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I have gone through this for the past 5 years. I ask in advance for group
scheduling my grade level. What we do is have the PE and Music work with
these same groups. That way we just rotate kids and at least teachers are
allowed 1.5 hours of uninterrupted planning time. Often this is valuable for
mixed primaries as we have here in Kentucky. The principal here is the
creator and greatest supporter of providing this group planning time as it is
expected of teachers in order to integrate.
I find that it is a great opportunity also to do this as the music and PE
teacher and I have worked simultaneously on the teaching of three cultural
groups. Our efforts undergird each other really well and one program
compliments the other nicely. It increases our sense of moral support
(which "special teachers" often do not sense getting).
We do this without much stress at all. We eat lunch together a few times and
discuss dates and content. We film each other's work and share handouts and
tapes. It provides me with great new ideas.
This takes support from the administration for the scheduling but ends up
benefiting the child most of all-which is satisfying to me.
Now, what do I do about the sense of feeling no more important to staff than
just being relief from their kids? Some folks are just going to act that way
of fell that way no matter what. Some are just too tired to care.
I just want to be sure I never take the arts for granted.

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