The beginning of the year is always a little rough. The biggest challenge for an ESL classroom in a district that offers several opportunities for students to improve their skills in the major areas of study: reading, writing, math; is scheduling. Establishing a schedule that is compatible with all the other services (for the most part) and allows for students to receive the maximum amount of instructional time possible is no easy task. Over the last several years, the elementary school I work at has put in place a modified block schedule. This new way of planning the day means that our ESL schedule is more or less determined by administration. This has its benefits and challenges, as one may imagine.
One challenge is that our particular program has less prep time required than some of the other remediation initiatives. This means that the ESL staff is ready to begin several weeks ahead of the initiation of the "official" schedule. In order to do so, we must improvise slightly and always be prepared for changes to our tentative schedule.
This week we are still in limbo; next week we become "official".
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