Reasons not in attendance

 So why is your student not here today? 

No reason, she is fine, she will be back tomorrow. 

Cat died

Laughing all the way

 OT: - When I come next week to do my evaluation, I will need a room with a table and a couple of chairs.

Me: Got it.. (Cause you know we are a school and don't have that)

Me: I see that you didn't include G's classroom teacher in on the Zoom invite so I forwarded it to her. 

Psych: Why did you do that?

Me: So that she can participate in the meeting

Psych: Oh they come? I wasn't aware of that?

Me: Then who were you going to have sit in? 

Psych: One of the teachers from student's home school (who hasn't even met the kid)

 Me: um yeah no. G's classroom teacher will be in on the conference since she actually knows him and works with him on a daily basis. 

 

KDG Teacher - yeah I just want G identified so I'm not held accountable for his lack of progress. If he is identified then I have justification for lack of progress. I can also show it to admin to get more leverage for what I want. 

 

I am also not the staff member that you need to justify when you are going to mass. Don't care. Don't need to justify when you are going or not going. Not my business nor do I care. 

Not for the weak

 No matter what type of school you work in, no matter the city.. this job isn't for the weak... 

This week... 

• 2 parents have reached out to me to say that their children are failing spelling. The first one didn't want her name mentioned. Oh don't worry it won't be. Come to find out the teacher wasn't providing accommodations for one and it's questionable that she was for the other. 
• First parent was like oh but the teacher does so much for him I don't want her to have to do more or think I am upset.. Oh no.. she has to do her job and she has a grade level aide and a sped aide at 9am no excuses there
• Second parent was like oh well I'm sure she will do better next quarter
• Teacher insists that student has CP and gets pissed when I won't talk to mom about it. Um.. I'm not a doctor nor do I have that medical background so no I'm not having that conversation. Also pissed when I said he needs to have consequences for pooping his pants. She says he can't help it. Oh he can if he can not do it in her class and does it in specials and lunch. Made excuses for everyone else
• Teacher points out that he can't see to read his worksheets. 
• umm are you enlarging his worksheets you know according to his 504 plan.. her response.. I love you but I don't have time to do that. I have 24 other kids with 12 of them learning from hom right now.. 
• Went to go get worksheets to enlarge... Do you really want to do this? Me: No but I don't have a choice here so give me the worksheets
• Returned on 11x18 paper Teacher - oh we have paper that size... No its your imagination 
• I have been told that based on where two kids are at at the end of the nine weeks, teacher is going to admin to insist that two students are retained or a one on one aide much be hired for the two students. 
• um yeah not going to happen 
• Got to hear complaints that all the sped kiddos got put into the same room along with the all the kids that have ADHD and that we really need to rethink how we do class placements
• umm there are 4 sped kiddos the others I have nothing to do with I have no idea how they all got put in your room 
• I get that it is not fair that all of the younger grades have a full time aide and you don't but that doesn't mean that you get more time than they do just because you don't like the make up of your class. 
• Had a TOR record question eligibility og OHI because of ADHD because we don't have the medical diagnosis
• obviously you didn't read the report as you would see what data we used to qualify
• it was the school psych  that recommended it due to the data that we had. 
• I get that public school TOR has all the time in the world to meet because she only has half of her kids in the building but that doesn't mean that I have the time to drop everything so that we can have a 30 min conversation about a student that you will never see.
  

Sainthood

 2nd Grade working on a high frequently worksheet

M -playing with a set of keys on the table.. "Oh look there is a whistle"

N- I dare you to blow the whistle 

Me- if you blow the whistle you are both going to get a yellow behavior sheet

M- I'm not playing with the keys... as he is touching the keys

Few minutes later.. 

M- Hey look! Mr. S is a saint!!! 

Me What?

M - See... (pointing to a little figure on the key chain that looks like a priest) Mr. S is a saint.. 

Me. well okay then

Same class... watching videos on counting by threes and fours.. students dancing... one is doing the Macerana ...  ummm yeah not even close to the right rhythm but okay.

Grant me strength

 Pandemic has hit where I work.. and people have lost their minds.. 

