Collaboration with G.Ed.teachers and co-teaching issues

I am dealing with scheduling issues in my school and I the only inclusion teacher in an elementary school. I have to go and co-teach with different grade level teachers. I feel sometimes due to lack of planning, I am not able to do justice with my students. Gen. ed. and SPED teachers should collaborate and plan modified activities and data driven interventions for Children with disabilities. I struggling because I do not a common planning time with all my general education teachers. Some are not effective because I don't know what Gen. Ed. teacher has a plan for today. please help if someone dealing with the same kind of situation and have some ideas to collaborate with other teachers. Your cooperation is appreciated to resolve this critical issue in my school.

It seems like many teachers are facing these issues. I know we are at my school. My situation is a little different as I am a music teacher and considered to be ancillary staff. I basically provide teachers with their preparation time so it seems impossible to meet with them to collaborate. I've been focusing on this issue in a course I am taking and some suggestions to collaborate would be to e-mail teachers, use Google Docs to share plans or assessments, or work with your administration to see if it is possible to set aside some time for general educators and special education educators to meet during professional development days. There really does seem to only be a few ways to address this issue which is a huge concern.

I think these are great ideas, but scheduling is a big problem. I will try Google Docs. Thanks for sharing great ideas with me. Another question about Inclusion setting; do you think SLD students make desirable progress in general education classroom, or they need individualized instructions?

Hi,
I happen to work at a very progressive middle/high school that is lead by an incredible principal. I know that there is no easy fix for a school that is not structured to provide common prep time for its coteaching teachers, nor is it easy to fix the problem of teachers not "jiving" together. But, I can tell you that it is possible with the right type of leadership. My school was well known as being the worst in the district, on many levels. Our principal has spent lots of time on perfecting collaboration and teaching us what effective teams look like. Some schools have other priorities, but until your school makes it a top priority to work on teamwork, the change you desire may never come. If I were you, I would be having conversations with your administration. Find one teacher that you can co-teach well with and then ask to be paired with them (co-teaching period as well as common prep). I cannot see how a principal could deny you the chance when you are only wanting to make the school better for kids. Good luck!

I feel like the main teacher (in a subject area class) is the expert and has been trained on that particular subject more extensively than myself, and has to be highly qualified to teach that subject. For example, Math. I have found that if I tell the teacher which lesson I feel comfortable with, she will let me choose, and I will only teach once or twice a week. I make sure I go early to her class, or catch her after school to make a plan for the week about what she wants me to tackle. It only takes about 10 minutes. Then research the best strategy I feel comfortable with teaching that particular lesson. (Integers, for example).

I'm a special ed teacher in a self contained classroom. However, my students do have classes with other teachers. The only inclusive classes they have right now are PE, some carpentry classes and food prep class. Scheduling always seems to be an issue. I think a scheduled planning period for the general education teachers and myself would greatly benefit us. I do think its important for everyone to remember that we have to work in our students' best interest.

I have been teaching special education for the past five years and unfortunately this seems to be a re-occurring problem not just in my building, but in buildings all over. Scheduling can be the trickiest of problems, not just for the teachers, but for administration as well. I know that I have had several conversations with my administration and I do understand how hard it is on them to create a Master Schedule that works for everyone. With that being said, I do believe that it would be much easier if SPED teachers only had one G.ED teacher to co-teach with. Once you mix one SPED teacher across grade levels and contents (which I was for three out of my five years of teaching) it becomes very, very difficult to effectively collaborate and plan well with your G.ED counterpart. Sometimes meeting before/after school, or even during lunch is the only option left. I found that you really need to stretch yourself in order to effectively make sure you are prepared in each class.

A lot of people forget that inclusion is not actually a setting, it is a philosophy/ method of reaching all type of learners. Inclusion is not just placing a classified student in a general education class, which sadly many times it become just that. Once the SPED and G.ED teacher have collaborated enough, and understand the inclusion philosophy, I do believe that SLD student can make tremendous progress. I have had opportunities where this has happened to my own students. For LA and Math these students received the curriculum in a resource setting, however for Social Studies and Science, they were included in the general education setting. The exposure to the general education classroom, and the effective co-teaching and differentiation offered in the classroom allowed students to grown not only academically but socially as well. The SPED teachers in both classrooms provided individualized support through various differentiated activities that specifically focuses on students strengths. If done correctly, SPED students in the G. ED setting can grow tremendously; it just must be there LRE, otherwise they are being set up for failure.

I understand the issue you are having. In my school there is also a similar scheduling issue. However, this year we tried something new, the administrators setup a blog for the teachers to communicate with each other. There we post questions about how to deal with specific SPED issues or what interventions work with certain students. We also share lesson plan ideas and modifications that we have found to be successful and maybe helpful to others. What is great about the blog is that teachers can read posts and respond at a time most convenient for them, although participation is required by administration in order to ensure we are collaborating. Also everyone has access to the questions and helpful tips. I hope you find a suitable solution soon, good luck.