I have been given the opportunity to sit in on Dr. Smith's college class at University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Being a senior in high school, the thought of sitting in on a college class seemed overwhelming at first. I knew how great of an opportunity it was, but it was still overwhelming. But after sitting in his class, I think back to how silly it was to be nervous about it. I was only in there for a short period of time, but when I left, I walked out of his class with three and a half pages of notes.
It is hard for me to stay focused, I don't do well listening to a teacher stand in front of the class and lecture, but Dr. Smith's class caught my attention. From sitting in his class one time I learned about a whole new style of teaching that I had never heard of-Co-Teaching. Co-Teaching is one method of collaboration that mostly involves two teachers working together to teach kids with disabiliti es and kids with no disabilities. There are individual methods to Co-Teaching as well, such as: one teach one observe- which is where one teacher teaches the class and the other teacher takes notes, observes behavior, ect. We talked about the ups and downs of each of the methods we learned about.
I found Co-Teaching interested, and after leaving Dr. Smith's class I read more about it on a website he told the class about. Dr. Smith described Co-Teaching to be similar to a marriage. The most important part is communication and coming to an agreement.
Overall, Dr. Smith's class was a great experience for me, I look forward to going back next week to see what else I can learn!!
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