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TeamTeach

TeamTeach began as an assignment for General Assembly’s UX design course. After interviewing special educators and school therapists, I found a niche for an app that would allow a student’s IEP team to collaborate on activities and record student goals and milestones.

The process

The process began with listening to users through empathy-led interviews. I asked the user what they liked about their job. What made them excited to come in to work everyday? I wanted to understand what the user considered a successful day, so that I could design a tool that would help enhance that feeling of satisfaction in their jobs.

“I love using tools that make my job more efficient. Helping kids reach that “aha!” moment is what keeps me going, but year-end reporting can be stressful and draining.”

Jeff, the speech pathologist

“I have ideas I’d like to try with the students, but by the end of the day there’s no time left to share them with the lead teacher.”

Sarah, the paraprofessional

“One of the highlights of my job is being able to lead an activity that helps my students integrate into the general education classroom, but it’s hard to coordinate activities with the classroom teacher.”

Mimi, the special education teacher

The challenge

While listening, it became clear that the pain points people had in common uncovered a need for easier collaboration between teachers, therapists and paraprofessionals who work as a team to support students. And so TeamTeach was born.

Keep a repository of classroom ideas

  • Post links for reproducibles from sites like TeachersPayTeachers, and categorize them by material, subject matter and skill level, so that you and others can find them later.

  • You have great ideas! Write them down to share with your team and keep a record of what worked for whom.

Share ideas with your teammates

  • Have an idea that you think might work for a student? Let the lead teacher know by posting it to the student's page.

  • Let the whole team know how a project went by posting running notes and photos that can be compiled later for reporting.

Create year-end reports

  • Create custom reports of your running notes by student name, goal and date range.

  • Export your notes to your school system's assessment tool, such as Illuminate.

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