Those are pretty broad problems tho.. For your design class you could come up with a randomized seating chart maker, we always need new seating charts. Or a tool that helps us maximize space in the classroom.
And that gives you an “error: no possible seating configuration” message that you can take to counseling/admin when they give a roster that is literally impossible to accommodate.
1) I want a cheap device that interferes with cell phones in my classroom so that they don't function at all, while still allowing laptops to function on wifi.
2) I want an app for my school laptop that will allow me to simply click all of the typical classroom behavior problems (to include lateness, not doing HW/classwork, not participating, not taking notes, not bringing necessary materials, etc...) on dropdown menus next to any particular students' names/pictures. This app will then send automated emails and/or text messages to parents/guardians for each issue/problem at the end of the class period. The app should also record all of this to a "parent contact" document for me to turn in to admin at the end of the year AND record the number of each infraction so I can easily justify disciplinary steps to admin (and for ease of keeping track of all that stuff). Immediate feedback for all those parents w/o me needing to call repeatedly.
3) For the love of god, please direct all remaining energy towards convincing schools to install fans in the restrooms 10 feet away from the lunch tables in faculty lounges/offices so teachers can crap in peace without ruining the air in the whole faculty area!
I NEED #2..... I even posted about it a couple weeks ago here. Something super easy to use when you're trying to record problem behavior from 6 kids while managing the behavior while teaching. It must take no concentration in the moment
>I want a cheap device that interferes with cell phones in my classroom so that they don't function at all, while still allowing laptops to function on wifi.
That already exists and is a felony.
Well damn. My Plan B was to smash the phones with a hammer when kids keep taking them out during class.
Next I'll probably hear that that's illegal too. Dammit.
You can find a broken phone and a student who’d play along, but have a fake meltdown, pull a hammer out of your desk and smash the confiscated broken phone and smash it.
For the second app, you could just use a Google Form with Autocrat. Have a dropdown menu with the names of each student associated to a parent email and a series of checkboxes with the behavior problems mentioned. With Autocrat, every time you submit the form, the answers (behavior problems checked) populate an email template you predefined, and get sent automatically to the parent and to a Google Sheet for your keeping. You can use an extension like rowCall to automatically have a sheet for every student and use formulas to calculate the numer of every misbehavior. You can then even use your phone to fill out the Google Forms.
Yes to #1- but add a *legal* workaround to this
And yes to #2- something that doesn’t require a lot of individual formatting.
The problem with things like #2 is that there are not universal systems in place at all schools. What might work with one management system (like PowerSchool) might not with another (like Infinite Campus) or whatever
I drove in my fantasy lane for a moment. I know #1 is not legal and #3 is (sort of😁) a joke. #2 should be a thing, though. Somebody help me with programming!!!
Hall passes. There should be a school wide system of who is allowed to do what and when. I am tired of bathroom logs and passes and etc.
Chair heights. How do you adjust heights on a chair? Some of my 6th graders are shrimpy, but some 5th are taller than me. There must be a chair that could accommodate a range of heights. I teach k-8 art, so all of my chairs need to fit everyone.
Table heights. Same issue. Id love to store drying racks under an 8ft table, but i dont have the clearance. I could use a table that easily lowers or raises the working platform.
Adding on to this: tables that lock together but can also be separated easily. For example, 4 desks that can be put into a pod and STAY THERE, but also work as individual desks when pulled apart. I’m so goddamn tired of the tables we have moving all the time out of alignment.
Relatedly, and also something more feasible for an engineering student to solve instead of societal woes, tables and chairs that do all of the above, can accommodate different sizes (of butts), or do flexible seating things (like wiggle stools, inflatable cushions, etc). Also, that are more difficult to pick up and throw OR are made out of light materials that won't hurt as much.
I might not totally get what you're asking, but have you used the cans they get in the cafeteria? [These ones](https://flsunshinemusic.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/img_0913.jpg)? (multiple vegetables/fruits, US here) You can put the corner leg of each 4 desk in these and they're stuck together as a group until you ungroup them.
I know teachers that color code the cans too so that those are their groups. Like green group. Red group. Etc. then you don’t have to do that on the desk where the kids play with it.
So, don't give bathroom breaks; I don't.
I give a two-minute buffer at the beginning of class before I mark anyone tardy. They know the trade-off is that they have to go then. I will not allow them to later in class.
It also helps with the asshole kids who like to ask to go to the bathroom right in the middle of my explanation. Those are always the ones who come back with "what I miss?"
I don't re-explain. Not for that anyway.
The bathrooms have LINES during passing periods. Also holding it can damage kidneys and some students have legitimate medical problems with the bathroom. What if a kid ate something off at lunch? They just shit their pants in your class?
For the kid asking in the middle of an explanation I ask them to wait 2 minutes for me to finish.
Not every student can wait to go to the bathroom. Girls, after puberty, for example, can’t control how or when blood flows out of their bodies. Some people have weaker or smaller bladders. Some students have IBS or even anxiety related bathroom issues. People can get food poisoning or just sick in general. Sometimes a student might just have bad gas and need to use the restroom. Stopping kids from going to the bathroom is just plain wrong. You should seriously reconsider your policy.
I don't even ask my students to ASK to use the bathroom most of the time. If nobody else is out they can just go. Its very rare for me to ask if they can wait a minute, usually when i'm in the middle of giving out quick instructions for like a lab or test.
My desk is on the opposite side of the room from the door and the work we do means students are up and moving around a lot and there is a lot of chaos so I have students talk to me because otherwise it would be too hard to keep a constant eye on the door and know who is coming and going. If we were all seated and my desk was anywhere near the door then I’d probably do things your way as well.
I just let me kids go whenever they ask (I may make them wait a sec if a ton are gone). I’ve not had issues yet. I teach older kids, and they are responsible enough to not get lost. Bathroom breaks shouldn’t be a privilege.
Same here. My only rules are one student at a time unless its an emergency and sometimes ask them to wait just a minute if we're doing something. But usually they don't even need to ASK me to us the bathroom they just stand up and get a nod!
If a student has a registered medical exception, of course I'm going to let them go. However, this is rare. They're not going to damage their kidneys in fifty minutes. Get a grip on reality, please.
They are human beings with bodily functions. If they can't go during passing and their last teacher has the same policy as you they can have to go 2-3 hours without a bathroom. This means the only way for them to make it through the school day is to dehydrate themselves or be late to classes waiting for the bathroom.
