Auditory Calendar

I know as a teacher I'm not suppose to have favorites, but I just do. One of them is George. George is a high functioning autistic student and now in 2nd grade. He loves to write math on the white board so it looks just like a worksheet (complete with name, date, directions, and page number). Yesterday he did 3 digit addition with regrouping and today was 3 digit subtraction with renaming. Tomorrow he's planned multiplication facts. He taught himself all of this as it's 3rd grade level math.
George also is fixated on dates and days off of school. Whenever we have a day off or it's the weekend he tells me at least 7 times the days we will have off. For example, the Wed. before Thanksgiving he told me, "Mrs. Jones, no school on Thursday and Friday, ok?" many time throughout the day. This leaves me wondering, the day before winter break will he tell me, "No school on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, ok?"

Are you lost?

The office staff has already decorated the office for the "Holidays" meaning there's a giant Christmas tree, and all kinds of Christmas decorations up. But what really caught my eye today was the entire door of the "main" school office (which houses the principal and Vice Principal's offices) was covered in tacky wrapping paper and said in giant letters "Dr. X" (Principal's name) with "Happy Holiday's" written under it. Huh, I didn't know she needed help finding the main office.
A better story today. One of my autistic students has difficulty taking turns and talks loud a lot. To practice taking turns, we played Uno at the end of our math time. When I told him we were going to play Uno he said, "I don't want to" and put his head on his desk. I told him that it's not a choice right now. Then he said, "I'm sick." Nice try, buddy. "You're not sick, you just don't want to play Uno and take turns," I said. Well, I slowly got him into the game. And of course he won.

The Big Bad Wolf

Thursday I had an altercation with one of the teaching aides. Let me preface: this woman is a large (6 ft. at least 200 lbs) African American, she thinks yelling at kids is good discipline, and she also loves to argue. She is "in charge" of the lunchroom. So Thursday I was standing in the lunchroom talking to my aide when I see her yank one of my tiny 1st graders out of the lunch line. And by yank, I mean she grabbed his shirt by the collar and physically pulled him out of the line with enough force to rip part of his shirt. A few lunch staff said it looked like she choked him. He was hysterically crying so I instinctively went over to find out what happened. As I ask the student what happened, the aide comes over and tells me she's, "taking care of it." I ask her what happened, and all I heard from her was, "older kids...kiss my ass." So I ask her again, "Wait, what happened?" and she yells at me, "I already told you what happened!" So I said that I didn't hear her, could she please tell me again to clarify, and she got in my face and yelled at me, "I told you what happened. He's not special, he knows what he did!" I was livid. I sat next to him until the lunch period was over and ignored her. After lunch I went to the office to talk to the vice principal (the principal was not there) only to find that the aide had beat me to it and was putting her own spin on the situation. Of course she was. I calmly explained what happened, and my concern for the student's safety, and how she got mad at me for asking what happened. They (the two vice principals) told me that the aide is upset because "she doesn't feel supported" and she's in charge of the lunchroom. I told them I understood that she didn't feel supported because I intervened, but again said I was concerned for the student's safety. Then I asked what exactly did the student do? They told me he shook his butt at the other kids and said, "Kiss my ass" to them. Then they told me he needs to know he did something wrong. Um, yeah, no shit...which is part of my point. He's a special education 7 year old who lacks good decision making skills!
What I didn't say (because you always have to watch what you say - esp. when it's about one of the principal's buddies) is that I'd fully support her if she was disciplining him legally and I knew the reason why. All I (and most of the staff) saw was her yanking him by the shirt. I was very concerned because he could have been hurt (a tiny 1st grader) and it's illegal to use physical force on a student. If I don't stand up for him, who will? This is not the first time I and others have witnessed this woman being physical with a student. The only time I even touch the kids is if they are violently out of control and a danger to themselves and others and I try to calm them down. After school I talked to the student and his father about what happened. He was upset about what his child said, but he didn't seem to care about the aide yanking him. If the parents complained, then maybe something would get done about it. The next day the aide acted like nothing happened at all and was overly nice to me.
I am still angry about this whole incident because I feel kind of helpless. I went to the administration and as far as I know, they did not address the issue (physical force) with the aide. So what do I do? School should be a safe environment for our kids, but a person who works in the building is not safe! It's my responsibility and I want to protect the student's safety and prevent this from happening again. If I call the union or report this, I may get reprimanded (even though I did NOTHING wrong) because this aide is "in" with the principal and it'll also make the administration look bad as they did not address this issue. Then it'll probably come back to bite me in the ass.
"But you get the summers off" people say to me. Really, please walk a day in my shoes.

