Team Teaching

This year, is my first year since 2000 that I have worked full time.  When my job share partner gave me the news last year that she wanted to go back to full time it was hard at first to wrap my head around it.  I had been working 80% for 11 years and the thought of not job sharing anymore was nerve racking.  We had worked so well as a team that I knew I wouldn't/couldn't get a new partner.  I knew that it was time for me to go back to work full time.  In saying this it has been one of the best years!  Instead of job sharing we are team teaching right across the hall from each other.  Having worked together for so many years we have similar ideas and teaching styles.  We also compliment each other well.  She has the great ideas and I have good knowledge on the meat and bones of the day. 

For example, last week, just before Easter, we decided to focus on eggs.  We started with the students writing on yellow paper what they knew about eggs.  Then we did a vinegar hard boiled egg experiment.  The next day, I walked into Lora's classroom and they were wondering about eggs.  Her students were wondering: if they threw an egg across the room would it break and if they could play soccer or hockey with an egg.  Wow, I had never thought of having my students wonder about eggs so I went back to my classroom and asked them to write down what they wondered and then the next day we would try to answer their questions through the experiments.  I braced myself for egg mess and waited for them to wonder about throwing eggs.  Not one wondered about throwing eggs but they did wonder about the following things:
1. would a raw egg break if I dropped it in a bucket of water
2. will a raw egg float in water
3. will a raw egg sink
4. will a raw egg float in Sprite
5. what will happen to a raw egg that sits in Pepsi for over 5 days
6. what will happen to a raw egg in vinegar ( we had already experimented with a hardboiled egg in vinegar)
7. what will happen if I stand on a raw egg
8. what will happen to a hardboiled egg if it sits in Rootbeer for several days (there is a pop theme here)

The next day, the students performed their own experiments.  It was chaotic but wonderful at the same time to see them taking ownership over their learning.  The student who dropped the egg into the bucket of water was amazed when the egg cracked.  The student who stepped on the raw egg enjoyed it so much that he wanted to step on more raw eggs.  The eggs in pop and vinegar are still sitting on the table.  Every day the students are looking at them amazed that the eggs in Pepsi and Rootbeer are turning brown and the egg in the vinegar is slowly losing its shell and the vinegar is evaporating as one student shared with me today. Thanks to Lora, I was able to come up with the new teaching idea of wondering and solving the wonder through experimenting.  A twist to the way that I have always done KWL.  Sharing and collaborating makes teaching so much more exciting and refreshing.