APS MS Class size - do teachers know all students

[Anonymous]

We are 5th grade parents and wondering about the middle school experience at APS in regards to class size and how well teachers know their students? Our DD really thrives when she has personal investment from her teachers, and when she has had more aloof teachers she has struggled to stay motivated.

It’s a bad dynamic I know, and we are working with a therapist on building her executive function and motivation outside of having a nurturing teacher — the real world is certainly not full of people who care about how you do.

But at least for now, if you are a quiet kid, how well will your core subject teachers “know” you. Like English, math, history? I’ve heard there can be 30 kids in a class, and that each teacher can teach 6 class — so that’s 180 students? Is there a lot of discussion in class, to engage quiet students? Small group work or projects where teacher floats around and works with them? Teachers are really good at knowing a lot of students, but this sure seems like a LOT of kids.

[Anonymous]

At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

Thanks! Were those teachers core classes? How many kids are in those classes (and in classes in general). Is your DD really quiet and introverted?

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader is known by all of their teachers already. But she's got an IEP so YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

Thanks! Were those teachers core classes? How many kids are in those classes (and in classes in general). Is your DD really quiet and introverted?

I don't think there was any distinction between core and non-core classes. Her TA teacher seems to know her best, as that's a smaller class and they meet twice most days. Other teachers knew her if that was their personality--some people are just better with names and faces than others. I'm sure they'll all eventually know her.

My daughter isn't particularly introverted, but she also doesn't have an IEP/504 that would cause teachers to have thought about her specifically, nor any discipline issues that would have drawn attention. She's just another kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

Thanks! Were those teachers core classes? How many kids are in those classes (and in classes in general). Is your DD really quiet and introverted?

The number of kids in a class varies a lot. Her math and english classes are big, but her TA and reading classes are smaller. It just depends how schedules work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

Thanks! Were those teachers core classes? How many kids are in those classes (and in classes in general). Is your DD really quiet and introverted?

The number of kids in a class varies a lot. Her math and english classes are big, but her TA and reading classes are smaller. It just depends how schedules work out.

What kind of numbers make “big”? 30?

[Anonymous]

There were only 2 classes with 30+ kids in all of the APS middle schools combined last year. You should look at the data. https://www.apsva.us/statistics/enrollment/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were only 2 classes with 30+ kids in all of the APS middle schools combined last year. You should look at the data. https://www.apsva.us/statistics/enrollment/

Sorry I didnt look carefully and now see there were more than 2 classes woth 30+ kids. That said, most of the classes were much smaller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are 5th grade parents and wondering about the middle school experience at APS in regards to class size and how well teachers know their students? Our DD really thrives when she has personal investment from her teachers, and when she has had more aloof teachers she has struggled to stay motivated.

It’s a bad dynamic I know, and we are working with a therapist on building her executive function and motivation outside of having a nurturing teacher — the real world is certainly not full of people who care about how you do.

But at least for now, if you are a quiet kid, how well will your core subject teachers “know” you. Like English, math, history? I’ve heard there can be 30 kids in a class, and that each teacher can teach 6 class — so that’s 180 students? Is there a lot of discussion in class, to engage quiet students? Small group work or projects where teacher floats around and works with them? Teachers are really good at knowing a lot of students, but this sure seems like a LOT of kids.

I think this experience differs by middle school, especially because some are more crowded than ours. Our oldest is a very quiet and studious kid, and we noticed at Swanson every year that he would get put in a section with the ESL kids and then he would be ignored by the teachers while they focused on the kids who needed extra help. We did feel like Swanson was intentionally putting the straight-A, extremely quiet kids with the ESL cluster because the straight-A, quiet kids were so low maintenance. I don't think that exact situation would happen now with the intensified MS courses offered, but it doesn't change the overcrowding generally. We did end up moving our oldest to private for high school, in part because we worried that he would get even more lost in the shuffle of the large APS high schools. He's thriving in private high school and I do somewhat regret that we didn't move him earlier. APS is a challenging school system for introverts, especially if your kid is also not a stellar athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were only 2 classes with 30+ kids in all of the APS middle schools combined last year. You should look at the data. https://www.apsva.us/statistics/enrollment/

I see we are zoned for WMS, hence why i hear about big classes despite it being undererrolled.

In most middle schools, class size is only 21, that's great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

I would love to have 110. I have 140.

[Anonymous]

I am a specialist in elementary school and see 650+ kids each week. I could give pretty involved feedback on at least 450 of them. I think the key to not getting lost is to either have a good personality or work hard, you don’t need both to stand out. My own kid gets tons of feedback and investment from his APS middle school teachers so far, I’ve been really impressed with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a specialist in elementary school and see 650+ kids each week. I could give pretty involved feedback on at least 450 of them. I think the key to not getting lost is to either have a good personality or work hard, you don’t need both to stand out. My own kid gets tons of feedback and investment from his APS middle school teachers so far, I’ve been really impressed with them.

My DD Is really shy so “good personality” may not come into play unless teacher reaches out frequently. Hard worker, not sure, she works hard when she feels connected to the teacher so maybe we have chicken egg problem is teachers won’t connect easily unless you stand out in those ways?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the MS open house, our teachers said that they have 110 students this year. But even though that's a lot and we're only a few weeks into the year, several teachers commented specifically on my daughter in 1:1 conversations. They do already know her. Maybe not every single teacher, but she's already connected well with several.

I would love to have 110. I have 140.

FCPs?