:44:44 UTC

I already work in co-teaching rotation and was a good experience and each one gives his skills and practices. I love the ideia of Valentina, to do lessons with older pupils taking the teacher’s role and have encouraged pupils of different ages to work together. I pretende to do that in the future, with the biology students.
As she said in this way teachers have to spend time before and after school to coordinate their efforts, and that it´s a important point, because in portugal we still have a high level of bureaucracy and fill a lot of our time as teachers. About her question I think we might convince the colleagues of the importance of teacher collaboration, not only showing them experiences and evidence of collaboration not only improving teacher performance but also how the student benefits in particular in his future employment.

Anna, Napoli

2017-10-24 21:27:09 UTC

Co-Teaching is partnering of two teachers with different areas of expertise to provide more comprehensive, effective instruction to students -
Working in this way is very interesting

Chiara Semplicini, Italy

chiara_semplicini — 2017-10-25 09:52:20 UTC

Co-teaching is really a good practice. teachers co-working in the same class to develop a certain topic, for example, is really good as you can work together or divide the class in different groups (according to variable levels of competence). Another important issue concerns the sharing of written tests (and their results). I think teacher cooperation is at very basis of good school practices.

Maria, Italy

mariadecarlo — 2017-10-25 12:27:30 UTC

The co-teaching is really a good practice for. Is very interesting and important to work. Co-teaching is a very basis of good school practices.

Antonella Sasanelli, Italy

antonella_sasanelli — 2017-10-25 12:47:36 UTC

Co-teaching is a very effective way to support learning process. I practiced something similar when I was teaching at primary school. Now as high school teacher I am in a peer group for mentoring.

Silva, Italy.

silvacasadei — 2017-10-25 13:35:41 UTC

I find it is a very interesting work co-teaching, I think this is good practice for teschers and it s also a successful way for the student’s work.

Damla, Turkey

dml — 2017-10-25 14:07:09 UTC

Interesting way of collaboration. That can be effective.

Angela, Catania

angela_schiliro — 2017-10-25 14:57:01 UTC

The "co-teaching rotation" collaboration or any other kind of collaboration among teachers is very useful and effective both for students and teachers. If we collaborate with each othe surely we enrich ourselves mixing our experience and competences witht those of our peers and moreover we will be a model for our students' collaborative learning process. The difficulty is to be able to adapt to each other and in certain case to accept criticism of other teachers

Mariangela Fabiana Gramegna, Italy

2017-10-25 15:12:28 UTC

I think it's a great example to follow, espacially among children. As teachers we have to be flexible and open minded people to become better teachers and learn lifelong.

zeynepozdogan — 2017-10-25 18:30:07 UTC

Zeynep Özdoğan/ TÜRKİYE

zeynepozdogan — 2017-10-25 18:30:07 UTC

I think it is a very good way of collaboration and cooperation and it is good for the students who are especially in crowded classes. Two teachers with different skills are really beneficial for the students. In Turkey in some pre-schools, there are co-teachers or trainee teachers who are students from vocational schools, help teachers prepare for lessons by getting materials ready or setting up equipments, help reinforce the lessons by working with individual students or small groups of students. They help with educational activities. They also supervise the children at play and help with feeding and other basic care.

Vito, Italy

vitoanimatore — 2017-10-25 19:54:48 UTC

I fully agree on the importance of collaboration between teachers in general and even more so between teachers of the same class, and I believe that it can be a growth factor for both teachers and students. Nevertheless, for my experience as a teacher I must point out that the collaboration between teachers is either minimal or even absent. Collaboration is best known in primary school and much less so in secondary school.

Rosalba, Italy

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-26 04:31:17 UTC

I like this teaching model and I would like to try it in my school too, even if I teach in a secondary school where this kind of co-teaching is not implemented. My idea is collaborating with the support teacher thus involving her in the whole class activities, sharing her professionality and making her feel teacher of the class and not only of the students with special needs. Nevertheless students will consider her and the student integrating part of the class..

Mariana Loureiro, Portugal

marianaloureiro709 — 2017-10-26 10:58:24 UTC

I think teacher's collaboration is a skill of 21st century that most schools and teachers need, but sometimes they don't know how to do it or how to start it. This video of teacher's collaboration provides me some ideas of what to do in case I want to be successfull on teacher collaboration.
In Portugal, in my pont of view the teacher collaboration is minimal or absent. Nowadays, it's very important for us teacher's and our students to see that we don't just made them collaborate with each other but we collaborate too.

