Over on Successful Teaching Pat Hensley had a post a few days ago that she headed “Class Size – Learning to Live With It.” In it she recounted her experiences with an extraordinarily diverse group of students. She leads with an experience about facing a large number of students, but there’s lots of other factors to think about when reading her post. Here’s a snippet:
On the first day of classes at my new school, due to a schedule mix up, I ended up with 30 students in one high school English class. Now, some of you might say that this wasn’t as bad as some could be. The problem was that this was a self contained special education class with students from 9th to 12th grade with all different disabilities (learning disabled, emotionally disabled, mentally disabled, and autistic). I also shared a paraprofessional with another teacher, but it was not my turn to have her.
As this snippet hints, there are other administrative factors that exacerbate the problem. She goes on to ask questions of teachers who have faced atypical situations.
Link to Ms. Hensley’s post (and check some of her other posts; there’s lots of perspective there about in-the-trenches issues). Of course, there are other posts about class size on Teach Effectively here, here, and here.
Well, JL, I think the blogger makes a very valid point. There are lots of things about which I complain, and these complaints are legitimate in their own way. However, in the end, I didn’t create them, and, I need to learn how to deal with them. This is not to absolve the admin. of its responsibility. But, the kids need be taught, and, I need to find a way. I have no suggestions for the blogger in question, but, I empathize in relation to my experiences with other issues, such as lack of support in teaching students with learning disabilities.
I like your point about learning to deal with those probs one didn’t create and can’t correct. The focus should be on students’ outcomes, to be certain.