Exciting things have been happening! This week my friend Rachelle and I officially started co-teaching our kindergarten classes! It’s funny because things are happening very quickly and it feels a bit like a whirlwind…but when we stopped to talk about things last night, we realized that this has been almost 10 years in the making. When you think about it that way it’s about time!
So, my idea is to document our new adventure with a little “How to” series on co-teaching in kindergarten. Now, let me make it perfectly clear that we don’t really know anything about co-teaching in kindergarten yet! This is going to be a “learning on our feet” adventure. (My favorite kind!) I am thinking that I will share all of our successes and challenges with you… kind of a “what to do and what not to do” series. We are really excited and have very high hopes for this new collaboration! My hope is that by sharing our experiences we will be able to help other teachers find some new, innovative ways to “bring back the fun” and enjoy teaching in new ways.
Today, I would like to share the background of our story and a “sneak peek” at our new classroom. Here we go!
About a decade ago I took a position working at an inner city school in my district. It was a very challenging position. It was the first time that I had taught kindergarten (after many years as a pre-k ESE teacher). We were working with a very challenging student population filled with many foster children and homeless children. All of the students at our school were living in poverty. By chance, I also had a class made up of a very “unique” group of students. Let’s just say, I will never, ever, ever forget this particular class! This was also the year that the long-awaited adoption of my daughter finalized and I became pregnant with my twins. It was a very memorable year! (Not at all easy.. but very memorable!) It was also one of my favorite years of my teaching career. On paper, it should not have been! It should have been awful… for many reasons. (The high risk pregnancy and constant sickness being the least of the reasons!) However, the people that I worked with made it wonderful. This school was filled with amazing, talented teachers (who also happened to be FUN, wonderful people). Many of these teachers have become my lifelong friends. Rachelle (my new partner) was one of these wonderful people.
So, over the last 10 years I had babies, worked part time, went back to work full time, changed schools, had another baby, and found myself needing to find another school “home” (without a commute. I have been very lucky and I am able to take my children to the schools that I teach at. I LOVE teaching at the school my children attend. However, commuting an hour each way with twin kindergarteners and an infant will make you want to drive off an overpass!) When I finally found a “school home” in my neighborhood I was thrilled. The fact that Rachelle also worked there made a great situation even better! I took a position at this school as a first grade teacher. I really enjoyed my years in first grade… but I am a kindergarten teacher at heart. So this year when I was able to move down to kindergarten – in the room right next to Rachelle – I was over the moon!
All summer I kept telling Rachelle about all the ideas I had for collaboration. I wanted to get our classes together and have lots of “family time”. Rachelle smiled and nodded but we both knew she wasn’t really on board. Rachelle is much more of a planner and much more scheduled and organized that I am. (What I lack in organization I make up for in creativity and enthusiasm 😉 ) We laugh now and tell people that I had to “grow on her” this year. While I told her my big ideas over and over they sounded crazy to her. However, as we slowly began collaborating more and more she became as excited about my crazy ideas as I was!
So, that’s the background. Next week, I will share the steps that we took this year to begin our collaboration. Co-teaching was not our goal. Our goal for the year was to “bring back the fun”. We wanted to enjoy teaching and let go of some of the stress that we had been feeling for the past few years. We decided that together we would “work smarter, not harder”… and that’s how it all began!
BUT! Before I go, I have to share a “sneak peek” of our new set up… because it is so exciting! There is just no way I am going to be able to wait!
This is a picture of the wall of my classroom library before all of our changes. The wall is a removable partition. However, we had never actually seen one of the partitions opened up or removed.
This is a photo taken from the exact same place in my room three days later. The wall was where the small shelf with the red containers is located.
This is the “side by side”. It is HUGE now! So exciting!
Come back next week to hear about the “baby steps” we took this year to start collaborating more and making things easier and more fun!
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