#4th grade

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QUESTIONS

I know that some of you have questions like:

What is a split class? 

A split class is where one teacher has two grade levels of students in their class. I will have my class of (so far) 31 students split between 4th graders (15) and 5th graders (16). I am teaching both grade levels in the same classroom, at the same time.

How can you teach two grades together? 

It will be hard but my admin, coaches, and fellow teachers are helping me work out the best schedule for me and my students.

Why can’t you get help from your school or district? 

Unfortunately, part of the reason that I am teaching a split is because there is not enough money. The school and district can’t help me with everything I want or need for my classroom. If I don’t reach out for help from other sources, I end up buying most of what I need from my own pocket. Honestly, I wish I didn't have to reach out and ask for help like this... Unfortunately, funding for education continues to get cut, which leads me to this position.

This sounds familiar, haven't you done this before?

I did teach a 4th/5th split two years ago. This year will be harder though as I cannot combine my language arts lessons. So I have nothing that I'm teaching the two grade levels that are the same.

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AMAZON WISHLIST

My Amazon wishlist has a variety of items with a variety of prices. Feel free to sort it by prices (that’s what I do). The items also send straight to me so you don’t have to worry about anything!

Amazon Link Click Here

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KOFI

Honestly, I had forgotten that I had this Kofi account. Feel free to donate money through this account.

Kofi Link Click Here

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JOURNALS

I made these journals and are selling them on Amazon. I would love it if I could sell a few more of these journals to help!

Dream Journal

Beach Vibes Journal

Farm Vibes Journal

A Magical Park Journal

Fanfiction Tracker Journal

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TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS (TPT)

My fellow teachers, I sell items on TPT. If you would like, you can buy my items off of TPT. I am working on putting more items on there.

TPT Link Click Here

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Thank you for any of the support you can give. I truly appreciate it. Every time people donate to my class, I make sure to make a big deal about it with my students. When they find it's been donated by people they don't know, they take much better care of it for some reason. In my classroom, we cherish everything that is given to us.

I have said this before but I started teaching with the expectation that I would be teaching around the 6th grade level. This was great the first three years I taught because my fifth graders were very high functioning. And every year since that it has gotten worse by degrees. I thought nothing could be worse than last year until this year.

Out of 160 4th graders, 50 of them require special education, and another 40 of them are what we call 504. 504 requires extra attention and accommodations but not as much as the once requiring special ed services.

Out of 160 students roughly 25 of them are on the grade level they're supposed to be three of them are higher than grade level and the rest are not and are functioning much lower than fourth grade. I have said before but I have an entire class that is functioning at kindergarten level. Four of them absolutely do not belong in general education, they need to be with the all day special ed Service Group as there is nothing I am covering that they understand in the slightest. But for whatever reason the head of special ed will not take them because he just doesn't want to deal with it. He is lazy and Beyond.

I have just found out that of the students coming in next year, and I don't know how many total there are but I pretty sure it's less than this year, 50 of them have already been flagged for special ed services. Now that in and of itself is not what concerns me. We only have one full-time special educator who as I said is lazy as s***. On top of this we only have three special ed Paras. Each of them service between the 504 and this bed, each of them service 50 kids a day and that is too much for one person. The district absolutely will not fund extra special ed teachers or extra special ed Paras.

I do not have a certification or degree in special education. Nor do I have a degree in early childhood. My degree is teaching English in the upper grades.

But none of the grades are functioning on grade level. I would wager if I got a job at the high school probably I would be teaching at 6th grade level but then I would have to deal with kids twice my size who have cell phones and who knows what all going on.

So that is my battle..

And if School vouchers get passed, then the handful of higher level kids will go on to Charter Schools and we will be left with the violent, emotionally disturbed, and severely low functioning of the rest of the lot.