Departmentalization

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Home : 2003 : August : 10

Departmentalization
By Mardi

Deparmentalization is the way to go! I will begin my third year of teaching this year and most of my experience has been working in departments. The only time I had a self-contained classroom was during one of my 9 week student
teaching experiences.
We departmentalize in the areas of math, science, and social studies. Each teacher is then responsible for teaching their homeroom Reading/Language Arts. Each content area is taught for an hour (this takes the whole morning), then in the afternoon we teach our class Language Arts.
The children switch classes like middle and high school students. We don't

have desks, just tables that have pull- out drawers. That way they just take their drawers with them and have all the supplies they need.

When you departmentalize you have the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers, this is especially helpful if you are new to the profession. It lessens the workload and you become more confident with your teaching skill because you get to teach the same lesson repeatedly. It also helps prepare the students for the upper grades!

If you collaborate and really work with your teaching team, you shouldn't have problems with discipline and procedures. The key is working and communicating as a team.

I could go on and on about the value of departmentalization!!!