Another week has come and gone and I just keep learning more and more!
My favorite thing we learned this week was about co-teaching models. We discussed seven way to co-teach. They are "One Teach, One Observe", "One Teach, One Assist", "Station Teaching", "Parallel Teaching", "Supplemental Teaching", "Alternative Teaching", and "Team Teaching". When we learned what each of these were I realized that I have seen many of these throughout my experience with education.
First One Teach, One Observe. I think this is a great way to start out because it's a great way to get feedback on yourself and on the behavior of the students. In primary, a long time ago, we had two teachers called and they took turns teaching, but both still came every week. This was good because they could get feedback on how the children were listening and also how they were doing with their presentation of the information.
Next One Teach, One Assist. This would be great in every classroom. I was a substitute in the school district where I live during my off-track and when I got an extra adult in the classroom then it was always a blessing. I got to teach the majority of the kids while the other adult went around helping those that needed extra help or taking care of individuals behavior issues. I have also been the extra adult and I can tell that it is easier for the teacher to teach the material more effectively when she can focus on that and worry less about the children who are falling behind or monitoring everyone's behavior. This is a great co-teaching strategy if you are lucky enough to have two adults in the room.
Station Teaching is a fun way to teach. Sometimes I think that this method is more fun because you get to move around and it may help some of the hands-on learners. This is good when you need smaller groups to learn different things. I really liked the classroom I was in while I was a substitute and we had an aid come in and work with five kids at a time and there were five stations they rotated between. They did handwriting, puzzles, reading with the aid, computers, and coloring. They got to do some fun things while still working on different skills.
Parallel Teaching is a different way of teaching that I had not really heard of until now. Both teaching introduce the same material, but to half of the students. Our teacher told us that this is sometimes used with student teachers to help them with their time management. This could be very beneficial to help new teachers get time management down, but also to help the student to teacher ratio be smaller so they can focus on students needs more. I have seen this in preschool with my mom because they have groups of kids come do projects at the same time, but across the room. That is a small example of parallel teaching.
Supplemental Teaching is a good way to make sure no child gets completely lost and left behind. This is where one teacher teaches on grade level and the other teacher helps to extend or reteach the material. I can see how this would be very helpful if you have some children who need things explained more or differently. I don't think I have seen this strategy, but I see the benefits it could bring.
Alternative Teaching seems to be a great way to get all different learning styles to understand the same information. The learning outcomes are the same, but they are instructed differently. I can see how this would be nice because my brother learns a lot by doing things, but my sister learns a lot by reading about it. This would help to accommodate more learning types.
Finally Team Teaching is probably what I think of first when I think of Co-Teaching. This is where both teachers help to teach a class and can jump in whenever they feel the need. I have seen this in my Sunday School lessons when I had a husband and wife couple teaching us. They both taught at the same time and added to what the other was saying. I think this is beneficial when you need things explained differently and just to feel more comfortable while teaching.
After learning all about co-teaching then we had a presentation about Developmental Delay. The group who taught this did a great job. I was impressed with their knowledge.
There are five types of Developmental Delays physical, cognitive, communication, social/emotional, and adaptive. They are different and need to be taken care of. They are not permanent problems, but they do affect the learning of the child.
As we went around to the different stations there was a booklet that helped to measure whether they have a developmental delay or not. I thought this booklet was very interesting. When I looked through it there were ages and things that they should be doing in specific categories on each page. Some of the things were sitting up, jumping, buttoning a shirt, talking, and crawling. These were all in different ages and some in different categories, but it was interesting to see the things that they should be doing at different ages.
When Developmental Delays are caught early then adaptation to learning can be taken. It is important to know if there is a developmental delay so that it can be helped. The child may still be behind, but the sooner it is caught then the sooner they can be helped to get back on the right track.
We learned a lot this week and it was an exciting week of Co-teaching strategies, some law things that are more difficult for me specifically to learn/remember, and developmental delay. The things I'm learning here will definitely help me in the classroom one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment