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My son's Kindergarten class will have 30 children
kidsrprecious June 13, 2011
I'm worried that my son will not receive the attention he needs in a class this size. Is 30 children just too much?
MagnetMom June 13, 2011
Hi kidsrprecious,
It's the first thing parents look at--class size. But there is no easy answer. My son's kindergarten class was 30 kids, and the class was broken into three groups, and the teacher worked with ten kids personally, and a teacher's aide worked with 10 kids, and a parent volunteer worked with another group. After 20-30 minutes, the kids switched. It worked out great.
Bottom line, a great teacher with a larger class is better than a teacher with poor classroom management skills. Find out what volunteer opportunities are available and make time to help.
Obviously a great teacher with a small class is the best option, but until the school districts get out of the financial messes they're in, it's going to be a long haul before that is an option.70867
desybarite69 June 13, 2011
Hello kidsrprecious,
Bottom line is you might need to get more involved than you intended to help support the teacher. I agree with MagnetMom. This is interesting.
My daughter is just finishing kindergarten where there were 20 kids. I am in the Army and returned home half way through her school year. I wanted to catch up and see how she was learning so I went to her school, where the teacher invited me to stay and participate and observe.
As I watched I saw many different levels of learning. There were bright kids who just had an aptitude, there were some that the parents kept up with and so were doing well and kept on top of things, there were some kids who suffered from parental assistance and there were some that had obvious learning problems. On top of this kindergarten is not mandatory here in Virginia, however there are requirements for attending 1st grade and so on top of the above there were students that had never had education that were mandated by age to attend 1st grade but did not have the minimum requirements of reading, writing and numbers so were also in my daughters class.
I watched as the teacher placed all of these students into one of three groups that would rotate from project to project only one at a time gaining her attention. The bright or above the line students, the average good students, and those that required her specific attention (this could be for learning disability, personality, or even difficult disruptive children).
The teacher did have assistance periodically and was great at keeping the children in line and kept them on a direct path to learning, but I could see her struggle.
For myself, when I first went to class my daughter was in the last group. She is a shy girl and there were signs that I had not been there and she was withdrawn from her peers. I knew my daughter was smart and understood everything but the teacher could not get her to speak up or raise her hand or participate without much coaxing and so put her in this group[ those that required her specific attention (this could be for learning disability, personality, or even difficult disruptive children)] because she needed to help her more. I was injured at first because I thought she thought she was a poor student.
Now, whether due to my return, my involvement, the teacher's attention my daughter has excelled. I like to think it was all the above.
I say all this to make the point; it takes a partnership in education. Watching what the teacher puts out, keeping up with it all, and doing some of it on your own. I struggle to understand how much they put on kindergartners today but I know I can do my part.
70875
TeacherParent June 13, 2011
It is too much but we're living in tight times. Any Kindergarten class with 30 children in it should also have an aide as well as a teacher. Even with that, it's still far too large a class but an aide along with the teacher will help the situation somewhat.
If you have a choice of schools and there's a nearby Kindergarten that has a smaller class size, it would make sense to choose the smaller Kindergarten. If there's not - I'd suggest considering organizing the parents into volunteer helpers - even if there is an aide in the room. With 30 K-age children, three adults in the room is not too much. If parents would each volunteer one morning or one afternoon per week, it would only need 10 volunteers to give the teacher an extra pair of hands in the room.
Many studies have determined that the ideal class size for elementary school children is around 18 - but few schools can keep their classes that small. 70900
childacademy June 26, 2011
Hi kidsrprecious
30 children to a teacher in preschool environment is definitely too much. The ideal is 10 to 1. Still an assistant is required to meet the toilet runs, unless the teacher accompanies all the 10 children to the bathroom for Safety reason.
This is not feasible as the administration is restricted by the income-which comes from the parents to pay for 2 heads for 10 children.
Many not aware of the fact; that a parking lot attendant gets better paid than a preschool teacher. Expectations are that the preschool teacher produces the top quality during the most important life a human being with beggarly pay. I am still to find a preschool teacher getting a living wage unless in a non-profit corporation getting grants.
Great preschool needs parents who pay for the quality or raise funds to defray the cost of operations.
Poor quality at the beginning will be projected to latter years of a child sometimes ending in unpleasant encounters. I am writing with close to 30 years of experience in the preschool environment
bernie71228
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