I absolutely love teaching kids with learning disabilities. Unfortunately I was placed in a new teaching situation where I will teach math, science and language arts (8th grade) with three different teachers. I am strictly co-teaching. I will NOT be teaching my own class. I would like to also teach my own classes…I have seriously considered becoming a reg. ed English teacher, but i love special ed too much. Just have all co. taught has really depressed me…someone shed some light. thanks
Re: depressed....
I co-taught eighth grade English with two different teachers. English was part of a core program with social studies and science. I really liked co-teaching as opposed to having a special ed English class. My eighth grade students were able to be with their peers and see that they could learn grade level curriculum. They were able to evaluate their performance before choosing their high school program (regular or special ed). Both teachers worked differently and I was able to use my skills and learn theirs. I did have those same students in a special ed study skills class where we could review, begin assignments, etc. which increased their success in regular ed classes. I wold encourage you to take this as an opportunity to learn first hand the expectations special ed kids face in the regular program. Keep a notebook with ideas, things that work, etc. You may deciede to return to a pull-out special ed class or go on to a regular program, but you will be richer for the experience.
Re: depressed....
It’s easy to feel like a teacher’s aide — and unfortunately, easy for that to end up being the role you play. Depressing, indeed.
Be proactive and explore the possibilities (http://www.powerof2.org is a good place to start). You want to be teaching — get together with the teacher and talk about this. Do you feel confident in the content? Could you do some of the teaching? (It should be more than possible… )
I see no one has responded to this. I sort of co-taught for a few years. We both had separate classrooms next to each other but we shared responsibilites. We had snack and some other activities together. This was with autistic teenagers. He was very good with behavior management (I’m good at it but more have the ideas down, he could keep his cool under all situations, not so easy with me.) OTOH, I was better with language, language development stuff. It was a very nice compliment, the two of us. We had zero arguments or disagreements. We had high respect for each other so it worked very well. I think it would be hard to find a person that I worked so well with. (Maybe Janis since we the two maverick “bad” teachers. :-))
—des