Enough time with Class?
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Enough time with Class?
| Thu, 09-09-2004 - 4:21pm |
I taught 3 years at a private school. This is my first year in public. I'm so overwhelmed with the materials I am required to teach. I am teaching 3rd grade - the first grade for state testing. Over the first few weeks I SCRAMBLED to get all of the materials covered. I thought I was just unorganized - SO UNLIKE me. But, this week - since there is no school because of Hurricane Francis - I sat down and did a "schedule-at-a-glance summary. I found out that I only have ALL of my students for 1 1/2 hours a day! The rest of the time a bunch are taken out for ESOL or ESE. In that 1 1/2 hours I am responsible for morning work (8-8:30), Math, reading and science/social studies and WRITING!! Now, I don't know about the rest of you but math and writing take quite a while to teach. I even put two subjects together (ex. I have them write a paragraph about something learned in previous science/ss.)
I understand that we have children that require special programs...but, are we taking them out of the class too much? I just don't know what to do...we need more hours in the day.
I understand that we have children that require special programs...but, are we taking them out of the class too much? I just don't know what to do...we need more hours in the day.
Was education THAT different when I went to school?? I don't remember ever being interrupted for anything. I don't even think we had all of the fine arts (art, music, computer, etc) that they have now. Did we suffer? Are we lacking?
Just thinking aloud. If anybody has a suggestion about a possible solution to my scheduling crisis...please let me know.
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Times have changed for sure. There are so many special classes that most teachers don't get enough instruction time for the basics. Most tell me that they are in a similar situation to you. At my former elementary we studies a schedule called parallel block. All of the pull-outs leave at once and you teach the other half. Then the first group leaves for a special and you teach the
Would it be possible for each grade level to block out a time so they can get important subjects like reading and math to all the kids at the same time? Are the special teachers willing to incorporate the subject matter into therapy time? One year I found that we could schedule "center time" concurrent with most therapies so kids would miss a center and go to therapy instead. This worked pretty well and left a smaller number of students so I could also work with a small group. Everyone got some individual attention.
In the past few years our school has also tried to schedule our gym/music at the same time for each grade level. This was nice as I had at least one grade level partner whom I could meet with. I know it's hard when it's a testing year, but do remember all grade levels help to prepare the kids for the test. LOL, we were just reminded of that in a faculty meeting today!
Sharlene
I really like the idea of parallel blocks.
!
Lori