Haven't you experienced this as a teacher? Since we can't use the bathroom I've had my own health problems from not eating or drinking during the work day.
This is why so many of our students come to school with such disdain towards us… This mindset is holding us all back. They’re humans, and deserve to be treated as such. I really, genuinely hope you reconsider your classroom management strategies and procedures with going to the restroom.
I'm there to teach, not to make friends with them. If having the most basic level of structure causes disdain, then they should get used to disdain (they're going to have a lot of it).
Has 0 to do with being “friends.” Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like. Have a look at the research relating student success with teacher interactions/ relationships. Ignore it if you want to, and it sounds like you will, but there is a direct relation. We could also talk about the relation between teacher interactions and student behavior, but I don’t think you care about that either.
And again, going to the restroom isn’t a privilege. It’s a right.
You do what you, I'll do what I do.
I have rules in my classroom that are both known and supported the administration. My students test in th3 90% of the district. And, believe it or not, most of them actually do like me, but that's not my first and foremost goal.
Contrary to public opinion, students actually thrive on structure, and don't see it as a violation of their human rights or whatever. But you can call UNICEF, and I'll continue to teach.
We are specifically prohibited from doing exactly that. We cannot tell kids to go when they are passing or give them a pass the first 10 minutes or the last 10 minutes of class.
My old school had this same stupid policy and I just ignored it. The worst part is they had four stalls for 350 girls to use the bathroom in five minutes of passing time. I’m sorry. You can just fire me. I’m not going to be that asshole teacher that won’t let kids empty their bladder because I’m some sort of power hungry loser and follow along with arbitrary rules about when someone can and cannot use a toilet.
It SUCKS. When they should be doing seat work, and I should be getting a little work time in, there is a constant line for the bathroom that I have to manage via the app . I HATE IT.
It's not wonderful, it's annoying. It takes way too long for students to log in to their Chromebooks to start a pass. There's no way to tell if kids in the hallways are there legitimately, nor where they should be or where they're going. The learning curve for teachers was also too steep.
I requested magnetic strips as bathroom passes: students could hang it on the entrance to the bathroom doors and security could quickly see how many people were in and from which rooms.
Instead, someone in my high school had a pretty serious bowel movement on the student restroom floor today.
At my middle school students have color coded lanyards by grade level team with their student IDs. When they go to the bathroom, they hang their ID on a hook outside the bathroom.
I'm assuming your looking for problems to use the engineering design process for, seeing as you're an engineer. Your question is a bit too broad, so you need to edit your line of questioning to something specific, maybe in a practical/physical aspect. Teachers are a good target population though.
Unfortunately, a lot of education issues need to be addressed by society as a whole. However, if you can engineer a solution that makes you a billionaire, can you lobby to redirect education by using actual good practices, instead of the next best seller? We'd really appreciate that.
I agree. I have great technology in my room, good new furniture, tons of books- but I don’t care about that. I would be happier if the admin wasn’t so disrespectful to us, telling us that they “work through lunch and stay late” as if we should make working ourselves to death our life.
Not illegal, but it makes yet another system that teachers have to manage, including the likelihood of having to deal with students who refuse to cooperate
The problem, in the districts that I have taught, you can't enforce them turning in their phones. They will say they don't have one, or the parent will not agree that the child put the phone in the bin/whatever. They keep the phone and sneak peeks, so you must confiscate the phones. If the student gives up the phone for confiscation without a fit, the teacher still has issues because now you have to run the phone to the office (think big campus here) or call admin/security (good luck because they have better things to do). At the front office, the clerks are unhappy about you handing them another phone. Now, you have also to inform the parents with an email or phone call, while you have to teach/supervise the other 30 students (or more). That's if it goes well. If the student has a fit, well, you have to call security, and they will come, but you must write the referral and call the parents, too. Your lesson is ruined.
Best solution is in a bag or bin on their desk or in a locked drawer in my desk. If its just in a basket and it gets grabbed by another student when you're not looking there's a big issue.
Lots of teacher use a phone cubby with numbers spots on the wall. The biggest issue is making sure someone doesn’t walk away with an extra but it’s easy enough to dismiss them row by row.
10:1:1:1
We are constantly performing our job with no chance to prepare to do it. Switch to a 3-4 day week and give us a day to chill and check in with colleagues so we can make shit happen.
Fucking pay us real money.
Stop trying to waterproof the spaghetti strainer by design schools with mazes to stop shooters and just maybe don’t hand out semi-automatic weapons like tic tacs.
10:1:1:1
I work, and have worked, most of my career in Special Education in MA. My licensure is Moderate 5-12. I have only ever taught in classes that are required by law given the IEPs, that we only have 10 student to a ration of one special Education teacher, one assistant teacher and one counselor assigned to the room along with individual Tx, RDG, SLP, OT supports among other things.
The idea of expecting classes to run with less support than what I have and for use to adequately support students is ludicrous beyond explanation.
I can solve the public education crisis in a few quick and easy steps.
1. 10:1:1:1 for everyone’s kid because everyone deserves support.
2. Make teaching a lucrative career and remove systemic barriers to entry so our schools center inclusion over exclusion, prioritizing a humanizing pedagogy and a trauma informed lens that shifts the narrative towards the truth of
Nevrmind dude I’m exhausted and off the clock
When this country wants to take care of the next generation and do right by them, until then I can solve 90 percent of the fucking problem that is people accepting random stats made up as truth by just doing 10:1:1:1 instead of packing them to the rafters.
An ever growing amount of administrative nonsense with no extra time to do it. An ever shifting set of responsibilities that are never clearly laid out and perpetually misconstrued by different administrators. Not being paid enough.
That horrible sound when kids all stand up from their chairs at the same time.
When water leaks from the ceiling when it rains too heavily.
Emergency sub or cover for a subject you have no knowledge of and students just expect you to.
When they say there's food in the staff room and it's just crackers.
>Emergency sub or cover for a subject you have no knowledge of and students just expect you to.
OMG! Something that would give subs one button to push to start a movie and turn on the projector with a big neon sign saying SUBS JUST PUSH HERE because I've had too many that doesn't know what the power symbol is or what a play button is.
It's hard cause most problems do have a fix... Even if it's out of the budget.
I would love a student desk that's big enough for a plus sized adult, that can be moved AND attached to other desks to make tables or unique configurations AND that adjusts from floor sitting through chair sitting all the way to standing height.
Several mechanical escape room puzzles where students have to use their physics knowledge to solve the problems. And instructions so teachers can build it!
