I am a teacher. A teacher of children who are learning to navigate the world around them as 9 and 10 year olds, fourth graders. I have done this work of teaching and nurturing for 27 years now, primarily in Verona, Wisconsin, but my career began in Houston, Texas in the mid 90’s. Throughout my time in Verona, I have worked with children from 2nd to 5th grade, in a school that has some of the Madison area’s most wealthy and most impoverished students in our classrooms.

Over the past 19 years I have had the pleasure of working with all types of students, from struggling learners and the gifted, to the ELL, Sp Ed, and those most traumatized in their home environments. I am passionate about building life long thinkers and problem solvers, with a focus on Social Justice and acceptance of all peoples.

This past spring, my principal decided to make some huge changes to our staff, in an effort to essentially raise test scores. The process was extremely painful and hard to accept, and not the focus of this blog post, perhaps another day for that topic! But, as the year ended, I was informed that I would be the 4th grade Special Ed Co-teacher, meaning that I would be assigned all of the students with special needs, either behavioral or academic, and partner with a Special Ed teacher, who will co-teach with me during our literacy block.

I am not alone in this brand new endeavor for next year, there were three other classroom teachers who are also beginning this process at their grade levels. During the last week of school, we were pulled into a meeting to give us some background on what would be occurring. There were definitely more than a few questions raised that morning, and the one that was vocalized most often was, what will this look like? Along with how are we, and the children we are working with, being supported during the times outside of the literacy block? None of our questions could be answered, the response repeatedly was, wait until the training. This training is set to happen some time in August, but we were all left with our heads spinning.

This leads me to my burning question, how will Co-teaching work for all of the students in my class, will I be able to give all of the students what they need when they need it, as our district equity statement boasts? I am eager to attend the training, but I am confident that it will only lead to more questions. This training, provided by our local CESA, may be informative, but what happens when I am in the thick of the year? When frustration takes over for one of my learners in Math class, where I won’t have a co-teacher to work with and problem solve? Or, when a child has a blow up because of an event they witnessed before even arriving at school? Will this model actually boost test scores, or could it possibly lead to my own teacher burnout, effectively leaving me empty and unable to help all of the students I am charged with?

This is not a post written to complain, but one to propel my inquiry. When we requested information to support this model, none was forthcoming. Our own research suggests that it was highly problematic to place a large number of at-risk students in one room, while only providing support for a small portion of a student’s academic day. How do I continue to put all children at the center of my work?

Following my training on our co-teaching model later this summer and into fall, I will be working to tailor my questions and focus based on that new learning as well as the actual humans that I will be spending each day with during the 2022–2023 school year. I am hopeful that this will be a positive year, with much growth for all of my students, far beyond their test scores, but I am hesitant. There is so much more that goes into developing a strong classroom community than just the group of students that are placed. Each child’s needs, limits, and past experiences should be considered when creating new classes, and I’m not confident that all of these factors were considered when the decision was made to group children in this way. We shall see how this plays out this upcoming year.