Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 8

Yesterday, my mentor teacher was at a training and there was a sub.  It was very interesting, because the sub depended on me for what to do and where to go.  Since it is my full time teaching weeks, she basically helped me with behavior and with creating resources.  It was very different to have someone looking to me for guidance.
I have started to experience a difficult situation with an intern that I co-teach with.  We have not formed the type of professional or collaborative relationship that I feel is appropriate for co-teaching.  There have been several situations that have occurred with the intern not providing the necessary effort and consideration for co-teaching.  As a special education teacher, I have to base my lessons off of the general education teacher and curriculum.  However, this is difficult because the intern is not sure what she will be doing next week when we talk at the end of the week before.  I am becoming frustrated, because I feel that it is the best for me if I am able to finish my plans at the end of the week before.  The intern did not send me her lesson plans for this week until 11pm on Sunday, and I was already sleeping.  I did not get the lesson plans until Monday night after class.  I was very frustrated being that I have to develop my lessons based on hers.  Today, the students had a math test.  She brought me the test at 8:30am and the test would be at 9:30am.  She said I would need to modify and cut the test for the special education students.  I only had a half hour to do this, because I co-teach in a different classroom from 9:00-9:30.  I have just felt that she is not being considerate to me as a special education teacher or the students who receive services.  I feel that there is a disconnect, but I do not know how to form a connection when we have experienced these issues.  I have offered to make materials or design lessons, and I have also asked if she could give me her lesson plans the week before.  However, she has not wanted my help or given be her lesson plans in advanced.  I feel more as a glorified aide in her classroom.  I am working with my mentor teacher to hopefully come to a finding on as how to handle this difficult situation.  My mentor teacher explained that this does happen more often than not when co-teaching with general education.
I got to sit in on a special education eligibility meeting today.  It was very interesting to see the process of an eligibility meeting compared to an IEP meeting.  The eligibility meeting focused on the reasons for the student being referred and receiving special education services.  I now understand the importance of talking to parents as an equal and not using terminology they may not understand.  It is important to make parents feel as if they are a part of the meeting and not just telling them what will happen.  The parents need to feel as if they are able to be a part of the decision making process and the student’s IEP process.
I implemented a reading lesson with curricular ties with science today with my third graders.  We had been studying penguins the past two weeks, and today, we were discussing the protective layers a penguin has.  The students had to make prediction and observations on the experiment.  The students put petroleum jelly on one hand and left the other plain.  The students were engaged and eager to learn.  The students made really great predictions and observations and really understood the concept of the oil on the penguins’ skin.