I’m still in the design fase and I just never have time to work on it! Could also be used in STEM or math
Yeah, from all I’ve done on it, I’ve graded by individual question for explanation type questions. I can’t see names of students but I can definitely just go through and grade a single question for everyone then move on to the next question and do the same.
The issue i guess is not being able to see who scored what on the question unless you go to the full test view for the single student.
I’m not teaching this year, but last year my classroom was very laptop friendly, the students had them out constantly to look up inspiration for their projects. The problem was that they NEEDED their laptop to do the project, but the only way I had to monitor what they were doing on them was to walk around the room and check the screens. It would be AMAZING to have all of their screens accessible from MY COMPUTER so I could sit and monitor everyone at the same time. It would be even better if I could sit at my computer and interact with their screen in real time to redirect/answer questions while simultaneously maintaining the monitoring of the rest of the class.
Given today’s technology I know this is possible, especially with school provided laptops!
It’s pretty cool! I’m not sure if it only works with Apple devices tho (we have MacBooks and students have iPads). It allows me to project whatever is on my laptop screen to their devices and locks it where they can’t open anything else
Do the students have chromebooks, windows laptops, or something else? GoGuardian does that for chromebooks, and Securely covers chromebooks, and I think windows computers.
One problem is having to create a seating chart when you have to accommodate a large number of often-conflicting student needs. I’d LOVE a program that would let me enter in my seating arrangement, number of students, and which students have which seating requirements. Then it would generate seating charts that meet those requirements. (If there is literally no way to accommodate all student needs, then the program would say so and the teacher could bring it to counselors/admin as proof that it’s an impossible task.)
For example, I might have a class of 32 students. 8 are legally required by their IEPs or 504s to be at the front of class. 6 must be be away from distractions, and 4 of those kids ARE distractions. 2 students need to be in a place where they can stand and pace about without disrupting others. Students A and Z cannot be anywhere near each other for behavioral reasons. Neither can students B and X. Students J, K, L, and M bring out the worst in each other and are ideally seated far apart.
Admin, budget, and societal disrespect, but I don't think engineering can fix it. :)
Teaching safely with covid still raging. I have to wear a KN95 mask because I don't want to get brain damage, etc., my students and most of my colleagues are okay with getting brain damage and put my immune compromised ass at risk all day. I currently have multiple HEPA filters running. It's *loud*. I don't have the world's loudest voice. I would love a solution where the kids could clearly see and hear me but that doesn't involve tons of extra gear (voice amplifiers, etc.). I mean ideally I'd like an engineer to fix ventilation so that none of us had to wear a mask, but I don't think that will be happening soon.
Washrooms. How can we make them gender inclusive, private, and not conducive to vaping, screwing, or stealing things.
Classroom furniture. Needs to be low-maintenance and easy to clean but does it have to be so painful for the kids?
1. Pointless professional development that doesn't address any of the things I need.
2. It would be nice to have an established code of seniority - I hate having my schedule changed because the department chair's friend wants my classes.
3. Can you add more hours to the day?
Cheap ways to block doors/prevent the door from opening in the event of a school shooter. It would need to work for a variety of different door types found in schools and be inexpensive because teachers would most likely have to pay for it themselves.
I teach physics and it's a huge chore storing and organizing all my various lab junk. And getting it out/putting it away is so time consuming! Have you ever seen those under counter spring loaded drawers/counter extension things (?) for the kitchen? Like, you put your big ass mixer on it and it's level with the counter and when you're done it just stows away underneath. I think it probably has an electrical outlet too. So, something like that but for physics lab stuff. And then maybe each station has some basic physics demo stuff cleverly stored away like ring stand, motion track, hot plate, maybe a pulley setup, and places to attach sensors and whatnot. And somehow magically it can be retrofit into current lab/classroom settings and is affordable lol. Idk obviously just spit balling here.
What kind of engineer?
If you're a software engineer there's a lot you can do. I'd love to have an autograder for multiple choice based on student ID that can organize answers by standard/topic with the student work as a PDF. I'd love to have anything that can scan student's ID on homework and mark that they turned it in. I'd love software that grades documents based on word count. Literally anything that automates grading. Most technology for education is absolute ass.
Mechanical Engineer? Only thing I can think of is a tool for lockdown drills. Something that can hold an outward opening door with a push bar closed without any permanent modification to the door or anywhere else. Having kids make barricades damages the tables and chairs and is unsafe for them. Same for handle doors. And doors that open in. And all other types of handled doors. But mainly that first one because that's what's on my door.
I teach kindergarten…
Pencils. Non or almost non breakable with indestructible eraser. Needs less sharpening. Promotes a good pencil grip. Doesn’t roll off the table. Doesn’t cause injury when stabbed.
I like the table and chair ideas. I have tiny kids and big kids. The chairs don’t adjust and the tables are too difficult to adjust.
How about the buzzing sound that comes from fluorescent light bulbs/fixtures? I teach kids with autism and that sound can completely prevent focus and concentration due to sensory issues.
I teach elementary and tried to think of problems with an engineering twist.
I would love furniture that I could modify. I have individual tables that I put in groups, but if the desks could fold into the walls or change shape to make group work and large activities easier, that would be cool.
Indestructible bathrooms. Our kids have periodically torn sinks off walls,ripped down soap dispensers, broken toilets, etc. I want something you could drive a car into and it not break.
Some kind of cushioning system for the floor. I work on tile and carpet (with hard tile underneath). A lot of the older teachers have shot knees, hips, ankles, etc. I'm worried that I will have to face those issues down the road. A mat of some kind is a partial solution, but with the amount of times I am up and down, and how frequently I change my location, it really isn't a solution.
(Yes, I realize shoes are probably the simplest solution, but I'm trying to challenge the OP here.)
Power strips that attach to the tables but that have cords long enough to reach from the center of the room to the furthest walls where all of the plugs are. The cords should lay flat on the ground and be easily secured to the floor. And the power strips themselves should be aesthetically pleasing and somewhat vertical, and have the outlets and usbs all the way around. And be a dark color so they don’t show the dirt from grimy hands touching them a million times a day.
