Speaker: Sharalyn Patching
Sharalyn Patching: Hi, I teach in a rural school in southern Alberta. I have 18 students in my class, which is a beautiful class size but it doesn't represent the complexity issues that I have. I have three students who are significantly low academically and one student with some medical issues that have to be attended to. I do have an E A in the morning only from nine till noon which leaves me dealing with the medical issues in the afternoon. Uh, leaving my students often alone. Uh, for short amounts of time. Will they help with these medical, um, issues? Uh, the students that are behind a academically, I do not have any academic support or any, uh, educational assistance support for and they are often left to struggle while I work one on one with the others. Um, because there's just not enough of me to go around, even with only 18 students. I don't have enough time to meet the needs of the kids in my class and it's disheartening and frustrating. Uh, I work in a rural school so our class sizes are really small but when our teachers need, uh, prep time or time for themselves. For lunch. Uh We are combining classes. We have not hired staff to cover those classes. So we combine our classes and I end up teaching 32 students, gym and 32 students for a random half an hour on a Wednesday afternoon in a classroom built for 18. So, um these are some of the struggles that we are dealing with in Southern Alberta. Uh My name is Sherilyn Patching and I teach grade two.
