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.