Grade Two Team Teaching Survey
Results
A Note from Ms. Eide and Mr. Hagen
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts about the 2nd grade team teaching room and your child’s learning so far. We appreciate the honest feedback and it helps us plan our next steps in the classroom. We are attaching all of the responses if you’re curious about what other parents had to say. We were happy to see that most parents feel like their children are happy, being challenged appropriately and enjoying learning each day. We want to remind you that if you have a concern to please contact us so that we can work together to give your child the best possible experience.
Our thoughts about home learning and screen time:
We value the dream box app and feel like it’s a very appropriate way for children to support conceptual understanding in math that is individualized. If you are concerned about screen time at home, please read this article as it provides some current thinking about children and using devices.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/21/health/screen-time-media-rules-children-aap/index.html
Our thoughts about class size:
The number of students in our class is a concern for some. We have worked hard to educate the community about what a child’s daily experience may look like in a team taught environment. We cannot emphasize enough that despite there being over 40 kids, the ratio of student to teacher remains low. Team teaching provides so many opportunities for students to be grouped based on interest, skill, or readiness. Students receive these opportunities at ISB no matter which classroom they are in. Take a look at the variety of groupings(photo below) 2nd graders in our classroom are placed in to meet their needs throughout a day and throughout our year together.
What do you think is going well for your child in grade 2 this year?
More independent
Writing skill is improved significantly.
Class room dynamic
Teachers' competency
His English has been improved a lot! And he is happy to go to his group, he has made some new friends in grade 2.
Very improved and love to go school
It is a great opportunity for him in this year.
I think my child seems to be doing very well socially, which is a huge change from last year. She likes the large class as she feels she has many friends.
He is happy making new friends.
I can definitely see his growth in taking responsibility for actions and being making better choices. His reading and writing have improved as well. He also challenges his self more in reading.
All
Writing skills and Sports. His writing has improved significantly. We are very happy with his progress. His exposure to different variety of sports has led him to try out many more kinds of sports. He has become much more active and healthy and is now keen to play Basketball, hockey and tennis.
XXXXX seems to be engaged and interested in learning. She finds school fun and seems to be appropriately challenged and encouraged. This year we have seen a lot of growth in Math, Reading, and Writing.
He is more mature and responsible for his routine. He can read and write longer. I really like when my child learn to write the book cause it can promote creativity and writing at the same time.
Both of you do an excellent job supporting her learning needs and also helping her with her emotional and social growth. She seems to be thriving in an environment that allows her to move around with lots of opportunity for interacting with different children.
1) new school, new social group and new friends
2) relatively good level of math and science works
She is being appropriately challenged academically and socially. There is also a very clear routine and set of expectations which help her thrive.
She's getting better in writing essays. She enjoys group activities.
I like the fact that there are enough number of students and teachers to allow for many levels of groupings. I feel my child is placed in the just right levels of groupings for both math and English.
He is becoming more confident and willing to try out new things.
In general we are told that our child is doing well at school, but he doesn’t tell us much.
She is reading a lot better and her math skills have improved. She is happy in the class.
Nothing specific
Discipline
More friends
More confident
Always enjoy going to school
She can meet more variety of their friends. She can adept herself to be in the social properly with manner.
My child is happy to come school. He seems to be improving in all areas of study.
I think that it was good experience to learn the various culture of other countries.
Because she just came to Bangkok this April.
I need the kids be a good friend togethers and they can get a long with for the next educational years.(3rd,4th,grade).
How can you mixed them..?
We said “team teaching “but also we can say “team packing “with good relationships.
We’re definitely happy with the progress that has been made in terms of adjusting to a new school and class environment. He’s happy to go to school and comes home happy and ready to talk about what was exciting about the school day!
What are you thoughts about team teaching?
Not much different
Look okay so far
May be an option but still not sure how and why it is better.
I think Team teaching is good for better social skill development. I only concern about the attention focuse of XXXXX being in a group.
Very effective
OK.,I think it is a good programming for teaching but it had a lot students in class (43).
I love how the class is set up so that the children can move freely around. I think having a double size room gives the kids the ability to remove themselves from a situation that they may not like/feel comfortable in.
So far so good.
I think it's an excellent approach to teaching. The teacher's seemed to be engaged with the students and don't seemed to be stressed. I also feel like my child still has the one on one connection with each teacher even with the large class.
Effective with well organized teachers and socially adept students.
I think it's great to have the best from both teachers in the class. The variety of groupings enable my child to interact with many variety of children in the class which I think is great social learning. The buddy with Grade 4 is a great idea.
Team-teaching seems to make a large classroom more manageable and provides flexibility for smaller grouping at appropriate learning levels. Having more students in a class seems to allow for more friendship opportunities.
I really like it.In my view, it help the children can learn in more diversification friends, culture and learning.
We have had a very positive experience with your classroom. I’m grateful that you both know exactly where our daughter’s learning needs are and have both offered suggestions on how we can help at home.
Although the system is still relatively new, we wanted to see how it’s in the long run
I was skeptical at first, but after seeing that time lapse video at back to school night, everything has proven me wrong. I love that my daughter is wholly supported by a team of adults.