Georgia, Cyprus

gtheopha — 2017-10-26 14:50:01 UTC

I think Valentina's method is a very good idea. I experience this when I worked with a colleague with etwinning. Because we work with students on our breaks I had to coteach with the other teacher and cooperate for the project. But it is difficult to coteach regular classes.

Daniela, Italy

invernizzifam — 2017-10-26 15:43:54 UTC

Yes, I totally agree! I had some previous experiences with older pupils taking teacher's role and it worked very well in both directions, but I never had the occasion to experiment coteaching rotation...so I'm looking forward to try it with some of my collegues

Natalia Mikhajlova, Ukraine

nmikhajlova — 2017-10-26 16:12:14 UTC

I think, Valentina correctly speaks about the need for teachers to bring their best skills and practices to the team while remaining flexible to adapt them in case others suggest better ways of working. I don't have any experience that ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model.

Marta, Spain

nistalmarta — 2017-10-26 16:36:09 UTC

Collaborative teachers have to spend time before and after school to coordinate their efforts; you need at the beginning of the collaboration the agreement to work together and a healthy atmosphere.
It benefits the student learning, if they both have an active role.

Alexandra, Greece

alexandranakou — 2017-10-26 18:52:20 UTC

Collaboration in the classroom it is useful for the teachers too. In Greece in the all-day kindergarten (8ap-4pm) there was the co-teaching rotation. One week up to one month the first teacher was responsible for the morning lesson and the other for the afternoon. The curriculum was common and reform by both teachers. Nowadays for the whole year the morning there is a teacher responsible and the afternoon another. By the curriculum they don;t share common time in the classroom and their schedule may be different.
In my opinion, it is highly important to share the classroom as teammates with one other teacher. You must be flexible and ready to listen to his opinion too.
I agree with the changes that Valentina did, they are helpful and the give solution to many challenges of collaborative teaching.

Athina, Greece

aginoudi — 2017-10-26 19:19:19 UTC

I teach science, and I teach often together with other colleagues in the science laboratories.We like collaboration, we learn from each other and exchange good educational practices.

Aura Romania

2017-10-27 03:21:57 UTC

Co-teaching rotation Collaboration I didn't use but what Valentine says is go

Edmond, Ireland

2017-10-27 09:18:20 UTC

Interesting to hear Valentina say that for some teachers collaborative learning may be viewed as 'an invasion of pedagogy'. This is true of many teachers and schools; but the process of transformational teaching is just that, a process, and like all processes, if it is to be successful it should not be 'forced' on teachers who will then resent the imposition. As Valentina mentioned, when teachers can see first-hand the benefits to students of collaborative learning and the positive professional experiences that can emerge from engagement in collaborative teaching, then they might be more willing to approach Collaborative Teaching with an open and positive frame of mind.

António Pedro Duarte, Portugal

duarteapd — 2017-10-27 10:25:43 UTC

In Portugal, there are several successful examples of teacher collaboration. However, this practice appears many times in a discontinuous way and without management support. Even so, when one or two teachers find the conditions to explore these kinds of opportunities, this is a motivating factor and learning for others. When, as in my school, management support and reconfiguration is minimal or non-existent in terms of innovation, this is the best way to promote change.
In Portugal, there are several successful examples of teacher collaboration. However, this practice appears many times in a discontinuous way and without management support. Even so, when one or two teachers find the conditions to explore these kinds of opportunities, this is a motivating factor and learning for others. When, as in my school, management support and reconfiguration is minimal or non-existent in terms of innovation, this is the best way to promote change.
As a teacher related to research in teacher training, I have sought to "do differently" in order to motivate my students, and to discover and make known other ways of teaching. The difficulties are many! First, because people (students, parents, teachers and management) do not always see it as an opportunity. Second, because the "phobia of immediate results" makes schools easily yield to outside pressures (especially from parents).
Let us not forget that, socially recognized (and paid) as teaching professionals, teachers can not resign from decisions about what is best to teach our students?

Elisa, Italy

elisazannoni — 2017-10-27 21:17:04 UTC

Co-teaching rotation! Wonderful, but I think it is impossible to realize it in a lot of Italian schools for different reasons. First of all in Italy a lot of teachers are quite old and have lost their enthusiasm, as Valentina said co-teaching requires teachers to be ready to invest some of their free time to organize work together and old generations teachers think they have already done their best, they don't feel like facing new "challenges". There are of course some exceptions, but I think only young teachers are so open-minded to understand the value of collaboration.
And then a lot of teachers think they are better than they colleagues...unfortunately!
So we are like pioneers, but the results of our students will make us succeed in persuading traditional teachers!

