Interview with Dwana Cooper

Co-Teachers in Classrooms Getting Coffee (Season 2 Episode 3) Meet Dwana Cooper, Coordinator of Specially Designed Instruction for the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). Listen to discover how Dwana intuitively developed an inspiring co-teaching partnership with an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher (common terminology from the 1990s) during her first year as a special educator. Among the many other topics that Dwana touches on during this conversation, find out about her vision for the new co-teaching teams that joined the Excellence in Co-Teaching Initiative and Dwana’s passion for the power of collaboration among educators. Our next episode (coming in early November), will focus on co-teaching specifically for multilingual learners with disabilities. We plan to feature two resources related to this topic: A chapter Dr. Wendy Murawski co-authored on Co-Teaching Models from English Learners with Learning Disabilities: A Collaborative Practice Guide for Educators edited  by Richard Boon and Vicky Spencer Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students by Andrea Honigsfeld and Audry Cohan Follow this podcast so you won’t miss future discussions with distinguished co-teachers twice each month during the school year. Please visit our website for links to additional resources related to co-teaching. Subscribe to Co-Teachers in Classrooms Getting Coffee for bimonthly interviews with co-teachers brought to you by the Training and Technical Assistance Center at Virginia Tech. For a copy of today’s transcript, go to transcript.