It's working well so far but I would want teachers to have more assessment on each child to check their level.of understanding on the core subjects.
At first both my child and I were not sure about having so many students in the same class, but now we love this environment!
I was a little concerned at first about his concentration level in class because he tends to get distracted very easily. So far he's really enjoys team teaching 😊
A priori, I am not at all opposed to innovative and creative ideas, but I would have liked to hear about team teaching before ISB decided to place our child in such a group. I still don’t know how this was decided. I was very surprised at the beginning of the school year to see that our child would be in a class with another 40+ classmates. I don’t know what to think about it because it is still unclear what the reasons for such grouping were, what the pros and cons are, how our child can really benefit from such grouping, etc.
I am not convinced that this is the best arrangement for students. The original email for the principal said that this arrangement was based on evidence-based research and I would really love to see this research and how the benefits outweigh any potential disadvantages to a smaller classroom.
Not a single significant addition
More complexity
To coordination between teacher
Having a bigger class there's are advantages and disadvantages
Good things: mostly
-More variety of friends hence kids can better adjust to differ friends w different backgrounds
-bad things
my son seems to be very 'afraid ' of his teachers- but it is understandably that to be able to control 40 kids is a challenge. My sons from other classes seems to be close and more at ease w his teachers.
Although I think the goods out weight the bad 😁
So helpful to my child. She know step by step to write the Non Fiction by adding more detail in the story. I can see from her progress.
I know there have been a couple of works available for parents to come and learn about team teaching and how it works but my schedule and other responsibilities don’t allow me to attend. Is there another way that parents could be informed of how the groups are formed and more about team teaching in general? Videos that can be watched or articles that can be read at home?
I think that it can catch my child from various viewpoints .
It is nice for my child, because my child is shy and nervous in front of many people.
It is a good opportunity for them to learn in this program with the new environmental education system by mix-up with team teaching.
I am agree in this program .
Team teaching does offer a lot more flexibility for the child, however, we still harbor some concerns with respect to: - the quality of learning that can take place in a class of such a large size;
- the child getting easily distracted and having difficulty focusing as a result; and
- teacher involvement (teacher’s ability to understand the child in depth) given that he/she has double the number of students.
Is there anything we can do differently to enhance your child's experience this year?
Nothing comes to my attention for now.
Not sure
Would be really helpful to have a weekly email letter from the teachers, let the parents know about what they are learning in the classroom and what's the activities in the team. Thank you!
None
Yes,please mix-up all togethers be good friends and good relationship as well as you can.
Thanks.
Please encourage my child to be social and participate but also encourage her to focus on the task at hand so she can complete her work.
So far so good.
My child really enjoys coming to school and being in the team taught class. Keep up the good work!
So far, so good!
Perhaps more science experiments. He used to do a lot of science experiments and enjoys it very much. He may also need more math support apart from the self practice in dreambox.
XXXXX is a little shy and she has mentioned that it is hard for her to share thoughts when in the large class group. She also mentioned that she prefers sitting in desks to do her work. While she seems to enjoy school this year, she has said she does not want to be in a team-taught class next year as she thinks it will be easier to speak up in a smaller classroom. Thank you for all of your work and help this year!!
It's good now.
Not that I can think of. Thanks for providing such a great 2nd grade classroom!
A bit more works and assignments in math and science
Keep up the great work and get a lot of rest over the holiday!!
More practices on mathematics. More group activities to give opportunities for my child to speak up
As I see my son's English is improving a little, I hope that he can be in working groups with many other children and be able to make more variety of friends.
Thank you for all the support given by all the teachers. My son really likes this class!
Nothing that I can think of right now.. so far everything has been great.. thank you
Based on last year’s conversations with Grade 1 counsellor, we contacted our child’s teachers and counsellor as we feel that our child is not challenged at the right level. He was already fluent in reading in KG, passed some math test in Grade 1 showing he was ahead of 2-3 grades and has a huge appetite for sciences. However his current teachers don’t think so, and we fear that the lack of challenge may affect our child’s interest to learn. I perfectly understand that teachers teaching in such large classes cannot design specific individual curricula for every child, but from what I understood when talking to Grade 1 counsellor last year, ISB has resources to test students and encourage those with higher potential. That is also why we chose ISB for our children.
I am worried that students only do two units of science and two units of humanities. I am also concerned with the lack of true inquiry in the class. For example, the science unit on weather, I found that my child could read an app to figure out the weather but could not explain basic science about weather. I am concerned that my child's curiosity is not being fed (although this is probably a school-wide problem and not focused on your class).
That said, my daughter goes to school happy, is learning, and comes home happy and I thank all her teachers for that.
None
they did very well
Pls see above comments
I think your team is very perfect to make my child growing with respect and confidence. We are happy with your effort now. Thank you very much for your contribution.
He seems to be doing great and enjoying everything he’s learning and the way he is learning so I don’t have any suggestions.
I want her to speak with confidence in a loud voice.
Yes,I want to see the kids or team teaching class , can make something special or strong or outstanding in each subjects.
It can make the kids represent for ISB in the further.
At our home, we are making a conscious effort to move away from gadget use (iPad, iPhones, TV etc), especially given their exposure in school. As such, we would appreciate gadget-free Math home learning options.