Pros and Cons

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Home : 2002 : February : 10

Pros and Cons
By Team teacher

At my school we team teach in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. I think it is the best way to teach the upper elementary grades. For one thing, where I live grades K-3 have smaller classes, while the upper grades have classes
twice as big. It is too hard for teachers to teach that many kids all the subjects and do well. So, as others have said, the kids benefit from teachers who can specialize and teach what they enjoy. (Although the levels of my two language arts groups are so different that it's almost like preparing for two different subjects.) This brings me to tracking. Doing a team teaching approach

allows for entire classes that are at roughly the same level, which makes differentiating instruction much easier. (And, from a purely selfish standpoint, it's nice to not have one teacher stuck with the most difficult track all day.) Also, as somebody else said, it's nice to have students learning the organization and responsibility that moving from class to class requires.

However, I would caution you about a few major problems that we have had, which can be avoided:

(1) Students, at least in the fifth grade, tend to have a need to be in one teacher's class. That is, even if they go to two different teachers, the "homeroom" teacher will tend to be seen as their teacher. While this may not seem like a big deal, it sometimes translates into kids not doing homework for the other teacher or not behaving for the other teacher. However, it is up to the teachers to perpetuate the "you are in everybody's class" point of view. This did not happen this year for my team. Teachers did things like making a separate newsletter for the homeroom, only giving holiday gifts to the homeroom, only participating with the homeroom during group P.E. ... you get the point. It's especially hard when we do a tracking approach, because one class sees itself as the "stupid class," and it only makes it worse when they aren't allowed to mix with other classes. The sixth grade does a better job of havng a "unified sixth grade" concept. They do class parties together, take field trips with a different homeroom, do parent conferences together, give out awards from the whole grade and not each individual class, even take the class picture together. It's little things like these that really build a team mentality.
(2) Student organization IS a problem. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "I left my pencil [book/homework/paper/assignment book] next door," it would double my income every month. Also, students have a hard time keeping track of when things are due. We started giving students weekly homework packets from each teacher that have all major assignments, due dates, tests, and announcements posted on the cover page. If you can work out doing one general sheet for all teachers, that's even better. While some kids will never "get it," at least you tried.
(3) Finally, as somebody else said, personality conflicts can be a problem. The person who teaches the same subjects I do in the team is the mean, frazzled teacher who barely gets by and is not liked by the administration or other teachers. While I get along with her, she isn't always much help. The other teacher doesn't really want much to do with group planning or meetings and is often not available to talk to. Sometimes we make individual decisions that should have been made by the group, just because people are not available for meetings. You really need to have dedicated people on the team who have a set meeting time, I think.

However, as I said, I still think the team approach is the only way to go. It makes life easier and better for everyone.