So, everyone keeps asking how school is going. I have a class of 5 students. It's the 6/7 year old class, which means that I have four first graders and one second grader. This is actually more difficult to do that you might think. A lot of the curriculum overlaps, but sometimes it doesn't AT ALL. In this case, I am not sure what I'm going to do. I'll figure it out, of course, but in the mean-time it is a source of stress.
The day itself goes like this:
Assembly first (whole school, which is 20 kids or so)
Reading
Language Arts (writing skills)
Math
Science or History
After that, the schedule changes based on the day. The kids also have Chinese every day. But they will also have PE, Library, Music, Technology (with me), or ELD (which stands for English Language Development).
A note about ELD. It's basically when we do silent reading and work on phonics, handwriting, and spelling.
I am also teaching the chess/go club on Wednesdays which is nice because the kids mostly know how to play. I have kids of every age in this club. The Kindergardeners play Chinese checkers, which is easy to play and seems to keep them occupied. I originally wanted it to be a chess/checkers club, but I can't find a checkers set here to save my life.
I also am teaching technology to the entire school. We are using a program called "Techknowledge" for most of the kids. It goes through learning the microsoft office suite, as well as keyboarding. I don't agree with some of the curriculum, especially the part where 5 year olds need to be practicing typing for 10 minutes every class. There has been research that typing at such a young age can actually be detrimental.
The kids across the grades are pretty good. I have the most trouble with the 13 year old class because they seem apathetic and uninterested in participating in discussions, which is essentially what a class of 3 kids is. A discussion class.
The school itself is really nice in that I get to work so much with each child. I have gotten to know my kids well already and can gauge their strengths and weaknesses. I also have the time to go back an re-teach as needed. I don't know if I will be able to go back to a standard public school classroom after this experience. I am sad that in order to get through the material, so many kids have to either fall through the cracks and be left behind (the underachievers) or be constantly bored (the overachievers). We will just have to see what happens. I'll let you know how it all goes.
My sister runs into that problem in her special ed class. Some are 6th graders, some are 7th graders (thankfully she doesn't have any 8th graders to complicate things further). Some are "on-level" (meaning, they are truly on a 6th/7th grade level), some are not (could be as low as 2nd or 3rd grade level for some subjects, might be 9th or 10th grade level in their favorite subjects). Some are in band or chorus, all take PE, but of course PE is held at different times for the different grades, etc. Some "go out" for certain classes (if they're "on level", they are supposed to be in regular classrooms as much as possible), but then those students usually require an escort to assist their special needs). It's a small class (less than 10, I think), but she has two TAs to help her coordinate everything, and she has no planning or lunch. Whew!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're really settling in, though. Good to hear how things are going!