Does your school have co-taught classrooms?

My school has them. They are called “integrated classes” or “team taught classes” at the high school level. At the elementary school level, it is called “collaborative support service”. I personally don’t like them because it is very difficult to learn with two teachers in the classroom.

Special Education is really getting interesting. For co-teaching, look for an inclusion class. It is a mixture of a gen. ed. class and spec.ed. class. There is a general ed. teacher, and a special ed teacher along with her paras, who work together, to help all the students learn the best they can, and to help the children work together and learn from each other. With the right teachers, this is a good arrangement, otherwise, it could be a disaster.

How about a parent??

My son has been in a varying exceptionalities program since he started kindegarten. He is moderately autistic. For the last three years his classroom has been had team teaching. There are two certified teachers and two aides in his classroom. The team teaching started as an experiment in his school three years ago. The result has been phenominal. All of the students are taught based on their individual education plans and ability levels. My son has really blossomed in this environment. It allows a lot more individual attention. Initially my son was functioning nearly two years below age and grade level. Now he is performing on grade level in reading and math, only behind in writing.

Most school districts have self contatined classrooms, resource rooms, co-teacher rooms and classes with aides. The level of placement for the studnet depends on the type of disability and how severe it is. Keep in mind that students are placed in the least restrictive environment – the one that allows them to learn without (hopefully) pulling them away from their classmates. If you teach in special ed, depending again on the school district, you may find yourself in a variety of settings in the course of yoru career.

My teen has an IEP and I requested co-taught classes when they had them. He is smart, but very disorganized. He has ADD (which meds don’t help) and needs some prompts to be on-task and to do things right. With a co-taught class there is less stigma for him to get help.

my high school also have co-taught classrooms. however, i don’t like it, i feel have a little bit of logic between their lecture , that make me feel unwelcome.