Cristina Martins, Portuga

cristina_martins — 2017-10-28 09:24:53 UTC

I think the model mentioned by Valentina became interesting when she and her colleague started working collaboratively. As she tells us it changed learning dynamics and social and working relationship between teacher/teacher, student/student and teachers/students.
As this is a much demanding work teachers have to prepare their work and combine their skills and competences in order to make the Learning Process more challenging for children without forgetting the Learning Goals and class contents.
My collaborative work experience is not so complete because in my classes I am the only teacher of my class.
I try to do collaborative work by speaking with other teachers of the same students that have different subjects and find common or linked contents and Learning Goals. Then when I plan the Learning activity I try to do that in a way students learn that knowledge of what seems very different subjects are in fact connected.

Rita, Italy

2017-10-28 10:13:13 UTC

I agree with Elisa.
We often have to strive to go “against current”, and it often is not easy because of the mentality that is still rooted in the traditional methods, so it is difficult to adopt an innovative approach when it is not supported and accepted by your colleagues.

Anna-Rita Italy

annarita_rss — 2017-10-28 12:36:24 UTC

I think cooperative teaching is a marvellous way to work. in my school we work in this way only for projects but this need effectively a lot of extra-time work since the colleague with whom I eventually work on a specific project has to do extr-hour coming in my hour or I have to do extra-hours to go in her class. then we have to meet to planify the work and meet again to set the assesment or to evaluare students work. finally we do extra-hour with students in the afternoon to complete the work.
Anyway we go on doing it because it's exiting to work for projects.

Chiara-Italy

chiarapellegrini — 2017-10-28 13:31:36 UTC

I am afraid I have never shared co-teaching rotation, which seems to provide pupils with further support from additional teachers.

Nevenka, Croatia

nena_web20 — 2017-10-28 16:59:19 UTC

This school year, my three colleagues(chemist teacher, math teacher, latin and foreign language teacher) and I(physics teacher), started co-teaching rotation in project which involves students 9 years old. This collaboration model is very inspirational and helpful. We usually teach 13-14 years old students and we are not used to teach such young students so we help each other to adapt lessons plans and teaching methods.

Sandra Rebelo, Portugal

sandrarebelo — 2017-10-28 17:11:43 UTC

Unfortunately I never worked co-teaching rotation. But I like the idea. Two teachers working collaboratively will improve the students work. As I said before, collaborative teaching isn't easy to implement because some teachers have difficulty in sharing their work. They are too used to work by themselves and they believe that their teaching works and it isn't easy to convince them otherwise...

Eugenio, Italy

2017-10-28 20:07:12 UTC

I hope to try this year this experience of collaborative teaching with my students.
It's very interesting.

Elena, Romania

elena_sidonia — 2017-10-29 07:43:07 UTC

I have never been part of a co-teaching project, but I like the concept.
When someone makes an observation, brings a critique or suggests an improvement, the other person should analyse objectively, and if he/she considers beneficial, adapt his/her approach.

cerasela, Romania

ceraselaiulianamarleneanu — 2017-10-29 14:05:45 UTC

I consider the ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina an interesting one. It is something new for me, I might try it one day.

Vasilis S, Greece

billstath — 2017-10-29 15:36:05 UTC

As I Know, co-teaching rotation, is a method that it is used in laboratory lessons in vocational high schools. Teachers must be always flexible to adapt better ways of working.

Constructive criticism of other teachers although it may be difficult to accept it, it is useful and substantive for the teachers and therefore for the students.

Ioana,Romania

miha_ioana08 — 2017-10-29 16:02:07 UTC

Valentina's co-pedagogy rotation model offers numerous opportunities to develop pedagogical style and, at the same time, to incorporate activities included in extracurricular projects into conventional learning activities.

MariaS., Catania

2017-10-29 16:29:56 UTC

I believe that in the Italian school, especially from the upper secondary level it is very difficult to collaborate among teachers, who are more accustomed to individualism. Collaborating among adults requires the security of their skills to overcome fear of being assessed.

