Today I realized just how spoiled I am as a teacher. For the past 9 years, I've been teaching in a bilingual high school. My average class size has been 12 students.
Today, two colleagues were out so I had to combine all of our groups (this is how we do substitues in Hungary) and so I had 35 students in one classroom. Twice! Two different groups of 35...well, the second one was a bit smaller.....probably 29. Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed. Yes, this 20-year veteran was overwhelmed by the numbers; partly because I didn't know 2/3 of the students' names and partly because this is English conversation class. How is one supposed to have a conversation class with 35 students?
So, here I am, one minute before the bell rings, trying to make a decision as to what to do with all these students and I spy 6 games of Scrabble on the shelf across the room in the English staff room! BINGO! Oh, I mean SCRABBLE!!!
Yet the next big challenge faced me...teaching 35 ninth graders how to play scrabble. Amazingly, we had a great class, the kids had fun, and I survived!
Why am I spoiled? Well, it's my understanding that in many school systems in the U.S., class sizes are between 22-35. Even the LOW number in that range makes me shudder.
I think I'll stick with ESL, where class sizes are smaller!
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