I believe that co-teaching can be a highly effective model if implemented with the right pair of teachers. To be effective, teachers must share a common educational philosophy and feel safe enough to teach within the others presence. Teachers also need to share a mutual level of respect and be willing to make compromises when it comes to instruction. If implemented correctly, co-teaching classroom models can offer more individualized instruction for students, a widened perspective and approach to learning, and specific groupings to maximize student achievement.
The upgrade of curriculum for the 21st century supports the co-teaching model. What better way to model collaboration and effective communication than two teachers working together to plan and implement lessons? The co-teaching model also allows teachers to experiment with various grouping methods for lessons that could be supported by stations, parallel teaching, and alternative teaching. These different groupings could assist with hands-on projects that require students to collaborate, critically think, problem-solve, and innovate--all 21st century skills.
As a curriculum supervisor, I see two potential challenges to supervising and evaluating a co-teaching team.
- What if the team of teachers isn't able to work together in an effective and professional manner? If two teachers were not able to work together, there are a number of possible resolutions. I would first work to mediate the situation by meeting with the teachers individually and then as a team. When meeting with the teacher's individually, I would listen for grievances. When meeting with them as a team, I would present the teachers with strategies and resources that might relieve some of the tension. Before having the meeting, I would research variations of the co-teaching model and look for resources (planning calendars, reflection guides, etc.) to supply to the team of teachers. I would also work to locate a co-teaching professional development to send the teachers to for assistance (Hopefully they had some training before beginning to teach as well). If these strategies did not improve the working environment, I would look for alternatives with scheduling and attempt to re-organize the teacher pair.
- Do I evaluate the teachers as a team or as individuals? Administrators/supervisors of curriculum are there to observe student learning---not teacher behavior; therefore, I would not evaluate the special educator and the general educator seperately. As a team, they are responsible for student learning, everyday. I would look for alignment, accountability, rigor, student enagagement, appropriate use of technology, and positive student-teacher relationships, as I am in every observation. But the co-teaching model does add a new element to the observation--roles of the teachers and positive teacher-to-teacher relationships. I would be looking for evidence of co-planning, joint delivery of instruction, and mutual respect.
The model or individualized program that I would like to see implemented in Baltimore County schools is Self-Paced Instruction, usually called Individualized Learning. Baltimore County does already offer a program called Advanced Path, but this is only offered if you no longer attend your local high school, and instead attend Advanced Path centers in the evenings. While this program is not right for the majority of students, there are so many students who are very bright and capable, but become distracted or angered by their peer group. Self-paced instruction could be offered during the school day and in the local high schools, so that it would not be accompanied by the stigma of a "drop-out program." I believe that implementing a self-paced instruction program in middle and high schools would lessen the drop-out rate, class cut frequency, and make BCPS curriculum more individualized to fit the needs of all students. I would work to widen the focus in the district from strictly an emphasis on increased Adavanced Placement and college-bound student programs to include a value on programs for students who are career-bound. I would make these changes by verbalizing my committment to all students, not just those in Advanced Placement courses, and following through with decisions in staffing, course offerings, and intervention programs.
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