Marta, Poland

meg_paa — 2017-10-29 17:52:37 UTC

I am not sure I understand the 'co-teaching rotation' collaboration model well, as far as I am concern it is about two teachers in the classroom, one supporting the other. We have in our education system a position which is called 'support teacher' which basically means if there's a student with special educational needs/learning difficulties or some other disfunctions it is possible in some cases to get help like that. It would be a dream situation where all teachers could bring out their best skills and practices to work in a team and collaborate to achieve common goals.
It is not easy to achieve that, as the major model of teaching in Poland is still based on individualism of the teachers- however collaboration and exchange of good practices are also very often seen. I think one must be open-minded and flexible to start work in co-teaching rotation collaboration model.

Marianna, Italy

2017-10-29 18:52:46 UTC

In my opinion co-teaching rotation is very interesting, but it’s
difficult to realize in my school.

Alexandra, Romania

alefejer — 2017-10-29 19:06:21 UTC

As a young teacher, I've spoke almost every day with my colleagues about my experiences at classroom and I was always opened to learn from others and to receive suggestions of better ways of work. I heard about this "co-teaching rotation" method as a method used in all the schools from Hungary. It's a good method, but it requires to have 2 teachers for the same class. I love what Valentina said: " Educators who have had success working in isolation may view this process as an invasion of their pedagogy and a waste of time." This is the reality of my school. But, thanks God we have social media platforms, as Facebook and Tweeter, where I found colleges around the country that believes in the same principles as me. We've created group where we share from our work, help each other, we put questions and share methods. I feel I improved my teaching and I learned a lot through this kind of collaboration.

Luca D'Arrigo

2017-10-29 19:25:38 UTC

I've never tried this model of co-teaching rotation 'collaboration. I have worked with other colleagues and found it to be enriching.

Francesco, Milan (Italy)

francescoroncacci — 2017-10-29 20:53:31 UTC

As a CLIL teacher i am bound to collaborate with other teachers since my expertise in English should be harmonized with their knowledge / competence in Science or Geography or History. Unfortunately, my efforts to make my lessons real examples of teaching collaboration has been in vain so fare.

Most of the times, the other teacher simply sit down on a corner and mind their own business as my lesson progress and only hardly step in to add some details or simply remind the kids that a certain topic was done the week / month / year before.

On rare occasions, the other teacher really participate and create a realtionship with me and improve my lessons.

An issue is of course the scarce knowledge of English which cuts some teachers out of my classes. On other occasion, though, I am aware that the teacher does undertand english but simply does not want to be part of my lesson.

Simonetta, Italy

2017-10-29 20:57:20 UTC

The ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina seems very interesting...I've taught simultaneously with other teachers, but it was generally the special need teacher (or me as a special need teacher) and/or the language assistant.. I've always loved it and so have my colleagues!

Having feedback from a colleague makes you feel stronger and supported!

Çiğdem Öztürk, Turkey

cigdemozturkk — 2017-10-29 21:12:43 UTC

The ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model is amazing. I haven't experienced it but I think it creates a supportive climate between teachers so this makes learning better.

Gabriella, Italy

2017-10-29 22:13:57 UTC

My experience as a special need education teacher makes me think that cooperation is wonderful, especially when the rles are not completely fixed.

Gamze Siper/ Turkey

gamzesiper — 2017-10-30 07:09:53 UTC

I like the model “co-teaching rotation” that she mentioned. I think it is useful and I experienced something like that when I was at university’s internship program. We were two teachers in one classroom. While I was doing the activity with kids other teacher observed me and students, while she was doing activity with kids I was observing students and her. We had checklist for assessments for both students and teachers. I agree with Valentina also I think; if teachers cannot collaborate students cannot either. Constructive criticism are important for developing. We need to listen each other to improve our teaching, sometimes other teachers can see what we cannot see with our lesson plans depending on their experiences, their knowledge or their perspective. So if we try to improve collaboration we should do it first.

Adela Redes from Romania

adela_redes — 2017-10-30 13:22:10 UTC

The ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned post by Valentina is a similar teaching model used in Romania. In romanial educational system during preschol period reffers to pupils from 2 years old to 5 years old. There a two teachers educators at the same group of chindren. One is doing activities with children in the morning from 8 to 12 a.m. and the other one is doing activities from 12 to 17pm.This program is avalable for one week and then they change the daily tasks they rotate for the next week in the same time schedule. It is likely a co-teching rotation presented here.
This tehnique is helpful for children so they can develop collaborative work, reflexive thinking, and also can improve teaching. This kind of activities are integrated it is called integrated activities in our educational system.

