This week in class we learned a lot about co-teaching and all of the different ways that it can be done. To really ingrain this and the success of co-teaching into our minds we did a teaching activity. We had to choose one of the co-teaching strategies and then teach a group how to do something. Our group chose to parallel teach making paper boxes. Two of us taught the same thing to a smaller group. We split the large group in half. I took one half. The rest of our group members helped those that were struggling. As a teacher I tried to go step by step and make sure that everyone accomplished the step before I moved on. Our group that we taught as a whole had a lot of success. We didn't have anyone that new the skill before so it was fun and interesting for the group. There were some in the group that got very creative with their boxes or some that were perfectionists. It was interesting to see the different types of learners coming out in the people that we were teaching. Since we didn't have anybody that already knew this skill we didn't have to do our other activity for fast learners. I was going to teach the fast learners how to make a paper shirt but we did not get time for that.
My group was taught how to play this very fun bean bag game and we won! I would like to use this game in my own class because it was a lot of fun and could be cross curricular. I really liked that there was different ranges to throw from because it allowed for different levels of difficulty. I also liked how easy their game was to adapt for students with special needs. Also the game involved a lot of cooperation and team work which was a lot of fun. They taught us as a large group with the others observing and helping when needed. I thought that this was a good way to teach a game because then the rules are clear. It was a lot of fun.
At the end of class we were taught the chicken dance by one of the groups. It was so silly and fun. I realized this week how often there are opportunities to teach in the world. I also thought the activity was such a good way to model co-teaching and the importance of it. I have also continued to enjoy the disabilities that we are learning about. The hands on experiences really help me to understand them better and apply them to my life.
With our paper box activity, I thought it was interesting to see how everyone learned. Some people had to see the box being folded to understand and some people just understood as it was explained to them and even improved on the box. This is good to learn because our students will definitely be learning in different ways and at different paces. We have to be prepared to help each of them.
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