Making Co-teaching Successful

We are in a period of online learning - again. I think this is the third or fourth time that the whole school has gone online during this pandemic.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

When we first started teaching online, I was a homeroom teacher. My role was very straightforward. Since then I have moved to a support role as PYP Learning Support and Technology Coach. With this new role, I have more flexibility to join lessons as needed, but I find that since I am not in planning sessions with teachers (something I am pushing for) I can be called at any time to help with a lesson. When it is simply to be another adult in the room, there is not much need to go over things. But when I am being asked to co-teach a lesson, I can sometimes rush into it without fully knowing what the lesson is about. 

Yeah, I get excited to help others.

But today I went to a lesson and it was just an OK lesson. This was because I didn't have time to prepare and think through what I was going to be doing. I was given a lesson outline then a little while later I was to deliver. 

It didn't help that this lesson was online.

After the lesson, I was reflecting on how it could have been better since this situation will happen again -- online or in person. I came up with a few simple things my teachers and I could do before we teach together.

Develop a relationship with your co-teacher

• Co-plan
• Co-prepare
• Practice together before a lesson
• Reflect together

It looks very obvious, but unless it is made into a norm -- a part of the school's culture, it can be tricky to put into practice.

How Safe Do You Feel?

I just revisited this video from Simon Sinek where he talks about a leader's job which is to make people feel safe. 

When people feel safe, they are more willing to try new things. For someone trying to encourage people to be more innovative, this is an important question.

• If people feel safe - why do they?
• If they don't - why don't they?

How can I gauge this among the staff? I suppose I could send a survey. I could look for innovation (or look for those who are resistant).

Internet Books to Read

These are three books I recommend reading about digital life.

The Internet of Garbage

Web Literacy for the Student Fact Checker

It's complicated : the social lives of networked teens / danah boyd 

Strategies for Fact Checking

Download a copy

Download a copy

Tech Inspiration

This year I have set up a Slack Channel where I can share out different tech ideas for teachers at my school. 

When we came back I was asked to do a presenation about "tech". When I asked what I should talk about I was just told that the ideas I have been sharing out have been great.

Here is what I came up with.

I wanted to demonstrate a few tools (Answer Garden, Yellkey, Bit.ly, and Jamboard for icebreakers.)

Teachers were mostly interested in Baamboozle, Google Earth, Screencastify, and Google Arts and Culture.

Some of the links might work but some will not work. Yellkeys will definitely not work because they were set to 24 hours. (yellkey.com)