Timb Edina, Romania

gavrus_edina — 2017-10-30 14:45:39 UTC

I have never tried this "co-teaching rotation" method, because I have the impression that this method goes to kindergarten more than in high school students. Eventually, I can say that in classes where there are pupils with special educational needs, there is a support teacher who helps students to attend the curriculum in their own rhythm of assimilation and understanding. There is another option when pupils are divided into two groups in intensive classes, but each group deals with another teacher the same exercises and problems. I do not think this method works in high school.

Carmela, Italy

pirata76 — 2017-10-30 16:55:15 UTC

In my classroom there are 22 pupils and I work with them 22 hour a week, my collegue works for the same hours but we work together only for 4 hour a week. for the rest of the time we work separately. This situation isn't useful if you want to change your way of teaching. We can do labs and collaborative lessons but it is always very stressful without any help

Shukufa Najafova

2017-10-30 17:27:06 UTC

Ismailli, Azerbaijan
I like the model “co-teaching rotation” that she mentioned. I agree with my colleages by this point of view. We also do like this. Sometimes we were two teachers in one classroom. While I was doing the activity with kids other teacher observed me and students, while she was doing activity with kids I was observing students and her. We had checklist for assessments for both students and teachers. So if we try to improve collaboration we should do it first.

Cristina, Romania

2017-10-30 20:54:19 UTC

Co-teaching is a skill that requires openness, good-will and modesty from the participants. It's hard to put into practice, though it sound wonderful in theory

Daniela,Italy

2017-10-30 21:31:39 UTC

I think this method can be applied to primary school only. It is very interesting but I have no experience of it. It is very important to share ideas and suggestions between teachers and take everything good comes from the collaboration.

Ignacio, Spain

2017-10-31 07:07:52 UTC

The presence of more than one teacher in the class seems essential to me. It also allows a better attention to diversity and improves programming as they acquire greater wealth. On the other hand it allows that the collaboration between the teachers is authentic since they work on the same group of students.

Spasija Neshkoska Cuculeska

spa_neshko — 2017-10-31 15:41:29 UTC

First of all it saves a lot of time and energy when you get a first hand information about the needs and competences of the students you teach. You are more prepared, focused and sure about the content you prepare for your classes. It is beneficial for the students as well, since the weaknesses of one teacher in a certain area or topic can be overcomed by the other teacher who can be more knowledgeable or skilled. In my school, teachers rely on other teachers experience and competences and collaboration is an inevitable part of our everyday work.

Patrícia Carvalhais, Portugal

carvalhais_patricia — 2017-10-31 18:17:11 UTC

What do you think about the ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model mentioned by Valentina? Do you find it an interesting approach, and is it one you have experience with?

I find this ‘co-teaching rotation’ collaboration model interesting but I’ve no experience with. In my school in certain classes there are two teachers but one of the teachers is responsible for everything (planning, assessing, etc) and the other just helps manage student’s conflicts and difficulties.

Valentina mentions the need for teachers to bring their best skills and practices to the team while remaining flexible to adapt them in case others suggest better ways of working. Do you agree with this, and what are your experiences of acting on the constructive criticisms of other teachers?

I agree with this, if it’s a better way of working there is no problem in incorporate that in my practice. Sometimes it’s difficult to realize that in fact the suggestion is better.

Francesca, Italy

francesca_calderoni1 — 2017-11-01 09:21:11 UTC

As other colleagues wrote in their previous posts, I also have the impression that the “co-teaching rotation” method fits for kindergarten more than for high school students. Anyhow, I agree with Valentina Marinova’s general statements about teachers collaboration, particularly about her closing lines, that correspond to my own experience too: “successful teacher collaboration begins with finding time to connect with colleagues, remaining open, sharing thoughts, and being ready to provide support.”

Daniela R. Italy

DRubagotti — 2017-11-01 17:35:04 UTC

I teach in a secondary school and in my experience it's very difficult find the time and the will to work togheter with other teachers. When it happened I find the opportunity very useful but I have to admit that this happens only one or two times a year.

ROSITSA, BG

2017-11-03 18:18:14 UTC

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Luca, Italy

2017-11-04 11:37:44 UTC

In this way of teaching, the teachers in classroom start with a involvement of disabled pupils to create groups of student who can help each other in activities in a sort of Tutorying method based on working in pairs or in groups.

