A few years ago we moved from a two-classroom share model to a three-way classroom share model. The model has built one big team out of our fifth grade program, and that team focus has proved positive for many reasons including the following:
- all teachers teach all children
- teachers regularly maximize their strengths and support each others' challenges with regard to teaching well
- students have the opportunity to learn from multiple adults
- all children at the grade level have a similar program
Now we are considering a few revisions to the schedule so that we can do the following:
- Developing an even stronger reading culture by putting aside an all-read time each day everyday
- Developing more time for personalized practice and support in math
- Making more time for social studies and science learning
- Creating greater access for specialist teachers, access that helps us to minimize the time that students are pulled from core subjects to receive those services.
The challenge with the change is rearrange the minutes in the day to accomplish this task. Our plan is to do the following:
- Continue to think about the issue and add our thoughts, ideas to a shared Google doc.
- Talk about this idea with the team at a PLC in January.
- Move forward with new plans after the PLC if we decide to do that in January.
To make good change requires lead time. Changes for the 2019-2020 school year need to be birthed in the fall, discussed in the winter, and planned in the spring. That's how school change happens.
