Collaboration PD

To me, collaborative teaching is not about the environment, but the teaching and pedagogy of the teachers involved. Collaboration/team teaching can be defined as, "two or more people sharing responsibility for educating some or all of the students in a classroom..that involves the distribution of responsibility among people for planning, instruction and evaluation for a classroom of students." (Villa, Thousand and Nevin, 2008, p. 5) Being able to plan, design and implement lessons together as a team makes teaching a far easier job (if done correctly) and bringing different teachers strengths to a number of children can only mean better outcomes and higher achievement levels for the students. I have been involved in teams that collaboratively bounce ideas off each other during the planning stages of units, share resources and where and when appropriate (space restrictions etc) would co-teach together. 

Before listening to and reading a number of the articles listed (and after last weeks PD meeting) I wasn't aware of all the different co-teaching strategies and their specific names. From my findings, I have been part of...

1. Supportive co-teaching - I have taken both the lead role and supportive role. This was very useful when teaching statistics to Yr 2/3 students. Having two teachers enabled students who would have struggled to have more support and guidance and the cildren who needed extending were encouraged to extend their ideas etc. This can happen in a single-celled class, but it meant that this was happening every lesson as there was enough time and teachers to get around all the Nichiren.
2. Team Teaching - I used this after the Sept earthquakes when 4 classrooms were set up in one hall. 

What I like about team/co-teaching is that is forces you to reflect on your teachings. Even job-sharing with Emily has made me reflect on lessons and the needs of the students as I have to pass this information on to Emily. I am forever thinking of their next steps and where to next. 

The thing that challenges me with teaching Yr 1/2 students is the idea of self-directed learning. The children I have in my homeroom at the moment lack self management skills and if left to their own devices their behaviour deteriorates. However, there are some children who are naturally self-motivated even at this young age and they will do well with self-directed learning. I am starting to instill in the students the importance of having initiative. Does self direction come naturally and can it be taught/modeled/encouraged to all students or will some students always lack self-direction? 

Another challenge that I face with co-teaching is the lack of flexibility to take those delightful 'teachable moments' by the hand and deliver a lesson then and their, off the cuff, as they crop up organically...as this is often where the best teaching and memorable experiences happen. If we are too caught up in team/parallel teaching etc, are we then too inflexible to embrace these moments? Would it then depend on the flexibility of your team? As this is something that I love to do - being able to change ideas and be flexible with my teaching when and if the need arises if it is in the best interest of the students. 


References:
Nevin, A. I., Thousand, J. S., & Villa, R. A. (2009). Collaborative teaching for teacher educators: What does the research say? Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 569-574.