I'm Back!

Yes, it's me. I'm back. I never left, really. I just got lazy, and the school paperwork started taking it's toll on me. Well I still have my same classroom, but there have been a few changes. First of all, all the boys I had are now with another teacher, as they are in 5th grade now. Second, Beth was moved into my classroom full time last November. Within 2 months she went from only saying a few words to being able to identify all the letters of the alphabet, numbers 1 - 10, making simple requests, and answering simple questions. Her behavior slowly improved, although 2 out of 5 mornings a week she'd come into school upset and have a tantrum for 45 min - 1 hour. This usually involved me standing at the door so she could not run out while she threw everything from her breakfast to her shoes at me. I refused to make eye contact with her because she was trying to get my attention. Instead, my teaching aide would get the other students and I'd teach them while I was standing at the door. They were pretty good at ignoring her erratic behavior, and if she ever put them in danger, I'd send them to the bathroom for a few minutes with my aide. Eventually Beth would calm down, and I'd help her how to clean up the mess she made. Unfortunately, her family moved to another neighborhood in October, so they left the school. Oh yeah, and her mom had another baby! That's number 11 for them! I also got her sister in my class half way through last year, and by May, Beth was teacher her sister the letters and numbers! I was very sad to see her them go because Beth was making such great progress. The week before they moved she read a repetitive rebus (book with pictures for each word) story by herself to every teacher that would listen! I have been in touch with her new teacher (I emailed her in case she needed some advice, and she did) and she appears to be in good hands.
Over this summer Jessica's crazy mother apparently had an affair, and the father kicked her out of the house. He told us she's living on the streets and is addicted to drugs, and he even had a court order of protection for her to stay away from Jessica! I've only seen her once this year outside the school, and I barley recognized her - she's about half the size she was and does look like she's on some kind of drugs. I feel bad for Jessica - now she'll be even more messed up. The good news is that her dad acts like a normal parent and is positively involved in her academics.
This year seems to be so much more political than year's past. And there's so much more paperwork, which is causes a lot of teachers (including me) to be overworked and overstressed. First, the district let go of some teachers because of budget cuts, which makes our classroom sizes bigger creating more work and less time to do it. I currently have 12 special education students. I just got a full-time autistic 1st grader that moved from the suburbs last week. His mother immediately does not like my classroom because I do not have a sensory area, water table, and all the perks of an autistic suburban classroom. He also said that he had 3 other classmates in his old room. Welcome to the big city, lady! So along with the 12 students, I also have to do reading intervention (RTI - response to intervention) with 10 other students for 20-30 min. per day. These are suppose to be targeted interventions, such as repeated reading, which requires my and their) full attention. This is almost impossible to fit in the school day, and I end up doing RTI while my sped students are in the room, which cheats both groups. RTI is meant to be a school-wide program, meaning any teacher, staff member, even administrator can administer the interventions. Then each week the students are assessed, and the results are graphed on the computer. Who ends up doing RTI at my school? Oh yeah, the Sped teachers! WTF!? I no longer have prep periods (ex. gym), and I have more paperwork. If I say anything, I'll be accused of "not being able to handle my job" or they'll say, "You're lucky you still have a job." Oh, and they took my aide for another classroom away for 50 minutes in the morning. Add to this writing IEPs, grading, making individual daily schedules for each of my students, lesson plans, modifying work, writing anecdotals, our principal wanting us to come in a work for 1 Saturday a month (HA!), and the political gossip going around the school, and I'm completely burnt out and it's only November. I LOVE teaching my students, but I'm so sick of all the other shit that goes with it.

