Activity: Work with the school principal on class assignments for the next school year.

Description: I worked with the Exceptional Education Teacher to develop the upcoming

th
grade class lists.
What went well!
"verall this activity went well and I #elieve that it went well #ecause I worked with the
Exceptional Education Teacher who did inclusion with the fourth grade students who
were going to #e the upcoming
th
grade class. This was a huge #enefit #ecause she could
give me first hand information a#out how the students #ehaved within the classroom.
This information$ coupled with the information that I had from dealing with the students
during my year as instructional coach$ allowed us to place the students in classes.
During the process we knew that we had to look at certain criteria when placing the
students into their classes. We knew that we had to make sure that students were split
e%uita#ly in regards to gender and race$ #ut we also had to make sure that we were
splitting students according to their exceptional education needs and their E&' needs as
well. This was a particular challenge this year since the world of exceptional education is
changing with the new (TI expectations.
A final thing that went well was an advantage$ #ut it will also come up as a disadvantage
as well. It was #eneficial that there were not a lot of people involved in this process. )y
having *ust two people giving opinions$ we were a#le to make decisions %uickly without
a lot of discussions and confusion. We did call other teachers to clarify %uestions that
may have come up on some students$ #ut that was student specific and it didn+t occur for
all students. We also proposed the final lists to the related arts chair ,since she sees all
students and knows their personalities-$ the principal and assistant principal$ the .
th
grade
chair$ and the &'/ for final review.
What did not!
Throughout the process there were certain things that could have #een planned more
carefully. Although Denise$ the exceptional education teachers$ and I had great insight
on the ma*ority of the students there were still some students that we did not know very
well. The process would have gone more smoothly if we had other teachers from the .
th

grade team *oin our team or if we had information cards a#out the students that we could
have referred to when we had %uestions a#out the students.
The other thing that did not go well was that this process took place after the school year
was over. This happened #ecause we simply ran out of time at the end of the year$ #ut it
was hard to track down teachers when we had %uestions or when we wanted them to look
over the final lists.
0iven the chance to do it again$ how would you do it #etter!
If given the chance to do this task over again I would do a few things differently. I would
definitely do this process #efore the last day of school so that all of the teachers were
present. While I would keep the team of teachers who were placing the students into
groups small$ I would add the .
th
grade chair and the related arts chair to the team. This
would give a diverse team of teachers to the group who could give great insight a#out all
of the students. This is extremely important since we did not know all of the students. I
would also ask the classroom teachers to complete simple data cards that the placement
team could use as a reference point when a %uestion arises. These data cards would
include information such as gender$ race$ reading a#ility$ math a#ility$ exceptional
education needs$ E&' needs$ #ehavioral needs$ and health needs.