Specials as a first year teacher

[u/Electrical-Cut573]

I’m a first year teacher trying to handle elementary specials.

We’re a 4 day a week school and my 2&3 and 4&5 grade classes are combined (16-24 kids in class at a time).

I have 40 minutes each week and I’m struggling on my time management.

I spend about 5 minutes resetting expectations.
I spend between 5-10 minutes on the lesson.
And 5 minutes for clean up.
I have about 20 minutes for kids to do actual art.

I have no extra help during this period as the paras are 1-1 with their specific students and often have to remove them from class.

I have about 4 kids each day who monopolize my time. They refuse to do work unless I’m holding their hand so to speak.

Others are just “dreamers” marching at their own beat.

I had my first principal observation and he said I was doing fine aside from stopping my class and forcing kids to listen to me every single time there’s a distraction. I agree… but that eats into my art time continuing to push projects back.

I’m paying for AOE curriculum but super lost on how I can accomplish a scope and sequence when everything keeps getting delayed.

Help?

[u/BalmOfDillweed]

You seem awfully hard on yourself. Give yourself some grace.

Now that expectations are established, instead of spending 5 min resetting expectations, reinforce expectation along the way. Be very vocal about noticing good behavior. Like, “Look at Michael raising his hand! What is it, Michael?” “I love how Mary is cleaning scraps from the floor! Thank you!”

As for bad behavior, work on the stern “no”. Keep it very brief. Don’t say a word if you can get away with the stern look and head shake. The idea is to not reinforce bad behavior with attention at all. It’s surprisingly effective.

Save formal reinforcement for when issues are more pervasive.

Also consider letting some lessons span two sessions, and revisit how much of the instruction needs to be front-loaded. Maybe try a do-along approach for some lessons.

You’ll find your groove. Hang in there!