[jacadela]

I was wondering what others thought of departmentalizing in upper elementary. Has anyone tried it? What were the pros and cons for you?

[TheGr8Catsby]

If you're in a situation where it's not mandated that you're departmentalized keep it that way.

[Zephie]

I personally love being departmentalized. My flip teacher and I work well together and will actually be co-teachers next year in a 5 grade, multiage room. I get to do what I am good at and she gets to do what she is good at. I get the short end of the stick when it comes to grading because ELA is so many more assessments when compared to math, but I really don't mind a bit more grading when I get to teach what I am good at.

[cruxian]

It can allow people to focus on their strength's and interests. If you have (I don't know) an hour to work on researching a lesson or project and you only teach one or two subjects, it allows you to focus more on one area and hopefully one you're passionate about. While you might be grading more of one assignment, it's the same assignment so you can move through it more quickly. It can allow some flexibility in grouping kids and in working with other people's schedules. It can also help to have two people's perspective on a kid rather than just one. I've found it's really hard for a parent to say a problem stems from me (either because I don't like the kid or aren't managing them the right way) when there are two people saying the same thing about their kid.
There are some problems though. I have hard stop and start times. I can't let a particular lesson go on an extra five or ten minutes in order to finish something. It can be hard if you're not teaching the subject you're most passionate about. We departmentalize and one of my teammates is very passionate about teaching science but is teaching math. That's kinda a bummer for her.
Depending upon the age of the kid, making transitions between teachers and differing expectations can be hard for some. There's a fair amount of "forgetting" things at times and you have to make a judgement call about whether or not you're going to allow the kids to go back and get materials.

I loved departmentalization when I taught 5th grade! I was on a terrific team and we worked so well together! I just taught math and science and health to each homeroom and those 5 years were the only years I had the time to cover every lesson in every unit. Looking back (I am retired now) those years were the ones that I felt the most successful.