By Delaney Dine

Bellbrook High School administration has assigned co-teaching roles to around half the teachers in each department. This system has received overwhelmingly positive reception from teachers.

“I really love the co-teaching system; I think it’s a great learning experience for teachers,” English teacher Paige Lewis said. Lewis co-teaches College Prep 12 with Michael Garrison.

“A co-taught class allows a lot more flexibility than teaching solo,” history teacher Bob Parks said.  “Having another teacher in the room allows us to break the class into two groups and sometimes two different rooms.  It allows us to work more closely with students and to get around the room to answer more questions. 

This is especially helpful for quizzes and tests so that we do not need to send any students to the testing room. We can keep them with us where we can help clarify questions.  It also helps to improve classroom behavior since there are two teachers watching the room and interacting with students instead of just one,” Parks said.

Parks shares two classes with history teacher Aaron Fromm.

“Mr. Fromm is the lead teacher for the American Studies class and I am the lead teacher for the World Studies class, but either of us can take over lead instruction if necessary,” Parks said. They have a cluster of students in each course who qualify for more intervention because of past test scores.

“Students have double the resources and knowledge to learn our English content,” English teacher Nicole Kaeck said of her English 10 course she co-teaches with Valinda Buedel-Herrman. “Mrs. B-H and I have different teaching styles, so we are able to connect with a variety of students and their learning needs. We are also able to bring our two brains together and merge ideas that will best help students learn skills related to English.”

Math teachers David Kapka and Macy McMonigle  who co-teach two Algebra 1 classes, taking a similar but slightly different approach.

“Our form this year, and these past few years has worked pretty well,” Kapka said. “We split the class and I take a certain amount of kids and she takes a certain amount of kids so we can divide and conquer.”

“Blended classrooms benefit teachers and students alike,” Lewis said. “Students are exposed to varying expectations and teacher-student interactions, and teachers are encouraged to reflect more and better their own practices.”

Other than just the benefits to the students, teachers report that co-teaching has also been helpful for them to learn as well.

“I think teachers can learn a lot from each other,” Lewis said. “Getting honest, professional feedback from someone daily is such a helpful and insightful experience.”

“I have learned so many skills from Mrs. Lewis that I am able to implement into my teaching and rapport building,” Garrison said. “Also, it’s loads of fun!”

“For co-teaching to work well I believe there needs to be a lead teacher and a supporting teacher, kind of like a head coach and an assistant coach,” Parks said. “They need to work together to present a united front but they are also presenting each other’s ideas to make the class more successful. It is important that they are not competing for the attention of the students but they are supportive of each other.”

“I also like having Mr. Fromm with me because I can always count on him to laugh at my jokes even if the students do not,” Parks said.