A little over a year ago my Principal at the time casually suggested that my colleague next door and I try to do some team teaching. You know, just dip your toes in. See what happens. He suggested we start with reading groups. He didn't know who he was talking to. Suggesting anything to someone, or in this case two someones, who are competitive, type-A personalities with a bent towards perfectionism, usually ends in a boots-and-all situation. And this was no different.
It just so happened that we were about to go Google at the same time and this meant that our summer break was spent online collaborating over Google Docs trying to nut out planning, assessments and how this team-teaching thing was going to work.
With our boots-and-all attitude and respect for each other as teachers I just knew that this was going to be a great year. We delved into the pedagogy behind great team-teaching, researched modern learning environments and arranged to visit high-performing schools utilising the same techniques and practices that we wanted to implement. We went in eyes open, brains switched on. Learning at the heart of everything we did.
We had two single-cell classrooms connected through an ordinary-sized door. Starting the year off we eased the students and ourselves into the team teaching environment, after all this was a mixed age group of two classes - one Years 3 and 4, the other Years 5 and 6. The parents of the younger students were already nervous about their children being 'seniors' this year, we didn't want to completely terrify them. The students of course just ran with it. They thrived in their separate classes and they thrived when we came together for reading, then mathematics, then writing and all other curriculum areas. Soon we were together all the time. The students excelled. They, and their parents, loved it.
Team teaching has so many benefits when done with the learners best interests at heart, for the right reasons and with a good team in place. Mutual trust and respect are pivotal. So is having a sense of humour and the ability to be flexible. Great teams bounce off each other, accentuating and complementing each other's talents and strengths while supporting and balancing each other's weaknesses. Personnel placement is a huge consideration. My Principal was chuffed. This was going better, he admitted, than he had even dreamed.
For one thing, my colleague was male. Our boys in particular really looked up to him. We complemented each other in terms of gender, and balanced out the students need for specific response types. We could play good-cop/bad-cop when we needed to. They had a soft place to fall and also someone to tell them to take a spoonful of cement when that was more appropriate for the situation. The biggest unexpected gift I think that came of our teaching relationship that year was that our students had both a male and a female role model who worked together as a team. We knew that a lot of our students didn't have that modelled for them at home, a positive collaboration between genders, and it was an honour to be able to show them how two people could work together for a common purpose - them. It just worked.
Lessons I have learned:
- Your fear of being observed will be quickly conquered - you are constantly being observed.
- You will learn how to give constructive criticism and supportive feedback, after all your own teaching depends on the successes of your team mate.
- You will laugh more than ever before in a classroom, with the students falling over themselves laughing alongside the both of you. This is pure magic.
- If you have a bad day, there is always someone there to pick you up or to take over while you take a minute to gather yourself back together.
- There is a sink next door and an open door through which to quietly sneak your half cold coffees into.
- You will learn to relax, to be flexible, to go-with-the flow - because you have to.
- A high-five is never more than a few steps away.
- The load is shared. The disappointments halved. The celebrations doubled.
Simply put, last year was the best year in my teaching career so far. This team-teaching thing is pretty damn awesome.
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