The cover of Educational Leadership this month immediately provoked a strong sense of deja vu. The topic for the month is . o-teaching and hardly an article's title didn't find me agreeing wholeheartedly. Do they work? Yes. Do the educators experience professional growth? Absolutely. Can all students benefit? You bet your bottom dollar they do. How do I know all of this. Almost forty years ago, my close friend and colleague found ourselves teaching in the open concept part of the school and teaching two adjoining grades. I suggested to him that we put the library between us which was already there and we occupy two sides of the library and we group our two classes for Language Arts and for Mathematics and we theme teach our Social Studies and Science. As I think back on it, I realize that it was quite a new idea but it just seemed natural to us that we group our students. The kids loved it and we wrote units to go along with what we were teaching and it was a fun year. We spent hours planning and sharing. But then after one year, it stopped. My friend took a job in a different school and I was left without him beside me. As an experiment, I realize we ought to have committed to two years at least so that we learned how to maximize the opportunities. We didn't realize at the time what we had stumbled upon, that's for sure. So, if I have anything to add to what the articles in the magazine describe, it would be that you have to plan such a collaboration in such a way that you allow yourselves time to figure it all out and make it seem almost routine. That way you will be ensuring you as well as your students get the most out of the process.
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