Meeting the Needs of All Students - Is it Possible?

One Size Teaching Does NOT Fit All

I have spent the first month of the school year getting to know my student's names, their likes and dislikes, laying the cornerstones of building a relationship with them to facilitate a learning environment.  I have collected the beginning of a series of varied assessments to get a 'snapshot' of each student's level. 

Diving into the Data
Baseline diagnostic scores, classroom observation, assignments, and quizzes have provided a picture of my students academic strengths and weaknesses.  This information combined with Special Education Coding and Attendance records provides a more complete frame of reference for planning lessons that encompass the accommodation of a variety of learning needs aka gaps in student's prior learning through personalization and differentiation of learning. 

Wow What a Handful!  It really is.  Looking at the data how does one meet the needs of all students?  This is what I struggle with!  I am not a miracle worker and can only do so much.  This is a scary picture.  With the high number of students below grade level it would be advantageous to have an Educational Assistant in the classroom but unfortunately this is not the case.  Designing lessons and activities that will meet the needs of all the students is going to be a challenge and will take a great deal of time.


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	Grade	Class Size	At or Above Grade Level	1-2 Yrs Below Grade Level	2+ Yrs Below Grade Level
Class A	8	30	16	5	9
Class B	8	27	11	6	10
Class C	8	27	21	1	5
Class D	9	28	17	3	8
Class E	9	27	15	5	7
Class F	9	27	10	5	12

Junior High Math Teacher - The Weekend is Mine! NOT LOL!

Being a teacher is one of the most rewarding jobs going!  More often than not I am the recipient of condolences when people learn that I teach Math to Junior High students.  My response is one of laughter and thanking them.  I have to be totally honest, there are days when I wish I was retired (I chose to become a teacher after my own children were finishing elementary school and have been teaching for almost 20 years).

Teaching is not an easy job and one has to really really want to be a teacher.  The hours are long but the rewards are great.  Making a difference on a child's life however small whether its the joy on their face when they finally 'get it' or the relationship and connection built enables one to impact an 'at-risk'  student's life.  These moments make all the difference.

Here it is Saturday morning and I will be spending most of the day creating seating plans for my 6 classes now that I have a general idea of my students' classroom attitude, effort and behaviour.  When I have the seating charts completed I have assessment to enter into the grade program then I will be analyzing the baseline data from a Math Assessment to not only learn more about their Numeracy skills but as a planning/grouping tool for future lessons.

Sunday is mine (I hope)

Does Teachers Pay Teachers Pay?

Is it worthwhile posting to TeachersPayTeachers?

I have used resources from the wonderfully talented and creative contributors to Teacherspayteachers.com site off and on for a few years.  My first foray was the result of needing something for my 'unknown' substitute teacher to do with my junior high students.

I am not a believer in 'putting a movie on' or 'playing games on computers' when I have a substitute.  I have found over the (many) years that my students think of puzzles, mazes, code-breaker or colour by number activities as fun rather than 'learning' or review.

Teacherspayteachers certainly made life a bit easier in creating my sub plans as I found a fun resource (Engaging) that connected to the current unit of study (Curriculum related); and came in a variety of levels (Differentiated).

My Turn?

Time is always an issue but over the years I have received requests to share (highest form of praise in my books) tasks that I have created.

Dabble time!   

I started my TeachersPayTeachers journey just two months ago.  Before a month was up I received my first Congratulations SOLD! email.  Here is a link to my store!

Sales are trickling in, I am not making much money after the commissions etc but it is rewarding when someone purchases my creation. 

Teacher Workload Challenges!

I love being a teacher making a difference in a student's learning!  I have fun teaching!  I recently read an article:  Let Teachers Teach: the dangers of expanding teacher workloads that resonated.  This post was originally going to be focussed on report card comments however the "Let Teachers Teach" struck home.   The cartoon below came from that article.  It aptly depicts the daily challenges of the job! While not all challenges apply in every teaching situation I very much feel for members of my profession who experience all daily.

As a Junior High Math Teacher teaching 3 - Grade 7  and 3 - Grade 8 math classes a day I’m averaging 50 to 55 hours a week.  Even still with this much time I don't feel that I am meeting the needs of all my students.

