Throughout the second half of this year I have enjoyed co-teaching our Year 9 PE classes with Alice. We've had three units together; Movement Ed, Fitness and Outdoor Ed, and each had a different Achievement Objective attached to it. I spent my whole first year at Tamaki co-teaching all of my classes, and I really enjoyed it. I felt like I learnt a lot alongside another teacher, and loved bouncing ideas off of one another before, during and after lessons. So I was excited for this opportunity again.
Alice has a few more years experience than me, so brings lots of great ideas. As teachers, we have similar views, expectations and philosophies. We both have an interest in curriculum and how to integrate curriculum terminology and knowledge within our teaching and learning. We both have high expectations for students, wanting them to achieve to the greatest of their potential. We both like to challenge students to critically think about their choices, their involvement and their opinions. We both prioritise inclusion and participation.
These similarities between us have been great for the culture we have developed in our class. Questioning students on their levels and the achievement objectives has certainly helped to develop the positive learning culture too. I feel majority of our students have moved away from the expectation that PE is just playing sports, as they initially thought. There now seems to be more understanding about the E in PE! I've also loved hearing other students starting to help one another when they are unsure, and holding each other accountable for individual and class success.
Obviously Alice and I have some slight differences, but they don't have any major impact on our planning and teaching. The only thing we could come up with are slight expectation differences around behaviour and uniform. The stuff that fortunately is minimal due to the class culture!
I really hope that I have further opportunities to co-teach, as it is so valuable. So much can be learnt from having someone else alongside you, irrespective of their experience. I do think it can be very challenging if you don't have similar views, expectations and philosophies - but this provides quite different learning opportunities, more personal growth possibly.
Who knows what the future holds...
