Kindergarten Departmentalizing

[morecoffeeplease]

Does anyone have experience with the younger grades, specifically K, departmentalizing? We have been in our school for 2 years (prek3 and prek4) and they are self contained classrooms but next year will be departmentalized for K. There are 3 teachers (social studies/science, math, language arts) plus a specials teacher and a recess/lunch person. So the kids will be with their homeroom teacher for 45 minutes a day and that's it. 

I taught in a school as a 5th grade teacher for almost 10 years and we departmentalized but my principal was adamant that under 4th grade would not switch teachers.

I don't like the idea of switching teachers in K. I'm not sure, though, if that is coming from my experience with my principal or if it really just is a bad idea. 

What are your thoughts? Any good experiences with it? Any K teachers here with opinions about it?

I am asking because they way our city is set up, we don't have to go to this specific school. We can go to a school .2 miles away that keeps K self contained. We can also go to a school across the street from my husband's work that also self contains K. From the looks of it, our neighborhood school is the only school in the city that does this.

[UMaineTeach]

We do limited class switching based on guided reading level. If one teacher has too wide a spread and can’t fit all the groups in, then she might trade a couple kids with another teacher for that 20 minuets.

We also really only teach math and literacy in our K. Some kids even miss math to do more literacy. That’s what happens when you curriculum director was an English teacher and only hires literacy interventionists and literacy coaches and leave supplemental math services is the hands of two ed techs.

I can’t see us ever switching whole groups or having a dedicated science/ss teacher below 5th grade (and even those kids only have two of the four teachers, who loop with them to sixth grade)

We tried ability grouping at third and fourth for a couple years for math, but that didn’t work and put the low kids further behind.

[morecoffeeplease]

UMaineTeach

When I taught 5th grade and we switched classes, it was between two teachers so wrapping my brain around my K child switching between 3 teachers plus a specialist is hard.

I would have no problem with what you described. I'd support my child going to another class for a guided reading group. But all day? I'm not so sure.

Also, there is no play time built into their day except for recess. (I teach at this school, across the hall in prek). There are no play based centers (which is HUGE in my prek class). It truly looks like the upper elementary classrooms: teacher lead whole group instruction, guided reading while other students are at their seats doing worksheets or on the ipads.

I am open to hearing this is a good idea but I'm just not feeling great about it.

[nsl]

Are K teachers ready to handle that student/parent contact load? My experience with my 4th grader has not been great in that area, and my sense from my younger son's teachers (same ones all day) is that they're overwhelmed as it is. Speaking as a high school content teacher with 150+ students/day, being able to stay on top of each kid and maintain parent contact is a huge time suck, even at ages when kids should be more responsible with their work/grades.

[morecoffeeplease]

Mar 4, 2018 18:12:15 GMT -5 nsl said:

Are K teachers ready to handle that student/parent contact load? My experience with my 4th grader has not been great in that area, and my sense from my younger son's teachers (same ones all day) is that they're overwhelmed as it is. Speaking as a high school content teacher with 150+ students/day, being able to stay on top of each kid and maintain parent contact is a huge time suck, even at ages when kids should be more responsible with their work/grades.

I'm not sure what the data load per student is for teachers is in Kindergarten. I do know that our school hasn't been great with engaging families so I highly doubt parent contact is at the top of their worries. (And I have no idea if the school is working on this.)

[Mom of 2]

Our school did this for all grades but recently stopped for K, although all other grades are departmentalized. They have math/social studies/health with one teacher then reading with another. They stopped doing it in K because they found it overwhelming for them. That said, my daughter switched classes when she was in K and did just fine. By the time my son came along they had stopped doing that and he was successful in a single class.

[erbear]

My kids' school switches teachers starting in K. They have a classroom teacher. The reading teacher comes in for a period. They go to specials (2-3 a day -- Spanish, science, library/tech, art, music) with a different teacher. They seem just fine