While using station teaching or acceleration centers as an approach to co-teaching is often very successful for both teachers and students, it is important to use this approach correctly.  To help those co-teachers already using, or thinking about implementing, an acceleration center approach in their classroom, here are:

Tips for Successful Acceleration Centers

• Reassign partners every four to five weeks.
• Don’t change partners in response to student requests or complaints. Doing so opens up a Pandora’s box of potential problems.
• Acceleration Center assignments must be able to be managed and completed independently. If students cannot manage the assignments by themselves they will often stop completely or interrupt the teachers and/or other small groups for help. The goal of the center is for students to be able to increase achievement but also for teachers to gain valuable conferencing time or small group work time uninterrupted. Teachers must be able to optimize Acceleration Center time.
• Acceleration Centers are not thematic nor do they become obsolete at any point during school year. Avoid any seasonal connotation. They are set up for sustainability, requiring minimal prep work when prep for the centers is viewed in light of creating lesson plans suitable for an entire school year.

• Use Acceleration Centers to support state standards or curriculum goals from basic to proficient.

• Create procedures and rules for utilizing the Acceleration Centers with students as part of the process. By doing so, teachers engage students in the process they are more likely to buy into.

• If setting up more than one center, start with the first one and practice the rules and procedures using the first one as a teaching tool.

• As silly as it may sound to a secondary teacher, whether middle school, junior high, or high school, it is imperative to have students practice moving from their seats to the Acceleration Center to choose an activity and back to their seats or small groups until they can do it quietly and efficiently. This typically will take 10 or 15 minutes of practice, set up as a timed contest. Use a stopwatch and practice until students can run the procedure in three minutes or less. It may be beneficial to incorporate a reward system to maintain proper behavior and efficiency over the course of the school year.

• Keep records of completed assignments and how those assignments align to state standards or curriculum goals.

• Train one or two “student experts” on how the Acceleration Centers function. They do not need to know how to do the academic portion of the center; rather, they need to teach other students how to follow the instructions in the folders, how to keep the center organized, and how to explain the logistics of the center to other students. The “student expert” makes it possible for students to work without interrupting the teacher while the teacher is coaching others.

From Co-Teaching and Collaboration in the Classroom: Practical Strategies for Success

Do you have students who can’t sit still in class? Do you have a child that can’t sit to do homework?  I had students who struggled to sit in the classroom and I realized one day that if I allowed them to stand and work off the bookcase, they were more focused and behavior significantly improved. When my son was little, he’d eat better if he could stand at the dining room table. It also minimized trips to the hospital after he fell out of his chair.

And as for myself, I can’t sit to focus. I actually create a standing station in my office with a lap desk on top of the desk and in a hotel room by placing an upside down drawer on the desk. I put my laptop on top of the drawer.

Then, there’s the problem of overcrowded classrooms. What if we asked for volunteers to stand during the secondary class period and removed some desks. The video below explains how standing stations might be the best solution for antsy students or overcrowding in the classroom!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

One of Life’s Tough Lessons: We Do Make a Difference
By Susan Fitzell, February 15, 2000

I have something to share tonight… not sure why, except that I need to…

I went to a concert at my son’s school. There was a resident artist there, a musician, Randy Armstrong, that I have been following since my college days. Wow, that’s over 20 years.

It was a wonderful concert and to see the spark that Randy ignited in my son by inspiring a passion for the African drum was a wonderful thing.

But, the night was bitter sweet.

Well over a year ago, the principal at my children’s school, Mr. F. had a sudden aneurysm and stroke. He is probably in his early 50’s. He had all kinds of complications that didn’t allow him to recover, as we would have hoped.

He was a man who lived his life for his school. He had been the principal there for at least twenty years. I was fortunate enough to get to know him when he allowed me to do my conflict resolution practicum in his school. To my daughter, he was an extremely special man. My son, although he only knew him for a little over a year in school, had tottered around the building from the time he was two. He also, knew the principal well.

I consider myself to be a very spiritual person, however, I had a very hard time accepting that this charismatic man, this man who had given his life for the community’s children, this man who would bend over backward to help me, my children, and set such a strong positive role model for generations of children would be dealt such a blow.

I know it is not my place to question why things happen the way they do. Even if I do question, there are no answers. All I can think of is the loss that everyone who loves him feels and the loss for all the children who won’t know this great man the way he was.

He came to the show tonight. As he entered on his walker, he looked frail. The entire auditorium rose and cheered and let out whoops of happiness to see him. I did to. But, then I cried. I’m not sure all that I’m crying for, but the tears flow nevertheless.

My daughter wanted to see him after the show. She was his shining star. She knew that. She was warned that he might not remember her name, but, in her young mind, her hope was that he would. She thought, “How could he forget her?”

I went with her. I’m grateful that I was there to support her. As she met him, he looked at her like he knew her, but kept saying, “I can’t remember your name.” He looked at me, and I saw recognition in his eyes, but pain. I told him who we were and he started to cry. He said, “I can’t remember names. This stroke did this. It’s so frustrating, I can’t remember names.” I hugged him, and said it was OK. But, I knew, to him, it wasn’t. One of the things he prided himself in all his years as principal was that he knew every name of every child in the school.

