Dr. Deborah Serani wrote a post on her page about noise levels and stress. Though this has implications for every workplace, it is especially relevant to elementary school teachers and their students. No only does noise effect your physical health, it can impair your ability to think and remember what is going on around you. I have noticed that when I’m working with younger children I have to write everything down or I’ll forget, but I always thought that was soley due to the chaotic atmosphere of a kindergarten classroom. If the noise effects me, a seasoned professional, what does it do to a 5 year old who’s trying to learn her letters and numbers? How many tummy aches are really the product of a stressful learning environment? Teachers of younger students are always saying that class sizes need to be smaller. I think a class of 20 is plenty until 5th grade, though there should be a classroom aide until 3rd (there rarely is). It should go up to 25 in middle school, and hit no more than 30 in high school.
27
Mar
07
Three Score and Ten or more said…
I love it when I can agree with you 100 percent. I used to love to teach college classes with less than twenty students, and honestly believe that mass lecture classes could be replaced by syllabified study halls. (or even naps). As a high school teacher, I confess to making the first week of class so hellacious that enough people would drop it to make it a reasonable size. (Unfortunately that doesn’t work in elementary or middle school)
10:21 PM
United We Lay said…
Three score,
I didn’t even think about college because I went to a very small one. None of my classes were more than 25, and most had about 15. I had several classes where there were only 6 of us. I feel that I received a much beter education because I had such small classes, and I have retained a majority of that information because I was not distracted in class.