Self Contained or Departmentalized Classrooms for 5th and 6th Grade?

For those veteran teachers~ you know that the old is often "new" again when it comes to teaching!

When I first started teaching back in(yikes...1973)~ I started in 5th grade. As a self contained classroom of upper elementary students~ I taught science~ math~ language arts~ social studies~ reading and even a daily penmanship lesson! The following year~ my team "moved up" with our classes and I taught 6th grade....

While we live in a market-driven economy~ where winning and wealth accumulation are desired outcomes~ education advocates on all sides of the political aisle currently assert that public schools are failing our children~ especially minorities and low-income students. Education is a common good; it is the stepping-stone through which students can make something better of their futures. Therefore~ we should not be setting up a system to create winners and losers.

Given the...

Research has shown that as much as 40 to 50 percent of traditional classroom material can be eliminated for certain students when it comes to science and other core subjects.

That means that these students could essentially start mid-school-year and not miss any new instruction. What that also means is that teachers have the responsibility of identifying these children and doing something different with them.

Id like to offer one possible solution~ which I recently have...

I recently purchased an ipad to use in my classroom. I am loving it! One of the best apps I have found is for running records. It makes my job much easier. No more complicated math for me! =)

There are two versions to the app, a lite version and a full version. I purchased the full version, after using the lite app. It is very simple to use. The full version records the student reading the passage. To get...