Yikes

Fridays are short days for our students. The kids leave at 1:30 and the teachers have PD from 1:45 to 4:00. For the past two days taking notes on all the things that our behavior child does, good and bad, focusing on the good- even stretching the truth a little bit. After looking at Emotional and Behavior disorders, I have reached the conclusion that this child has O.D.D. Oppositional Defiant Disorder. He had a hard time focusing and ignoring others. (I'm venting at school while I should be getting ready for PD) My co-teacher just let me know that during lunch our O.D.D. child what punching the hell out of our other behavior child and that the CPS psychologist saw that (hopefully something will happen now) But he pushed one student and they were going up the stairs causing a chain reaction so that 3 other children almost fell, thankfully they were all safe. And then something set him off just as we were getting ready to dismiss. He was completely fine one second, and then the next he is pulling on the book bag of one little girl and keeps picking on her. when I had her move somewhere else, he decided to pick on our other behavior child, pulling on his book bag and jacket. When I had this other child move he started trying to pull on other children's book bags and clothes and trying to kick them and trip them so they would fall. All the while laughing and I was struggling against him. I got some help bringing him into the classroom where he started running around and went into the closet and smacking his book bag as hard as he could on the wall (this whole smacking incident went on for two minutes). He then seemed to calm down and ready to rejoin. He needs serious help, and constant attention, something that I do not think any of us are in any position to provide him with.

A good day.

It is amazing how different we envision a good day will be and how a good day actually looks like. Today, was my day as the aid again, and though, we still had pushing from our behavior children, hitting, defiance and crying, it felt a little more manageable today. I started a new system with my behavior child (the one who got suspended) I told him that today every time I saw him doing something good, I would write it down on a note and put it on a smiley sheet of paper, every time he made a bad choice I would also write this down. His goal for today was to have more happy post it notes than sad post it notes and amazingly this seemed to work. I also told him that when he was angry or upset and needed to let out some of his energy, he just needed to pull on his ear and we would find an active activity he could do. This also seemed to work. He just used this twice today, but in both instances I saw the benefits of him removing himself from the classroom to do something active and high energy outside the classroom.

Oh, please let this continue to work!

Hope

Today was my day to be the aid in the classroom and the day started off OK, the boy who we have been having a lot of problems with seemed to have a good time during morning movement. (Kindergarten through Second grade all gather in the mornings from 8:30- 8:45 to stretch and get our bodies ready for learning in the lunch room)

As a side note- this child was the same one who on Friday last week, refusing to follow directions, pushed my co teacher so hard that she stumbled down some stairs- thankfully she was alright)

So today was a new day and I took it as a good sign that he was following my instructions and during morning movement. Unfortunately his good behavior was left somewhere in the lunchroom. As soon as we arrived into the classroom he stoped listening to me and my co teacher and basically doing whatever he wanted to do. I let him know that I would be ignoring him, though I would be writing down what he was doing so that his uncle knew all that he was doing.

He kept trying to snatch away what I was writing, and because he could not get to me, he decided to go and try to provoke our other behavior management child. Our other child was working quietly by himself and the boy who was not listening decides to push the working child. I was utterly shocked because this came out of nowhere. I complemented the other child for working quietly and for being peaceful because he did not retaliate. This seemed to enrage the child who did the pushing and he returned and pushed this child again, with much more force to the point that he almost fell off his chair.

It all became a blur after this, he ran out of the classroom, I ran after him, we somehow made it to the office where I called his uncle and let him know what was going on, the principal finds me and asks me what I want her to do about the situation, would I like her to suspend him for the rest of the day? (I really wanted to shout YES! but at the moment, it felt cruel of me) But somehow the decision was made and he was suspened for the rest of the day. His uncle showed up and then, his uncle, myself and our curriculum director, sat and talked about our boy. During the meeting, I realized that yes, it has been hard, yes, it seems like we have tried everything, yes, it seems like he has not been improving, but he has improved, a little, but he has improved, and we are trying to change 5 years of what he has learned was acceptable behavior, not to mention the fact that he is still seeing his mom, and the expectations and restrictions that she has set up for him are very lax from what we expect of him in school as well as what his uncle expects from him.

