This afternoon during our weekly MDTA Professional Learning Group, we discussed the basics of collaborative/co-teaching, which I am still pondering. If you are working in a co-teaching environment, it is important to question yourself and your teaching.
Without analysing you, and your colleagues' teaching (individually and collaboratively), there is a possibility you aren't providing your students with the best possible teaching they can have, or the teaching may not be working. Ultimately, teaching needs to work for the students, regardless if there is one, two or even six teachers in one classroom. So, ask yourself the following;
 |
| Picture located here |
What does collaborative teaching look like?
Feel like?
Sound like?
What works?
What doesn't?
Are we working with one another?
Or against one another?
Am I open to feedback and suggestions?
Do I offer feedback and suggestions?
Are we taking risks, trying new things?
Or sticking to what we know?
I think asking these questions frequently as reflection, is important to enable the best learning that is possible for the students.
So when is co-teaching at it's best?
Co-teaching is something we all can expect to doing throughout our careers in teaching and it is great to see you pondering on this Georgia. I know from co-teaching the MDTA programme with Anne that the benefits are endless; from sharing the load to honing and refining ones skills and thinking. And it has to be so much better for the learners than if it was just the one of us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for my first comment ever! Yea, I like co-teaching because of the increased one on one time with students.
Delete