Ms. Roper’s and Mrs. Burgess’s
Kindergarten
Welcome to
kindergarten! We are so excited to
both be team teaching all the kindergarten students this year. This is a new way of teaching
kindergarten so we thought we would answer some of your questions.
WHAT is team teaching?
A definition of team teaching
we like is “it’s a style of instruction in which
resources as well as interests and expertise of a team of teachers are pooled
in order to enhance the effectiveness of instruction.” (Dipu Kalanilayam,
"Educational Technology for All” blog).
WHY team teach kindergarten?
1) Each year our kindergarten students enter with a huge
variety of academic, social and behavioral skills and needs. When one teacher works with one class,
she is spread so thin it is difficult to effectively teach to the wide spectrum
of abilities. When two teachers
are working with all the students of two classes, we can better group these
students based upon their strengths and challenges and have double the staffing
to teach to where the children are.
For example, instead of being able to work with three different ability
groups each day, we can now meet with six different ability groups.
2) Teachers also have different strengths and
talents. The children benefit from
the specific abilities and interests of two teachers instead of one.
3) The children now have two sets of eyes on them,
observing and planning for their individual needs. The team teaching set up we have allows for continual
analysis of each child and collaborative planning to best meet that child’s
needs.
HOW does team teaching
work?
1) The
teachers work together to plan instruction. They both take responsibility
for all the students. The
children are divided into two set groups only for specials (music, art,
library, computers and physical education). The rest of the time the groupings are flexible, changing as
the students grow.
2) When whole group instruction is being delivered, one
teacher is teaching, while the other is supporting or working with individual
students.
3)
Small group instruction is delivered by both teachers. Teachers may be working with half of
the class or they may be working with groups of 3-7 children while the rest of
the class works independently.
4) The teachers are constantly observing and taking notes
on the students. They share their
observations and use them to collaboratively make instructional decisions.
What should I do if I have
more questions?
ASK US!
We are working hard to
provide you with as much information as possible.
1) We
have parent friendly copies of the Common Core for kindergarten that were
distributed on our information night.
That will answer the question of “what” we are teaching your child.
2) We
write in home-school notebooks almost every day, to let you know how your own
child is doing in the class. This
is a great place to ask questions.
3) We send home almost weekly newsletters that can also
be read on our blog.
4) We keep an almost daily blog detailing what we do to
teach the Common Core standards.
The blog can be found at
5) We respond to e-mail sent to broper@svrsu.org and lburgess@svrsu.org.
6) Call us
at 882-7585.
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