Do the students have to constantly move?

 Write a blog post about an education question/ challenge/wondering that you have or are facing. You don’t need to have the answer/solution.


 This is a wondering I have had since my son started in a MLE three years ago and then in my own school as we started to make the move towards this (we move to a new MLE in 2017) in our current school. It was something that I also asked during a Twitter conversation during Ulearn 15 which started with +Kassey Downard tweeting about having the same Homeroom teacher for 5 years. ( I can't remember what breakout she was in where this came up).     

Why do we assume in a MLE we have to always move the students around?

I can see the positives and negatives for shifting and moving students and I will admit I am guilty of this as well. We are still working in single cell classroom but trying to adjust to teaching in a more MLE or ILE ( what ever you want to call it) environment. And yes I move students around because when we first began this that was what our assumption was. Set homeroom but changing all the students in the team around for different subjects. So five teachers and the majority of 116 students moving about.

I don't work (yet) in a open planned room so I am not sure if it is different for those who do. You would constantly always see the same teachers and students in the room so would you have the same issues?

This term I am team teaching ( I like the students am moving out of my room into another room every day for literacy) and I have already said that we are two teachers with a class of 43 rather than two teachers with our own reading and writing groups. How this will work I am unsure as it is completely new to me.

We have had a few students who have found moving to different teachers hard. When I asked my own students about this, most said they liked the chance they got to move and work with different students and teachers. But this is every 10 weeks not every 2-4 weeks so does that make a difference?

I have had some very honest students articulate to me why they would like to stay with a certain teachers and I personally don't have an issue with this. I don't force them out of their comfort zone as they are not ready for that (yet). But do other teachers still make them move? Does it work? 

Or is it even an issue?

Have I connected with you?

Write a blog about some legendary bloggers, educators, inspiring leaders that help you to dream bigger

I know this should be an easy task and reading other blogs they all seem to have an answer but I don’t.

I think there is a combination of great bloggers out there that I grab ideas from. I love reading what others write and if posted on Twitter I tend to read each one that comes up on my feed.

I got into the habit of blogging more because of Claire Amos and her #hackyourclassroom and took on this challenge last year. This started me blogging but also made me worried about how inadequate my blog might be to others.

I guess that can be the hard part about reading other blogs from amazing educators; you begin to wonder if you could ever rise to that challenge. It can be somewhat intimidating and daunting.

There are times when I do read blogs (and love them) but realistically know that I can’t do that in my school. There are about 50 computers for nearly 200 students. No ‘maker movement’ as ours and the parent’s budgets can’t justify it. So no papertronics, makey makey, robots  and no 3D printing.  When even buying ingredients for basic baking has to be come out of a very tight budget. Trips need to be funded or free and even asking parents to supply more resources can be an issue!

I am a teacher working in a low decile school where money, support, resources are tight. Where sometimes school is the only safe place. That no matter how ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’ it would be to try new things or ideas, it sometimes isn’t possible.

I am turning this slightly around and asking for others to connect with me. Are you in the same situation?  Do you blog about it? Do I know you? Share with me please as I would love to read more blogs that relate to my situation and what you do.