Dear students and families,

Welcome to our second grade classroom. Your second grade classroom is Room 4 in the gym wing.. You will have your own desk.

You have two teachers this year; Ms. Favale and Ms. Hasbrouck. This will be our tenth year co-teaching together. Our first six weeks of school is all about building a classroom community. We are a community of learners and it is important that we build a brave, comfortable space together. There will be times when it will be easy and other days , not so easy, but it is important to remember that we are in this together and we are here for each other.

Below we have a poem as well as a definition of co-teaching that we try to uphold and improve on each year we are together.

Let's have a great year! Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Lisa Prince and Michele Favale


WHAT IS CO-TEACHING?

Co-teaching is two or more people sharing responsibility for teaching some or

all of the students assigned to a classroom. It involves the distribution of

responsibility among people for planning, instruction, and evaluation for a

classroom of students. Another way of saying this is that co-teaching is a fun

way for students to learn from two or more people who may have different

ways of thinking or teaching. Some people say that co-teaching is a creative

way to connect with and support others to help all children learn. Others say

that co-teaching is a way to make schools more effective. Co-teaching can be

likened to a marriage. Partners must establish trust, develop and work on communication,

share the chores, celebrate, work together creatively to overcome

the inevitable challenges and problems, and anticipate conflict and handle it in

a constructive way. (http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/6847_villa_ch_1.pdf)