So out of curiousity, how many students, on average, do you have in your classroom?
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Class Size
I recently attended a Global Educators Summit hosted by SMART Technologies in Calgary, Canada. There were 77 educators representing 22 countries in attendance, and we spent a week learning from and with each other. One morning over breakfast, the group at my table (10 people - 4 from countries outside the USA, the others were all from different states within the US) began discussing class sizes. I was shocked to find that my class size was significantly higher than everyone else's at my table. I teach sixth grade at an elementary school in California and have, on average, 32-34 students per year (plus those who mainstream in for half the day, so up to 40 bodies in my room). I was so surprised at the low numbers not only in other countries, but in other states as well. It made me sad because I really feel like this is a huge factor in the quality of education students receive. The best teacher in the world can only do so much with 40 students! I remember saying in full sincerity that morning, "Having only 25 students in a class would change my life!"
So out of curiousity, how many students, on average, do you have in your classroom?
So out of curiousity, how many students, on average, do you have in your classroom?
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Class size does make a huge difference. Giving feedback to pupils and differentiation (which I see as the two biggest influences on learning in the class) are just harder with 35 v 20 pupils. Time with each pupil is shorter. If class sizes were lowered, it would have a significant impact on learning.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! I'm really frustrated about this right now.
ReplyDeleteI regularly have more than 35 in my room. When they are in Grade 12, that's a lot of big bodies. I can generally manage the classroom but it really hits me when it comes to marking essay assignments especially when I want to provide meaningful feedback.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not alone. I always complain about how big sixth graders are, but 12th graders are adult sized! And yes, grading is definitely where I see it, too - I hate to admit it, but there are times when I don't really comment on work because there just isn't time. I hate just assigning a score, but sometimes I have to.
DeleteEven if you have the best behaved students in the world, a large class limits how much personal feedback a teacher can provide. My school caps the upper limit at 32, which I'm very grateful about. Do you have any aides or paras in your room to assist you?
ReplyDeleteNope, no other adults at all. A particular point of contention related to this is that we have some Special Day Class students mainstreamed in for a few hours a day and though there is supposed to be a teacher or aide who comes in to assist them, no one ever does. It's really a disservice to ALL the students.
DeleteI am shocked that you have that many students in your classroom. Currently, I am an Intervention Specialist so my class size is very small. However, when I taught Kindergarten, I had 28 students by myself and thought that was a lot of students to handle on my own.
ReplyDelete28 Kindergarteners is no joke! That's a crazy amount of tiny people!
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