My daughter and I came home. We had a bedroom talk about life, fairness, expectations, letting go, life lessons and harsh realities. And, we cried. I tried to tell her that the past has not changed. She still holds it in her heart and her mind. And the future is just different. Maybe there is a lesson for us to learn here, too.

I am a teacher. He, a principal, was also a teacher. In a different way, he still is one. So many times in life, we wonder what we give to our students, our families, our children, and the world. So many times we question the value of our own lives or our own contribution. Maybe it is not ours to question. Only those who experience life with us, whose lives we have touched and whose lives have touched ours, can really know what it is that we give. Could he have really known how much he was loved? How much he gave to the children in his building? I doubt it.

He is still touching my life. His experience has made me look at life differently. I guess facing your own mortality does that.

People constantly tell me to rest, to slow down, that I will die young if I keep the pace that I keep. Well, there are two ways to look at life. One way is to go though life more relaxed attempting to preserve my health and savor the moments. The other is to live every moment with as much gusto as I can because I can’t foresee the future. My life as I know it could change tomorrow. So, I want to experience everything that I can and give as much as I can to the world now, while I can.

Another thing he is teaching me is that as teachers, principals, peacemakers, humans contributing to the world, even when we think our contribution is minimal, that our efforts are in vain, that our voices are not heard, someone we have touched has learned from what we have given, has grown from our efforts, and has heard our words. We just seldom know it.

My daughter told me of her first memory with Mr. F. It was a simple moment of teasing over a troll she had in show and tell. I’m sure he walked away that day and thought no more of it. But, 7 years later, she still remembers it. To her, it meant he noticed her, that he cared for her, that he liked her. At that time, *that* was important to her.

We touch lives. Even the mistakes we make in our lives are opportunities for ourselves and others to grow. We touch lives for good or for bad. Sometimes it is the smallest of acts that is remembered. For me, tonight was a powerful reminder of that simple truth because this man has touched my life more than he could ever know.

Recently, I’ve referenced “The Nun Study” in my seminars when discussing the importance of challenging our brains to grow neural connections. Many have not heard of this study. So, in order to facilitate further discussion and learning on the topic, I’m posting some links here.

The Nun Study at the University of Minnesota where the research is headquartered.

Time magazine wrote an excellent article on The Nun Study in 2001. A quote from that article “…a college education and an active intellectual life, on the other hand, may actually protect you from the effects of the disease. Perhaps the most surprising result of the Nun Study, though, is the discovery that the way we express ourselves in language, even at an early age, can foretell how long we’ll live and how vulnerable we’ll be to Alzheimer’s decades down the line.”

The University of Kentucky also published an outstanding article on the topic of Aging and Alzheimer’s.

I read this article and remember how sharp my dad was at 78 years old. He did a crossword puzzle every day, spoke two languages fluently and was an avid reader. He was sharp until the day he passed over.

Seems to me that it’s a gift to our students to teach them to love reading, writing and on-going learning.

1. There are many models of co-teaching. Work with your co-teacher and your administrators to determine what will work best in your classroom. Finding an arrangement that works for everyone is a good first step in a successful co-teaching relationship.

2. Even if your co-teaching model is a “one teacher, one support teacher,” always emphasize to your students that you are both “The Teacher.” It’s not one teacher, one less-important teacher.

3. When co-teaching, we have to check our egos at the door and make decisions that are in the best interest of our students. Over the years, traditional practice has reinforced the myth that special education teachers should be with the students that need basic skills while the general education teacher teaches the whole class. That’s not necessarily true. Let the situation dictate the response.

4. Know your strengths and weaknesses. As a part of your planning together, communicate with each other about what you feel you do particularly well and in what areas you feel you are not as strong. You may find that you can fill each others’ gaps, so to speak. Together, two great teachers can make a spectacular co-teaching team.

5. You have to plan. It’s unavoidable – to be a good team you must spend time working together to create and refine your classroom plans. Administrations do not always allow prep periods where both teachers are free, or may only leave one or two periods a week free for planning. Make the most of the time you have and be creative in finding any extra time you may need.

6. Plan for your planning. As much as possible, get your lesson plans and weekly goals set before you meet with each other. Then you’ll be free to work strictly on the parts of the lesson plan for which you need each other. Efficient use of your time is essential, especially when it’s limited to begin with.

7. Do not isolate anyone. When you have a one teacher/one support model or a one teacher/one special education teacher model, it is too easy to slip into an arrangement where one teacher is always working with only a few students while the general classroom teacher always works with the rest of the class. This establishes a negative “otherness” for the small group, including the teacher. Small groups can be extremely effective, just be sure that they’re not isolating the same group of students all the time.

8. When you have a one teacher/one support teacher model, students can frequently get the picture that one teacher is the “real” teacher while the other teacher is someone secondary. Avoid this at all costs. A good way to avoid this is to have the support teacher teach the general classroom in a subject or topic that she or he is particularly proficient at, rather than having him or her constantly relegated to typical “support” tasks.

