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

[Anonymous]

ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

Yes, departmentalizing makes planning and prepping easier. With the new ELA curriculum it will be much harder for grade levels to departmentalize because each ELA block needs to be 2 hours uninterrupted, and while it’s easy to make that happen once per day, it’s not easy to make that time block happen twice per day in any given grade level. There are pros and cons to departmentalizing, but as a teacher I’ve seen more pros than cons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

Yes, departmentalizing makes planning and prepping easier. With the new ELA curriculum it will be much harder for grade levels to departmentalize because each ELA block needs to be 2 hours uninterrupted, and while it’s easy to make that happen once per day, it’s not easy to make that time block happen twice per day in any given grade level. There are pros and cons to departmentalizing, but as a teacher I’ve seen more pros than cons.

Of course you do. Departmentalizing IS the most teacher friendly. But it isn’t the most student-friendly, at least for the kid that struggles the most with building connections and trust. Who’s tracking any issues that the kid is having across the day? Who is building that positive relationship with the family? And you really think it’s developmentally appropriate for 7 year olds to be switching classes all day for academic subjects?

From a curriculum standpoint, it’s difficult to do any type of cross curricular project based learning.

I’ve been a public school educator for almost 30 years. I’ve mostly taught the upper elementary grades. I’ve done both departmentalized and self-contained classrooms. While departmentalized was easier on me, there was no real classroom community. I hated how some kids fell through the cracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

Yes, departmentalizing makes planning and prepping easier. With the new ELA curriculum it will be much harder for grade levels to departmentalize because each ELA block needs to be 2 hours uninterrupted, and while it’s easy to make that happen once per day, it’s not easy to make that time block happen twice per day in any given grade level. There are pros and cons to departmentalizing, but as a teacher I’ve seen more pros than cons.

Of course you do. Departmentalizing IS the most teacher friendly. But it isn’t the most student-friendly, at least for the kid that struggles the most with building connections and trust. Who’s tracking any issues that the kid is having across the day? Who is building that positive relationship with the family? And you really think it’s developmentally appropriate for 7 year olds to be switching classes all day for academic subjects?

From a curriculum standpoint, it’s difficult to do any type of cross curricular project based learning.

I’ve been a public school educator for almost 30 years. I’ve mostly taught the upper elementary grades. I’ve done both departmentalized and self-contained classrooms. While departmentalized was easier on me, there was no real classroom community. I hated how some kids fell through the cracks.

Looks like overgeneralizing is your thing. Oooh, let me try. Maybe you didn’t work hard enough to create a real classroom community and you knowingly allowed some kids to fall through the cracks. Have you considered that not every school or teacher works the same way you do?

[Anonymous]

You say courses as if the subjects require a high school amount of material to prepare and teach. They don’t, and that’s why they are called subjects rather than courses. One decent teacher can easily handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You say courses as if the subjects require a high school amount of material to prepare and teach. They don’t, and that’s why they are called subjects rather than courses. One decent teacher can easily handle it.

+1

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't a teacher with passion and deeper understanding of subject's concepts be better able to inspire students? For example, although almost every teacher can teach elementary level math not all like anyone are passionate about it or even knowledgable about it beyond a point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

And very little science and SS is taught in public ES these days. I teach one of those in MS and an devastated by how little even the top students in 6th grade know. Unless they had a personal interest or their parents supplemented.

[Anonymous]

pretty standard in MCPS these days. good chuck of school budget is spent on admin folks. not enough $ to pay for additional teachers.

[Anonymous]

Admittedly I am coming at this from a parents' perspective, but I love departementalizing and have not found that my kids fail to form attachments just becuase they have two (gasp) teachers in addition to their specials teachers.

They know that their "main" teacher is their homeroom teacher, but exposure to different classroom management styles isn't a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

Yes, departmentalizing makes planning and prepping easier. With the new ELA curriculum it will be much harder for grade levels to departmentalize because each ELA block needs to be 2 hours uninterrupted, and while it’s easy to make that happen once per day, it’s not easy to make that time block happen twice per day in any given grade level. There are pros and cons to departmentalizing, but as a teacher I’ve seen more pros than cons.

Of course you do. Departmentalizing IS the most teacher friendly. But it isn’t the most student-friendly, at least for the kid that struggles the most with building connections and trust. Who’s tracking any issues that the kid is having across the day? Who is building that positive relationship with the family? And you really think it’s developmentally appropriate for 7 year olds to be switching classes all day for academic subjects?

From a curriculum standpoint, it’s difficult to do any type of cross curricular project based learning.

I’ve been a public school educator for almost 30 years. I’ve mostly taught the upper elementary grades. I’ve done both departmentalized and self-contained classrooms. While departmentalized was easier on me, there was no real classroom community. I hated how some kids fell through the cracks.

Looks like overgeneralizing is your thing. Oooh, let me try. Maybe you didn’t work hard enough to create a real classroom community and you knowingly allowed some kids to fall through the cracks. Have you considered that not every school or teacher works the same way you do?

Classroom community? lol

It's school community.

I'm a secondary educator who's been involved in cross-curricular planning in many ways - either through a "mandated" program or by choice. I'd rather have my own children exposed to materials taught by an expert. While ES teachers are "generalists," many either lean toward mathematics/sciences or the humanities. Isn't it easier on the teacher to become an expert in an area (areas) within a school setting structured for cross-curricular planning?

And guess what, educator for almost 30 years (I'm at 25.), school community is classroom community on steroids.

But you're saying that you'd prefer to remain cloistered. Creating a schedule where EXPERTS can do cross-curricular planning is BEST for students and teachers. You're not here to be a child's only savior. That takes a village.

30 years . . . How sad you can't see that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't a teacher with passion and deeper understanding of subject's concepts be better able to inspire students? For example, although almost every teacher can teach elementary level math not all like anyone are passionate about it or even knowledgable about it beyond a point.

Thank you.

I just echoed this sentiment upthread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELA, Math, science and Social study, that's a lot, isn't it?

It's pretty standard. Or sometimes they have one teacher do math and science and another do ELA and social studies.

Yes, departmentalizing makes planning and prepping easier. With the new ELA curriculum it will be much harder for grade levels to departmentalize because each ELA block needs to be 2 hours uninterrupted, and while it’s easy to make that happen once per day, it’s not easy to make that time block happen twice per day in any given grade level. There are pros and cons to departmentalizing, but as a teacher I’ve seen more pros than cons.

Of course you do. Departmentalizing IS the most teacher friendly. But it isn’t the most student-friendly, at least for the kid that struggles the most with building connections and trust. Who’s tracking any issues that the kid is having across the day? Who is building that positive relationship with the family? And you really think it’s developmentally appropriate for 7 year olds to be switching classes all day for academic subjects?

From a curriculum standpoint, it’s difficult to do any type of cross curricular project based learning.

I’ve been a public school educator for almost 30 years. I’ve mostly taught the upper elementary grades. I’ve done both departmentalized and self-contained classrooms. While departmentalized was easier on me, there was no real classroom community. I hated how some kids fell through the cracks.

But now the time has changed. With ~25 kids in one classroom, it does the students no good if we don’t start to make it easier for the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You say courses as if the subjects require a high school amount of material to prepare and teach. They don’t, and that’s why they are called subjects rather than courses. One decent teacher can easily handle it.

I see very few such decent teachers over the years. Many are nice persons, but passion and good pedagogy can’t make up for poor knowledge in content.