3 Must-Have Skills for Team-Teachers (Job-Seekers)

Written by Ms. Stolich

As more and more public schools integrate team-teaching models into their schools, both general education and special-needs teachers are expected to understand and apply co-teaching to their daily instruction and planning. No longer a special education provider’s responsibility, team-teaching is becoming standard in most classrooms, across subject-area and grade level. Since the demand for team-teaching continues to grow, all educators should be prepared to demonstrate their existing integrated team-teaching knowledge and skills for classroom instruction and planning use, as well as when interviewing for new teaching jobs.

Job-seekers should be prepared to answer questions and demonstrate their own application and knowledge related to planning and instruction for team-teaching. When selecting potential team-teaching candidates, interviewers look for the following demonstrated skills/expertise:

·         Differentiated lesson and unit plans. (Portfolio materials, projects and/or lessons and units modified based on student need, school data, content area, level of difficulty, materials/technology used etc.)

·         Strong content area experience demonstrated in one or more subjects during your teaching career. (Math, Literacy, Science, Technology, etc.)

·         Knowledge of basic federal, state and school-specific special education guidelines, resources, tools and materials. (Individualized Education Plans, IDEA/504 Act, Related Services, etc.)

Your resume, in-person interview and portfolio materials should reflect all three of these skill areas. Each are integral in the co-teaching model since it involves being able to effective reach both general education and special education students.