Jump to content

Menu

If you teach in an elementary school, I have a question


math teacher
 Share

Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, Truth said:

One resource room teacher for a k-4 building with apx 450 kids.  All her kids have IEP's and she is overloaded.

This does no include other supports, just the resource room teacher.  

I see 18 students a day, which is not all that many, but it is 3 grade levels for math and reading. I work a lot of weekends and early mornings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My purpose for the question is -How common is it for one teacher to have this heavy of a load? 

28 IEPs

Math 3-5

Reading 3-5

Language 5

An extra Friday program that is student interest, but labor intensive

We are an "A" school in our state accountability, very data driven, tech heavy. I get to work most mornings around 6. Some days I don't leave until 6:30. I write around 80 progress reports besides report cards every grading period. I have two paras, but they are only there during the part of the day that I have multi grade levels at one time. The paras teach some of the curriculum but I have to prepare it for them all the way down to working out the math problem solving complete with strategies. The prep work and lesson plans are insane. I have one student that i have to pre-work his tests down to computation. I mark out one answer choice on all their tests except benchmarks. 

And many more things like this. It all takes time, and my principal wants to know why I spend so much time at the school.

I guess I'm just looking for validation or commiseration. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DD goes to a therapeutic day school. Every student is on an IEP and each student is there for behavior issues. The school goes from k-12 max about 100 students (or maybe  grades 1-12).  Each elementary and middle school class it topped off at 10 students and there are generally a teacher plus 2-3 support staff per class. Every sing teacher and staff are specially trained for behavior support. They use it daily and are constantly retrained.

Classrooms are often mixed grades (average of 2-3 years) to better accommodate each kids education and mental health needs. Things change over time, but an example would be that the kids who need lower academic content, would be clustered together. There might be a 3,4,5 class that is over all lower level, than more neurotypical a 4,5 classroom.  This was the teachers can utilize appropriate reading/math/science groups. But quite honestly the try hard to give each kid the level they need.  The support staff are often future teachers who are working on their credentials. They quite often end up working at the school a a teacher when they graduate. It is very rare to see a single staff with more than 3 students (at least in the younger grades). 

 

 

When she went to a traditional public school, there were about 15-20 kids coming in/out of the behavior support classroom and going for 2-3 staff. They would have to call the librarian or secretary to help  out if a student got unruly, because there would be one teacher teaching a lesson and one working one-on-one with a student. There would be no one else to help, so they would call who they could.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Math teacher said:

No, I mean Special Education, but not self-contained.

 

We have 2, along with 3 special ed paraeducators (some school systems call these teaching assistants). We have just under 400 students. The teachers both push-in and pull-out, while the paras primarily push-in, unless pulling kids to take a test or go over something 1 on 1. And no, I'm not on the hive during work hours... I'm off this week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Math teacher said:

My purpose for the question is -How common is it for one teacher to have this heavy of a load? 

28 IEPs

Math 3-5

Reading 3-5

Language 5

An extra Friday program that is student interest, but labor intensive

We are an "A" school in our state accountability, very data driven, tech heavy. I get to work most mornings around 6. Some days I don't leave until 6:30. I write around 80 progress reports besides report cards every grading period. I have two paras, but they are only there during the part of the day that I have multi grade levels at one time. The paras teach some of the curriculum but I have to prepare it for them all the way down to working out the math problem solving complete with strategies. The prep work and lesson plans are insane. I have one student that i have to pre-work his tests down to computation. I mark out one answer choice on all their tests except benchmarks. 

And many more things like this. It all takes time, and my principal wants to know why I spend so much time at the school.

I guess I'm just looking for validation or commiseration. 

 

From the schools I've been at, including the current one, I wouldn't consider that a heavy load. Especially since you said that you only see 18/day. I don't get why you need to work everything out for your paras. They should know the strategies and be able to figure out the answers quickly as they go. If they can't, you need new paras. Ours are required to have the equivalent of an associates and go through intensive training when they start. They attend as much PD as the teachers do. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...