Job Embedded Professional Learning - co-planning and co-teaching sessions with IWB LC members

Job Embedded Professional Learning (JEPL) to support students in the Inquiry Process

Co-planning and co-teaching sessions are part of the year-long support for Special Education teachers who are part of the Assistive Technology team's Interactive Whiteboard Learning Communities. One of the six Itinerant Resource Teachers and the LC member work together to embed assistive technology tools and strategies to support students in the classroom. 

At a recent session at Arbor Glen P.S., the Home School Program teacher Monica Joshan and Itinerant teacher Valia Reinsalu incorporated tools to support junior students in clearly, easily and promptly expressing their ideas during a inquiry process language lesson via a picture book. The lesson incorporated a few pictures along with the use of Magic Ink, spotlight, and annotation tools to provide visual support to the students. Students generated questions and expressed their ideas using the sound recorder, which allows both the special education teacher and students to save and review ideas that are shared.

Ms. Joshan creates the lesson flipchart during the co-plan session at Arbor Glen P.S.

Slowly revealing the illustration on the cover, helps students find and confirm evidence. They answer the question: "I wonder why Oliver Button is being called a sissy?" 

The spotlight tool not only provided focus and attention, but allows students to engage with details of an image. They observe the body language and make inferences about what else could be happening in the picture. "What questions do I have?"

Often during the JEPL sessions, other LC teachers are invited to observe the co-teaching sessions, depending on the comfort level of the students.