2018 Education

Page 4 2018 EDUCATION MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS MARCH 1, 2018 L ate last July following school registration at Chester-East Lincoln, the kindergarten, first, second and third grade numbers were all equal and large at 25 students. Administrator Laura Irwin had six teachers available for the four classes. She planned to split the second grade and was contemplating other decisions. Then a couple of weeks before school started, four students tipped the scale registering for the third grade. While thinking through how to best meet the needs of the students with the resources at hand, Mrs. Irwin realized this presented an interesting opportunity. Relieving each of the four classes of a portion of its students and creating two blended classes became the plan. It took an intense amount of last minute work, but the plans came together. Blending grade levels and finding success C-EL had two teachers with multi-grade experience and both loved the idea of teaching a blended class. The next step was to divide the groups and to contact the parents of the proposed blended classes. The parents were fully supportive with only one respectfully declining, Mrs. Irwin said. Mrs. Kerry Burke agreed to teach K-1 with eight kindergarteners and seven first-graders. Mrs. Whitney Kessinger would take a class of eight second-graders and 10 third-graders. This relieved class sizes for all four single-grade classes. CONTINUED →