Your Greatest Challenge?
Posted by Debra Liverman on 08 Sep 2008 | Posted in: Teachers and Teaching
Well, you did it! You set up your classroom, planned your lessons, met your new students, and probably have at least one week of school already under your belt. You are well on your way to a successful school year. Congratulations!
Isn’t it amazing that no matter how many years you’ve been teaching, each new school year presents its own unique challenges? That is what makes teaching such an amazing, never dull, and incredibly rewarding career. So, now that you’ve had a glimpse into your school year, what do you think will be your greatest challenge? Is it getting comfortable with a new curriculum? A large class size? Differentiating for a diverse group of students? Getting parents involved? Classroom management? Something else?
Looking forward to hearing your comments!
Debra
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36 Responses to “Your Greatest Challenge?”
More Comments Pages: [1] 2 3 » Show All Comments
More Comments Pages: [1] 2 3 » Show All Comments
My biggest problem is to deal with the high number of children in my kindergarten classroom. I am talking about 28 children in my classroom. I am alone with them without helper. 8 of them have behave problem. 3 of them do not speak English, and a lot of them are below their levels. It will be wonderful like Mr. Bush said “No Child lelf behind” but “All teachers are left behind”!!!! Don’t get me wrong. I try my best to teach. I do love kindergarten children, but when too many of them, I do not think that I reach all of them. How sad and guilt do I fell each day!!!!
I find meeting every child’s needs within a single lesson to be quite challenging even though this is my 30th year! This is the first time I have ever worked with a child with a diagnosis of CP. I am constantly amazed by this child’s happy smiles and cheerful manner. I just wish I had more technology and resources available at the classroom level to assist me in meeting these special needs. I am constantly looking online, networking with other professionals, and rethinking lessons to try to do things to help this child.
Marcia,
I have taught 4th grade for the last 10 years. I totally understand how you feel with trying to teach everything while the students are being pulled out for services, special classes, speech, band, orchestra….How do fit everything in? We are departmentalized so I don’t have the flexibility of being self-contained. I have 31 students, 4 who are from Africa and don’t speak, read, or write English. How are you handling the pressure?
Susan
I teach K, and this is what we do for centers. I have little books for them to color at the writing center. I have a wide assortment of markers and colors for them to use. They also glue and paste things according to what letter we are doing. For example, they glued seeds to the letter S. I also have a magazine center where they find pictures that start with the word. Dry erase boards, geo boards, unifix cubes for making patterns and counting, felt boards for retelling stories. I haven’t bought much this year, but am trying to use what I already have.
Handwriting pages can also be a center. Some things we used to do as a group, I now do in a center. You just have to modify how you teach it.
Good luck to all!!!
This comment is for Marcia(22). I usually just read, but I had the same problem - finding time to make all those neat centers everyone is talking about.
This was my solution - I bought (YES, my own money.)some of the ready made/just cut apart centers. This way I could match the centers with the skills. A Great solution, but I still could not find the time to do all that cutting and sometimes pasting.
I have parents who work outside the home who would really like to do something for the classroom. At Open House I have a sign up sheet to do “Teacher Help” at home, when all is quiet. They really enjoy producing some of our centers and it also gets the child interested in what is coming. It helps the parents feel like they are contributing and the classroom is getting lots of new things. I just have to do the planning and the foot work ahead of time. The kids love to do the centers that their moms had made. WIN / WIN SITUATION.
I am teaching K for my first “full year”. I took over last year in Jan. I have to admit……I was not prepared for how “young and immature” these babies are in Aug.! I pray that by the time Dec. gets here I will be able to see my efforts in some of my students! It is challenging, but I love teaching! I, too, have some behavior challenges. But, nothing that is any worse than what others have. They are just trying to see what they can get away with! I think centers and keeping them changed out and interesting are a big challenge too. There is so much to do as a K teacher! I often wonder how I will get it all done! Good luck to you all! I’m sure we will all be fine……..Christmas will be here before we know it!
Parents are seriously the toughest challenge. I can deal with discipline, my coworkers and lesson plans. All of the above are forgiving. Not parents, make one miskate and you are done. The helicopter parents are so challenging!
Yes parents can be a challenge. For those challenging parents. Be patient with them too. I know this not an easy task, because they may expect too much out of you and you’re only human too. Maybe try saying one good thing about their child regardless on what is going on at the end of the day. End their day on a positive note. Take the extra time to really listen to them and try to understand where they’re coming from. I think once they realize that you are listening and really want to be the best in teaching their child, they’ll listen to your needs and try to help you out too. In time these parents will become your favorite parents. Hope this helps. Jenny
My biggest challenge is every day! As of August 4th, I’ve opened my preschool room for autistic children. I work at a Special Needs school/day care called Sunshine Center Inc., in Independence, Missouri. I have four autistic children currently enrolled in my room. Ages from 2-5 years old. Two of my students attend the school district half days. Most days I have 2-3 children at a time. We are the Stingray preschoolers. Each room is named after an ocean animal. Every day presents a new challenge. I’ve learned to go with the flow and not get stressed if I don’t get everything done.
I’ve learned to be very patient and not push the children too much. Example, if were stringing large plastic beads. Encourage the child to string 3 beads. Read her body language and pick up on her cues, if she tells you that she is done. Even though we did this for 1-2 minutes. Each child is at their own level of development and I have to adapt to their needs. We do a lot of signing and visual pictures to help us transition from one activity to another.
My assignment is to gather skills from each of the children’s IFSP/IEP goals. The next step is to write Instructional objectives based from each student goals/objectives. The 3rd step is to teach these goals while I’m being observed. Or I can have my coordinator video-tape me while I’m teaching these goals. Hopefully this assignment will complete my incomplete from my summer practicum that I recently did (summer 2008). I’m taking ABA (Applied behavior Analysis) training at the center. So far I’ve put the knowledge that I’ve learned in the ABA training and applied it to the classroom.
My summer practicum was teaching Language/Reading to high school students. That was the most difficult experience that I’ve done. Because I’ve worked with children under the age of five. I was definitely out of my comfort zone and for me, I will not teach high students again. My degree is elementary education with a minor in earlychildhood. I’m working on completing my Special education portfolio, due November 1st. I’m currently working on my Master’s in specail education-learning disabilities. I hope to graduate this December 2008.
I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. My advice is to take one day at a time, enjoy the teaching and listen to what the children are saying. Jenny
The greatet challenge for me has been leaving my class for a directors position. The children are awesome but some of the teachers still do not see me as their supervisor. Each day as the children leave they stop by my office and peek in, many just open the door and come on in. The teachers and time management hae definitly been a challenge.
Marcia,
I figured out a while back that I did not want to sacrifice all my free time planning and making centers that changed all the time. I teach K but I think this pertains to all levels. Students get just as much practice for their skills when I keep it simple. I use the same centers each week. At the computers, I change what they work on depending on who needs what or a theme we are doing. In the reading center, I change the books and magazines according to themes and ones we’ve read that they like. In the writing center, I change what they write with…pens, markers, dry erase, stamps, or even put special paper or stickers to give them ideas. In read the room, I find different props and each week we have a new chart poem and sight words. Some days we don’t do centers and we do a special project together. The next day they act like centers are brand new. No run-offs, no cutting and laminating. Buy a few store-made games and bring them out when the kids are bored. It works just fine.
I am a pre-k teacher at a daycare, and although it’s at a daycare I still have the same responsibiliites as a “real” teacher. Anyways I am just looking for new ideas for the classroom, and any ideas that would enhance my pre-k classroom.