Backaches, Bimbos, and Breakups

[NikLR 13,227]

If play school is like what I'm familiar with it's not anything like what they have around here. This place is scary weird for kids.

My inlaws could get away with a computer under $700, but it wouldn't work for anyone in our house.

It's probably exactly what you're thinking of as she was raised in Alberta.

[NikLR 13,227]

speaking of joint classes... I found most parents in my daughter's elementary to be very annoyed at joint classes. She was in several. The basic premise is, a child who is in grade 2 in a 2/3 split, is ahead, while the one in the grade 3 of the 2/3 split is behind. Only special teachers can possibly do a good job at joint classes. She had one joint teacher that was excellent and the next that was not. Some schools HAVE to have them because class sizes are so small, they can't afford to have a teacher for 12 children when they could have 24 kids in the same class. It's more work for the teachers and they aren't paid any extra. Split classes can be great, or horrible.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

speaking of joint classes... I found most parents in my daughter's elementary to be very annoyed at joint classes. She was in several. The basic premise is, a child who is in grade 2 in a 2/3 split, is ahead, while the one in the grade 3 of the 2/3 split is behind. Only special teachers can possibly do a good job at joint classes. She had one joint teacher that was excellent and the next that was not. Some schools HAVE to have them because class sizes are so small, they can't afford to have a teacher for 12 children when they could have 24 kids in the same class. It's more work for the teachers and they aren't paid any extra. Split classes can be great, or horrible.

The way that they've done it in the small towns here seems to work - they either consolidate schools (our schools serves 3 towns) or they keep the classes for the lower levels even it is only 5 kids a class and then the high school is done completely online or at the local community college with onsite supervision. Rather than have levels of classes in our town for the high schoolers, the advanced ones just start college in the subjects they are proficient in.

Edited August 27, 2014 by N-o-l-a

[NikLR 13,227]

The way that they've done it in the small towns here seems to work - they either consolidate schools (our schools serves 3 towns) or they keep the classes for the lower levels even it is only 5 kids a class and then the high school is done completely online or at the local community college with onsite supervision. Rather than have levels of classes in our town for the high schoolers, the advanced ones just start college in the subjects they are proficient in.

I grew up in small towns. The one school I went to only had 1 grade that was not a split class.

Again it depends on the teachers. They are the ones with the increased workload with multiple grades. Some do very well at it, and other's don't. However I'm sure that a school will make sure to keep teachers around that are very good at it if that is the main focus on the school. I liked in my one high school how grades 8-12 were not so segregated. We had a home room with a few kids from each grade. But in my next high school there wasn't any of that because of the way the school did their classes. In that school, missing a day was like missing a week. A year of learning was smashed into 2 months.

I always find it interesting how other places do their schooling. Even college in the USA is vastly different than college in Canada. I'm sure it's a far cry from college in the UK or India etc... It's amazing how diverse people are!

Edited August 27, 2014 by NLR

[NikLR 13,227]

BTW Ontarkie, thank you for closing that one thread in the Canada forum. I was seriously waiting for someone to do that.

[rlogan 2,036]

There are actually a number of famous polish mathematicians. But it still takes three of them to screw in a light bulb.

Our school is obviously a case of "small". There are three grades in the last classroom: 6-7-8. I noticed there were larger numbers in the low grades and maybe only a couple of 8th graders. So those parents are making other choices like maybe bussing to Fairbanks. Yikes. But it occurs to me the district won't bus you outside your zone, so maybe they're homeschooling.

Time to go to the playground.

Edited August 27, 2014 by rlogan

[rlogan 2,036]

Paradise, am I right?

Yes. The winter opens up millions of acres for us that are impassable in the summer. We have work machines - four wheelers in the summer and snow machines in the winter. Right outside the front door, with ignition switches disabled. You don't need keys for anything, they're hardwired "on" permanently. Being able to walk out the door, jump on them, and be miles into the wilderness in minutes is great.

No mosquitos. I'll take that over just about anything.

[Ontarkie 14,226]

BTW Ontarkie, thank you for closing that one thread in the Canada forum. I was seriously waiting for someone to do that.

I have no idea what you are talking about

My older kids went to a school that was 100 kids if they were lucky. A lot of split grades too.

Around here they have so much bull that they consolidated a lot of the elementary schools for the worse. The schools are way too big. The also only have 1 middle school and 1 high school again way too big.

Yes. The winter opens up millions of acres for us that are impassable in the summer. We have work machines - four wheelers in the summer and snow machines in the winter. Right outside the front door, with ignition switches disabled. You don't need keys for anything, they're hardwired "on" permanently. Being able to walk out the door, jump on them, and be miles into the wilderness in minutes is great.

