Co-Teaching, Gallagher 5, Christensen 2

The first reading I looked at was the chapter on co-teaching.  My first impression when reading was similar to the teacher from New York City, who raised a concern that co-teaching shows students that education degrees are essentially useless, and that "anyone can teach."  I also thought about that, and worried that allowing students to really teach, not just present a project, would make them think that I am not really capable/don't want to teach them, and reinforce the stereotype that teaching is easy.  Throughout my high school experience, many of my classmates, when discussing teachers, would say "She's nice, but she doesn't teach."  I heard that so many times from classmates who felt that they were not being taught anything in classes.  When I first read about co-teaching, that was one of the first things I thought about,  and how it could be perceived as "not teaching."  However, once I completed the chapter, my perspective changed completely.  I absolutely loved the example of how the student stood up in the middle of a lesson to take the marker away from the teacher., although the idea of it scared me at first.  In general, I worry that if/when I am a teacher in an urban school, I will not be able to connect well with my students and they will start to resent me as their teacher.  However, I think that making co-teaching an integral part of the classroom would allow students the space to take risks and get the most out of their learning.

The chapter by Kelly Gallagher was also very interesting.  I loved the writing strategies she presented and my favorites were the "Pass the portrait" activity and the activity where students generate questions for their classmates.  I think that these are really great ways to get students excited about writing.  She challenges the concept of the "boring topic" with the example of the dollar bill, which got all of her students to think critically.  Similarly, Christensen's chapter was also full of great strategies and examples that are accessible and useful.  I liked the read around procedure, even though in my own experience as a student, I didn't particularly enjoy doing this.  However, as a teacher, I see how this type of exercise opens students up to one another and provides a space for positive and respectful commentary, as well as what Christensen calls a "positive classroom climate."