How will we Introduce Ourselves?

One of the 5 Key Questions I posed to my co-teachers before we started school was, "How will we introduce ourselves?"  The idea is that the students should see both co-teachers as equal leaders of the classroom and partners.  Some people hope that the students won't actually know if one or the other is a Special Education teacher.  No student has asked if I'm a Special Ed teacher yet but our introductions were not totally successful.

I co-teach in 2 different classrooms.  In both cases, the General Education teacher is in that classroom all day and I roll in just for the 2-period block for which I co-teach.  So, the students know that the room is not exactly half mine.  I have my name on one of the bulletin boards but I don't have a desk in the room and I carry my daily needs in a plastic bin from my desk to room to room.  

Here are a few examples of how I've been identified as the co-teacher.

1) Day 1, despite agreeing to introducing ourselves as "the teachers" for the class, my co-teacher introduced me as a "guest teacher."  Wait.  What?  Really.  Then she gave me what I call 'question mark face' so I said, "We're co-teachers.  We're both teaching this class."  Not a great start.

2) A student asked me if I was an assistant teacher.  I said, "Nope, Ms. B and I are co-teachers, we both teach LA and SS together."  Not great for the old self-esteem.

3) After I led Social Studies two days in a row, some students were trying to figure it out and one asked, "Are you our Social Studies teacher?"   Closer...

Since this is a new (NEW!) concept in our school, I have told both classes that this is sort of an experiment, we're testing it out.  In one of my classes where we've already used a few different models, I've turned to my co-teacher and said, "Mr. B, have you ever done this before?  No?! Me, neither, isn't it exciting!"  

Yes, both my co-teachers have the same last initial.  Easy, huh?