I think I just needed to hear a different, optomistic perspective for me to get renewed energy and ideas, and to realize, that not only do we his teachers have it hard, how hard must it be for his uncle and aunt to deal with him day in and day out? And to realize how thankful I am that this child is with his aunt and uncle who obviously care a lot about him and want what is best for their nephew.

Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully, a better day.

One step forward, 200 steps back...

Where to start? Our two behavior problems are digressing. I feel like though we have made some progress with one of these children, however, I have to ask myself can this really be called progress when they are not participating in class, disrupt the class because they are talking to each other and completely ignoring the teacher. How do you deal with these kids?! Though I feel that all of our time and enegry has been put into these two kids, and we have been focused on trying to modify their behavior, I feel like it is November, we have nothing to show for it because they are basically doing no work and ignoring the teacher and now the rest of the class has become a management nightmare. How many different ways do you tell the classroom to be quiet, especially when they see these two kids basically getting away with anything and everything. I feel that drastic measures need to be taken but now I feel at a loss to what other things we can do.

On top of all this is report cards and we are Assessing, assessing assessing! So me and my coteacher are trying to assess and continue with our guided reading groups, but how can we listen to the groups of children that we are working with if we are constantly having to ask children to quiet down!

I really like teaching, but I really don't want these two boys in our classroom. I keep talking to other teachers at my school and they all agree that those two boys should not be together, because they like to egg each other on and they try to one up each other, my co teacher keeps saying, we will make the recommendation to separate them for next year and we'll just suffer through this one, but I DON'T WANT TO SUFFER THROUGH THIS YEAR!

I feel like a baby about this but I feel that I am getting to the point that either one of them has got to go or I do.

Am I teaching Science?

OK, so what started off as a Unit on Spiders, has morphed into a unit on Animals, which made sense because we have a trip to the zoo scheduled for October 22, and as of October 1st had yet to teach the kids anything about animals.

I had the best of intentions here- I pulled out my Understanding by design book, I looked at the standards, and before I could get to the third stage of my planning (that is where you plan out the activities and assessment right?) It was time to start teaching.

I am actually really disapointed in myself. Not just because of this half completed science unit, but I feel like I am not actually doing really good teaching and I feel that when I am teaching, my kids are not actually learning much, the only thing I actually feel really successful with is teaching Math, but I think that is just because I borrowed UTEP's Everyday Math Curriculum and am using it in the classroom.

Off to plan for tomorrow!

Buenas Noches!

Uh- Oh...

Well, just got a call from my Co-teacher she is now sick (I actually think I gave it to her, woops!) and will not be coming in tomorrow. I am not nervous. It is my teaching day tomorrow and we had both planned the day, however, I am a little concerned about the reaction that we are going to get from our boys.

It was my management day on Friday, and granted that Fridays are short days, I have never ended any teaching day this school year with such high spirits. Both of our boys, Doug and Joe, have been removed from the community. They are still in the classroom, but they are not allowed to sit at the rug with the rest of the students or take part in many of the classroom activities. They each now have their own desks and own squares surrounding those desks. If they want to get a teacher's attention they must remain in their spot and raise their hand. If they leave their spot they do not get a sticker for that period of time. The boys have work that they need to complete and are also not having recess or eating lunch with the rest of their classmates. They need to earn their way back into the community by setting a goal each day and trying to keep that goal in order to earn their way back into the classroom community.

Friday was actually a really big day for both me and my co -teacher. The boys didn't have any major meltdowns (Joe threw himself on the floor when I told him that he could not go to recess but I just picked him up and started walking him down to the office. He then very meekly told me that he could walk. I think I embarrassed him.)

Although I feel bad for excluding the boys from the community. They were not listening or paying attention or learning when they were part of the community and were making it even more difficult for other student to learn I think that right now it is the best place for everyone.

I just hope that all of what worked on Friday works tomorrow.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

The Rays of Sunlight...

I was reading through my blog posts and I realized all my posts are painting this to be a horrible year, but I need to let you know that I am really enjoying myself. I have AMAZING kids, they are wonderful they do their best- I feel, that even though we have yet to talk about the behavior issues in our classroom, they know what is going on and really try their best to help me and my co-teacher out. When it is my teaching day, I enjoy myself so much! I love seeing the things the kids come up with and I enjoy planning with my co-teacher and the other teachers- to make sure we are creating the best year for our kids. Tomorrow is my teaching day, yay!

Oh, If I only had a camera...