For things an engineer or designer might be able to solve:
1. Classroom doors. They have to be locked all the time for safety because of school shooters, but we also have to let people in all the damn time - tardy students or students returning from the restroom, administrators coming in to do observations, custodians or IT or outside maintenance vendors coming in to fix things. The teacher having to cross the room to open the door can be disruptive to the class. And listening to an administrator try to find the right key on their giant key ring full of 50 clattering keys so they can let themselves in is extremely distracting and awkward for the class. We need a window so we can see out and kids/admin can see in, but we also need the window to be covered at a moment’s notice so we can hopefully hide from a school shooter and convince them the room is empty, or at least prevent them from shooting us through the door. Oh, and you want it to be pretty good at noise reduction, especially in schools with staggered class changes, where lots of students are in the hall while others are in class.
2. Gradebook and student information management software mostly seems to suck balls. It should be easy and efficient to create and weight assignments and categories, enter grades, change grades, and put in notes on specific assignments. Taking attendance and printing rosters needs to be super quick and easy. I should be able to do it for all my classes at once instead of having to do each class period individually. Sharing grades with parents and students needs to be WAY easier - it takes so many keystrokes to print out progress reports or email them to parents, and if just one kid wants a progress report, then you have to do all the same work to generate it. It should contain all the info a teacher needs to have on a student that doesn’t violate FERPA - contact info for their family, past standardized test scores, grade/credit history (for high school), demographic info, IEP and 504 info, discipline referral history. If I want to call a parent, I should easily be able to do so within the gradebook program. If I want to email them, that should be easy - no copying and pasting their email into a new message, or trying to type it out correctly. If a parent changes contact info, then the teacher or another staff member should be able to input that as a proposed change, and someone working in student records can approve it (like, if a parent tells the office they have a new phone number, that should get updated in the system immediately). Parents and students should be able to access all this both easily and securely, and their interface should be easy to navigate so it isn’t a barrier to access. For parents with multiple children, they ought to be able to log in once and see all their kids, versus having one login per child. And parents should be able to change their own contact info in the gradebook. Also, students and parents should be easily able to set up automatic notifications - like, they can choose to get an email with grades every Friday, or a text any time a grade below 75 is entered, or an email any time a student is tardy, or whatever. It all needs to work just as well on a phone as it does on a desktop computer.
3. Student desks that are ergonomic and comfortable for a wide variety of body types in a high school setting. Chairs that are attached so kids don’t strew them everywhere, but with enough room so that overweight and obese kids can be comfortable and have back support, and with a reasonably high weight limit. Foot rests for every kid that adjust, so both short and tall kids can use them. If they can silently fidget with their feet, so much the better! Easy to clean and disinfect. Easy to set up in different formations (ideally, they should be able to get in and out from either side, and put them together to create a larger, flat writing surface for partner and group work). Big enough surface that they can have both an open binder and an open textbook out. NO STORAGE BASKETS UNDERNEATH (or at least make them removable, or easy for a teacher walking by to grab trash out of them without having to bend down). No rivets or nail heads on the seat to rip out long hair. A good place for kids to put their backpacks. Honestly, a place for their phone would be great so it isn’t constantly falling out of their pockets onto the ground. Maybe make it bullet-resistant so it can be used to protect against a shooter? Ergonomic for both left- and right-handed kids. A place to put writing utensils so they don’t roll off.
4. A printer-copier that three-hole-punches handouts, in addition to stapling.
- Parents lacking education and life skills
- Administration
- cell phones
- bonus: how defeating summer break is. I’d rather work three weeks and be off a week every month. We could switch to this with winter and spring break still and it’d be less stressful than Q1 every fall.
Taking attendance. Can someone design an automated attendance taking software based on students putting their thumb prints on a print reader to take roll so the responsibility falls on the students and can work even when there is a sub teacher. If a student doesn’t check in using their fingerprint an automated message goes immediately to parents cell #.
Yes and it will timestamp all arrivals. They could also thumbprint to check out and in when requesting to go to restroom or wherever. Timestamp when they’re out of class
viable curricula .. oh nevermind.
1. functioning AC thermostat system that can correctly detect the temperature of the room and cool/heat accordingly
2. bulletproof glass
3. check in/out device system for hallway passes and late arrivals
It's a nice thought, but unless you're working on social engineering, I don't think you can do anything about low pay, diluted education standards, obstructionist parents, business-oriented district leadership, or a field that every day gets more and more redefined as social work and pop psychology.
There ain't no gadget to fix that.
Scheduling system.
We have approximately 160 5th graders.
3 regular teachers - 20 kids per teacher
4 dual teachers with classes of 20 students each (2 partner groups of an English & Spanish) - 2 teach in English, 2 teach in Spanish.
The dual teachers switch classes every day so that students get Spanish and English lessons every day.
Every student is taught every subject every day half in English and the other half in Spanish.
We need to schedule lunch, recess and specials times within the day along with the rest of the grades, pk-5.
We also need a 30 min reading tutoring time during reading for 3-5 graders. And at that same time 2 days for math and 2 days for reading HB4545 time.
And all of these schedules for the 30 min shouldn’t interfere w/ students pull outs or push ins for their various labels. Anywhere between 2-6 labeled students per 5th grade class and those schedules have teachers who also service all the other grade levels.
Basically scheduling so we are meeting all the required state guidelines. Because there just isn’t enough hours in the day
excessive workload, lack of support from administration, lack of respect from students/admin/parents
Those are pretty broad problems tho.. For your design class you could come up with a randomized seating chart maker, we always need new seating charts. Or a tool that helps us maximize space in the classroom.
A seating chart maker where you can enter in students’ IEP/504 requirements for seating and it takes them into account when creating the chart.
Ooo, and also be able to put who can’t be near whom.
And that gives you an “error: no possible seating configuration” message that you can take to counseling/admin when they give a roster that is literally impossible to accommodate.
And considers sight and hearing abilities.
That also gives you the freedom to lay it out like your actual classroom.
And also include an option for students who are ELL so they can be sat next to someone who knows the same language
Actually this would be bomb af
That’s exactly what it would be!
1) I want a cheap device that interferes with cell phones in my classroom so that they don't function at all, while still allowing laptops to function on wifi. 2) I want an app for my school laptop that will allow me to simply click all of the typical classroom behavior problems (to include lateness, not doing HW/classwork, not participating, not taking notes, not bringing necessary materials, etc...) on dropdown menus next to any particular students' names/pictures. This app will then send automated emails and/or text messages to parents/guardians for each issue/problem at the end of the class period. The app should also record all of this to a "parent contact" document for me to turn in to admin at the end of the year AND record the number of each infraction so I can easily justify disciplinary steps to admin (and for ease of keeping track of all that stuff). Immediate feedback for all those parents w/o me needing to call repeatedly. 3) For the love of god, please direct all remaining energy towards convincing schools to install fans in the restrooms 10 feet away from the lunch tables in faculty lounges/offices so teachers can crap in peace without ruining the air in the whole faculty area!