My biggest issue is the complexity and composition of my classes.  I have 30 plus students in each class whose abilities range from grade 2 to grade 10 level.   A span of two years below and two years above grade level is manageable through differentiated tasks and personalization of learning.  There are too many students with major gaps in their learning, too many with high needs (coded and uncoded) for me to be able to regularly get to all students every day in my 51 minute classes.  

I teach in a mixed socio-economic school which increases the complexity of the classroom due to poverty, English as a Second Language, and the impacts of drugs, alcohol and trauma.  I see/teach 187 students every day if all are present.  Usually there will be 1 or 2 students from each class who are habitually absent.  

Three of the Challenges depicted in the cartoon above add much to my day taking  away from time available to create lessons and tasks to engage students that do not involve the relying on regularly using worksheets and text work.   

Truant Kids 

• This challenge is two-fold.  Truant/habitually absent students require parent contact, follow up and documentation.  When you are able to get them to class AWESOME however now they have learning gaps that need to be addressed and in many or most cases the gaps in learning are two or more years below current grade-level.  Students with learning gaps often become behavioural issues in the classroom.

Reporting Back on Behaviour

• Behaviour issues in the classroom!  Frustrating!  Daily occurrence.  Some people might say that it is not the students but a Classroom Management issue!  There are many factors that influence behaviour other than absenteeism and learning gaps including family situation, special needs students.  Being diagnosed with special needs or learning disability does not always solve the situation as some parents choose not to medicate their child when recommended or the resources are not available to appropriate support the student's learning needs.

Kids with Learning Difficulties          

• The complexity of a class of 30+ students that include high needs, low functioning and learning gaps students can negatively impact the learning of 'other' students.
• I agree that differentiated instruction increases engagement but there is a vicious circle in play as many student with learning difficulties or gaps are resistant to doing anything different from those without learning difficulties.
• Using a variety of modalities (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) is recommended but who has the time after making parent contact regarding absenteeism, missing assignments, behaviour etc?
• Academic and Learning Supports - There are recommendations to create a responsible learning environment that supports students with learning difficulties with flexible grouping and pacing, literacy and numeracy specialists and tutoring.  In theory wonderful!  In reality a teacher sometime has a Classroom assistant.
• Behavioural Supports - ???????? 
 

https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/let-teachers-teach-the-dangers-of-expanding-teacher-workloads/

   I wonder if I am going to make it to retirement?

What does a teacher do?

Lesson Planning and Preparation

If one wants to engage students in the curriculum and not 'stand and deliver' is is necessary to create engaging, interesting fun lessons that meet the curriculum requirements and most importantly are personalized and differentiated to meet the learning needs of all students.  

Teaching Lessons

Administrative tasks such as  attendance, checking homework, collecting assignments and returning marked student work cut into each period.  The time remaining is spent on the lesson and answering questions/helping students as they work on the class lesson.

Grading Student Work

Assessing student work unfortunately has an administrative component.  After assignments are graded the scores are entered into a mark book.  As much as I love technology I do not trust it so I always have a paper copy on a class list from which I transfer each grade into the digital web based mark program.

Meetings

Grade Team, Subject Department, Professional Learning Community, Staff, Student Learning Team , Outside Agency and Parent Meetings are just some of the meetings that teachers are required to participate in on a regular basis

Extra Curricular

Contributing to the whole school community is a time consuming requirement and teachers need to be involved in a variety of students extracurricular activities coaching sport teams, or art, drama, music, math, science clubs.  Increasingly schools encourage students to get involved in leadership, charitable and community service activities.  Once again teachers are called on to set up and lead these out of school activities.

Parent Contact

In addition to parent teacher interviews which occur two or three times a year teachers are also required to attend a variety of after school or evening events.  Parent teacher interviews, meet the teacher, School open houses, concerts, drama productions, awards ceremonies, recognition ceremonies, school dances, sporting events are just some events where teachers interact with parents and guardians.  Parent support is vital to a teacher especially with 'challenging' behavioural students.  Teacher instigated parent contact/communication is made to discuss learning, behaviour, and social concerns as well as students on an individualized education plan (IEP).