Gary’s Grade One/Two Class   

Gary also teaches at Hillside. His classroom is situated as one of four around a central work area. These pods are the most common type of class arrangement in the school. Physically, his room is a crowded area with five round tables for students to work at, three large sets of wooden shelves on wheels for their individual bins, centre materials, a large class library area, two teacher desks, (the other belonging to the EA), a bank of five computers with a printer, three filing cabinets, and various other bits of furniture necessary for the running of a classroom.

Gary had a split Grade One and Two class of twenty-three students, with fourteen Grade Ones and nine Grade Twos. There were thirteen boys and nine girls. It was a stable group with few transfers either in or out. The students were naturally a loud and fractious group who, as a class, had difficulty doing many simple class routines. Typically, any interruption or unexpected occurrence caused at the very least, a loud verbal reaction among many of them, often accompanied by other disruptive reactions such as movement around the room, departure from the classroom, rolling on the floor etc. Individually they were friendly and enjoyable children, who treated each other well.

The class was a diverse ethnic mix. Twelve students received ESL support. Four others received Learning Assistance (LA) and one student was on a behaviour modification program. There was also a child with Down’s Syndrome who had a full time EA.