Coteaching (teaching, as if you could not guess this one)

I am the special education component of collaborative team teaching arrangement. I have a coteacher and, between us, we have 24 students with a variety of needs. I cotaught with a different woman last year. After two years of this type of classroom, I have learned that I hate coteaching. I teach with a very nice person and we have had moments where it really made sense. But, I have this nagging suspicion that my coteacher doesn't really believe in/like special education. Maybe I would have a different opinion if I was working with someone who has been taught the same things I have been taught about teaching...my coteacher has found one thing that really works for her, and has worked for the past 20 years, and is not really interested in changing anything.

Unfortunately, that means I can passively accept her way of doing things. Or, I can fight for what I want to see happen. She has given me one day to show her what I am talking about when I say things like teach writing and teach math. By the way, if a teacher ever tells you "show me," know it is the most passive aggressive thing a teacher will do to you. It really means, "I'd like to see you try to do things better than I can do them."

Despite a spike in the professional aggravation, much joy was a part of my day. It came from things like a random student requesting a high-five in the hallway after school, using a quick check edit sheet with my students and seeing them really use the check sheet to make their writing better, having a student really get his mouth ready to say a word and then watching him read words, helping kindergartners up the stairs, and hanging up the hexagon a student made out of 14 straws and a twist ties.