Oh, Retire Already!

There's a 1st grade teacher that has Ken, one of my high functioning autistic students, in her class. A short background on her is that she is CONSTANTLY complaining, and she never asks for advice or help. She rolls her eyes at me whenever I ask to speak with her, and in the past she has said to other teachers that I am the worst special education teacher in the school. She has never observed my teaching, so I try to brush off her attitude and these comments to her own dissatisfaction of her job. He only gets 200 minutes per week in my classroom. He's in her room for 85% of the school day. At the beginning of the year he was crying often and very anxious. He has a difficult time with change and transitions. She was constantly bringing him to the Special Ed office and saying things like, "I just don't know what to do with him!", "He doesn't belong in my classroom!", and "He never stops crying!". Ken is very smart, and he does not cry when he's in my classroom because I understand his needs and I don't yell at him. He LOVES trains, so I made him a daily schedule using trains and Boardmaker pictures that he can switch using Velcro. It took me a good 2-3 hours to make. When I showed it to her, she just said, "OK." No thank you, nothing. Then my teaching aide comes into the class 10 minutes later and tells me that this teacher stopped her in the hall and asked who made the schedule. My aide responded, "Mrs. Jones did." Then the witchy teacher said, "Well, she's finally doing something!" WTF, lady!? She has no idea what I do and don't do in my classroom because she's never even set foot in it! Then when I went to give the schedule to Ken, she said, "He doesn't belong in this classroom!" IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS AND HIM! I'm sure that made him feel horrible and embarrassed. I responded loudly, "Ken is a very smart boy." Every time I try to say to her, "You need to be professional about this situation", she turns away from me. She's very disrespectful. For these reasons, coupled with other instances, the case manager and I talked to the Assistance Principal about the situation. The response was positive, and I'm hoping the situation will dissipate. The whole thing pisses me off just writing about it.

First week of school

After the first week of school, I am exhausted! I have 20 special education students on my case load. One is self-contained (Jessica) and 17 are resource and 2 are consultation (30 min. per week). All the self-contained boys I had last year moved up to the 4-6th classroom. Their teacher is very strict and I get the feeling she doesn't like it when they talk to me. When I walk by their classroom or see them in the hall, they wave at me with sad faces.

I have about 10 of the same students, and the rest are new to the school or in kindergarten. The group is younger this year, and they appear to have less behavior problems than my group last year (yeah!). The majority are Learning Disabled, but I have 2 autistic and a few Developmentally Delayed students. Stephen's younger brother Owen is in 1st grade and in my class. On Thursday he saw Stephen in the hall and immediately had a hysterical crying melt down for over an hour because he wanted his mom and dad. Beth is in my class again, and she is talking more and more! She remembers my name and students' names, and she is following directions well. She's sitting with the group for Calender time and at her desk to do work! George (high functioning autistic) is also following directions very well. His 1st grade teacher, however, is having a difficult time with him because on the second day of school she says, "I can connect with him!" Well shit lady, he's autistic! She said she knew about autism, and I told her that many autistic children do not have well-developed social or communication skills. He will connect with you if you get on his level and really force the eye contact.

