jobshare in primary teaching - how to make it work?

[sdubbs]

Can anyone tell me how they make their jobshare work, either both doing 2 1/2 days or 1 doing 3 and the other 2. Just need advice on how best to plan, time to liase, who teaches what etc.
Thanks

[Suthern Yankee's S.O.]

I've seen it in action. It takes 2 teachers that can work TOGETHER and be on the same page. Its not easy and, personally, a last resort.

I saw it and I don't see the advantage. The teachers I saw worked 1/2 day each every day. One in the morning until Lunch, the other from lunch until the end of the day.

its a continuity thing. I just don't see it

[Heidi]

I observed in a class with a shared-contract situation. My cooperating teacher (I didn't generally observe both) was always going nuts because of miscommunication issues. She always felt like she had to "play catch up" upon coming back to work. It really seems like an awful situation to me.

Anyway, the way they did it was that one teacher always taught Mon-Tues, the other taught Thurs-Fri, and they alternated Wednesdays. They taught the subjects according to the weekly schedule which was pretty much mandated by the district (e.g. Language Arts and Math every day, Science two days per week, etc.)

My advice to you would be to sit down with your co-teacher at LEAST once a week to plan your lessons. Decide who will be responsible for which lessons. You also need to talk about who will be doing the planning and grading. For example, will you do photocopying/cutting/laminating for each other on an alternating schedule? Will you grade only your own lessons, or will you switch off on those duties? Finally, make sure to keep very clear records of everything. Leave notes for each other to keep updated on the class's progress between meetings.