This is a terrible idea. Number one, the teachers will not coordinate on which days tests and projects are due and everything will be on the same day.Young kids can't handle that. Number two, do you really want your kid going to someone else's desk who has headlice/pinworm/flu? Young kids carry a lot of germs. Number three, The kids who sit at your child's desk will steal their Hello Kitty pencils just like the Aftercare kids do. Number four, you pray your kid doesn't get the worst teacher and now they will have them one way or another with the rotation. Number five,Will your 9 year old really remember to copy the homework off the board in every classroom and take the textbook home? They are much more ready for that in sixth grade. Number six,there are a lot of bad teachers out there who can't control the class and are too touchy feely with "special buddies" in certain classes and it is almost impossible to fire them, now you want to hone their skills?

what are you smoking terrible idea?

I teach fourth grade in Broward County and my school departmentalize for core subjects. We switch for reading and math. It works very well. It better meets students' individual needs by homogeneous grouping in subjects that are difficult to teach when ability levels vary too greatly. It also gives the teacher the ability to become much more specialized in a particular area. Researching effective lesson plans can be very time consuming. My teaching has greatly improved since I can focus on less subjects.
To address the problems "terrible idea" mentioned. I have never come across any of those issues. I'm sorry, but really touchy feely teachers, pinworms, Hello Kitty pencils.....what are you talking about?

"this seems like a creative idea that costs nothing and has lots of potential for good."

The school district is a business. The days of the school beign their to educate the children has long past. If you think any action is not made in an attempt to increase the bottom line, you are fooling yourself.

To the fourth grade teacher: I respect you as a teacher and thank you for the most difficult job you have of educating our children,but as parents we feel safety and health of children come before education. Surely you are aware of the constant infestations of headlice going around the schools, I am surprised you didn't know about pinworms. They are awful. And you've never heard of the kids in Aftercare going into the student's rooms after school and "borrowing" crayons and everything else inside the desks? My child has tried locked pencil boxes and even turning her desk around so nobody would reach in. And touchy teachers? Maybe you haven't heard of the latest in Palm Beach County a band teacher who was raping students and having affairs with teachers right in the school. Do I think changing classes will solve any of these problems? I am not even talking about grades, I am first taking about logistics of a few thousand kids moving around all day. I am talking about students keeping track of their belongings. I know one poor girl who had headlice so badly she had to have her eyelashes surgically removed under general anesthesia. Teachers mostly think about, well, teaching. That is wonderful, but parents want to get their children home well, safe and with all their belongings and at the end of the day also.

terrible idea is a moron, quit making excuses for your subpar student. Why wouldn't you want your child learning from the best the school has to offer in each subject? They can let the student stay in the same class and move the teachers for the younger students so you precious hello kitty pencils and lice won't be an issue.

Your just pointing out extreme cases that really have nothing to do with departmentalizing. Any of those problems could happen even if you just have one teacher all day. Even when I have my homeroom students they switch desk throughout the day to form groups and work collaboratively on projects. I am not only a teacher but a mother too. I don't only think about teaching I too want my students and my own child home in good health, safe and with all their belonging. I teach my class about respecting others belongings, washing their hand before eating and after using the restroom. Some of the problems you talk about come down to classroom management and really have nothing to do with switching for different subjects.
As a parent I would be extremely happy if a school was doing something new and innovative to try and help prepare my child for a more academically successful future. Try not to focus on the rare possibility of something going wrong and focus on the huge benefit to your child.

To 4th grade teacher: I do see your side of it and the advantages that departmentalization may have. I would be fortunate if my child had you for a teacher.You are also probably organized, grade tests within a reasonable period of time (10 days to me),answer parent emails and concerns, and don't allow bullying to go on in your class. There are many such wonderful teachers like that. You will also probably coordinate with the other teachers on when to give tests and have projects due. Unfortunately, mixed in amongst the wonderful teachers are some less than adequate ones. With changing teachers, that means your child will surely get those. Those teachers don't ask students to use the bathroom before lunch or recess, don't make sure they have their books, they think that elementary students ought to know enough to wash their hands without being told, they don't want to "mother" them. They want to do as little as possible. As parents, we hope our children will get a good teacher. Now we have to hope they get several good teachers. In other words, we will have to take the bad with the good.

Departmentalization will not work next year. This change was unveiled in the middle of May. No discussion was held between administration and teachers, let alone communication with the parents. It is common sense that a major change to the delivery model of instruction without full support from all the teachers and parents is just a recipe for disaster. There is very little research about departmentalization, but what little research there is all states that training and support are the keys to success! My 4th grade daughter's education will suffer nexr year and my love of teaching all subjects and bonding with my small class of 18 third grders is now part of my memories. Teaching for me was never just a job. Now I am afraid of how I will feel when PBC is writing all my lesson plans for me. Next year I will be teaching Math, Science and SS. One thing is for sure after teaching 17 years, I will not be boxed in to one subject for my last 13 years! I hope the wishes that we go back to self-contained classes will occur in 5 years, but I know with the School Board we have in place and Hernandez's ambitions to be the next superintendent that may NEVER occur.
Bottom line test scores will not improve. They will continue to be in the range of this year's scores.

The way this wholesale change of the delivery of education in PBC Schools was accomplished is terrible. Superintendant Johnson and his $180,000 a year whiz kid Hernandez dropped this bomb on everyone--teachers included--at the very end of the school year. It is like a bad espionage movie. It's much like the way Congress tacks on controversial riders to legislation in the middle of the night when no one is looking. There were no public hearings of any kind. No input from teachers. Principals were told to do it or else! Now Hernandez is on a PR campaign, going to a few schools and spewing out all kinds of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo that no one understands. They aren't presenting facts on how this works because there aren't any to support it. Our kids are the guinea pigs for their scheme. As one teacher at Addison Mizner put it last night: "This is all about test scores!" Forget the kids. Forget the bonding experience with one teacher and your classmates. Forget class parties and little extras like Junior Achievement. I imagine that we can forget recess and field trips too. Who has time for that? Look at the schedules they have set up. It is ridiculous. Childhood, as we knew it, exists no more.

As for terrrible idea's comment on having a "bad" teacher part of the time for the entire year. What if your child had a "bad" teacher for the entire day for a whole year? With departmentalization they may get to have two of your/their preferred teachers for the entire year! And Bocamom... I understand and agree with your initial comments about the handling of the situation and the fact that way too much emphasis is put on FCAT. However, I think it is extreme to think there will be no bonding between your child and the teachers or your child and classmates. And why won't there be class parties, JA, or field trips? I have not heard that, the children will have a homeroom and I am sure there will be a way to still fit in class parties.

If you have been reading all of the comments from all of the articles in the Post and Sun Sentinel regarding departmentalization, MOST of the comments are from teachers themselves who are not in favor of it. Most of the remaining comments from parents are also negative. What is going to happen to the morale of all of these teachers who are having this forced on them? Also, many principals did not send notices home about this. Why the secrecy? I still feel a bigger problem is how to terminate the "bad" teachers (and I don't think there are many, but there are enough)and how to contain things for example Swine Flu from spreading in the fall with all of this mobility.