The Principal stories continue this year: The teachers wear a uniform to school because the Principal wants us to model for the students. I get that, and I really don't have a problem with it because it's easy to pick out what to wear. Many teachers would rather not wear the uniform, which prompted a 30 min. (pointless) discussion about the topic. The Principal said, "Wear your nice clothes when you go out." One of the older teachers said, "Well I don't really go out." So the Principal responded, "Don't you go to Church!? Everybody knows I wear my best outfits to Church!" Hello separation of Church and State? Now last year she put "Does not wear uniform" as a weakness on my teacher evaluation. I wore it 90% of the time, so I asked her about that and she informed me (in private) that my shirts are too short and my pants are too tight! Well, let me know that and give me a chance to fix it before you write it on my eval. Now I dress pretty modestly, and I would not walk around a school baring my stomach. The Principal is a rather large woman with a huge butt, and she often comments about her weight and how she wishes she could be smaller. So when she told me that my pants are too tight, I innocently responded, "Really? Because I wear a size 4, and I have to wear a belt to keep my pants up." I don't think she liked that comment. Well I told her I'd go shopping, so I went out an bought huge shirts and very baggy granny pants. My co-workers say she's just jealous of my size, so she's going to pick on me to make herself feel better. Then on the first day of school at our staff meeting before school started, the Principal said, "I guess some of you didn't get the memo about the uniform!" I looked around, and all the teachers were wearing it. Then she says to the group, "Would you wear that to a corporate office?" Ummm, hell no. I wouldn't help kids that have accidents on themselves or chase them down the hall at a corporate office either! And so it begins...

Summer's over :(

The 2009 - 2010 school year is upon us. Complete craziness has yet to ensue, although the stress is quickly mounting. The good news is that the only student I have on my class list for full day in my room is Jessica. Yes, this means I still have to deal with her crazy mother; however, all the boys that were in 3rd grade (including Rob) have moved up to the next Special Education teacher. I do have 14 other resource students, but some of them are new so interesting challenges await. It's only a matter of days before the good stories come flowing in.

Oh Lord

Last week my principal had a staff meeting about the swine flu issue. She said that we (the school community) are all safe from the swine flu because she prayed for all of us that morning. Oh lucky me. Then she went on the say, "I believe I am susceptible to the swine flu, but I will not get it. I am protected because I am covered in Jesus' blood!." Amen sister!

Jessica's birthday was on Friday. Her mom wanted to bring pizza in to celebrate. She said to me, "I'll bring the napkins, can you bring the plates and cups?" What!? After everything you put me through lady, you're going to ask me to buy something for your kid's birthday celebration?
I told her twice that she could bring in pizza at 1:50 p.m. She confirmed it Friday morning. Then she shows up at 1:25 with cupcakes and acts all put off that the student's aren't ready for the big birthday blowout.
Another classic about Jessica's mom - Our school started a new free breakfast program where the kids pick a hot or cold breakfast when they walk in the door and eat it for the first 15 minutes of class. My teaching aide saw Jessica's mom walking out of the school the other morning with two of the bags under her arm. Moocher.

Don't throw stones in glass houses.

Thursday could quite possibly be the best school day of the year. Jessica punched a girl's arm during lunch with another classroom (per her mother)! Yes, innocent, fragile Jessica. I asked her what happened during lunch and she said, "How did you find out?" Ha! I told her that she can't trick me because I know everything. She was crying and crying, but could not tell me, the principal or her mother why she punched the girl. So the principal suspended her for one day! Jessica's mom was shocked by the whole thing, but understood the consequence. Of course it doesn't end there. Right before dismissal time I heard yelling in the office, so I poked my head out of my door and saw Jessica's crazy grandmother. She was threatening the principal and screaming profanity. There were other parents and students around, so the principal called the police. When Jessica saw her grandmother she said, "Hey that's my Nanna!" I responded, "Yes, your Nanna needs to control her temper." The grandmother is not allowed in the school anymore.

You need a break!

Yesterday Stephen came up to me and said, "Mrs. Jones, you need a day off. You need a break!" Ha! I must have looked really stressed out.
This morning Jessica's mom asked me if I wanted to buy a raffle ticket to support Jessica's softball team. After all the shit she's put me through, she asks me to give her $5!? I actually bought a raffle ticket a few weeks ago from Rob for $2...so I think she's jacking the price up! So Ghetto.