As we head into the final few months of this school year, the staff and I begin our planning for the next school year. Soon we will be sitting down to make up classes based upon our best enrollment projections for next year.
Every year about this time, the staff and I begin to hear from some parents who want to request a specific teacher for their child for the next school year. They want “The Best Teacher” at that grade level for their child, and they believe they know who that is, usually based on two factors: (1) a friend, or neighbor who has told them who that “Best Teacher” is, or, (2) they believe it is the teacher at the grade level who has the GATE cluster, because the GATE students get the best teachers and are in the best classes.
Please consider these factors. I visit classrooms often for the purpose of observing the teachers teaching and the activities of the students in the classes. I know the instructional skills of every teacher better than anyone else in the school or the community, because I have observed various aspects daily. I could not, in all honesty, tell you who the best teacher on the faculty is, because there is no one teacher who is the best in everything. In talking about “The Best Teacher” one must specify “best in which area?” Teaching is made up of hundreds of sub skills, and no one is best at all of them. Also, I have seen the instructional level of teachers vary significantly depending upon the make-up of the class and the type of children the teacher is teaching. There is no one best teacher.
Some may think that classes with GATE students in them are the best classes, and the teachers who work with them are the best teachers. Teachers are not assigned to work with GATE students because they are more skilled. Most often, teachers with the GATE cluster choose to work with those students because of certain characteristics that are often present in academically gifted children. GATE cluster classes can be very difficult to teach. They may contain students who misbehave, under achieve, and are unmotivated. There is no guarantee of compliant, obedient, studious children in any classroom.
When we configure individual classes, we try to make them heterogeneous; classes that have a mix of high, average, and low achieving students in them. The major factors that we consider are:
- the child’s demonstrated achievement in reading on a daily basis.
- the child’s pace of learning.
- the quality of the student’s citizenship and effort.
- the student’s leadership ability and personality.
- the boy-girl ratio in the class.
- the number of students in a class.
You can see this is a complicated process, and is based upon our best assessment of each child.
Woodbury recognizes that parents do have valuable information, which could assist in the class placement of their child. Examples of this may be:
- an unsatisfactory experience between an older child and a teacher.
- neighborhood problems that may necessitate the separation of two children.
We do know that parents sometimes have preferences for teachers and consideration is given to their request. However, we cannot place children in classes only on the parent’s preferences or the teacher’s reputation in the community. We group children for instructional purposes, and placing them in class for other factors would defeat those purposes.
Occasionally, a parent’s request may have been honored in the past and their child ended up in the class of a teacher they requested. Please understand that even though the request will be considered, there is no guarantee that a parent request will be honored for the upcoming school year.
Most parents do not request a specific teacher for their child or have any additional information to give us, and leave it to us to place their child in an appropriate classroom. However, if you have a specific request or pertinent information related to the classroom placement of your child for next school year, please communicate to me your information in writing or email before May 15th , 2015.
So, “How do I get the “Best Teacher” for my child?” – provide us with pertinent/compelling information, if necessary, and trust us to place him/her in a classroom where he/she will be successful. Fortunately at Woodbury, all our teachers are qualified, gifted educators, and our students benefit greatly from their efforts.
Remember, because of ongoing enrollment through the opening weeks of school, class assignments are not posted until the day before school begins. If your child is not assigned to a teacher you or he/she wished for, the best thing you can do is model acceptance and tolerance. You can do this by, first of all, keeping an open mind. It is very important that you do not pre-judge the teacher, or the new class. Do not speak of the teacher, or class, in negative terms in front of your child, but instead support the teacher when speaking with your child and encourage him/her to do the very best he/she can at school. While doing this, you are supporting not only the teacher, but also the institution and the concept of learning.