Co-teaching? Consider Flexibility as a Co-teaching Tool

May 15, 2010 by Susan Fitzell

Here’s a great way for making co-teaching a benefit rather than a hassle for teachers: Be flexible.

I know you’re all looking at that line and saying to yourselves, “Well of course I’m flexible; I fully intend to be.” However, I’m not talking about your own personality, though that is important too. I’m talking about what you plan together in the classroom. In essence, if you and your co-teacher can come up with some kind of a flexible plan that would meet the requirements of kids with an IEP and, at the same time, meet the requirements of the regular education kids, you’re going to have an easier time making it happen in your classroom.

Of course, this does require some planning on both of your parts, but even just snatching a few minutes during prep time or your lunch break can work wonders. You could also exchange phone numbers and e-mail so you can work together on projects. For the more technologically advanced, consider signing up for Google Wave, where you can actually collaborate on lesson plans together, in real time or whenever each of you has the time to get online.

In the classroom, have a signal planned between the two of you so that, if you need to switch things midstream, the kids won’t feel confused as to who is teaching the lesson.

The bottom line is, like I said at the beginning of this blog post, you just need to be flexible and then everything else will fall into place.