Yes, that's right. Starting a school, from scratch. We have our second open house tonight. We have been working on this for about a year now, and so far everything is in place. Next month we will hand it over to an administrator and trust that it goes the way we have planned.
The thing that concerns me the most is fulfilling the answer to one of our most important values- individual student achievement. I have a huge desire to stay away from over labeling, pulling students out during important instructional time, and leaning heavily on standardized assessments. How do we create a learning environment where students are able to sit down and learn what is appropriate for them, not being confused or bored? There has to be better answers than testing them every month and pulling students out that need more help out but then expect them to be responsible for the information they missed.
Some of the answers we have come up with are smaller class sizes, we're capping at 25 students per class in elementary and 20 in kindergarten, and the use of other types of assessments- anecdotal records, self assessments, etc.
Those of you who are teachers- if you were able to create the ideal classroom, how would you answer this problem?
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2 comments:
Oh I so agree! We tend to try and do what's good for them and it's to their detriment.
I think the "ideal" classroom environment would put kids in a primary classroom (for which most would go through in three years) and an intermediate classroom. Any child could have four years in primary or intermediate. I also think that there should be the same teachers working with these kids.
It's truly important to know kids over time in order to teach them well (in my opinion).
I can't wait to come back and see some of the answers to this question.
:-) Susan
I love the idea of the same teacher through out the elementary ages. Sometimes students as young as kindergarten move from room to room so often that by January their science teacher may still not even know their names let alone their ability levels. The multi age classes would work if there was a huge focus on individuals working at their own pace, but I think so many teachers would have to change their mindset to make this work. Maybe that's just what needs to happen.
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