We are all in this together

As a public school elementary school teacher, I will always be teaching with a co-teacher. So this video is hers just as much as it mine.
For this lesson I wanted to teach the following things:
1- Underlining reading for key ideas
2- ability to find and read ordinal numbers
3- Foster use of partner for understanding and checking.

I was able to accomplish the use of underlining to find key ideas, every student was able to find and underline the key idea in the reading. Though some of the students did require extra help when it came to reading the words on the page. (some of the students are still learning the letters or how sentences are put together.) These students required their partner to speak aloud the word and point to it, or have a teacher match the number and the word ("Fourth" and "4")

Not all of the students could find and read the ordinal numbers. When answering "Read more", out of 36 students in this class, 2 of the students couldn't identify the difference between fourth and floor. (These are two students I worked with during the partner reading and answering time, there could be more that didn't understand, but I didn't catch any more at that time.)

Fostering the use of partners was very successful for this class. I want to encourage the students to ask each other questions about the reading or point out the key ideas to each other.  Some of the students were shy about asking their partner for help, but the more proficient of the pair would usually point out the key words on the page and help the other students.

As for myself...
As I analysed the teaching in my class, I notice that I do a large amount of the talking in class. I dominated the amount of talking in this class. I would like to find a way to include more student talking when it comes to reading and answer, but I am unsure of how to do so.

One of the biggest things I noticed was that I interrupted my co-teacher two times. The first time was during warm up, because I didn't hear her speaking. The second time, my hand with the TV touch pen slipped on the button for the video. I will have to be more mindful of when she is speaking and how she and I can signal when we are done and the other can speak or interject.
I asked her how she feels and what I can do, she said it is something that normally happens between co-teachers and that it is not something that I commonly do in class.

I also repeat myself  A LOT!
I will use this to emphasize the key point or word. I feel like I do it too much, but my co-teacher says that the repetition helps the lower level students to have more time to hear my sentence and digest it. She says that is helps the students to focus on the key point when I repeat it.
"Let's go ahead and open your books to page 12. page 12"

The reason I titled this post the way I did, was to bring the focus back on the relationship between my co-teacher and me. While I do lead most of the class and I plan most of activities (I teach 2 out of 3 classes each week and then she teaches 1 alone.), she is extremely important in our classes.
Sometimes it is for the usual reasons, she can translate new or difficult concepts. (examples in video: "Underline" and "Follow with your finger". )

Sometimes it is for her contribution in Korean culture. During the Egyptian part of "Meet the World". She spoke about her experience in a school house in Korea like that. I had no idea about the history of Korean schools and how they had a similar rotation system that was in place due to lack of schools! Her point of view gives the student a personal and deep connection to what they are learning.

Sometimes having her in class is just better in general. With so many students to watch it is extremely helpful to have an extra pair of eyes and hands. If I am taking care of 15 students in one area of the classroom she can take watch over the other 20. If one student needs extra attention during a whole class assignment I can count on her to go over to his/her seat and help that student.

In this reflection, I just want to make sure I remember that while I am learning and growing as a teacher, I have a wonderful resource that many teachers do not have, a co-teacher. While this may present me with different challenges, it more than makes up for it with all the benefits.