I started working on my classroom today. I've been in the same classroom since 1998, but I had a hard time getting things arranged today. Normally I have 27 desks in my classroom, and this year I have to make room for 35. Ugh. I ended up finding a place for 34, but I had to take home my aquarium and a small table. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that I don't have 35 kids in any of my classes.
Yikes! Anything over 29 in my room, and I start to lose walking space, big time. Thankfully, my classes have always been at 29 or less so far. Good luck.... it's a shame that class sizes keep growing like this. The larger they get, the less we get to know each individual kid. Bleh
I've got 38 in a workable configuration, but last year I had 42 in one period. Hoping that won't happen again, but there's no guarantee. :unsure:
I would go crazy... my district refuses to go over 22 per room unless we have absolutely no choice, which right now we're good. I'm only expecting, or so I have been told to expect, no more than 20. Good luck with those higher numbers, I don't know what I would do with that many kids.
OMG, Mrs. K! Even though the state DOE relaxed class size limits, I cannot imagine ever having more than 32-33 in an academic class. P.E. gets 85 kids, but that's quite a bit different.
You've mentioned it before Caesar, and I've always wondered, so here goes: how does management go with a class of 50+? Are your kids generally fairly reasonable, or ... ? Because I can imagine 50+ turning into a crowd control nightmare once you through in a few students who abhor school into that mix.
I teach in an inner-city school, so...it's not easy. I do my best to maintain control by having lots of activities packed into the lesson. I figure that if they don't have time to get bored, they don't have time to start acting out. Even with that, I still do more management than I like. I find that there are a handful of kids that I've been unable to connect or develop a good rapport with, and those are the kids who feel like they have the right and responsibility to control my classroom. That doesn't work for me, so those kids, unfortunately for them, get made examples of when they get re-seated, assigned to detention, and/or sent out of the room. I give options and choices freely, but there comes a point at which I will no longer allow a student to continue making inappropriate decisions in my classroom. They usually hate me for the rest of the year for it, but eh. I'd rather have a couple of kids in a class who hate me than a whole class of students who think it's okay to walk all over me.
I have 30 right now. I loop with them, so I'll definitely have a big class for two years. It's tough getting the desks to fit.
I haven't been in yet to start setting up, but I know I will have a similar problem. Last year I had 18 kids and this year, 27. Even with 18 last year, I felt at times like there was no where to walk! Not looking forward to it.
I'll think good thoughts for you! I walked into my classroom this week to having 30 desks---but we've been told to plan for 25+....I just realized, maybe this is a sign that I should plan for 30. Thankfully we have the room for the smaller desks at this grade level, but my friend who teaches 4th grade is having to do some fancy manuvering with her 35. I think teachers get a super gold star for being creative on how we rearrange the class room furniture! I remember taking a teacher prep class that had a section on "How will your classroom look?" and laughed this week remembering how we were so maticulous about the desks and chairs and tables arranged on paper, but reality kicks in...LOL
