Job sharing suggestions-especially from teachers!

orangegoggles · July 2014

I finally got my wish to work part time next school year and I will be job sharing with another teacher. She will teachM,Tu, and W morning and I will do W afternoon, TH, and F. We will have a shared planning time when the kids are at special on Wednesday. Very exciting! However, as the new school year is quickly approaching, I'm starting to get worried about how it will all go.

The other teacher and I are good friends so I'm not expecting a communication problem, as we talk and text daily now. However, do you have any tips for helping this become a smooth transition? It's never been done before at my school so I don't have much to go on. We have similar teaching styles and are planning a few days this summer to meet in the classroom and discuss logistics. It is one of those things I don't want to ruin for others who might be interested down the road. I know organization will be key as well as detailed assessment data, consistent expectations, etc.

Any tips or suggestions? As a parent what would be your concerns or questions?

bumpuser8448316 · July 2014

This is not helpful at all, but how does this work? Do the kids have 2 teachers or do you have separate classes that go PT? I've heard of this before and ice always wondered how it works

lavendergiraffes · July 2014

No tips or suggestions but that's awesome! That would be my ultimate teaching experience to share my classroom so I can have the best of both worlds. Good luck!!

spring_time · July 2014

What an amazing opportunity! My friend and I always talked about doing it, but the stars just never aligned to allow it.

As a parent, I would think my biggest concern would be communication. I would make it clear to parents that any email communication should be directed to both of you. You will need to figure out how to handle phone communication and conferences with parents. I team taught for years, and conferences always included both teachers.

Make sure your classroom schedule, routines, and discipline are the same. How will you handle children with special needs and referrals? Who will make the referrals, who will sit in on the meetings?

spring_time · July 2014

What about grading? I would think that would be the most difficult part. Will you be accessing each other's grade books, or will you each have your own grade book. What system will you use?

Finally, and I hate that this is an issue, how do standardized tests work? In my state, students' scores on standardized tests account for 25% of the teacher's evaluation.

orangegoggles · August 2014

QueSyrah said:

This is not helpful at all, but how does this work? Do the kids have 2 teachers or do you have separate classes that go PT? I've heard of this before and ice always wondered how it works

Yes, I teach elementary school so our students will have two teachers. Some days we will both be there (first day of school, special events, parent/teacher conferences) where we will both be teaching and Wednesdays we will overlap a little bit. My principal kind of felt out parents and talked to the past years teachers to see who might not be a good fit or would have a hard time adjusting to it.

orangegoggles · August 2014

spring_time said:

What an amazing opportunity! My friend and I always talked about doing it, but the stars just never aligned to allow it.

As a parent, I would think my biggest concern would be communication. I would make it clear to parents that any email communication should be directed to both of you. You will need to figure out how to handle phone communication and conferences with parents. I team taught for years, and conferences always included both teachers.

Make sure your classroom schedule, routines, and discipline are the same. How will you handle children with special needs and referrals? Who will make the referrals, who will sit in on the meetings?

Thanks for the talking points. We have some of these covered already such as communication/email/grading/website & blog but you brought up some good points.

As far as special education students, they have not been placed in our classroom (my school only has money for two classroom aides so only two out of the four classrooms have special edu students and because of the job sharing our classroom was not chosen ) but I am sure there will be other needs and future referrals or new students so its something to think about.

orangegoggles · August 2014

spring_time said:

What about grading? I would think that would be the most difficult part. Will you be accessing each other's grade books, or will you each have your own grade book. What system will you use?

Finally, and I hate that this is an issue, how do standardized tests work? In my state, students' scores on standardized tests account for 25% of the teacher's evaluation.

Its something we are still talking about. I think we will have one grade book and our online assessment access will be granted to both of us. As far as the evaluations go I was told we would both take the score as our 25% eval.

bumpuser8448316 · August 2014

orangegoggles said:

QueSyrah said:

This is not helpful at all, but how does this work? Do the kids have 2 teachers or do you have separate classes that go PT? I've heard of this before and ice always wondered how it works

Yes, I teach elementary school so our students will have two teachers. Some days we will both be there (first day of school, special events, parent/teacher conferences) where we will both be teaching and Wednesdays we will overlap a little bit. My principal kind of felt out parents and talked to the past years teachers to see who might not be a good fit or would have a hard time adjusting to it.

Very cool. I don't see how it would be much different than older grades where they have a different teacher for each subject. I assume that's how you divide the subects?

orangegoggles · August 2014

QueSyrah said:

orangegoggles said:

QueSyrah said:

This is not helpful at all, but how does this work? Do the kids have 2 teachers or do you have separate classes that go PT? I've heard of this before and ice always wondered how it works

Yes, I teach elementary school so our students will have two teachers. Some days we will both be there (first day of school, special events, parent/teacher conferences) where we will both be teaching and Wednesdays we will overlap a little bit. My principal kind of felt out parents and talked to the past years teachers to see who might not be a good fit or would have a hard time adjusting to it.

Very cool. I don't see how it would be much different than older grades where they have a different teacher for each subject. I assume that's how you divide the subects?

Ha, that would be much easier. Since its elementary school every subject has to be taught daily. I'm thinking it will be ok, just need some time to get the hang of it.

Job sharing suggestions-especially from teachers!

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