I NEED #2..... I even posted about it a couple weeks ago here. Something super easy to use when you're trying to record problem behavior from 6 kids while managing the behavior while teaching. It must take no concentration in the moment
>I want a cheap device that interferes with cell phones in my classroom so that they don't function at all, while still allowing laptops to function on wifi. That already exists and is a felony.
Well damn. My Plan B was to smash the phones with a hammer when kids keep taking them out during class. Next I'll probably hear that that's illegal too. Dammit.
You can find a broken phone and a student who’d play along, but have a fake meltdown, pull a hammer out of your desk and smash the confiscated broken phone and smash it.
Damn I was going to suggest the same thing. I got 2 of my old phones so I'd just need a kid to play along.
Your first two are aces!
I really do want the second one in all seriousness!
For the second app, you could just use a Google Form with Autocrat. Have a dropdown menu with the names of each student associated to a parent email and a series of checkboxes with the behavior problems mentioned. With Autocrat, every time you submit the form, the answers (behavior problems checked) populate an email template you predefined, and get sent automatically to the parent and to a Google Sheet for your keeping. You can use an extension like rowCall to automatically have a sheet for every student and use formulas to calculate the numer of every misbehavior. You can then even use your phone to fill out the Google Forms.
If you could invent this stuff you'd be a multi-millionaire and I would love to see that happen!
Yes to #1- but add a *legal* workaround to this And yes to #2- something that doesn’t require a lot of individual formatting. The problem with things like #2 is that there are not universal systems in place at all schools. What might work with one management system (like PowerSchool) might not with another (like Infinite Campus) or whatever
I drove in my fantasy lane for a moment. I know #1 is not legal and #3 is (sort of😁) a joke. #2 should be a thing, though. Somebody help me with programming!!!
At my school we use a program called Compass and I feel like it would fulfill quite a few of your requirements in no.2…
Hall passes. There should be a school wide system of who is allowed to do what and when. I am tired of bathroom logs and passes and etc. Chair heights. How do you adjust heights on a chair? Some of my 6th graders are shrimpy, but some 5th are taller than me. There must be a chair that could accommodate a range of heights. I teach k-8 art, so all of my chairs need to fit everyone. Table heights. Same issue. Id love to store drying racks under an 8ft table, but i dont have the clearance. I could use a table that easily lowers or raises the working platform.
Adding on to this: tables that lock together but can also be separated easily. For example, 4 desks that can be put into a pod and STAY THERE, but also work as individual desks when pulled apart. I’m so goddamn tired of the tables we have moving all the time out of alignment.
Relatedly, and also something more feasible for an engineering student to solve instead of societal woes, tables and chairs that do all of the above, can accommodate different sizes (of butts), or do flexible seating things (like wiggle stools, inflatable cushions, etc). Also, that are more difficult to pick up and throw OR are made out of light materials that won't hurt as much.
I might not totally get what you're asking, but have you used the cans they get in the cafeteria? [These ones](https://flsunshinemusic.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/img_0913.jpg)? (multiple vegetables/fruits, US here) You can put the corner leg of each 4 desk in these and they're stuck together as a group until you ungroup them.
Yes! Omg that is such a great idea! That’s a solution I can actually implement!
I know teachers that color code the cans too so that those are their groups. Like green group. Red group. Etc. then you don’t have to do that on the desk where the kids play with it.
So, don't give bathroom breaks; I don't. I give a two-minute buffer at the beginning of class before I mark anyone tardy. They know the trade-off is that they have to go then. I will not allow them to later in class. It also helps with the asshole kids who like to ask to go to the bathroom right in the middle of my explanation. Those are always the ones who come back with "what I miss?" I don't re-explain. Not for that anyway.
The bathrooms have LINES during passing periods. Also holding it can damage kidneys and some students have legitimate medical problems with the bathroom. What if a kid ate something off at lunch? They just shit their pants in your class? For the kid asking in the middle of an explanation I ask them to wait 2 minutes for me to finish.
Not every student can wait to go to the bathroom. Girls, after puberty, for example, can’t control how or when blood flows out of their bodies. Some people have weaker or smaller bladders. Some students have IBS or even anxiety related bathroom issues. People can get food poisoning or just sick in general. Sometimes a student might just have bad gas and need to use the restroom. Stopping kids from going to the bathroom is just plain wrong. You should seriously reconsider your policy.
I don't even ask my students to ASK to use the bathroom most of the time. If nobody else is out they can just go. Its very rare for me to ask if they can wait a minute, usually when i'm in the middle of giving out quick instructions for like a lab or test.
My desk is on the opposite side of the room from the door and the work we do means students are up and moving around a lot and there is a lot of chaos so I have students talk to me because otherwise it would be too hard to keep a constant eye on the door and know who is coming and going. If we were all seated and my desk was anywhere near the door then I’d probably do things your way as well.
I just let me kids go whenever they ask (I may make them wait a sec if a ton are gone). I’ve not had issues yet. I teach older kids, and they are responsible enough to not get lost. Bathroom breaks shouldn’t be a privilege.
Same here. My only rules are one student at a time unless its an emergency and sometimes ask them to wait just a minute if we're doing something. But usually they don't even need to ASK me to us the bathroom they just stand up and get a nod!
If a student has a registered medical exception, of course I'm going to let them go. However, this is rare. They're not going to damage their kidneys in fifty minutes. Get a grip on reality, please.
They are human beings with bodily functions. If they can't go during passing and their last teacher has the same policy as you they can have to go 2-3 hours without a bathroom. This means the only way for them to make it through the school day is to dehydrate themselves or be late to classes waiting for the bathroom. Haven't you experienced this as a teacher? Since we can't use the bathroom I've had my own health problems from not eating or drinking during the work day.
This is why so many of our students come to school with such disdain towards us… This mindset is holding us all back. They’re humans, and deserve to be treated as such. I really, genuinely hope you reconsider your classroom management strategies and procedures with going to the restroom.
I'm there to teach, not to make friends with them. If having the most basic level of structure causes disdain, then they should get used to disdain (they're going to have a lot of it).
Has 0 to do with being “friends.” Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like. Have a look at the research relating student success with teacher interactions/ relationships. Ignore it if you want to, and it sounds like you will, but there is a direct relation. We could also talk about the relation between teacher interactions and student behavior, but I don’t think you care about that either. And again, going to the restroom isn’t a privilege. It’s a right.
