:cry: I live in Singapore and will be migrating to U.S soon. I am a Sped teacher and am planning to teach there sometime soon. Can somebody with a good heart explain to me what you mean when you say K-class or K-12, middle school, high school, junior high…what are their ages…because I am really at a lost when it comes to the grade levels of students in your country. Thank you very much for any help you can give me.
Re: Please help me!
K-12 means kindergarten to 12th grade
Kindergarten typical starts at age 5, and is typically a half day class. Kindergarten is generally not required by law, and is not heavily academic in most places. Children start to really learn to read and write in 1st grade (age 6).
In my school district, elementary school is kindergarten to 5th grade (K-5).
This is normally ages 5 to 11 years old. Normally in elementary school, children have 1 teacher all day for academic subjects, and may go to a different teacher for art, music and physical education.
In our district we next have middle school, which is grades 6-8 (or ages 11-14). (note: sometimes elementary school goes to 6th grade, and then there is what is sometimes called junior high, for grades 7-8 or 7-9.) In middle school (or junior high), teacher specialize. That is, children change classes and have different teachers for each subject (for language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, phys ed & health, music, art, foreign language, shop or home economics). At these grade levels, children typically take the first 5 classes listed previously, and choose a few electives from the other classes listed.)
Next is high school, which in our district is grades 9-12 (or ages 14-18). Classes are structured similar to middle school, and often math or science is not required for every year.
K-12 encompasses the grade and age ranges for free public education.
Sped teachers in our district teach to a whole school, so either elementary (K-5), middle (6-8) or high school (9-12). They may have classes composed of just one grade, but need to know how to teach a variety of ages and abilities.
grade levels
Each states educational system is different, depending upon the area. The three major structures are:
(1) K-4 (elementary school); 5-8 (middle school); 9-12 (high school)
(2) K-5 (elementary school); 6-8 (middle school); 9-12 (high school)
(3) K-6 (elementary school); 7-9 (middle school/junior high school); 10-12 (high school)
Generally, children in kindergarten are from ages 4 through 6, depending upon their birthdays and maturation levels. In kindergarten through fourth, there is one teacher who is the primary instructor for the students and students remain in one classroom during the entire school day. At times, other specialized teachers (art, music, physical education teachers, etc.) will come into the classroom for specific times. Middle school and junior high school mean the same. Generally, this is more content-based instruction, with students rotating classrooms to recieve instruction from different teachers, who specialize in certain content areas. This same procedure occurs in high schools. Hope that this helps. Enjoy America.
Jewel
The age for kindergarten is about 5 or 6, maybe as late as 7. But age 7 is kind of pushing it. This is basically to help get the children used to school and with a set schedule. With middle school and junior high, they are basically the same thing. You may be teaching 6th grade on up to 9th grade, depending on the school. Generally, you’ll probably be teaching students ranging from 6th grade to 8th grade. Their ages can range from 11 to 15 depending on the grade level. In high school, you’ll probably be teaching 9th grade through 12th grade, and the age range is probalby about 14 to about 19. I hope this helps you out!
Jenni