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Placing Kids for Next Year
I don't know how other schools handle class placements, but at my school, our teams get together in May (about a month before school ends) and begin figuring out which kids will go to which teacher in the fall. Today my team (second grade) met with the first grade team.

It's always an interesting process, made extra interesting when one of the classes doesn't actually have a teacher yet. Do we go easy on the new teacher? What if the new teacher is actually really experienced and we all end up with really difficult classes except her?? What if the new teacher is just out of school and can barely handle a moderately disruptive child? We've had philosophical discussions about trying to find the best match for the child and yet not wanting to load one teacher with all the ADHD students (even though she loves them) or giving one teacher many of the high students (even though he's great at challenging them).

Which kids balance each other out? Does 1 self-mutilator equal 2 ADHD kids or does 1 kid who still has accidents equal 1 student with a difficult parent? And why do certain teachers always get the whiny parents? Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you necessarily want to deal with it day in and day out!

What about those really, really low kids? The ones who didn't qualify for special ed in first grade, but might by the end of second grade? How do we spread around the wealth so no one teacher gets stuck at countless after-school meetings or has to spend hours figuring out accommodations for the child who still can't read.

What's fun is when a child's name comes up and a teacher shouts, "Oh, please, let me have him!" Sometimes it's nothing more than loving the way that child smiles at others in the hallway, but that smile grabbed that teacher's attention and she's been waiting all year to claim him for the next.

Of course, we also get the siblings- sometimes a good thing, sometimes not so good. In past years we've tried to place siblings with the same teacher the brother or sister had, but lately we've been doing more switching around. I turned down three siblings today because I really didn't want to deal with either the parents or the kids.

I know- I teach whoever walks in my door. And if those children get moved around and show up in my room in September, of course I would teach them and enjoy them and eventually probably love them, too. It's just nice sometimes to have a choice.

I do like the fact that we get to have input into the decisions. I like how we are able to talk about the children and decide together (especially with the difficult children) where the best fit for that child might be. It's always interesting and makes these last weeks of school kind of fun as I scout for "my" children in the hallways! They won't know until right before school starts- but I can start building the bonds in my heart right now.


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Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 6:50 PM by gardenhope
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