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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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.
I am an inclusion teacher with students K through 2nd grade. My biggest challenge is trying to meet the needs of all the K-2 grade level teachers and ese students at my school and I see their biggest challenge is trying to get all the district-required assessments done, and find the time to teach.
I find my biggest challenge is both managing my school and teaching our PreK class. I’m only a second year teacher and a first year manager and am trying to balance it all. In fact, I haven’t even taught a complete year, since I was hired in March of last year! My plate is full, and 90% of my students have emotional and/or attatchment issues, can be very violent (I’m filing out BooBoo reports daily)and refuse to listen to me (even with plenty of free play and structured activities and consistent disciplin measures). Plus, one student is ESL and only understands English but speaks very little! Help, I’m stressed and have zero time for creative lesson planning! I guess that’s where you come in. Without you, I don’t know where I’d be!
It seems most everyone whose blogged so far is teaching early learners. I’m teaching 4th grade; it’s my 16th year (not in 4th, I’ve taught K,2 and 3 also) My biggest challenge is having the time to cover everything with the limited amount of time in the classroom. My children are pulled out for Resource Room, Reading, Math, Orchestra, Band, VIP services, counseling. I have 25 children this year and the diversity is vast. Trying to differentiate is a challenge. Bethany, the centers are a great idea, but finding the time to make all the centers is extremely time consuming. I don’t have an extra 5 minutes a day and I spend a good deal of my time at home on classwork as it is. Any suggestions on how to create the centers without giving up sleeping?
I agree behavior challenges can be maddening! I have one main “challenger” this year. She is like a tiny bubbling cauldron much of the time. I sure hope I can help her adjust and cope with whatever is happening in her life to cause her to act this way.
Teaching 4’s for 12 years. Biggest challenge so far is the food allergies.One boy allergic to almost all our foods, including our playdough. Even touching another child who has had a dairy product before coming in can lead to tragic results. So far so good.
My biggest challenge is the large number of K kids in my 2 classes and the huge differences in their abilities. Some have never held scissors or a pencil before, while others are cutting hearts, etc. and copying words like crazy from the word wall and name cards. Sweet children though, and no major behaviour problems which makes a big difference!
I loved reading these blogs! This is my second year in K, and I totally understand missing your first-year kids. I am really trying to find things out about the new ones, I even have a file on things I’ve learned about them to help me focus on THIS year instead of last. I am really struggling with discipline this year though, and I’m SO frustrated. My kids literally don’t seem to hear me when I talk, their ability to ignore is like working with teenagers!!! Help!
My biggest challenge is struggling with scheduling and trying to fit everything into our short time together. I have 2 sessions of 4K and we have 2 1/2 hours to try to get all the areas in that I need to cover.
I have two sources of tasks for my Early Finishers. One is their”Busy Box”, which is their personal Magazine file box that contains exercises or activities that are at their “just right level”. These keep the children motivated and independent at a time when I need to work with others. The other option is their Book Bags that hang from the back of their desks. These contain books at their independient reading level, that I update from time to time. This year, I have a parent who has offered to sew these for me. Otherwise, you can purchase asimple bag or backpack from the dollar stores.
My greatest challenge is the high number of children in my K class this year. 23 as of now. Seems to be no room whether at their tables or on the carpet for whole group
My greatest challenge is the behavior problems that certain students bring to the class. One student who is misbehaving and off task can throw all the students in the room off. I teach 6th grade English.
My greatest challenge is keeping 7 preschool teachers happy. I find the rivalry great, as it keeps everyone on their toes. It’s the jealousy over who has how many sessions in one week that get very petty. Who cares who comes up with an idea as long as the idea is good and it challenges the children.
my biggest challenge is staff who have only been working for two months, telling me how to run my child care center.
To Bethany,
One way to keep students busy at any grade level is to have Centers that students can go to. During reading the centers could be vocabulary, reading response, comprehension, phonics, grammar exercises, or computer skills. The less paper work the better for you. Use manipulatives or cards and have the students record in a center journal that you can look at occasional - once a week or so. The directions for the centers need to be taught first and the students need to know before hand what is expected. Not just with the center outcome itself, but what is expected about the noise level and how many can be at the center. Don’t forget to model what you expect partners to say to each other in the center. Math, science, and social studies centers are also easy to set up. The Education Center is the best place to get center ideas! I’ve used them since they began!
This is my first year in Kindergarten and I’m loving it. My biggest struggle right now though is one young man who wants to discourage his classmates from having fun and learning. I’ve heard him several times saying to anyone that will listen, “No, you don’t want to do that.” I don’t know what to do.
I think my biggest challenge is how to help teachers at the center to cope with different behaviaral challenges that some kids bring into their class.
My biggest challenge this school year is the different ages in my group. It’s going to be interesting to see how this works. But I love challenges!
This is sort of silly however Im finding it so hard to not want my old kids. Last year was my first year as a teacher and I absolutely fell in love with my kids. I was told from all the staff how lucky I was and I probably wouldn’t get that lucky for a little while. It was just an awesome group of first graders for us 3 teachers. And being my first year I didnt know any better to an extent. Im sure I will find things I love about my new kids, and maybe its because last year was my only experience and it went exceptionally well, but im sad because I want my old class.
im starting to like this website its cool.
One of my biggest challenges is dealing with difficult parents. One bad apple can spoil the whole year. Sometimes it is hard for parents to understand that their child is one of many in a classroom.
My greatest challenge this year is that I have several early finishers. It is difficult sometimes to keep them quiet and working again, while the others are trying to finish.
I teach in a charter school and am a lucky teacher with small groups of preschool students. I have a small group of 3-4 year olds and a small kindergarten readiness group of 4-5 year olds. I also teach first grade math and second grade math. My new challenge is that I am the new K-5 art teacher as well. I love art and am pretty comfortable teaching it to preK-1 students, but am a bit unfamiliar with the older groups, not to mention the nitty gritty points of art: elements, principles, etc. I am excited, but nervous about this new area (I had one art class in college).
My class has exceptional needs students, ages 3 and 4, and we are now joined by typically developing pre-k children. It is a real challenge to keep ten or more children, ages barely 3 to 5+ involved and challenged at their pace and level, while keeping everyone involved, interested, and safe.
My greatest challenge is simply the number of students who are below K level and the expectation of them to read by the end of the school year.