Wed, May 02, 2012 9:37 AM in Class size
Boy are you right! Inquiry quickly gets thrown out of the window when class size explodes. Some teachers are looking for any reason to go back to "telling" students the answers instead of guiding them in creating their own models to explain what they observe. I think a big part of this is how developed the teacher's class management skills are. Keeping a room of 32 adolescents focused on think...
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Mon, Apr 30, 2012 2:37 PM in Class size
I found out yesterday that our science department is losing one teaching position, so we will definitely have full/overfull classes next year :(
It is so uncertain, and who knows what will happen with the school funding lawsuit that my district is participating in; since we are "property poor," we should see some benefit from this.
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Mon, Apr 30, 2012 2:33 PM in Class size
For safety and class management issues, I usually limit group size to 4 and try to rotate activities, so that each of the 6 lab stations are used with an additional two non-lab stations for writing/reflection work. Sometimes, if materials allow, I will push desks together and set up 2 additional labs on the desks. However, sometimes I just have to have 5 to 6 kids in a group, which makes it diff...
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