I was talking to my friend Darek before he left for France (yes, I am super sad and missing his companionship) and he told me, you have to laugh about your children's antics, otherwise you are going to be upset all the time and not enjoy what you are doing. (Of course he had to be right about that piece of wisdome, right?)

So, after a hard day, I am starting to see the humor in today's day. Our boys were in fine form today. Doug and Joe have proven themselves to be really bad influences on one boy whome I will call Max. Max has decided in recent days to act like Doug and Joe, not to follow direction, to ignore the lessons that we are teaching and basically become another Doug and Joe because he likes the attention that it gets him. We have contacted his mother and she cannot believe that he is behaving this way (she believes that what we are telling her is true) and she does not know what to do or why he is behaving the way that he is.

Well any ways- Today was my teaching day ( my co teacher and I have decided to switch off days just to maintain our sanity with dealing with our boys) and Max was not following directions and punched another child. My coteacher called Max's mom, and while she was on the phone (I was on the rug teaching the kids) I looked over and see that Doug has taken his leveled book zip lock bag and placed it COMPLETELY over his head. Yes, you read that correctly. He did it because Max was getting too much attention.

So my co teacher takes him off to the office and I am left with 23 children on the rug, and two boys, Max and Joe, refusing to sit on the rug and just roaming the classroom. I was not about to fight this battle so I continued with the read aloud. Just at the middle of the read aloud, with no sight of my co teacher or Doug, the special ed teacher comes in with Omar (our autistic boy) who is refusing to come into the classroom. She has other students waiting for her so she leaves him in the door way. He is not moving so I leave him there for a little bit (my back is to the door) and next time I check on him he is GONE! Of couse I freak out and jump out of my seat in the middle of a comment from one of my kids. The kids are looking around wondering what is going on, and I belatedly tell them, as I reach Omar who is just to the right of the doorway against the wall, for them to talk with a partner about connections. I spend 10 minutes trying to coax Omar into the classroom, but I seem to be taking steps back and not forward, because he is starting to go up the stairs, absolutely refusing to go back into the classroom. The special ed teacher comes by and tells me it is OK to basically drag him into the classroom. Poor little guy, he was so upset, but jeez, little first grade boys are STRONG!

The day calmed down a bit after this crazy morning, but not by much. I think that the only reason I am not completely upset is because, we actually got some teaching done, tomorrow is another day, and soon, we will get an aid for Omar, which will be a BIG help.

I'm going to cry...

It's during prep time right now and the kids are at gym, but I just had an incident with Joe. We were picking up the kids from lunch and Joe was not following directions to get in line. When he finally decided to get in line he thought it would be a good idea to push his way into a spot in line and then proceed to kick at the children who decided to tell on him. I pulled him out of the line where he proceeded to struggle against me as hard as he could. I could tell he was angry and I was concerned about what he was going to do to himself or the other children. I continued to hold on to him trying to get him into the office where he could sit down and cool off, but he was holding on to the doorways refusing to let go. I did not want to pull him and our engineer walked by and decided to take pity on me and help me get him into the office. It probably looked comedic now that I think of it, two fully grown adults struggling to get a 6 year old into the office while he holds on to everything he possibly can with surprising amount of strenght. I'm so tired, I'm frustrated and I miss my mom.

Week 2 Day 2- A little better- a LOT exhausted :/

Thank goodness for Mentor Teachers...

Especially if they had your kids last year! This morning I meet with my mentor teacher who had Doug last year for Kindergarten. She let me vent and then reminded me of all the things I had used last year with my other little friend. She also suggested things to try, like checking in with Doug every 5 minutes, to see how things are going and if he is keeping his goal (which currently is staying in his spot) after the lesson give him 3 minutes to write, or color if he accomplished his goal.

I tried this today and while this worked, he was not perfect, but he kept his hands to himself and stayed in his spot at least 75% of the time. This was a great improvement on his behavior. I just wonder if this is sustainable (having a teacher constantly check in on him every 5 minutes). I was exhausted after the morning and was not as consistent with the constant check ins after lunch and gym.

I also wonder if this is fair to all the other children in the classroom. I was so completely focused on this one child while my co-teacher dealt with the rest of the class. I really don't want miss out on working with the rest of my students but I wonder if we will ever be able to strike a really good balance with management and not feeling guilty we are not paying the amount of attention that is due to my other students.

