Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: What co-teaching? Mary's Sp.Ed. co-teacher never makes modifications for her language arts students when that period comes to her. Mary has been to the Sp.Ed. co-teacher to specifically ask for help for making modifications for her special needs students. When emailing the Sp.Ed. co-teacher the lesson plan for the upcoming week, Mary specifically asked the co-teacher what days she would like to teach. Instead of helping Mary out with the "co-teaching" and modifications, the Sp.Ed. co-teacher only points out mistakes that Mary has made on the lesson plan. When the co-teacher has been in Mary's room, she offers no help with the teaching for instruction and only helps one particular group during differentiated group activities. Mary has been to her administrator and the Sp.Ed. director about the Sp.Ed. co-teacher, and they suggested meeting with the co-teacher on a weekly basis to set up who would teach what and when. Since the Sp.Ed. co-teacher has not made any efforts to help Mary, what suggestions do you offer Mary to try to get the two teachers on the same page in sharing teaching responsibilities? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) Co-teaching is a difficult task if both teachers are not on the same page. Working with another person and sharing classroom responsibilities can get tricky and resentment can grow quickly. First a candid yet courteous meeting with both co-teachers, administration, and the Sped director should be scheduled. Mary should ask the director to explicitly list their expectations of both co-teachers responsibilities during class time and for planning. If after this Mary's co-teacher is not contributing to the teaching perhaps Mary could ask her Sped director to make unannounced visits to the classroom to observe and read over both teachers lesson plans. If there are still problems, it would be in the best interest of the students to have the problem solved even if reassignment of teachers is necessary.