NW GLRS Co-Teaching Academy - Polk County Cohort

The "NW GLRS Site Based Co-Teaching Academy" was designed to assist co-teachers in local school systems develop "Co-Teaching Models of Excellence" teaching students with and without disabilities in standards-based classrooms. The NW GLRS Site-Based Co-Teaching Academy is a performance based program that focuses on improving teaching and learning, effective co-planning and co-teaching, co-teaching in a standards based classroom, using data to drive instruction/progress monitoring, and differentiating instruction using free 21st Century Web 2.0 tools in the areas of reading and math. Participants completing the NW GLRS Site-Based Co-Teaching Academy are expected to build capacity by becoming local school/district Co-Teaching Experts who will effectively establish "Model Co-Teaching Standards-Based Classrooms" within their school/district with the guidance and support from NW GLRS. Congratulations and welcome aboard!

Be safe, be appropriate, be responsible and please make sure you remain professional and follow ALL your district policies and procedures.

 

Only Blog Postings from NW GLRS Site Based Co-Teaching Academy Participants 

Should Be Posted Here!

"Co-Planning and Models of Co-Teaching: Knowing Which Model to 

Use and How"

Hello Fellow NW GLRS Co-Teaching Academy Members! I hope all is well with you and your school year is off to a great start. Hopefully, the whirlwind of starting a new year has settled and you’re finally able to teach. All the instructors from the NW GLRS Team want to commend you on all the great instruction we saw when we visited your classrooms at the beginning of the year. Most of you were teaching the standards and a few of you demonstrated great examples of differentiating instruction while teaching in a standards-based classroom. 

Our major focus this year will be to: 1) help you move from the overused and not always the most appropriate model of collaboration of “one teach-one assist” to true “co-teaching"; 2) use data to drive and improve instruction in the areas of R/ELA and Math; 3) learn to effectively use various Web 2.0 21^st Century Teaching Tools to effectively co-plan, differentiate instruction, and to overall enhance the teaching and learning experience of students with and without disabilities in your co-taught classrooms.

By now, each of you should have:

·         Signed up for a Gmail account and emailed your Gmail address to your instructors and to Charlise Johnston at: cjohnston@nwgaresa.com

·         Joined the NW GLRS Wikispace and checked it frequently for updates

·         Joined the NW GLRS Blog as a Follower and followed the blog

·         Read the online assignment and due date sheet and followed all the instructions listed that need to be completed for Day 1 Face-to-Face and Day 1 Online assignments (an assignment due date list for each cohort has been posted on the NW GLRS Wikispace on the Calendars, Handouts, and Forms Page)

Now, that we’ve finished our housekeeping this month, let’s getting to Blogging:

Introduce yourself to your instructors and the rest of the co-teachers in your Cohort. Then briefly discuss which model of co-teaching you used most this month and why. Then using the K-8 Access Center Co-Teaching Handout that discusses design, instruction, monitoring, and benefits as your rubric, self-assess you and your co-teacher’s level of proficiency. What did you do well and what do you still need to work on? Did you co-plan which collaborative model you were going to use before you used it, or did you just adlib? Did you both equally share in the teaching and learning of your students? Why or Why Not? Use the NW GLRS Standards-Based Lesson Plan template as your rubric to respond to this question. Did you co-plan using Google Docs yet? How did it work for you? Pros, cons, frustrations, celebrations???

Once you respond to this blog, then read at least 2 other co-teachers’ blog post and post comments. This is how we build a true professional learning community using social networking tools.