Ring Elementary School Reading Specialist Lori Bird and Yvonne DeHaven, Special Education teachers, Samantha Hasbrouck and Michelle Trussalo, and Reading Specialist Heather Carlson recently met to collaborate to better meet the needs of their students. Missing from the photo is Special Education teacher Brittany Reinagel and Reading Specialist Becky Sorenson.

Ring Elementary School students are benefiting from a collaboration between the school’s reading specialists, Becky, Heather Carlson, Yvonne DeHaven and Lori Bird, and special education teachers, Samantha Hasbrouck, Brittany Reinagel and Michelle Trussalo.

The teachers meet once or twice a week to discuss and coordinate their instruction and started the collaboration this year.

“It is so nice to work together to see how we can help each make our instruction better for our students,” said the teachers.

“We all see it from different perspectives and it really helps to have this time to talk about our students and the best way to meet their individual needs.”

As every student with disabilities at Ring Elementary School is seen by at least one of the reading specialists, the group began co-planning to ensure that they align instruction.

Since they began co-planning, they have seen improvements in their students.

“We can really maximize the instructional time because we are all on the same page,” said Bird.

“Also, we share our successes and challenges and especially what instructional techniques are working best with our challenges. It’s been a great partnership that is really helping our students succeed.”