Badea Romania

2017-11-05 03:54:44 UTC

I teach in a secondary school, i have different type of collegues .This rotation is allmost impossible in my school, but the way Valentina use it is very helpful, even for the teachers with experience.

Elena F. Italy

2017-11-05 11:33:36 UTC

Collaboration is the only way to give the students a model of collaboration. The problem is to maintain your own teaching style trying to meet your colleague's one. In a team of 3/teachers you can find one or two of them open to collaboration. When I find them I try to create a project together: it can be an e-twinning project or something linked with the lessons or to some experience, such a s a school trip. You spend a lot of time organizing the work with colleagues, but it is worth because you are really giving the students a positive message and model.

Cândida Passos

candidasampaiopassos — 2017-11-05 18:37:30 UTC

In my point of view, collaboration is the main way to give the students a model of collaboration.
How I teach in a secondary school I have different type of colleagues. It's difficult to implement this kind of teaching, but it's not impossible. We need a lot of time to dialogue with our colleagues.

Rasma, Lithuania

2017-11-06 07:34:49 UTC

I think this method is a great idea and it clearly has its obvious advantages. However, I haven't got much experience applying it. I feel open to constructive criticism. From my own experiene, I've noticed that this strategy can be applied successfully when two teachers (foreign language) teach the same class groups. The video has inspired me to invite one student form the group to work together as a teacher because I work with senior students.

Maro Constantinou, Cyprus

mconstantinou1 — 2017-11-06 08:31:47 UTC

What a wonderful cooperation between the two teachers. In my school we are four teachers where we could do some simultaneous teaching in supporting better the delivery of the lesson. BUT, it is difficult to apply because of different approaches and interpersonal relations. They think that simultaneous teaching is extra work, unfortunately! I wish I found teachers to cooperate better!

Caterina, Italy

2017-11-06 08:47:03 UTC

I teach English and often collaborate with other teachers in the classroom. I think cooperative teaching can be very effective for students.

Ana Almeida, Portugal

arsalmeida — 2017-11-06 19:56:30 UTC

Collaboration is essential, not only between students, but between teachers. This models is great and, unfortunatelly taking in consideration the portuguese case, much easier to implement in primary schools. In secondary and basic schools is hard, because of the complexity of the subjects and the hard, long and strict curriculum implemented. We have much to learn with flexibility examples and we have them here in Portugal, if we consider the outstanding work of Escola da Ponte. I believe teachers are more open to being assessed by peers now, for it has been done for quite a few years and it is more and more constructive in the cases I have experienced.

Iuliana, Romania

iulyanaivan — 2017-11-06 20:11:26 UTC

I find intersting theat method. Collaborations is important from students. The teacher must be flexible and permanently adapt to the requirements of the society he / she is a member of.

Teuta, Albania

2017-11-06 22:54:23 UTC

Involving students in projects brings new skills and develops collaboration.
As in my school is being practiced the teaching progress is traditionally by many teachers. I try to involve them in dixhital platforms like E-Twinning.
Being a teacher of English, i have more opportunities to get involved and participate in online seminar or conferences.

Joaquim Almeida, Braga, Portugal

joaquimalmeida — 2017-11-06 23:53:47 UTC

I think this method is very good and it clearly has its obvious advantages. However, I haven't got much experience with it. I think that a co-teaching partnership can be put into practice using a variety of methods and doesn’t necessarily use the same teaching model every day. The method chosen by the teachers is determined by their individual teaching styles, the unique needs of the classroom, and the lesson being taught. I think that co-teachers must manage varying levels of preparation for each model, differences in their knowledge and teaching styles, and the individual needs of students.

Alexandre, Brazil

alexandre_barros_vieira — 2017-11-07 12:58:46 UTC

The first model mentioned by Valentina was clearly not collaborative between teachers and as she has pointed out students take us teachers as a role model, so they were not learning to collaborate by model. Her observation on in flexible to adapt to a new way of teaching and trying to encoure other teachers is also a key thing! If we do not collaborate among ourselves what are we really teaching? However, as she also pointed out it can take some time to get teachers involved in collaborative ways, but I think that showing results can be a great teaching for teachers.

