I finally had an excellent day this past Friday. I think one of the most difficult aspects of this placement has been this idea of "co-teaching" correctly. Up until this semester, I had always heard of the various forms of co-teaching but never before had I found myself in a co-teaching placement. I had always felt, in my heart that co-teaching would be somewhat challenging because it involves multiple personality types working together to deliver a successful lesson. I was certainly right in my thinking. 

I have not been as confident this semester as I was last semester. Perhaps this is because I am working with middle schoolers. However, I think the major difference has been trying to learn the personalities of the six different teachers I am working with and trying to successfully navigate the nuances of co-teaching. I must say that co-teaching is ridiculously difficult to do well. Not only do you have to get along with your mentor teacher and really know their personality, but you also have to learn how to read the field. In some ways, I think of it as playing a duet with a new duet partner. 

This past Friday, I finally felt as if I had become a fairly good duet partner. I was able to read the playing field, to think less about working with the teacher and more about the song as a whole. I felt confident, I felt successful, I felt like I was asking questions that were meaningful, and I truly enjoyed it. Obviously, these experiences have been short and few between, but I am trying to give myself some slack and realize that it takes more than just 7 weeks to really get to know an individual's teaching style and personality, etc. It takes even longer to truly practice and understand the small, but important technicalities of a piece. Do I agree with the co-teaching model? I cannot definitively give a yes or a no. Rather, it is more of whether or not the teachers work together nicely and can teach the content in a way that is meaningful to the students. In some cases, co-teaching is an excellent model to use. In other cases, it is a very difficult and unsuccessful model. It depends on a lot of factors. What I can say is that co-teaching is a completely different art than just teaching by oneself. However, I am glad I had the experience to step into this unchartered territory and experience something entirely new.