Collaboration between Teachers and Advocate Counselors

Overview

At Bronx Arena, Advocate Counselors (ACs) and generalist teachers blend their responsibilities within each class (called an Arena) in order to support all of their students’ needs in a meaningful manner. Even though the AC focuses on students’ social and emotional needs, while the generalist concentrates on academic content, they are both responsible for identifying areas of overlap, need, and strategic support. Generalists and ACs meet multiple times a week to map out one-on-one conferences, customize sections of a student’s learning plan, identify students to pull out for content support, and/or adjust curriculum based on data. By not only co-teaching, but also constantly collaborating, the generalist and ACs are able to obtain a clear picture of the academic and emotional needs of all of their students, enabling a strong understanding of how they can best support them.