Jeane de Fatima, Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

2017-11-07 17:46:04 UTC

In collaborative work, students assume in the classroom
their own learning and develop metacognitive skills to monitor and direct their
learning and performance. When there is interaction between people in a collaborative way,
through an authentic activity, they bring their own schemas of thought and their
prospects for the activity. Each person involved in the activity can see the problem of
different perspective and are able to negotiate and generate meanings and solutions through a
shared understanding. The constructivist proposal led to an understanding of how
learning can be facilitated through engaging and constructive activities. This model
of learning emphasizes the construction of meanings with active participation in social contexts,
cultural, historical and political.
The crucial element of active participation is the exchange of experiences through dialogue.

Roberta, Italy

r_signorino — 2017-11-07 22:18:02 UTC

Co-teaching is a very interesting model, in Italy some classes in Secondary schoo are taught by two teachers of different subjects, and I think there should be more opportunities for teachers to work together in the same period, as it would have positive effects in classroom management, support of students in mixed abilities classes, increased time for lesson and PBL planning, students' assessment.

Adriana RO

2017-11-08 14:47:52 UTC

in our country, each class has one teacher. But in primary school it can happen to be a step by step program in which co-teaching is mandatory. In the morning the first teacher introduces the new element of writing and in the afternoon the second teacher will have games, songs or painting classes.

Luizete Dias

ldias6 — 2017-11-28 11:06:45 UTC

Co-teaching is a very interesting model. I'm atending a course with my colegues to implement this model in our school

Gonçalo Costa, Portugal

2020-03-26 20:33:46 UTC

In my opinion, co-teaching rotation can be very useful for sharing ideas and ways of thinking that are useful in everyday life

Deniz YAPICI, Turkey

ozyuvayapici — 2021-01-24 01:20:40 UTC

I find intersting theat method. Collaborations is important from students. The teacher must be flexible and permanently adapt to the requirements of the society he / she is a member of.

Maria, Romania

2026-04-22 09:49:22 UTC

I think it's a very good idea, especially with younger children. This way the teacher doesn't have to sacrifice time from the lesson to respond to each question, that burden is cut in half, and the children are managed better. I can imagine that some issues can arise from different perspectives over the lesson between the teachers, but I think that is even better, since you can get a fresh perspective.

2026-04-30 21:33:16 UTC

The co-teaching rotation model is a very interesting and practical approach to collaboration. It allows teachers to take turns leading different parts of the lesson or working with different groups, which keeps teaching dynamic and makes better use of each teacher’s strengths. Instead of one fixed role, responsibilities are shared and rotated, which can improve both student engagement and teaching quality.

I do find it effective, especially in:

Differentiated classrooms (students at different levels)
Language teaching (e.g., one teacher focuses on speaking, another on writing)
Project-based learning

From experience, even informal versions of this model (like splitting tasks or rotating activities) tend to:

Reduce teacher workload
Increase student participation
Provide more individualized support

On flexibility and sharing best practices

I strongly agree with Valentina’s point. A successful co-teaching environment depends on two things:

Bringing your strengths (methods, strategies, classroom management)
Being open to change

In reality, this balance can be challenging. Some teachers are comfortable with their own style and may resist change. However, the most productive collaborations happen when teachers:

Listen to each other
Test new ideas
Reflect together after lessons

On constructive criticism

Acting on feedback from other teachers can be uncomfortable at first, but it’s one of the fastest ways to improve.

From experience:

Feedback from colleagues is often more practical than theoretical advice
Small suggestions (e.g., changing activity timing or instructions) can make a big difference
When feedback is respectful and specific, it builds trust rather than tension

However, this only works in a supportive environment. If criticism feels judgmental, teachers may become defensive instead of improving.

Final thought

The co-teaching rotation model is effective and worth applying, but its success depends less on the structure itself and more on the mindset of the teachers—openness, flexibility, and willingness to learn from one another.

Víctor, Spain

2026-05-01 09:49:18 UTC

I find the co-teaching rotation model appealing because it moves away from one teacher leading and the other just assisting. Alternating roles allows both teachers to stay actively involved and respond better to students’ needs. As a student teacher, I haven’t experienced this model fully, but I’ve seen how even small moments of shared teaching can make lessons more dynamic and supportive for students.

I agree that teachers should bring their strengths but stay flexible. In practice, this can be challenging, accepting others’ ideas means questioning your own habits, but it also leads to better results. From what I’ve observed, when teachers are open to feedback and adjust their approach, the learning experience becomes richer and more collaborative for both teachers and students.