Co-Teaching from the Special Education Perspective Part 1: Get Organized

(preface: this post is low on images but ample in pdf/Google Doc resources!)

      Pretend you are going on a date this Friday. Drinks, dinner, the whole deal! Woo hoo! It's an exciting time for you, my friend. You know that you'll probably spend some time this week thinking about what you're going to wear, looking at the menu for the restaurant ahead of time, making any arrangements you need to for someone to watch your pets, your kids, your laptop, who knows. There's mental preparation that goes into the whole week, because you might be nervous, excited, unsure, or maybe you're even ambivalent but you at least want to make a good impression. Then, the day of, you might take an hour to do your hair, pick out three outfits before you find the fourth option you didn't realize would be your favorite. You've got to iron your shirt, wash the car (if you are old fashioned), make sure you have everything just right; for some people this means even your tan is updated, while for others it simply means feeling like yourself before you go present yourself to someone else.

      The point is, you spend time before the date getting ready, and not just the time it takes to do your hair or iron your nicest dress shirt. Not for the first time, comparing co-teaching to dating/marriage/personal relationships is a great way metaphor for many reasons, but mostly because co-teaching involves establishing an actual relationship. That's why it's the most challenging form of teaching for many people. I'll get into the relationship piece in Part 2, but first think back to all those items you might check off your "to-do" list before a date. You have to get yourself ready!

      Coming to a co-teaching relationship from the Special Education perspective means you're bringing a lot of baggage with you. You bring all the complications to the relationship! You've got the behavior plans, the academic interventions, the modified assignments, the parents who want a daily report on everything their child has done, not to mention the testing modifications and accommodations! And don't forget the meetings that may or may not cause you to miss class, the data collection required for your IEPs, the planning time you have to take to work on IEPs and progress reports every quarter. Your co-teacher may be involved in some of these things, but ultimately, these tasks are only on YOUR radar, and likely aren't on your co-teacher's daily, weekly, or even yearly agenda.

      So it's up to you to get yourself organized before your school year starts, to come into that relationship with your baggage checked. I use a few handy tools to keep myself organized. Because, if I know my annual review dates are a click away, my data notebooks are easy to use (and personalize for those pesky goals that just don't fit any cookie-cutter type data collection tools), and my testing modifications are easy to read, then I know that I've got my baggage in order before I step up to the co-teaching plate. That was a lot of mixed metaphors, I apologize.

      The summer is a great time to reflect on what didn't work last year, and what did work; what items you need to better organize, what stressed you out the most in terms of case management and start brainstorming strategies to relieve some of that stress this coming year. Take out all the parts that are out of your control - last minute district and school deadlines, new transfers, new behavior plans to manage, etc.- and do what you can to improve YOUR organization and clarify your tasks for the year that will not change - writing IEPs, knowing mods, deadlines/dates for annual reviews and re-evals, etc. The more you have a handle on that information, the less it will stress you out as the year goes on.

    Here are some tools I use in the first few weeks of school to stay organized, but PLEASE feel free to comment with your own organization strategies, how you would improve these tools, or any other relevant feedback! Teaching becomes so much easier when we are a community that comes together to share our resources and expertise. You never know who or how many you will help with your advice!

Tool #1: Caseload Management Document

I use a document like this (electronic, I use Google Sheets) to organize my caseload each year. It includes the basic information you need to reference often, such as annual reviews, placement, and whether or not you've completed a progress report for that quarter. I color code mine to keep organized. Yellow annual review means it's scheduled, orange means it's coming up in the next few weeks but not scheduled, green is complete. Same for re-evals (but I add pink, which means we're doing testing and the first meeting is complete but I'm waiting on testing to be completed).

 
Tool #2: Student Data Sheet Document

This is a great document to keep in a data notebook, student folder, or electronic data folder because it is easily transferable to next year's case manager. It's also easy to read information to present at an IEP meeting, a BIP meeting, any kind of meeting, really. Plus, it includes space for all the information you'd need to set up a meeting. Lastly, the small graphs are easy to label with whatever units you need for your myriad goals and benchmarks. You can print as many goal pages as you need, since they conveniently fit on one page each, and you can print duplicates if you collect data more regularly than this sheet allows (way to go, you!).




