I am so grateful to Jeannie to allow me to guest blog for her!
I threw this question out on one of my Five for Fridays a few weeks ago:
I am happy to say that Jeannie is open to Guest Bloggers. Whew…that is a relief! This is my first try at guest blogging and I am honored that I am able to do it here at Kindergarten Land!
My name is Elizabeth Hall and I am from Kickin’ it in Kindergarten. I love Jeannie’s blog and all of her fabulous ideas! Kindergarten teachers are kindred spirits. I hope to find some other K teachers (and others) through this post! I’ll tell you where to find me at the end of this post.
She is allowing me to take over for the day so here is my topic…
dummm…dummmm…dumm..
Co-teaching.
I know you are thinking that is a boring topic, but entertain me for 2 minutes. Here are my deepest darkest thoughts that I had about co-teaching…
No.
I’m not going to share.
This is my classroom, my kids, my books…mine mine mine.
Even if that doesn’t come to your mind immediately, it would. This was the second year that I had volunteered to take special ed. I started off with 20 students, 3 on an IEP and ended the year with 21 kids and 4 on an IEP. With this responsibility there were quite a few adults in the room with me. In the classroom, at any given time, you could see 5-8 adults. My aide (all day), special ed. teacher (her students teacher) speech therapist, OT, and school physiologist. I also had a student teacher at the beginning of the year.
Omg. Let me get my Beyonce sparkle onsie on and do a song and dance for the crowd.
Some of my friends were out of control at the beginning of the year. Rolling on the carpet uncontrollably, running around the classroom during carpet time, crawling under the tables, running away on the stairs, meltdown galore…etc etc….You get the picture.
When the special ed. teacher (also one of my besties) brought up the idea of having them in the classroom during my 90 minute literacy block….I thought I was going to lose it. How will I get all 20 students to reach mastery of all of these lofty goals and standards with the added distraction of more teachers and students with special needs?
“We didn’t do that last year!” was what I wanted to say.
“We didn’t do that last year!” was what I wanted to say.
That’s when I said that I really needed to keep the other kids in mind and she asked me to give it a try. She also offered to come in and help teach.
Both of these things made me weary (see deepest darkest thoughts). I will work close with you…but not that close. What if the kids love you more than me? What if you are better teacher than I am? What if we can’t control the other kids and show growth? What if the principal walks in and sees mayhem?
My mind was reeling.
I, hesitantly, agreed to try it.
It was the best decision I have ever made and I am writing this blog post for those of you out there that give others the hand when they want to work with you. We split up guided reading groups so that some of the IEP kids were mixed in with my groups and her group. She taught Handwriting Without Tears whole group. I would teach whole group math lessons and should would pull any students that were struggling and vice versa.
I should have felt honored instead of hesitant. I think at that point I was so tired and run ragged that I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t visualize what today looks like in my classroom. It has become a well oiled machine.
Those kids that you pictures running around and throwing fits are now listening to stories on the carpet, volunteering and sharing by raising their hands and participating in various whole group activities. This could have not been accomplished with them being pulled out of my room. Students with special needs are not the problem of just special ed teachers and aides. Those students our your students just like any other child that might walk in to your room. Students without special needs aren’t just the sole responsibility of the classroom teacher when there are exceptional students in your room. It’s a team responsibility and I encourage everyone to embrace that. I can promise that if you can let go just a little bit, you will grow and learn more than you can ever imagine. I feel like we have all learned so much from each other this year. Not to mention, it is so nice to have other adults in the classroom to know your kiddos personalities and laugh at the little things with you all day.
Not only do I love my students like I love my own, but there are other adults that love them equally as much as I do. One of my students reached 200 books (the challenge was to do 100 books) and the three of us took her for ice cream.
Not just her teacher, but her teachers.
I am saddened by the thought of moving them up to first grade without the “dream team” as I like to call the three of us.
Sarah, the special ed. teacher, is on to teach 2nd grade.
Dana, TA (I’ll call her teacher #2), will be going with them to first but the kids will all be split up. So her time with them will be split.
The other wonderful thing about teaching together is the friendship that you form. The three of us spent time together outside of school, so that is just an added bonus 🙂
So while I will still put on my invisible sparkle Beyonce onsie to do a song and dance for my Kindergarteners next year (I live my life in exclamation points), it won’t be the same.
The other wonderful thing about teaching together is the friendship that you form. The three of us spent time together outside of school, so that is just an added bonus 🙂
So while I will still put on my invisible sparkle Beyonce onsie to do a song and dance for my Kindergarteners next year (I live my life in exclamation points), it won’t be the same.
My hope for you is that if the opportunity presents itself, you take it.
Come visit me sometime over at my blog!
