This year, in the position of Title I teacher, I have the privilege of teaching CORE math to second graders for one hour a day. The second graders come from several different classrooms including a 1-2 blend. Since that is one of my favorite grade levels to teach, I am enjoying myself immensely. This came about as the result of cuts in teaching positions at our school and some odd numbers of students at different grade levels, so the principal made the decision to configure two of our classes as blended classrooms. Our district has a policy that all children will be taught at least an hour of CORE math and ninety minutes of reading at their appropriate grade level. Hence, In response to that policy, the result has been that I, the Title I teacher, was assigned to teach a CORE class at my school. Of course, this takes away from the time that could be used to hone in on interventions for a larger group of students, but no other solution seemed to present itself. There is no way for a blend teacher to provide the 90 minutes of CORE reading and math for two different grade levels in the way that our district is requiring and still have time to do anything else in a day. My position as Title I Math Teacher is very unusual in my district. There are no other Title Math teachers at any of our other elementary schools. So, does this mean that no other schools will consider creating blended classrooms to solve problems with the numbers of students at various grade levels? In this time of tight budgets, I highly doubt it. What do other schools do about blends? Are there any strategies for teaching this type of classroom configuration when a school doesn’t have the luxury of an extra certified teacher on staff as is the case in my school? (more…)