A Special Educator's Guide to Co - Teaching

As a special education teacher, I have co - taught in a variety of classrooms over the last seven years. During my student teaching experience, I worked in a classroom with a full-time special education teacher and grade 2 teacher who co-taught all lessons together. For the last six years, I have been a resource room teaching servicing students both in my special education classroom and in their general education setting using an inclusion model.

I created A Special Education Teacher's Guide to Co - Teaching to help other special education teachers (and general education teachers) work together to best meet the needs of their students.

To learn more click here

Did you know there are 6 co-teaching models? I have found that most teachers think co - teaching is team teaching or fall into the rut of using the one teach, one assist model. Co - Teaching is hard. It requires planning, flexibility, and extra communication. However, it is one of my favorite parts of my job. Co- Teaching has given me the opportunity to learn from a variety of teachers, think creatively, and feel less isolated in my building and my students also reap the benefits of having two certified teachers teaching them.  

I created this resource to give teachers resources to plan co - teaching lessons based on all 6 co -teaching models and reflect on how it went. I am guilty - sometimes it's hard to branch out when one co -teaching model is working. This resource has allowed me to plan each co - teaching model and reflect on my teaching and my lesson delivery. I hope this resource will be beneficial to both new and veteran co - teachers. 

 

 













I also provided resources for setting up the classroom to meet the needs of both teachers, tips for getting to know your co -teacher, organizational documentation such as an accommodation and modification cheat sheet and an inclusion documentation form.

For more information click here

Do you co -teach? Which co - teaching model do you use the most? Do you have a favorite? What forms or documentation to you use to keep yourself organized? Let me know in the comments section!