Week 2 Day 1- UGH!

The only thing that I can say is THANK YOU GOD FOR CO-TEACHING!

It completely amazes me how it is on the shoulders of one child if I have a good or bad day. Doug had a bad morning. He slapped a girl who was trying to get him to get out of her space. I told him that he needed to go to his seat, he was no longer a welcomed member of our community. He refused to go, I picked him up and moved him to the other side of the classroom. He refused to sit in his seat and went to the door. He was playing with the door knob and I let him know that if he opened the door he would go down to the office with me and call and explain to his mother why he opened the door to the classroom and why he was not on the rug in the first place.

When we were going to gym later he could not keep his hands to himself he was talking in the hallway when we have made our expectations clear that there is to be no talking in the hallways and knowing that he needs to keep his hands to himself. I told him that because he could not keep his hands to himself he needed to walk with a teacher. He kept pulling his hand trying to not have me keep holding his hand. I told him that I would not let him go and that he needed to follow directions. I would not let his hand go so he decided to go limp. I told him that because he was not following directions he needed to go to the office with me so we can call his mom. He then decided to make himself heavy so I would let him go. I was so frustrated at this time I told him that when we went down to the office he was going to explain to his mother what had happen. He then started saying that he would behave that he did not want to go to the office, that he would follow directions, I refused because as I pointed out he was not following directions and was holding on to the railing so that I would not be able to take him to the office.

Of course at that point the principal passes by and tells him by the next time she passes by, she wants him to be in the office. Not that I am afraid of the principal, she is great, I just could not help but think, she probably thinks I am a horrible teacher because I cannot control this boy. But he made it to the office, EVENTUALLY. and the rest of the day somewhat turned around, but it still did not erase the morning from my mind.

At the end of the day my co teacher talked to his mom, and let her know what we have established in the the classroom (his own desk to sit at because he cannot sit still at the rug without bothering anyone) and our expectations for him to keep his hands to himself. I hope that this conversation with mom makes a difference.

And to top it all off ... Omar had a bad day. The SPED teacher said that he has a tough time with transitions and boy did we see this today. He refused to go to the bathroom and then refused to go to recess and lunch. We were most concerned about him not eating lunch (we eat at 11:25 and the kids stay till 3:50) and we spent the better half of an hour trying to coax him to go and get lunch. I do not actually know what happened but I do know that they called his mother to come help the Special Ed. Teacher with him.

Any ideas to try with either of these friends, I am all open!

Feeling Appreciated

The mail just came and I received a letter from my school, it was an invitation to a big fundraiser that the school is hosting. But as I was going through the rest of the mail, I saw that my mom received something from the school as well. My mom joked, did you get in trouble already?

Of course I could not contain my curiosity and read the letter she received over her shoulder and this is what it said:

Dear Husband, Wife, Partner, Parent, Child or Concerned Friend of new staff members,

The mission of creating our new, exemplary elementary school for the young people of Chicago is critically important work. Your partner or friend has chosen to join us in our quest to create a high achieving school with strong academics and a focus on holistic education through educating the mind and the body of each child. It is no small task; the labor is arduous, the long hours, the building is HOT ... The select few who have made this great commitment deserve our highest recognition.

In an effort to 'practice what we preach' and create a well-rounded environment where children and adults listen to their bodies, take care of their needs and working hard to achieve at high levels, but know when to take a break, the next four weeks of work are trying and difficult; starting at a school takes a toll on the mind and the heart.

Therefore, it is my request that you make every effort to spoil these noble educators to the fullest of your ability in he next several weeks as they share their trials and tribulations of the new school year with you. Spoil them rotten. this could include, but not limited to: fine dining, entertainment, breakfast in bed, champagne and relief from household responsibilities, such as 'doing the dishes' and 'removal of trash.' Gifts would not be out of the question.

The young people of Chicago need them here, each Monday morning, in fighting form. It is among the most important of work we can do- and as you may now have come to realize, you are also a partner...

Sincerely
[The principal of my school]

As I read this letter I could not help but think of all of my cohort members as we all navigate the first weeks of schools. So I remind all of you to take care of your selves, show this post to your significant other, make them do the dishes :) and, as my mentor at my school told me on Thursday, SMILE!

