Working Hard!

My students have really fallen in love with our Math Stations. For the first few months of school, I struggled a bit teaching a split grade and trying then to make sure I'm focusing on teaching the students, not the curriculum. Obviously, I do teach the curriculum, but with the spectrum of abilities in my classroom, some of the students aren't able to be working on addition and subtracting when we are still working on recognizing numbers to 20. So the Math Stations have helped with this because I am able to tailor their lessons as well as their Math Work to their levels. Everyone is happy, everyone is working hard, and everyone is learning!

Here are some pictures of my class working hard. This was during our practice for Math Work. We talked about the behaviours expected and then we worked on some easier math sheets. They loved the practice and are loving the cute worksheets I'm creating rather than boring stuff from their workbooks or that I have downloaded from other websites.

Yesterday, my principal came to me to talk. Currently, I am on an LTO (long-term occasional) assignment for 2 different people. I am .5 (half-time) for a friend who came back from mat leave only to do mornings this year, and then .1 (one half day per week) for another girl who is on mat leave. The principal and VP did not think the .1 teacher was coming back this year, but apparently she is. So after March Break, I am down .1 in my job, but will now have Thursdays off so I can either supply teach or get stuff done around the house! I suspect I will be supplying a lot.

My issue is that I have done all of this work to establish my math routine. I know exactly where the students are and what they each need. I approached the principal yesterday about possibly having the other teacher cover the Arts subjects (music, art, drama, dance) while I continued with Math. It would mean that they would go one day a week without Math, but would eliminate having different teachers. Our board has a policy that students are to have the same teacher all week for Language and the same teacher for Math (those two don't need to be the same person). But they are to have Language and Math each day. So really, either way we are breaking a rule somewhere. I have heard the other teacher prefers to teach the Arts anyway. Fingers crossed that he goes for my plan and I can give up teaching the Arts (which aren't my favourite anyway) and can continue being their only Math teacher!

How do things like this work in YOUR school board?