Eight years ago I was moved to 4th grade after having taught 1st grade for six years. Before that, I taught a split class of 6th and 7th graders. This was the third time in my teaching career that I felt like a first-year teacher. Thankfully, I was moved to this new situation with two other teachers who were also good friends. Not only were we new to the age group (My colleagues had come from 2nd grade.), we were also new to the concept of team teaching. The plan was to have the teachers switch rooms during first semester, and then we would ease the students into doing the switching during second semester. This was all in an effort to help the kids transition more smoothly into intermediate school where they would be switching every period.
Little did I know this change that seemed so daunting would become what I loved most! In our first year, there were three classes of 4th graders so we decided to divide up the subjects as equitably as possible. I was assigned the teaching of Writing, which is normally part of ELA, but our school had decided we needed to give this area an individual focus for improvement. Then I also taught Science. One of my fellow team teachers taught Reading and Language while the other taught Math and Social Studies. With our homeroom classes, we were responsible for Bible and Spelling with just that one group. A great year of new experiences and learning--for teachers and students--began!
TTFN,
Melody
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