Trying to strike a balance: My first week

As I sit here in the living room, I cannot bring myself to do any work for school. I am trying to heed to Mandy and Erica's advice that I take one day out of the weekend for myself, where I do not do any work for school. Though I am still thinking about school, and am reflecting about school, I am technically not doing any real tangible work, so I guess, I am, to an extent, heeding to their advice. I wonder if they would agree... :)

Though there is always something that NEEDS to be done in the classroom, I realized, after staying up till 2 in the morning on that first day of school doing thing that I needed to do but that were not time sensitive, and seeing how tired I was for the second day of school, I saw that I could not keep up this pace, leaving school at around 6:00, having a half hour drive, eating and then getting to work on things that needed to be done, not necessarily for the next day, but just to make things pretty.

What is weighing most heavily in my mind is how to ensure that 4 of our students do not demand all of our attention all of the time while providing all of our students, where ever they may be academically, whether they be on the autism spectrum, or have behavior issues the best education that they are entitled to and that I know we can provide. But part of me is scared that we may not be able to accomplish this...

We have a boy who I will call Doug, he is so mean and defiant and I was asking my mother, how can a child so young be so malacious? Picking on other children, getting in their faces and not listening to anything either me or my co teacher say?

We have another boy who I will call Joe. Joe has had a very hard young life, he is living with other family because he was taken away from his parents, because of how badly they mistreated him. He can be as difiant as Doug is and though I know he can be a very sweet child, he can be malacious as well.

Our autistic boy, who I will call Omar, does not have a lot of language and sometimes I am unsure as to wheter he understands me or not. But Omar seems to have taken an instant likeing to Joe. Of all the children in our classroom it is Joe with whom he has tried to connect with, but Joe and Doug as well, seem to be very jeolous of any attention that me or my coteacher might pay on Omar when we ware not dealing with either of them. They are constantly trying to see what we are doing with Omar, even if it means they will get in trouble because they are not listening to the teacher who is leading intruction, and I feel that after we have spent time working with Omar, trying to get him to participate in our class and talking to him, both Joe and Doug seek Omar out and start to pick on him.

I really do not understand this behavior, because, both Dough and Joe are our priority, we constantly spend time with them trying to get them to do the class work we set the other children with and we always meet with Omar last because he is not constantly bothering anyone or interfering with instruction while distracting other children.

My heart breaks everytime I see Omar interacting with these two boys. I will try my best to protect Omar as much as I can but I want to make sure that I am a good teacher to all my students as well, protecting all of them and making sure that we have a safe and caring learning enviornment.

Bobby part Deux

Hi All,

Today was a very tiring day. Even though having a co-teacher helps a lot, but having 28 students in the class while thinking through things you had not thought of (like how difficult it is to fit so many students in a circle on the limited amount of rug space) and problem solving on the spot.

Not to mention that one particular child reminds me of my dear friend from my second placement at a certain charter school. Yes, I believe it feels like him part 2. He is defiant, he does all he can to push my buttons and he does not follow directions- he does the opposite of what is expected of him! I want to pull my hair out. I guess I had some unresolved issues with a particular little person because his personality, I feel, is back to haunt me. But seriously I need to keep in mind that these two little persons are different, no matter how much their mannerisms and attitudes remind me of the first little guy I encountered in my second placement. I really do not want my past experience to encounter this relationship I am establishing with this new little guy, but how can it not? I don't know how I can help this child. I don't know what new strategies to try. I feel like I really have nothing new to try.

As I reflect on this first day, I feel that you are never completely ready for the first day of school no matter how much you plan and how many back up plans you have. I made so many planning mistakes today (as in forgetting what I planned!) however I having you lesson plans handy to look at and write on is essential, and helps so much when you are trying to keep on track and remember all the activities you have dreamed up. However, it is never what you expect to go wrong that actually goes wrong. I was so scared of teaching an entire class in Spanish. I was thinking, oh my goodness, I am never going to say all the Spanish words that I need to say, I am going to teach the poor children Spanglish and they are not going to understand neither Spanish nor English.

This is going to be a very interesting year. We have an interesting bunch of children and I feel that we will have quite a bit of management issues to deal with. I was already going to make a call home for the aforementioned little person (but of course the phone number that I have is disconnected) but I feel that the issues are just beginning. Oh, the life of a teacher. :)

mucho amor,
Janet