Another kindergarten update.

I volunteered at Turner's school this morning. The kids sang their hello song while some kids were showing up late, others were doing lunch selections because they forgot on the way in, and others bouncing around on their bottoms, stretching out on the carpet, and a few kicking at each other. Then there was Turner and a hand full of other kids sitting criss cross with their hands in their lap as they've been instructed to do. After a few songs, the 42 (!) kids who were present today broke into smaller groups and each group had a station they went to. Each of the stations were explained well at the beginning of class and it became clear to me that the teachers have a great approach with the kids. But, there are so SO many kids and they are all over the place in levels of behavior and attention span. I went to the station where Turner went, upon his request. He was coloring the letter "T" that was huge. He was in a group with all girls, and I am thankful. Thorsten's group was all boys. They were decorating book boxes at a table next to ours. Two of the boys were pretty rowdy, knocking chairs over, climbing under the table, hitting Margot's chair and yelling. Poor Thorsten was quietly decorating his box when James laughed at his box. He just got up from the table and walked away. When Thorsten returned, I told him how cool his box was with all the fish on it. Turner barely got one corner of his T filled in. The girls out-paced him in coloring speed and Margot kept prompting him to color faster. He just responded to her, patiently, that he wanted to take his time and he was trying to be careful.

Two other families and I met with the principal after school today to discuss the increase in class size. (When we picked Borton we thought he would be in a K/1 split class with 25 students.) The straight K class, which is team-taught by two teachers and one aid, was to have 35 students. We found out today that they may have up to 52 students in ONE classroom with TWO teachers. Yes, I get that the ratio is still relatively low compared to most TUSD public schools (right now we are at 22 students per teacher). But, that many kids in one room is total chaos even when two teachers are doing their best to organize everyone in smaller groups. I imagine that much of Turner's attention during class time is on the forty+ other bodies around him on the carpet and not on what the teacher is saying.

So, the principal, who is new to Borton this year, expressed her concern with the team teaching model of the straight K room. She explained that the other classes, the K/1 split classes, do team teaching in a different way. The students-25 per room and teacher-switch classrooms during the day and the classes eat lunch together. Each classroom has a theme at Borton where there are interactive elements in the classroom that relates to theme. Tree room learns about plants. Shooting Stars learn about astronomy. Turner is a caterpillar. I jumped all the hoops I was suppose to jump so that Turner could be in the shooting star or Tree room, but somehow it didn't work out. Moving on, the principal said she would propose to the teachers a team teaching model that allowed straight K students to be in smaller cohorts, and join together some parts of the day like lunch. They would start and end the day in separate classrooms with one teacher, and they would go to special activities like PE, music, art as separate classes (which is already in their model, but just haven't started yet). I think this will work out much better for us, and give Turner a chance to learn the names of his classmates. Now, he is inundated because there are so many kids to remember. They all run together to him. Being there today meant I learned the names of the kids he liked and those he said were mean to him.

My problem with our meeting was that the teachers weren't there. I felt shady for talking about these problems without them there to explain WHY they like their method and HOW they think it benefits the kids. I'm sure they have these reasons b/c the principal said the teachers CHOSE this method of teaching even knowing they might get this many students. I just want to stress again, it is total chaos in Turner's class. I don't know why in the world they would prefer to spend their time putting out fires than actually conducting class, but I'm not a Kindergarten teacher and I have no authority to know anything about such. I just do NOT want the teachers to feel targeted. But, leaving that meeting, I felt like the principal might be one of those ladies who can't deal with confrontation. She asked us to create a formal report and to "rally" other parents behind us as though we are going into battle. It made me nervous. Why wasn't she inviting the teachers into this conversation? All five of us at that table were educators, and it was an interesting conversation about pedagogy and purpose. But, I have no idea where we will end up. If 52 kids are in Turner's class--which the principal said was "possible"--then I canNOT imagine letting him stay. He absolutely will not compete for attention, and he would have to do so. Today, for example, he didn't raise his hand to answer a single question. When I asked him why, he said "Why? I never get called on." And, in the first two weeks of school, he hasn't been yet.