If you’ve followed the monthly blog posts this year, you probably noticed a few mentions of a lot of changes coming at the school where I teach. Several years ago our district went through a restructuring phase that involved the closing of a number of schools. As a result of the subsequent domino effect, our school opened a new ESL program. ESL stands for English as a Second Language; it’s also known as ELL for English Language Learners, depending on which set of initials you feel is more applicable.
When this program opened, several ESL students were transferred to our building and have been a part of our community ever since. However, a new ESL program is opening at a different school next year, and since this school is right in the neighborhood where many of our ESL students live, they’ll be transferring there. Because of this, our school will be losing approximately sixty students.
Now, we’re not one of the larger schools in the district to begin with, so this drop in our numbers will be very noticeable. In fact, this is the engine behind why so many of the other changes we’re experiencing are taking place. Whenever a small school suddenly loses a large number of students, fewer teachers are needed on that staff, and fewer classroom sections are needed in each grade. Consequently, many people on our staff are being reassigned to new positions next year, including me.
To get you caught up, here’s what my last few years have been like: I taught fifth grade for eighteen years, then was transferred to third grade as the fourth grade teachers moved up to fifth grade for a second year with their students. The following year, my third grade team did the same thing and looped up with our students up to fourth grade. This all means I’ve now taught three different grades over the past three years. Next year I’ll be working in what’s being called a 4/5 split, which means I’ll be teaching math and science to a class of fourth graders for half of the day, then teaching the same subjects to a class of 5th graders during the other half. My partner, who is one of my closest friends at school and is widely recognized as one of the best teachers on our staff (whether she will acknowledge this or not), will be teaching all things language arts to the fifth graders while I’m teaching fourth, and then trading groups with me for the other half of the day.
As far as potential changes go, I personally see more pros to this arrangement than cons. My soon-to-be new partner and I are already moving forward, fully aware that our combined background knowledge, instructional experience, and creativity have the potential to redefine what can be done in the intermediate grades at our school. Our biggest hope is that whatever models we come up with will be successful and intriguing enough to compel the people we’ll be working with the most directly to be a part of what we’re trying.
Of course this does mean it’s entirely likely I’ll be teaching some students for the third year in a row as my current group goes from fourth grade to fifth. I’ll also have a new crop coming in as my fourth grade group. I’ve taught both grades before so there won’t be a lot of “new” for me as far as curriculum goes, which is nice, but managing two grades at once will likely present a few challenges…or, as Betsy and I are looking at it, new chances to put our creativity and divergent thought to use, and come up with solutions that won’t just be successful but will prove a benefit to everyone involved.
Two grades at once also means twice the Zen opportunities; it will just be a matter of which group will have the chemistry it takes to make those things happen. But they will happen, so watch this space. One way or another, there’s going to be an interesting and dynamic story to follow when the next school year begins.
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