Co-Teaching Solutions System Where teaching and technology come together.

21 st Century Tools for Co-Teaching CTSS is currently comprised of 2 applications, with a 3 rd on the way: Co-Teaching Observation System v2.3 Co-Teachers’ Toolbox v2.3 Co-Teaching E-Training v1.3 The following is a quick overview of how the Observation System directly links to the Co-Teachers’ Toolbox to enhance Co-Teaching effectiveness. The 3 rd component, E-Training is a self-study tutorial software that will provide staff development in Co-Teaching. This is a complete solution for Co-Teaching, based on practices from Dr. Wendy Murawski, national researcher/speaker on Co-Teaching. Coming Soon

CTSS – Co-Teaching Observation System  Allows administrators to observe co-teaching in the classroom.  Can be easily loaded onto Desktop, laptop or PDA.  Helps observers know what to look for, listen for and ask for to determine co-teaching effectiveness.  Enables administrators to have co-teachers conduct a self-survey on their own effectiveness and compare it to the observer’s report.  Provides observers with descriptive documentation to use in starting a conversation with co-teachers on where they can improve.  Assists observers in collecting clear data on what is and what is not going on in the co- taught class so that correlations can be made related to student outcomes.  Uses historical and trend data to create numerous reports to include: o Effectiveness by individual teacher o Effectiveness by grade o Effectiveness by subject area o Effectiveness by entire school o Effectiveness over time Directly links to the Co-teachers’ Toolbox, enabling administrators to provide specific strategies according to co-teachers’ observed strengths and weaknesses.

The Observation system allows administrators, mentors, coaches to evaluate co-teaching utilizing a Co-Teaching Observation checklist. For administrators who prefer to write a narrative of their observation prior to completing the checklist, that option may be utilized as well.

Here is a sample of the observation checklist. The Checklist helps administrators know what to look for, listen for, and ask for in advance. By clicking the Open Narrative button, comments may be pasted directly into the notes sections.

After the observation is completed, click on Team Evaluation Report to print out the observation report. There are two reports that print out. The first is this summary report, which displays if co- teachers’ actions received a 0 (didn’t see it), a 1 (saw an attempt) or a 2 (saw it done well).

The second is the Strengths and Weaknesses report. This ranks all the co-teaching strategies based on how effectively they were being utilized in the classroom. The best feature of this report is that it directly links to the Co-Teachers’ Toolbox, where co- teachers may view strategies from the Resource Handbook to aid in the areas identified by observers as lacking.

This report provides a school-wide snapshot of co-teaching effectiveness. This enables administrators to determine which co- teachers in a particular grade or subject area may be able to model or mentor for co-teachers in another grade or subject area.

This report gives even more detail by breaking down each competency and showing its proficiency rating school-wide. Again, this provides administrators with the opportunity to determine where more training or support is needed school-wide.

This report enables the user to select an individual teacher for review. For teachers who are co-teaching with multiple partners, this is a helpful tool in determining how the individual is doing overall in the primary competency areas: Co-Planning, Co- Instruction, and Co- Assessment.

This report provides a history of each time an individual has been reviewed, which is helpful in documenting improvement over time.

Administrators can encourage co-teachers to complete a self-survey independently. This requires reflection by co-teachers on each item on which they will be later observed and evaluated.

The Observation system can then compile the results of each co-teacher (general ed. and special service provider) and chart them next to each other, in comparison to the Observer’s results. This feature is designed to enable observers and teachers to have a forthright conversation about what they each think is occurring in the co-taught classroom and what next steps should be.

CTSS – Teachers’ Toolbox  Provides co-teachers with numerous pages of staff training references.  Allows co-teachers to identify students’ learning styles for increased differentiation.  Lists a variety of academic and behavioral strategies for co-teachers who are working with a diverse group of students.  Enables co-teachers to do curriculum mapping at the beginning of the year with a whole class and/or for individual students.  Presents co-teachers with a rubric maker that aids in differentiated co-assessment.  Furnishes co-teachers with a revolutionary 21 st century collaborative lesson planning tool: o Gives teachers a pull-down menu of state standards. o Spirals state standards for meeting the needs of all learners. o Encourages co-teachers to identify an active role for each teacher using the five co-instructional approaches o Lets co-teachers import, export, update and archive co-planned lessons. o Interfaces directly with the curriculum mapping tool to document standards-based lessons. o Reminds co-teachers of individual student considerations and needed adaptations.

The most comprehensive Teachers application available today! Utilizing the Strengths/Weaknesses report generated from the Administrators’ Observation system, co-teachers can click on the relevant reference pages to view resources provided through the practical handbook, Co-Teaching in the Inclusive Classroom (Murawski, 2006).

The most comprehensive Teachers application available today. The Learning Styles section allows teachers to enter their students’ various preferred learning styles and then groups them automatically for easy differentiation of instruction.

Student names can be easily imported from other databases, so that co-teachers do not have to type in each name. Once students’ learning styles have been identified, the software groups them and teachers can easily access the list when regrouping students for instruction.

This system provides a curriculum projection map based on each state’s specific content standards.

As co-teachers complete the Curriculum Mapping at the beginning of the school year, it also enables special service providers to become more aware of the upcoming content requirements and emphasizes the need for proactive co- planning between partners.

The Lesson Planning section is very comprehensive and is the key component of the Co-Teachers’ Toolbox! For co-teaching to be effective, teams must CO-PLAN, CO-INSTRUCT, and CO-ASSESS. Of these, co-planning is the most important.

Features: Build a database of co-planned lessons. Import/export lessons between co-teachers or teams. User’s state standards are pre-loaded onto a drop-down menu. Teachers can enter the lowest academic level in their classroom and it will pull all standards starting from that grade level to spiral into the current grade level standard. This feature helps remind teachers to individualize & differentiate.

Easy entry of lesson plans in a “Beginning, Middle, End” format. Provides co- teachers with a place for writing in notes, student considerations and special needs. Requires both teachers to reflect on what they will each be doing and what approach for co-instruction they will be using.

Sample of student considerations Might include accommodations, RTI levels, or other special needs

As teachers co-plan lessons, the standard alignment report automatically updates the curriculum map to reflect which standards have been addressed, in addition to the objectives and assessments identified. This report may be ed for data collection.

Once teachers have completed lesson plans, the Curriculum Map reports are automatically generated utilizing the data from the lesson plan maker. This is helpful for teachers to see what they did/did not cover and what they may need to change in the future.

The system also includes an easy-to-use rubric maker, simply a must for differentiating instruction. This system helps to encourage co-assessing between teachers.

The run charts are a bonus feature based on the Baldridge Model of high performing schools. These charts allow for students to self-monitor their own progress towards the standards.

System Requirements: Operating System: Windows 98 or greater; Windows XP; Vista compatible (by end of summer 2007) Software: Any Tech Support and Training Available as Well

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