9. If you will be working in a parallel teaching or alternative teaching model, set aside a prep period for the two of you to arrange your classroom. You may need to move things around a few times to find a set-up that allows you both to be teaching at the same time without distracting students or each other. Careful planning of your shared space will pay off.

10. If you are an administrator selecting teachers to pair as co-teachers, think carefully about your choices. A supportive co-teaching pair takes work to create, but all the conflict resolution or professionalism in the word cannot compensate for two seriously mismatched personalities.

11. If you are part of a new co-teaching pair (and especially if co-teaching is new to your school) be patient with the process. It will take time for you both to adjust to each others’ personalities and teaching styles.

12. If you are using an alternative teaching model, consider using Fitzell Acceleration Centers, an advanced method of co-teaching that allows students to learn at a pace that fits them. You can learn about how to set up Fitzell Acceleration Centers in Susan Fitzell’s book Co-teaching & Collaboration in the Classroom: Practical Strategies for Success.

These tips are derived from Co-teaching & Collaboration in the Classroom: Practical Strategies for Success by Susan Gingras Fitzell M. Ed., available at CogentCatalyst.com.

Tier One of RTI requires the use of best practice, research-based teaching methods. Research- based strategies, as discussed in Robert Marzano’s Dimensions of Learning, are implemented in the differentiated classroom to provide the best teaching practices for Tier One, thereby reducing the need for interventions.

Given my experience teaching at the high school level as both a special education teacher and a co-teacher who worked within the inclusion model, as well as my experience coaching in middle schools and high schools around the country, I have become convinced that every secondary classroom needs to begin at Tier One: differentiating instruction so that all students can learn.  When teachers differentiate instruction, 80-90% of students are successful in meeting achievement benchmarks. (Hanson 2009)

1. The verbal linguistic, auditory delivery of information where students are expected to passively sit in their seats and take in information while trying to copy notes at rapid speed does not work for all students.
2. The students it does not work for are the students who are not responding to education and are doing poorly in the classroom as well as on their state tests. While this method may work for some teachers and some students, it does not work for the majority of our struggling student population.
3. A consequence of the lack of differentiation at the secondary level is that students who move on to college, whether to engineering coursework or technical school, primarily learned only one mode of studying. When they become college students and are met with challenging coursework, they often lack the study skills to support them in the more rigorous academic environment. This is why we often find that our most successful high school students don’t meet expectations at the college level.

The reality is that until we differentiate instruction at the secondary level, a basic requirement of Tier One RTI, we are shortchanging all our students: English-language learners, students with special needs, trade bound students, or students heading off to college.

Excerpted from RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers by Susan Gingras Fitzell.

Regardless of how you look at the year, I hope that you return to your students this month with a bright new outlook and the resolve to reach as many of your students as you can.  To help with that, I’m very excited about my new, FREE, magazine, Terrific Instruction Tips and Tools.

This magazine is full of articles to help teachers, and parents, meet the goal of reaching all learneres. If you, or your campus, service center, or organization could benefit from this information, please contact us at 603-625-6087 and we’ll get some to you asap!

Here’s to a great year ahead, filled with all the success you wish, for yourself, your family, and your students!

Team teaching is an advanced method of co-teaching that requires both teachers to have compatible personality and teaching styles.  It is also important that both teachers feel competent in the subject area.

There are many ways to use team teaching in the classroom.  Co-teachers can equally present the content being taught, ask critical thinking questions, play ‘devil’s advocate’ in order to make a point, debate with each other and the students, and take advantage of both teachers’ knowledge of the subject.

It is important, however, that students clearly see no difference in hierarchy between the co-teachers using this approach. Normally, team teaching does not occur unless both teachers are comfortable with each other. Usually they have been together for a while and know the topic equally well.

On Standardized Tests:

The easiest questions are at the beginning, the middle more difficult and the end, the most difficult. If a question at the end seems too easy, it’s probably the wrong answer.

On Essay Tests:

• Make notes on back of exam sheet, eg., ACRONYMS, Visual Cues, etc.
• Read directions carefully
• Underline key question words.
• Number all parts of the question.
• Jot notes along side each question as you read it for the first time.
• Pretend the reader is totally ignorant of the topic!

How to Handle Reading Passages on Tests:

• Find the main idea: Each passage has a main idea. Read for the main idea and skim the details.
• Read quickly, answer slowly: Most students do the opposite: read slowly and answer quickly. Read for the main idea and you’ll read quickly.
• Mark as you read: After reading each paragraph, make a brief note of two or three words in the margin. Indicate what went on in the paragraph. Circle important details.

How to Handle Math Questions on Tests:

• Look for shortcuts: For example, you know that an odd number multiplied by an odd number gives an odd number for an answer. If only one of the choices is an odd number, it has to be correct.
• Work in consistent units:
• If one side of a rectangle is given in inches and another in feet, convert them both to feet or inches before you multiply or add.
• Don’t do all the computations in your head.