Chapter 2

Chapter 2 describes working together with professional perspectives that differ. Key terms that we should know are listed below.

There are many instructional differences that can arise among collaborating with teachers. Here are some examples:

Homework: how much and how often?

Pull-out or pull-in sessions for individual students or small groups that are used in the normal classroom procedures.

Time-out/suspension policies, negative or positive reinforcement, and contract contingencies.

Parent-teacher conference schedules, locations, and formats.

Unfortunate possibility that inclusion of students with special needs, especially more than one per class, might cause parent or teacher disgruntlement and activate a request for change in class assignment.

There are many types of differences that can happen within collaborating amongst teachers, but these to me occur the most frequent. I am not a big believer in homework, so if I think that the teacher I am co-teaching with wants to give a lot of homework I would disagree. I believe students need a break and need to spend quality time with their family. The differences that may arise from the pull-out or pull-in sessions I have seen at our school district. In my opinion, it is best for the co-teacher to stay in the classroom with the students and not take them to another classroom. Each child needs to experience a typical classroom setting when they need extra help on anything. If the other teacher they are co-teaching with does not agree, I can see where there will be differences. I am a firm believer in positive reinforcement. I think that is the best way to keep students behaving and wanting to do what is right when it comes to their behavior. There are so many different ways to enforce positive reinforcement and also negative. If one teacher prefers one form of discipline over another, it is hard to come up with an agreement. Making schedules are hard because each teacher have a different opinion or have a different way of making a schedule. When parents become upset if their child is not getting what they need in the classroom, it is best to make the parent comfortable to not have any further issues especially when it comes to their child's needs.