Who am I?

My first year of teaching I was assigned a mentor that had no interest in helping me grow or even survive as a teacher. Amid all of the long nights and frustration, I began collaborating with our special education teacher (who was in her second year of teaching). Although I didn't have any students on her caseload, we began to plan together. This collaboration invigorated the both of us.
We decided to go to our admin with a crazy proposition, to let us co-teach together. It had never been done before at our school, so we assumed they would say no to the two inexperienced teachers. But, they said yes! We spent our summer doing research and reading up on how to organize and plan for our epic collaboration.
When we started the year, I had no idea what to expect. I took one class in special education, and I had no experience teaching these wonderful students. This past year was one of the most rewarding, exciting, exhausting, and impactful of my career so far. While I know that is not the most intense statements, seeing as how I have only been teaching for three years now, I think it has made a permanent impact on my career. Working with my co-teacher has pushed me to try new things and become a better teacher. I am held accountable for my teaching everyday with her, as opposed to only when administration comes in for evaluations. I have someone to share our successes with and someone to reflect and discuss how we can make it better.
I have also been able to see first-hand how amazing it is for every student in our classroom, not just our students with IEPs. Our students with IEPs no longer have to be shuffled back and forth between classrooms. They have one classroom with the same expectations and routines, They have higher confidence because it is not diminished every time they have to leave the classroom for instruction. They have role models to help them see what appropriate behavior and social skills look like. Our general education students are learning tolerance. They are learning how to be leaders and teach others what they have learned. All of our students have learned the important lesson that fair does not always mean equal. They are learning that everyone makes mistakes. They are all receiving small group instruction 80% of the day. They get two different perspectives and two different explanations. They are a strong classroom community. They stick up for each other. They are learning.