9/13/01
Question 130
Dear Preschool Teacher,
I am feeling so discouraged! I have
taught for eighteen years, the last three of which have been
pre-kindergarten in a public school. Our district received a federal
grant so we have initiated all day pre-kindergarten this year with
little or no training or preparation. I have 21 children in my
class and only have a teaching assistant every third day. I
question such an environment. I cannot possibly manage to teach
the large number of children as I would like because so much of my day
is organizational and crowd control at this point. Please help
me to find some solutions to this difficult situation. I cannot
understand why private schools who take pre-kindergarten students have
to have one teacher per nine children but the public schools do
not have to meet the same guidelines. Do you have any ideas,
suggestions, web sites...anything...I am
having such stressful days!
21 to 1
Dear 21 to 1,
Wow! That sounds unbelievable to me. The
first thing that comes to my mind to help you, besides a full time aide, is to
ask for parent volunteers? I would try to cover every hour of every day
if possible. Have a short "training session" for the parents to
let them know what you would like. If your class is set up in centers,
then have one or two that the parent can be
responsible for, which could free you up to do smaller groups to work with the
kids without having to worry about crowd control. If you have some
parents who can't come in, maybe they could do your tracing or cutting at home
for you? Would it be possible to require parent participation? Or
ask the "powers that be" to come in one day, maybe that would get you
a full time aide?
Good luck!
Kris P
"Ask The Preschool Teacher Staff"
Dear 21 to 1,
You did not state what state you are in, but I
believe any program, public or private has to follow the adult to child ratio.
You need to contact your licensing representative and ask a few
questions. It is a matter of safety! If you take threes, the ratio should
be about 8 to 1. Your youngest child is the one they judge your
ratio by. If you have all 4's, Then it is probably 12 to 1. Maybe
the parents need to know about the numbers of children you have by yourself.
Do any of them ask why there are so many children? It has to be obvious
to anyone who sees it that you have too many children by yourself. I
would keep asking until someone did something. Or look for another less
stressful job. You are going to burn out very quickly from the stress.
All preschool programs have to be licensed, even if a public school runs them
so call the Board of Education
or Human Services Dept., which ever licenses in your state.
Jackie
"Ask The Preschool Teacher Staff"
Dear 21 to 1,
I understand
your plea I too teach pre-Kindergarten in a public school I have 26 children
two special needs children and no educational assistant. To be very truthful I
rely a great deal on parent volunteers and High School students who either need
time in a Co-op or volunteer hours. Another word of advice is to always keep
your routines the same. I found this one of the
only ways to keep my sanity. It is not an easy task, try to canvas your
community for volunteers.
Good Luck,
Tara
"Ask The Preschool Teacher Staff"
Dear 21 to 1,
I also can't believe that you can have 21 pre-K kids by yourself whereas I can only have 10 by myself in the private preschool where I teach. The only advice that comes to mind is on the days that your aide is not in the classroom to ask mother's to volunteer to come into the classroom to help. Maybe you will get enough volunteers to rotate the schedule in such a way that they would only have to come in a couple of times a month.
Good luck with your situation!
Peg
"Ask The Preschool Teacher Staff"
Dear 21 to 1,
I teach pre-k
and have 22 in my class. The first 6 weeks is just getting to learn how
to move around from work stations to work centers. I have my assistant just 2
half hours, if she is not needed some where else. There use to be a ratio 1 to
22. but I understand that there is no more 1 to 22. It does get better until
Christmas. Than we start over again.
Doris
"Ask The Preschool Teacher Staff"
