Monday, December 5, 2011

Try teaching 90 5th graders at a time!

At my school we have a lot of students in band. We have so many students in band that it has impacted our cycle schedule this year. One day out of a ten day cycle we have 3 sections of 5th graders in our gym. We are currently on our bowling unit in Phy. Ed. It always seems that when cycle day 9 approaches we're forced to modify the lesson completely, or do something totally different all together. It is so difficult to attempt to stay in the same unit and have enough equipment and space that is appropriate for this group. We were supposed to bowl today and originally students were in groups of about 5 kids. I assigned each student to a task so they're not just sitting around waiting for their turn. With 90 kids I could not justify having 11 lanes to bowl in with one bowler at a time. Their bowling team would be larger than the usual 5-6, which means more kids sitting around and waiting. I'm thankful we have a good group of 5th graders, so we haven't had a whole lot of behavior issues. I am concerned that these students are missing out on a quality experience on cycle day 9 when in Phy. Ed. It will be interesting to see how we'll figure things out as we progress through the units for the remainder of the year.

1 comment:

  1. I've heard a little about this issue! I'm sorry that you're dealing with this - it is certainly not fun. The good news is that both you and Wade seem pretty "on top of things" - though that doesn't make it less stressful on you, I'm sure it has a big impact on the kids' experience.

    I wish I had contructive suggestions for you about how to "think outside the box" in a situation like this... I will keep puzzling over it an let you know if I have any bright ideas.

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