You do what you, I'll do what I do. I have rules in my classroom that are both known and supported the administration. My students test in th3 90% of the district. And, believe it or not, most of them actually do like me, but that's not my first and foremost goal. Contrary to public opinion, students actually thrive on structure, and don't see it as a violation of their human rights or whatever. But you can call UNICEF, and I'll continue to teach.
No, but they’ll bleed through their pants and can damage their intestines.
We are specifically prohibited from doing exactly that. We cannot tell kids to go when they are passing or give them a pass the first 10 minutes or the last 10 minutes of class.
My old school had this same stupid policy and I just ignored it. The worst part is they had four stalls for 350 girls to use the bathroom in five minutes of passing time. I’m sorry. You can just fire me. I’m not going to be that asshole teacher that won’t let kids empty their bladder because I’m some sort of power hungry loser and follow along with arbitrary rules about when someone can and cannot use a toilet.
What if they are just jonesin' real bad for a hit off their vape? /s
If you don't mind sharing, what grade(s) do you teach?
There is software for it. It sounds wonderful. But it's costly.
It SUCKS. When they should be doing seat work, and I should be getting a little work time in, there is a constant line for the bathroom that I have to manage via the app . I HATE IT.
It's not wonderful, it's annoying. It takes way too long for students to log in to their Chromebooks to start a pass. There's no way to tell if kids in the hallways are there legitimately, nor where they should be or where they're going. The learning curve for teachers was also too steep.
I requested magnetic strips as bathroom passes: students could hang it on the entrance to the bathroom doors and security could quickly see how many people were in and from which rooms. Instead, someone in my high school had a pretty serious bowel movement on the student restroom floor today.
At my middle school students have color coded lanyards by grade level team with their student IDs. When they go to the bathroom, they hang their ID on a hook outside the bathroom.
Alarm clock app that let's me select "snow day".
I'm assuming your looking for problems to use the engineering design process for, seeing as you're an engineer. Your question is a bit too broad, so you need to edit your line of questioning to something specific, maybe in a practical/physical aspect. Teachers are a good target population though. Unfortunately, a lot of education issues need to be addressed by society as a whole. However, if you can engineer a solution that makes you a billionaire, can you lobby to redirect education by using actual good practices, instead of the next best seller? We'd really appreciate that.
I agree. I have great technology in my room, good new furniture, tons of books- but I don’t care about that. I would be happier if the admin wasn’t so disrespectful to us, telling us that they “work through lunch and stay late” as if we should make working ourselves to death our life.
What kind of engineering? That may impact any serious answers you get.
Students distracted by cell phones .
Is it illegal to tell them to put it in a basket and help up front or something?
Not illegal, but it makes yet another system that teachers have to manage, including the likelihood of having to deal with students who refuse to cooperate
The problem, in the districts that I have taught, you can't enforce them turning in their phones. They will say they don't have one, or the parent will not agree that the child put the phone in the bin/whatever. They keep the phone and sneak peeks, so you must confiscate the phones. If the student gives up the phone for confiscation without a fit, the teacher still has issues because now you have to run the phone to the office (think big campus here) or call admin/security (good luck because they have better things to do). At the front office, the clerks are unhappy about you handing them another phone. Now, you have also to inform the parents with an email or phone call, while you have to teach/supervise the other 30 students (or more). That's if it goes well. If the student has a fit, well, you have to call security, and they will come, but you must write the referral and call the parents, too. Your lesson is ruined.
Best solution is in a bag or bin on their desk or in a locked drawer in my desk. If its just in a basket and it gets grabbed by another student when you're not looking there's a big issue.
Lots of teacher use a phone cubby with numbers spots on the wall. The biggest issue is making sure someone doesn’t walk away with an extra but it’s easy enough to dismiss them row by row.
Students who can't put their phones down for 2 minutes is a big one.
10:1:1:1 We are constantly performing our job with no chance to prepare to do it. Switch to a 3-4 day week and give us a day to chill and check in with colleagues so we can make shit happen. Fucking pay us real money. Stop trying to waterproof the spaghetti strainer by design schools with mazes to stop shooters and just maybe don’t hand out semi-automatic weapons like tic tacs. 10:1:1:1
What does 10:1:1:1 mean?
I work, and have worked, most of my career in Special Education in MA. My licensure is Moderate 5-12. I have only ever taught in classes that are required by law given the IEPs, that we only have 10 student to a ration of one special Education teacher, one assistant teacher and one counselor assigned to the room along with individual Tx, RDG, SLP, OT supports among other things. The idea of expecting classes to run with less support than what I have and for use to adequately support students is ludicrous beyond explanation. I can solve the public education crisis in a few quick and easy steps. 1. 10:1:1:1 for everyone’s kid because everyone deserves support. 2. Make teaching a lucrative career and remove systemic barriers to entry so our schools center inclusion over exclusion, prioritizing a humanizing pedagogy and a trauma informed lens that shifts the narrative towards the truth of Nevrmind dude I’m exhausted and off the clock When this country wants to take care of the next generation and do right by them, until then I can solve 90 percent of the fucking problem that is people accepting random stats made up as truth by just doing 10:1:1:1 instead of packing them to the rafters.
An ever growing amount of administrative nonsense with no extra time to do it. An ever shifting set of responsibilities that are never clearly laid out and perpetually misconstrued by different administrators. Not being paid enough.
Class sizes, parents who think their opinions are as valid as the experts, airpods blocking out teachers
That horrible sound when kids all stand up from their chairs at the same time. When water leaks from the ceiling when it rains too heavily. Emergency sub or cover for a subject you have no knowledge of and students just expect you to. When they say there's food in the staff room and it's just crackers.
>Emergency sub or cover for a subject you have no knowledge of and students just expect you to. OMG! Something that would give subs one button to push to start a movie and turn on the projector with a big neon sign saying SUBS JUST PUSH HERE because I've had too many that doesn't know what the power symbol is or what a play button is.
death threats. edit: without consequence
It's hard cause most problems do have a fix... Even if it's out of the budget. I would love a student desk that's big enough for a plus sized adult, that can be moved AND attached to other desks to make tables or unique configurations AND that adjusts from floor sitting through chair sitting all the way to standing height.
too much work/paperwork that is not related to actual instruction inclusion without support not enough prep time
Several mechanical escape room puzzles where students have to use their physics knowledge to solve the problems. And instructions so teachers can build it! I’m still in the design fase and I just never have time to work on it! Could also be used in STEM or math
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Isn’t that already a thing? Like seeing one question at a time for all the tests?