No mosquitos. I'll take that over just about anything.

I like winter but I'm actually allergic to the cold. Blood pressure drops fast and hives makes it easy for me to get hypothermia.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Ontarkie

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

I grew up in small towns. The one school I went to only had 1 grade that was not a split class.

Again it depends on the teachers. They are the ones with the increased workload with multiple grades. Some do very well at it, and other's don't. However I'm sure that a school will make sure to keep teachers around that are very good at it if that is the main focus on the school. I liked in my one high school how grades 8-12 were not so segregated. We had a home room with a few kids from each grade. But in my next high school there wasn't any of that because of the way the school did their classes. In that school, missing a day was like missing a week. A year of learning was smashed into 2 months.

I always find it interesting how other places do their schooling. Even college in the USA is vastly different than college in Canada. I'm sure it's a far cry from college in the UK or India etc... It's amazing how diverse people are!

I think it would be difficult to teach at an appropriate level for two different grades at the same time, depending on the class. Obviously things like art or music could be combined. To be honest, I wouldn't buy a house in a district that did that or if they all of a sudden started doing it, I'd very much consider busing or home schooling (well, not my daughter, that is). My daughter's class right now has 17 and that is a bit on the large size, but the same that it was in CT. I looked in the all the classrooms and they had 2 for each grade, no more than 20 kids each. I'm sure the kids aren't so happy about having to be bussed 30 minutes away to school, but it is what it is.

I went to go look at school to do my A and AS-levels at in the UK when I was younger and I was just baffled at the system. The one "college" I looked at had private tutors basically and high school aged kids were free to come and go as they pleased. I was like, what???? I was also not happy about having to only pick a couple of subjects and at the level of some of them (they seemed easy). It is similar to Germany and Northern Europe in that if you don't go on to these schools and specialize for 11th/12th grade (college/gymnasium) then you end up having to go back and do it as an adult if you want to go to university (I think there are some other paths, but it is basically more schooling). I just find it hard to believe that the scores you receive and educational decisions when you are 17/18 determine so much the rest of your life.

[NikLR 13,227]

I've never seen a class with less than 20ish kids. My ex's kindergarten had 35. So they say class sizes are getting bigger, but I don't see it. I routinely went to school with 25+ kids in a class. My daughter's smallest class had 19 and because it was split, she wasn't getting anymore in it. Which was nice.

Ontarkie, did you go to school with an elementary, middle, and high? or a different split?

[rlogan 2,036]

I like winter but I'm actually allergic to the cold. Blood pressure drops fast and hives makes it easy for me to get hypothermia.

Really? Never heard of that but you learn something new every day.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Really? Never heard of that but you learn something new every day.

I don't think stretch would like it up here or there in the cold. We've been told people rarely want to stay past the first winter or their first flood. This town has been shrinking since the 1950s despite the excess of jobs.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

I've never seen a class with less than 20ish kids. My ex's kindergarten had 35. So they say class sizes are getting bigger, but I don't see it. I routinely went to school with 25+ kids in a class. My daughter's smallest class had 19 and because it was split, she wasn't getting anymore in it. Which was nice.

35! 35!!!!!! *faints* I had a couple classes in public high that were large like that, but it was mostly because there was let's say only one section of that class that fit well into everyone's schedule. My public high school had close to 1400 students in 9-12 and it was structured like university in that you were given a big book of classes and had to plan everything out.

Where we lived in CT, the schools and classes had been shrinking for quite some time, we got an email this week from her former kindergarten teacher and the TA that their classroom had been cut this year because of more shrinkage. A lot of older couples struggling to just have 1 or 2 kids versus the baby boomer generation and there is going to be an excess of room.

3 town area here is 1/10 the size of town in CT, but has 1/3 the kids (estimated). Do the math on that one.

[Ontarkie 14,226]

I've never seen a class with less than 20ish kids. My ex's kindergarten had 35. So they say class sizes are getting bigger, but I don't see it. I routinely went to school with 25+ kids in a class. My daughter's smallest class had 19 and because it was split, she wasn't getting anymore in it. Which was nice.

Ontarkie, did you go to school with an elementary, middle, and high? or a different split?

I went o elementary and high school.

I don't think stretch would like it up here or there in the cold. We've been told people rarely want to stay past the first winter or their first flood. This town has been shrinking since the 1950s despite the excess of jobs.

I would be stuck in the house been there done that, not wanting to do it again.

[NikLR 13,227]

I went o elementary and high school.

I would be stuck in the house been there done that, not wanting to do it again.

Same as me then.