Collaborative Team Teaching: Challenges and Rewards

Because I work in a team teaching environment, I was intrigued to see what this article had to say about collaborative teaching. After reading, I couldn't agree more with everything in this article!! I LOVE team teaching and cannot imagine ever working without my teaching partner.
Here are a few topics within the article that stood out to me from this article:

1) "The co-planning process encourages two teachers to bounce ideas off each other in order to deliver the strongest, most creative lessons."  I believe this is the most beneficial part of cooperative teaching. People always say "two heads are better than one" and this definitely applies to teaching. If one teacher has an idea, it is helpful to run it by another professional to revise and make it better.

2) "Strong co-teachers also eliminate the "mommy/daddy" issue in the beginning of the year" AH! This is something that students try to get past us. It is so frustrating when a student asks me and I say no, then they go to my partner thinking she might say yes. This is something we made very clear WILL not be tolerated in our classroom. Because students know this, it typically does not happen anymore.

3) "Making decisions as a team is key to a strong partnership"  My teaching partner and I are connected at the hip. I think it's so important to make decisions as a team so that we are both on the same page. I would encourage all partnerships to make decisions together so you are always in "the loop" with students, staff, and parents.

4) "While more time-consuming, grading all students together as co-teachers is the most fair and consistent way to grade." This is something we are starting to do more and more together, especially in writing. Although it might seem to take longer, it is more valid to have two sets of eyes grade an assignment. This also applies to report cards.

I would totally recommend any teacher to at least try to collaboratively teach. Although there can be some downsides (as also described in the article), I believe that the "perfect match" can make for some very powerful teaching!