Learning Matters: Teacher partnerships prove that two is better than one

About 11 years since I last worked as an elementary chorus director, I stood again in front of about 50 students who’d signed up for this once-a-week, after-school activity.

Still considering myself a novice in comparison to the “real” music teachers I’ve observed over the years, I felt more than rusty as the children gathered on the cafeteria benches in front of me. “What did I get myself into?” was only one of the questions I asked as the room began to echo with chatty children. Teaching can be a very lonely experience.

And so I turned for inspiration to partner-teachers, that small minority of classroom teachers — only about 10 pairs in Glendale Unified, according to Maria Gandera, assistant superintendent — who have chosen and been granted the opportunity to share students.

MORE: Read more of Joylene’s columns>>

I visited four such pairs who combine two classes of students and share the teaching load. (Those who split one class between them, alternating teaching days, may be a subject for another column.)

I started with a visit to my hometown of Monrovia. Patti Gould, a friend since high school, is a veteran teacher who chose to team up with a colleague four years ago after returning to an elementary classroom from an administrative position. She suggested I come for a visit to see how they manage their two classes of second-graders.

From the time I saw the morning lineup and heard the call-and-response chant, I could tell this teaching arrangement was working.

“Class, class,” intoned my friend, in her characteristically low-key way. “Yes, yes,” came the children’s reply, before they began their student-led calisthenics.

Then as another student held the door and classical music played, both classes entered their respective rooms, stowed their bags and moved to their spots on the “team room” rug. With more recitation from beautifully hand-drawn and illustrated charts (Patti’s work, her partner, Heather Povinelli, told me), they pledged allegiance, reviewed their class rules and learned the agenda for the day — a very word-rich experience.

During the course of the morning, students “decomposed number bundles,” in math, reviewed prefixes and suffixes, read to themselves as part of the “daily five” and practiced cooperative learning. Three boys did their work while bouncing therapeutically on balls designed for the purpose.

In all, the 50 students — whose interim test scores led the district — called into question the common worry over class size, notwithstanding the abundance of classroom space rarely seen in public schools.

By contrast, the partnered classes I saw at Glendale’s R.D. White Elementary were considerably more cramped, but there again I observed the calm flow of activity that can come from established classroom routines and expectations.

While a teaching intern led Traci Holland and Stefani Dombroski’s class of 43 first-graders, Holland walked among the desks checking for student understanding, and Dombroski worked with a small group. At White, they told me, the space limitations caused by school construction made teaming something of a necessity.

“But it works,” Dombroski said.

Second-grade teachers Linda Aftandilian and Scarlett Vartanian, on the other hand, have taught together by choice for nine years, with as many as 52 in their class — the maximum, Vartanian told me, though she fondly remembered the days of 40, when their rosters had only 20 students each.

They have 47 now between them. But Vartanian still sees and enjoys the benefits of team-teaching.

“The teacher doing whole-group instruction never has to be interrupted,” she said, by all that happens in an elementary class: calls from the office, a student needing a Band-Aid.

“We laugh a lot together, which is nice,” Vartanian said.

It’s that sense of collaboration and shared support for the students and each other that Clark Magnet High School history teacher Chris Davis appreciates in his 17th year of team teaching with his wife, English teacher Jennifer Davis.

I sat in on their class, as I’ve done on occasion before, and marveled at how they could so effectively engage 68 sophomores. They have essentially two classes with a partition they can open and close to suit their activities, and they take advantage of Clark’s technology-rich environment with the use of a microphone, multiple screens and a collection of computers.

In an email, Chris Davis focused on the benefit to students when two teachers are in the class, “to answer a question, notice when struggles arise.”

He said he believes instruction improves when teachers can give each other immediate feedback. And for students, “…two sets of eyes with different perspectives… can help [a] child grow academically and socially.”

What I saw made me wish more schools could make space and look for teachers willing to give partnering a try. For my part, until the day when my former piano accompanist returns to partner with me as I lead the school chorus, the vision of these teaching teams and their large numbers of well-managed students will serve as my inspiration and support.

--

JOYLENE WAGNER is a past member of the Glendale Unified School Board. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.