Chapter 3 of the text introduces the concepts of consultation, collaboration, and co-teaching as a general education teacher working with all sorts of people for students with exceptionalities. It would be a very difficult task to have to teach students with exceptionalities if the general education teacher did not have the input and assistance of those specifically trained to provide the best education for such students. Consultation skills require pre-planned time and space meets for the general education teacher and special education consultant to be able to work through the consultation process. When accessing the skills of a consultant, it is important to note that the job of the consultant is to provide expert intervention information pertaining to the student's special education need, but it is the job of the consultee (usually a general education teacher) to implement that interv
ention. Collaboration on the other hand allows the general education teacher and special education teacher to meet at a specific place and time, over the course of a school year to plan, discuss and implement together how to best teach students with exceptionalities in the general education classroom. This co-planning usually co-incides with co-teaching. The general education teacher and special education teacher decide how they will both teach the same lesson in the same classroom to both regular education and students with exceptionalities: will one teacher teach the entire lesson or both share? will one teach the lesson while the other teacher circulates the room helping specific students? will they put the students in groups by ability and each work with the separate groups? These are all planning and teaching decisions introduces the concepts of consultation, collaboration, and co-teaching as a general education teacher working with all sorts of people for students with exceptionalities. It would be a very difficult task to have to teach students with exceptionalities if the general education teacher did not have the input and assistance of those specifically trained to provide the best education for such students. Consultation skills require pre-planned time and space meets for the general education teacher and special education consultant to be able to work through the consultation process. When accessing the skills of a consultant, it is important to note that the job of the consultant is to provide expert intervention information pertaining to the student's special education need, but it is the job of the consultee (usually a general education teacher) to implement that intervention. Collaboration on the other hand allows the general education teacher and special education teacher to meet at a specific place and time, over the course of a school year to plan, discuss and implement together how to best teach students with exceptionalities in the general education classroom. This co-planning usually co-incides with co-teaching. The general education teacher and special education teacher decide how they will both teach the same lesson in the same classroom to both regular education and students with exceptionalities: will one teacher teach the entire lesson or both share? will one teach the lesson while the other teacher circulates the room helping specific students? will they put the students in groups by ability and each work with the separate groups? These are all planning and teaching decisions that must be made ahead of class time in order to achieve success for all students.=======================================================================================
How to use this information in the classroom:
Become familiar with the Illinois Interactive Report Card Website, offering data and statistics concerning schools and districts in the state of Illinois, including data concerning students and subgroups. Go to the website, select by school or by district to search for AYP reports as well as other pertinent data.
Find out who your special education building and district experts are. Most school districts have a district special education specialist or director. Most schools have a special education teacher in the building. If you know that students with exceptionalities are going to be placed in your classroom, then began to immediately establish a working, professional relationship with those who will also be directing the education of such students: the school counselor, nurse, administrator, special education teacher, aides, community advocates for students with special needs.
Establish a relationship with exceptional students' parents as soon as possible. Initiate the contact if the parent does not. As a matter of fact, it helps immensely if you will put to use the one desktop computer in the classroom (hopefully it is Internet-ready, connected to the district and outside world!) by seeking out email addresses of each student's parent or contact as soon as possible. Most parents have at least one email address nowadays, either a work email or personal one. Using email whenever possible provides a wonderful way to give parents explicit information, receive feedback from them in kind and also provide a paper trail of documentation that you can save or store in that student folder on your computer's hard drive. I recommend you also save/store/back up the information to a portable flash drive or diskette.
Another excellent communication tool for parents is a classroom website. As daunting as that may sound, even teachers with next to no computer skills can get assistance in setting up a classroom website. There are easy programs available to facilitate setting up a website. I recommend starting with your district technology department to see what the district first offers in the line of technology assistance for teachers.
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Week Two Posting - The following article talks about the eight components of the co-teaching relationship - Coteaching.pdf. Each component is obviously very important. Which do you think is the most important component and why is that? After reading the chapter, listening to the audio, post your comments to the Week 2 blog posting for the question provided.