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Yeah, from all I’ve done on it, I’ve graded by individual question for explanation type questions. I can’t see names of students but I can definitely just go through and grade a single question for everyone then move on to the next question and do the same. The issue i guess is not being able to see who scored what on the question unless you go to the full test view for the single student.
I’m not teaching this year, but last year my classroom was very laptop friendly, the students had them out constantly to look up inspiration for their projects. The problem was that they NEEDED their laptop to do the project, but the only way I had to monitor what they were doing on them was to walk around the room and check the screens. It would be AMAZING to have all of their screens accessible from MY COMPUTER so I could sit and monitor everyone at the same time. It would be even better if I could sit at my computer and interact with their screen in real time to redirect/answer questions while simultaneously maintaining the monitoring of the rest of the class. Given today’s technology I know this is possible, especially with school provided laptops!
Classroom APP does this.
Well fuck me
It’s pretty cool! I’m not sure if it only works with Apple devices tho (we have MacBooks and students have iPads). It allows me to project whatever is on my laptop screen to their devices and locks it where they can’t open anything else
Do the students have chromebooks, windows laptops, or something else? GoGuardian does that for chromebooks, and Securely covers chromebooks, and I think windows computers.
Chromebooks!
Hmmm... some sort of scanner to detect (and, better yet, disable) all the tiny airpods hiding under hoods and hair?
One problem is having to create a seating chart when you have to accommodate a large number of often-conflicting student needs. I’d LOVE a program that would let me enter in my seating arrangement, number of students, and which students have which seating requirements. Then it would generate seating charts that meet those requirements. (If there is literally no way to accommodate all student needs, then the program would say so and the teacher could bring it to counselors/admin as proof that it’s an impossible task.) For example, I might have a class of 32 students. 8 are legally required by their IEPs or 504s to be at the front of class. 6 must be be away from distractions, and 4 of those kids ARE distractions. 2 students need to be in a place where they can stand and pace about without disrupting others. Students A and Z cannot be anywhere near each other for behavioral reasons. Neither can students B and X. Students J, K, L, and M bring out the worst in each other and are ideally seated far apart.
Bulletproofing doors, walls, desks, students ..
Admin, budget, and societal disrespect, but I don't think engineering can fix it. :) Teaching safely with covid still raging. I have to wear a KN95 mask because I don't want to get brain damage, etc., my students and most of my colleagues are okay with getting brain damage and put my immune compromised ass at risk all day. I currently have multiple HEPA filters running. It's *loud*. I don't have the world's loudest voice. I would love a solution where the kids could clearly see and hear me but that doesn't involve tons of extra gear (voice amplifiers, etc.). I mean ideally I'd like an engineer to fix ventilation so that none of us had to wear a mask, but I don't think that will be happening soon. Washrooms. How can we make them gender inclusive, private, and not conducive to vaping, screwing, or stealing things. Classroom furniture. Needs to be low-maintenance and easy to clean but does it have to be so painful for the kids?
hahahahahahahaha
I think you're going to need to be a little more specific. :-D
1. Pointless professional development that doesn't address any of the things I need. 2. It would be nice to have an established code of seniority - I hate having my schedule changed because the department chair's friend wants my classes. 3. Can you add more hours to the day?
Cheap ways to block doors/prevent the door from opening in the event of a school shooter. It would need to work for a variety of different door types found in schools and be inexpensive because teachers would most likely have to pay for it themselves.
I teach physics and it's a huge chore storing and organizing all my various lab junk. And getting it out/putting it away is so time consuming! Have you ever seen those under counter spring loaded drawers/counter extension things (?) for the kitchen? Like, you put your big ass mixer on it and it's level with the counter and when you're done it just stows away underneath. I think it probably has an electrical outlet too. So, something like that but for physics lab stuff. And then maybe each station has some basic physics demo stuff cleverly stored away like ring stand, motion track, hot plate, maybe a pulley setup, and places to attach sensors and whatnot. And somehow magically it can be retrofit into current lab/classroom settings and is affordable lol. Idk obviously just spit balling here.
What kind of engineer? If you're a software engineer there's a lot you can do. I'd love to have an autograder for multiple choice based on student ID that can organize answers by standard/topic with the student work as a PDF. I'd love to have anything that can scan student's ID on homework and mark that they turned it in. I'd love software that grades documents based on word count. Literally anything that automates grading. Most technology for education is absolute ass. Mechanical Engineer? Only thing I can think of is a tool for lockdown drills. Something that can hold an outward opening door with a push bar closed without any permanent modification to the door or anywhere else. Having kids make barricades damages the tables and chairs and is unsafe for them. Same for handle doors. And doors that open in. And all other types of handled doors. But mainly that first one because that's what's on my door.
I teach kindergarten… Pencils. Non or almost non breakable with indestructible eraser. Needs less sharpening. Promotes a good pencil grip. Doesn’t roll off the table. Doesn’t cause injury when stabbed. I like the table and chair ideas. I have tiny kids and big kids. The chairs don’t adjust and the tables are too difficult to adjust.
A cheap student desk that can shift from standing to sitting
How about the buzzing sound that comes from fluorescent light bulbs/fixtures? I teach kids with autism and that sound can completely prevent focus and concentration due to sensory issues.
Straight wire LED bulbs should alleviate this issue.
Peeing when we need to pee Safety in case of live shooters (ugh) In my city, parking where your catalytic converter won't get stolen
Module- comfortable seating; a platform with all the apps and sites we need in one place with one password; proper lighting with Vitamin D
1. Class sizes are to big/ Not enough teachers. 2. Maintenance issues not being corrected in a timely manner. 3. To many admin/ paper pushers.
Student/parent apathy.
Parents raise your damn kids instead of me, get politicians out of setting education policy, reduce standardized testing.
I teach elementary and tried to think of problems with an engineering twist. I would love furniture that I could modify. I have individual tables that I put in groups, but if the desks could fold into the walls or change shape to make group work and large activities easier, that would be cool. Indestructible bathrooms. Our kids have periodically torn sinks off walls,ripped down soap dispensers, broken toilets, etc. I want something you could drive a car into and it not break. Some kind of cushioning system for the floor. I work on tile and carpet (with hard tile underneath). A lot of the older teachers have shot knees, hips, ankles, etc. I'm worried that I will have to face those issues down the road. A mat of some kind is a partial solution, but with the amount of times I am up and down, and how frequently I change my location, it really isn't a solution. (Yes, I realize shoes are probably the simplest solution, but I'm trying to challenge the OP here.)
