In another school, the principal first scheduled the integrated teachers for physical education, art and music classes, and at the times they wanted. One teacher in this school chose to have her art, music and physical education back-to-back so she could have at least one long, uninterrupted preparation period per week. Another teacher in this school requested her special classes at the end of the day so she could continue her preparation right after school.
In another school the principal allowed his staff to brainstorm for ideas on giving extra preparation time to one teacher who had an exceptional student integrated in her class. The teachers decided that their colleague would be released from lunch and recess duty. The principal also taught this teacher’s class one period every two weeks in order to provide time for her to collaborate with the methods and resource teacher.
The educators described another popular strategy. The administrators and methods and resource teachers supply taught for a period while classroom teachers used the time to plan or meet with their own methods and resource teacher.
Meet with Teachers
Many teachers, both regular class, and methods and resource, agreed that they felt well supported by principals who were available to meet with them either on a regular basis or at their request. The teachers mainly needed their principals to listen to them in an open-minded way, be a sounding board for innovative ideas, support them and reward them.
Share Experiences and Problem Solve
Throughout the process of integration, sessions for sharing both successful and unsuccessful experiences and for problem solving have helped educators to make changes and experience the benefits of integration. Sharing successful experiences may help to allay the fears of teachers and school administrators who are new to integration.
