- I currently have a total of 238 students. There is hope that we will add another teacher to our team before the new semester starts, but that will probably still leave me with over 200 students. At this time, there are 6 English IV teachers.
- The birth dates of the students range from October of 1989 to November of 1996. I'm guessing that youngest one was put in my class by accident, but the guidance counselors, like me, are still out on Winter Break. Yes, my oldest students are 22. As long as they are 21 when the school year starts, they have one final year to graduate high school with a diploma. If they are 22 at the beginning of the school year, they are not admitted.
- 9 students have yet to officially enroll and are listed as "admitted". Once they log in for the first time, I will have to get them to hit the ground running wherever we are in the class.
- Unless something drastic happens, 4 will be expelled due to truancy before the new semester begins. My school tries to intervene and get them back on track for 30 days. After that, they are expelled and the courts are notified. If they log back in on Day 29, the clock is completely reset and there are no disciplinary consequences.
- 40 of these students have an IEP. Before your head starts to spin, let me explain a couple of things. I am the teacher who carries the responsibility of entering English grades for all of the senior students who are in the self-contained or Multiple Handicapped (MH) classes. I do not teach them directly and have actually been told to minimize contact with them so I don't confuse them too much. My hope is to figure out which of those students these are before I start sending out early emails. As for the others with IEPs, we have a great system in my department. Our Department of Exceptional Children (DEC) teachers are embedded, for all intents and purposes, in our classrooms. One DEC teacher is primarily responsible for handling the grading and accommodations for three of the six classes while another DEC teacher handles the other three classes. We work as a team to educate the students in live sessions online and through phone calls. My partner in my class is Sharon, who has been with my school for 8 years. She is one of the most knowledgeable resource teachers I have ever met. This is her first non-administrative position in a long time, but she has adjusted to being back in a teaching setting like the pro she is.
- Because Sharon handles 2 other teachers' DEC students, the 4 of us work as a team in our live teaching sessions. Linda is the team leader and has been in the classroom longer than I've been alive. Keith is a second year teacher who originally worked at our schools technical help desk while finishing his certification. I'm in such good company! The other 4 teachers work together in a similar fashion, but there's been some rollover on that team. A new teacher was added in November, taking pressure off our increasing student load. Another teacher gave notice and quit as of New Year's Eve. Unfortunately, her replacement won't start until after January 13th. We may have to split the resigned teacher's students and grade their remaining work while finishing our own work. I will know more about this tomorrow.
I think that's enough background for now! Please note that all names are and will be changed or at least obscured.
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