Abby Markert
TE 801/802
Noticing Blog 7
This past week I have been able to
teach more lessons in my classroom and actually taught for the entire day late
last week. I learned a lot about my classroom management style and myself as a teacher.
I also learned that classroom size is a huge factor in teaching and the
difficulty. We started this year with 28 students and got to 31 before the end
of the first week. We recently just got a new student making our classroom size
32 first grade students. Each student is unique and brings a lot to the
classroom community. However, 32 students make a difference in the way we teach
and manage the classroom. It has made our room extremely full and it is just
one more body and one more set of work. When walking around the room to help
the students with spelling, or questions, or any other issues it is hard to
even get around. I am constantly stepping over students or chair to move
around. During the strike there was a lot of signs and talk about classroom
size. I never fully understood the realization of this or why it makes such a
difference; but now I do. Having 32 first graders is extremely difficult to
manage. On Wednesday our elementary school had a half-day for professional
development. During this day 5 of my students were absent and then 5 of my
special education students were upstairs. This meant my class was down to 22
students. It is remarkable the difference that makes in teaching. I understand
that it may not be practical to have that few amount of students in a class in
a big city like Chicago and a public school, however it would be beneficial for
the students and the teacher. Teachers are able to get through a lot more
material and spend less time discipline and managing. There are 2 full first
grade classroom and 1 second and first grade split. Before this new student
each first grade class had 31 students and the split class had 27.
This new student just transferred
from another elementary school in the area. The parents felt that the other
school was not the right fit for the student. This is also a challenge because
we are not sure what the students has been taught or what he was learning, we
have to now track down DIBEL scores and he may need to be tested in other areas
to get him in the appropriate reading level. Although each of these sound like
small tasks it adds up. Having an additional student also means rearranging our
room to fit him in. Our tables fit 6 students at each one. When we had 30
students the class fit perfectly in these tables but now we have added desks to
the middle of the room to accommodate these students. Although the desks are
put together to make a table it also makes students feel isolated and
different. My MT and I have tried our best to switch the seats around so
students are not permanently stuck in this arrangement, but that also leads to
challenges. I do enjoy having a big class because there are so many different
personalities and each student brings unique factors and personal experiences
to the class but having 32 students brings a lot of challenges that the teacher
must accommodate to.
You have described your situation well, helping the reader to appreciate one of the perennial predicaments of teaching. I think this also speaks back to the important principle of having students interact with one another through cooperative tasks. It is almost unrealistic to expect a teacher to manage 30-40 students all at once, to captivate them as the center of attention and be the sole source of their meaningful instruction. Hence, the more opportunities that students have to work together, the more we can be sure of the fact that they are all getting the attention and active thought that they need.
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