Why do one teacher have to teach four courses in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That one teacher teaches all subjects,
English, math, science and social study was started when common core became the law of education. MCPS started to ask one teacher to teach all 4 subjects in a single classroom, all day. Before cc2.0, in ES, a teacher either teach math and scient or english and social study. The transition at beginning was painful. In my DC’s ES, the older female teachers were struggling to pick up math and science, especially the cc2.0 math, when very few adults understood it. Some young male teachers didnot know how to teach English because he wasnt trained to teach it at all. Many 3rd grade kids were laughing the teacher in their classroom because he misspell 50% of the words he put on the white board.

This isn’t true.

#1: I had a child go through MCPS before CC. My former MIL and SIL also also taught in MCPS. Some schools departmentalized for grades 3-5, but most didn’t.

#2: ES teachers receive training in all subjects and must pass Praxis accordingly.

Invest in spellcheck and remove the beam from thine own eye.

Prior to CC, our ES departmentalized starting in grade 1. They had tracked math/science in the afternoon after lunch/recess. There were 4 classes: Math 2, Math 1 accelerated, Math 1, and Math K/1st. The kids worked on math problems, played math games as a WHOLE class, actually went to the white board and did problems to show the class, did science projects, and really cool experiments. All bases on their level. I volunteered and it was great. They unfortunately still had mixed abilities in AM and the dreaded 15min reading groups while most kids sat at desks reading books after getting their busy work done. Or even better, some kids didn't care to do their busy work and would disrupt others. The tracked classrooms always worked better. I worked in all 4 classes, wherever I was needed once a week. The lowest class only had 16 kids in it and worked so hard and caught up really well.

It is funny that another teacher talked about the wasted time of departmentalizing and moving classes, but since they move after lunch/recess, it never affected my DD's school. But now with CC, I see more time wasted changing reading and math groups. I also see a lot of time wasted as the class gets loud and the teachers need to stop their group to tell the rest of the class to quiet down. And that is with me there. They always say it is worse when they don't have a volunteer helping the rest of the class. They also place kids that speed thru their busy work to help other kids struggling. And most of the time, it doesn't seem to work out well. The struggling kid gets embarrassed or the the smart one just wants to play chromebook games and rolls their eyes at helping. I just absolutely hate the wasted day of changing small groups all day.

Get rid of the chromebooks and get get rid of small group rotations and it would be a much more productive day

I see this as a volunteer as well. I do not like the classes all grouped together. My daughter struggles with her work. No child at age 5-7 should be asked to work at their desks off a list on the promethean board. Zero kids follow it and get it done. It is like corralling cattle while the teacher is in small groups. My only job is to keep them quiet and half focused and it is not fun. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That one teacher teaches all subjects,
English, math, science and social study was started when common core became the law of education. MCPS started to ask one teacher to teach all 4 subjects in a single classroom, all day. Before cc2.0, in ES, a teacher either teach math and scient or english and social study. The transition at beginning was painful. In my DC’s ES, the older female teachers were struggling to pick up math and science, especially the cc2.0 math, when very few adults understood it. Some young male teachers didnot know how to teach English because he wasnt trained to teach it at all. Many 3rd grade kids were laughing the teacher in their classroom because he misspell 50% of the words he put on the white board.

This isn’t true.

#1: I had a child go through MCPS before CC. My former MIL and SIL also also taught in MCPS. Some schools departmentalized for grades 3-5, but most didn’t.

#2: ES teachers receive training in all subjects and must pass Praxis accordingly.

Invest in spellcheck and remove the beam from thine own eye.

Prior to CC, our ES departmentalized starting in grade 1. They had tracked math/science in the afternoon after lunch/recess. There were 4 classes: Math 2, Math 1 accelerated, Math 1, and Math K/1st. The kids worked on math problems, played math games as a WHOLE class, actually went to the white board and did problems to show the class, did science projects, and really cool experiments. All bases on their level. I volunteered and it was great. They unfortunately still had mixed abilities in AM and the dreaded 15min reading groups while most kids sat at desks reading books after getting their busy work done. Or even better, some kids didn't care to do their busy work and would disrupt others. The tracked classrooms always worked better. I worked in all 4 classes, wherever I was needed once a week. The lowest class only had 16 kids in it and worked so hard and caught up really well.

It is funny that another teacher talked about the wasted time of departmentalizing and moving classes, but since they move after lunch/recess, it never affected my DD's school. But now with CC, I see more time wasted changing reading and math groups. I also see a lot of time wasted as the class gets loud and the teachers need to stop their group to tell the rest of the class to quiet down. And that is with me there. They always say it is worse when they don't have a volunteer helping the rest of the class. They also place kids that speed thru their busy work to help other kids struggling. And most of the time, it doesn't seem to work out well. The struggling kid gets embarrassed or the the smart one just wants to play chromebook games and rolls their eyes at helping. I just absolutely hate the wasted day of changing small groups all day.

Get rid of the chromebooks and get get rid of small group rotations and it would be a much more productive day

Completely agree with this. It's a fantasy that the teacher could build deeper relationship with the students if teaching all subjects when you have so many young kids in a single classroom. Also, if a kid doesn't click with one teacher, the damage would be much milder with departmentalization.