Tool #3: Testing Mods/Accommodations Documents

I'll include 2 versions of this- one which is more "basic" and another which has added detail. Different teachers like different things, and I personalized the same format to be a simple version for a teacher that just wanted the quick glance, and a detailed version for a teacher that wanted more background information and details on the mods themselves. The pdf version embedded on this post is blank (and small, I blame Google), but the link will provide both a blank copy and an example of a mods form that is filled in with sample mods. I typically create the spreadsheet for the regular teacher (or myself!) requesting them at the start of the year, and then share it only with them, so that they have a copy a) of just their classes and b) that is not shared with all teachers, so that confidentiality is protected. Then, as I have meetings where mods are changed, I update the spreadsheet to reflect those changes (and usually I highlight that student's row so they know it has changed).

Basic Version (blank or filled in):

Detailed Version (blank or filled in):


Tool #4: Student Checklist/Parent feedback Document

Here's an example of a checklist I used with a student whose parents wanted feedback on class performance in order to support us (the student would avoid work, so his parents and teachers set up this sheet to give daily feedback to the parents so they could reward/reinforce expectations at home as needed to improve work completion). I've used check-ins like this with students in a self-contained setting, as well as inclusion 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders This type of system requires major parent effort and teacher effort as well, so it's not a one-size-fits-all type of system, but it's easy to modify based on classes, context, or per-student needs. It helps to organize some of the behavioral/parent contact needs you may have in your classroom. If you know some students who may be in your classes or on your caseload next year, summer is a great time to search for these kinds of resources to have at your disposal when you need a new strategy during the year.



Co-Teaching from the Special Education Perspective Part 2: Relationship and Communication 

Co-Teaching From the Special Education Perspective

     I was recently given the opportunity to present to some of my teacher peers at the first ever Orange County Schools summer conference. The county Board of Directors and School Board have determined that one of their main objectives in the county strategic plan is to do a better job of appreciating teachers in hopes to retain more teachers. In the Triangle area of North Carolina, teachers often move between counties- for a better school, better supplement pay, or even just a change of pace. On top of that, North Carolina is continually ranked low on the list of states where you'd want to teach, for a variety of reasons I can get into later. The point being, the first annual summer teacher conference, where the presenters were all teachers in the district and the organizers made the teachers feel like royalty for 2 days, was a big hit! I had a great time learning from my peers, CHOOSING my professional development sessions, and getting some free swag (and ridiculously delicious mac and cheese) along the way.

     I had signed up to present a short session on co-teaching from the Special Education perspective, in hopes of demonstrating some co-teaching techniques and strategies. Unfortunately, I was told last minute that instead of a room for presenting, I had to follow a round table presentation format, which didn't quite fit the type of presentation I was planning. I made do, but the situation birthed the idea of a blog series about co-teaching. So many of the teachers I have worked with or talked to about co-teaching, from student teaching until now, have struggled with co-teaching in some fashion. I had planned to start off the session with a poll to gather audience perceptions of their co-teaching experiences. Because the format was a round table in a room full of 7 other round table sessions, we didn't quite have the space/volume to really get into everyone's concerns. I thought that of the few respondents I had, the results were quite telling:

Responses (7) to the question "How would you best describe your experience(s) co teaching in Orange County Schools?"

     Most people, especially when talking to them about their co-teaching experiences, feel they don't have enough time to co-plan, and that they do not have enough resources to know HOW to co-plan. Based on these discussions and my previous experiences co-teaching, I am hoping to address a few of you who actually read this post with some resources and strategies I've found to work well (and some that don't).

     I'll have a short series of posts in the next few weeks to give some background information on the types of co-teaching, strategies for the special education teacher in a co-teaching relationship, and general advice I've followed throughout my 3 years of co-teaching (with a total of 5 different co-teachers across 3 grade levels and 2 content areas!). Stay tuned, and if you like the advice, share it! You can never be armed with enough information about co-teaching, in my opinion.

     I'll link to the posts here as I complete them, for easy reference: 

Part 1: Get organized! 
Part 2: Relationship and Communication
Part 3: Types of Co-Teaching
Part 4: Be a Professional Collaborator