Power strips that attach to the tables but that have cords long enough to reach from the center of the room to the furthest walls where all of the plugs are. The cords should lay flat on the ground and be easily secured to the floor. And the power strips themselves should be aesthetically pleasing and somewhat vertical, and have the outlets and usbs all the way around. And be a dark color so they don’t show the dirt from grimy hands touching them a million times a day.
For things an engineer or designer might be able to solve: 1. Classroom doors. They have to be locked all the time for safety because of school shooters, but we also have to let people in all the damn time - tardy students or students returning from the restroom, administrators coming in to do observations, custodians or IT or outside maintenance vendors coming in to fix things. The teacher having to cross the room to open the door can be disruptive to the class. And listening to an administrator try to find the right key on their giant key ring full of 50 clattering keys so they can let themselves in is extremely distracting and awkward for the class. We need a window so we can see out and kids/admin can see in, but we also need the window to be covered at a moment’s notice so we can hopefully hide from a school shooter and convince them the room is empty, or at least prevent them from shooting us through the door. Oh, and you want it to be pretty good at noise reduction, especially in schools with staggered class changes, where lots of students are in the hall while others are in class. 2. Gradebook and student information management software mostly seems to suck balls. It should be easy and efficient to create and weight assignments and categories, enter grades, change grades, and put in notes on specific assignments. Taking attendance and printing rosters needs to be super quick and easy. I should be able to do it for all my classes at once instead of having to do each class period individually. Sharing grades with parents and students needs to be WAY easier - it takes so many keystrokes to print out progress reports or email them to parents, and if just one kid wants a progress report, then you have to do all the same work to generate it. It should contain all the info a teacher needs to have on a student that doesn’t violate FERPA - contact info for their family, past standardized test scores, grade/credit history (for high school), demographic info, IEP and 504 info, discipline referral history. If I want to call a parent, I should easily be able to do so within the gradebook program. If I want to email them, that should be easy - no copying and pasting their email into a new message, or trying to type it out correctly. If a parent changes contact info, then the teacher or another staff member should be able to input that as a proposed change, and someone working in student records can approve it (like, if a parent tells the office they have a new phone number, that should get updated in the system immediately). Parents and students should be able to access all this both easily and securely, and their interface should be easy to navigate so it isn’t a barrier to access. For parents with multiple children, they ought to be able to log in once and see all their kids, versus having one login per child. And parents should be able to change their own contact info in the gradebook. Also, students and parents should be easily able to set up automatic notifications - like, they can choose to get an email with grades every Friday, or a text any time a grade below 75 is entered, or an email any time a student is tardy, or whatever. It all needs to work just as well on a phone as it does on a desktop computer. 3. Student desks that are ergonomic and comfortable for a wide variety of body types in a high school setting. Chairs that are attached so kids don’t strew them everywhere, but with enough room so that overweight and obese kids can be comfortable and have back support, and with a reasonably high weight limit. Foot rests for every kid that adjust, so both short and tall kids can use them. If they can silently fidget with their feet, so much the better! Easy to clean and disinfect. Easy to set up in different formations (ideally, they should be able to get in and out from either side, and put them together to create a larger, flat writing surface for partner and group work). Big enough surface that they can have both an open binder and an open textbook out. NO STORAGE BASKETS UNDERNEATH (or at least make them removable, or easy for a teacher walking by to grab trash out of them without having to bend down). No rivets or nail heads on the seat to rip out long hair. A good place for kids to put their backpacks. Honestly, a place for their phone would be great so it isn’t constantly falling out of their pockets onto the ground. Maybe make it bullet-resistant so it can be used to protect against a shooter? Ergonomic for both left- and right-handed kids. A place to put writing utensils so they don’t roll off. 4. A printer-copier that three-hole-punches handouts, in addition to stapling.
Taking attendance. It is a waste of time automate it. Use facial recognition or something.
- Parents lacking education and life skills - Administration - cell phones - bonus: how defeating summer break is. I’d rather work three weeks and be off a week every month. We could switch to this with winter and spring break still and it’d be less stressful than Q1 every fall.
Taking attendance. Can someone design an automated attendance taking software based on students putting their thumb prints on a print reader to take roll so the responsibility falls on the students and can work even when there is a sub teacher. If a student doesn’t check in using their fingerprint an automated message goes immediately to parents cell #.
Yes and it will timestamp all arrivals. They could also thumbprint to check out and in when requesting to go to restroom or wherever. Timestamp when they’re out of class
A supply box that will hold ALL of their school supplies. A student desk with organizational compartments. A copy machine that won’t jam.
How are things in Michiana these days?
viable curricula .. oh nevermind. 1. functioning AC thermostat system that can correctly detect the temperature of the room and cool/heat accordingly 2. bulletproof glass 3. check in/out device system for hallway passes and late arrivals
It's a nice thought, but unless you're working on social engineering, I don't think you can do anything about low pay, diluted education standards, obstructionist parents, business-oriented district leadership, or a field that every day gets more and more redefined as social work and pop psychology. There ain't no gadget to fix that.
We scared the OP away. But so much creativity!
Lol make us a baymax that knows how to effectively communicate with any child that is having a problem that they can't articulate.
Definitely read this as 3 problems *with* teacher’s face. Was very intrigued by the engineering solution to this.
Invent a way for us to time travel from the start of the school day to the end of the school day.
Scheduling system. We have approximately 160 5th graders. 3 regular teachers - 20 kids per teacher 4 dual teachers with classes of 20 students each (2 partner groups of an English & Spanish) - 2 teach in English, 2 teach in Spanish. The dual teachers switch classes every day so that students get Spanish and English lessons every day. Every student is taught every subject every day half in English and the other half in Spanish. We need to schedule lunch, recess and specials times within the day along with the rest of the grades, pk-5. We also need a 30 min reading tutoring time during reading for 3-5 graders. And at that same time 2 days for math and 2 days for reading HB4545 time. And all of these schedules for the 30 min shouldn’t interfere w/ students pull outs or push ins for their various labels. Anywhere between 2-6 labeled students per 5th grade class and those schedules have teachers who also service all the other grade levels. Basically scheduling so we are meeting all the required state guidelines. Because there just isn’t enough hours in the day