• upset that test was negative and then positive
• upset by the number of "close contacts" as determined by health department
• have been told that kids still need sports despite this how this happened
• parent emailed saying that student isn't coming to school today she is going to do online learning (umm this isn't really an option unless you have a medical reason you just can't choose)
  
• been told that kids should come to school even though they aren't sick they need to be at school 
• told don't care if the have the illness send them to school, no worse than what they normally come to school with 
• can't trust the process or system 
• this whole thing is overblown 

 

Have two students who are a bit lower academically in one class. Asked by the other teacher in grade level if because of those two students, were the weaknesses and inabilities of other students missed because these students need far more help last year

• No - there was an aide in previous grade  level helping out, I was in there as well. All kids got what they needed 
• some kids struggles just show up later than others do 

Teacher wants me to help her solve the problem of student having pooping accidents when not in her room. 

• Teacher thinks he can't help it, I think there is some element of choice I'm the one that i wrong according to teacher 
• Teacher insist that he has Cerebral Palsy wants to tell parent now. I told her I'm not qualified to have that conversation with parent as I am not a medical professional 
• teacher is basing it on what she sees and what she knows of CP

Teacher wants me to solve the problem that student can't see anything 

•     Did you read his 504 plan? It says to enlarge his work
• I love you bit I can't do that. I have 25 students 14 of them doing learn at home I just don't have time to do that
• Well give me what you need enlarged and it will get done
• Oh wait you also have an aide in the room for the majority of the day.. she could do that as well 
• I can't fix what parents won't deal with  

Tried to work with student in group setting for 20 minutes on multiplying decimals. Student didn't get much out of it because she was upset about her homework grade, that others were going to see her homework grade and that she was going to fail the test tomorrow. 

• umm... I just went through the entire homework to reteach it
• Parents - we aren't making excuses for her any more but we are giving her more responsibility with doing her work on her work and can you make sure that she checks her own work for mistakes. 

Student had nebular meltdown in specials today - wasn't surprised it was coming all day  

• end of the day - music teacher gives me a blow by blow of what happened and what she and the class did to help student and wanted to know what to do to help him 
• IGNORE THE BEHAVIOR
• said she and class eventually ignored it, but wanted to make sure that she did everything right.. yep sometimes easiest step: IGNORE THE BEHAVIOR
  

Say What..

 During a test the question was what three things do we celebrate about Jesus... 

Student answer: Life Death Christmas

Note to self.... The name in the story is Captain Arseno not Captain America no matter how many times you read it and no  matter how entertaining the second name may be

During math quiz- student starts explaining how to do the math problem as if she were doing a youtube video with a British accent none the less. 

Morning carpool

Kindergartners: Hi Mrs. Nuggett

Me: Wait! What? How did I get that name?

Kindergartners: Don't know

Me: I mean I know I'm crazy and all

Student: Well you kind of are.

New Normal

The last time I taught/ saw students in person March 13, 2020..

Let that sink in for a moment... 

One would think that with that having been a Friday the 13 that it was some crazy prank, silly joke, start of spring break.. 

Nope- that was the day we walked out the building not knowing when we would return. We had hoped, planned for it being just a two week break and then Spring Break. Our plan.. return after Spring Break.. 

Here we are... May 1 2020  E-learning has become the new normal. To walk into school you are walking into a frozen moment in time. If you didn't know better, you would think we were on an all school field trip, or just out of the building and we would be back soon.. An eerie feeling none the less.. 

While the classroom may now be our kitchen table, home office, cleaned out closet.. the teaching and learning continue- it has too..

We are in a new normal.. we shall figure this out..we always do... we are teachers. 

What they don't prepare you for

Colleges and universities do a great job in preparing undergrads for the teaching profession, but they don't prepare you for everything.... 

May I offer the following... 

• student pregnancy
• student witnessing a murder aftermath
• student being murderded
• student being accused of muder
• allegidly of another students father
•  raids by the FBI
• talking to US Federal Marshall's and US Department of Education  
• watching a mayor shut down schools in a major metropolitan city for two weeks due to pandemic
• your own school being shut down for at least two weeks for pandemic
• don't worry though the state still expects you to complete state wide testing 
• state DOE promising 20 waiver days due to pandemic 

Erasers as emotional support

In my classroom I have giant size erasers that I bought at the Dollar Tree. My students love to use them. So much so that sometimes I have to hide them so they don't fight over them. 

This morning.. I learned that apparently these erasers are also emotional support items.. who knew.. 

One of my first graders was using an eraser and go to the essay portion of his reading test... all he had to do was copy the answer from his reading book.. 

Me. okay M all you need to do is copy your answer from your book and you are done. And no you don't need the eraser on your head. 

M: But it's so long..

Me: I know but you got this.. 

I look away and then look back.. 

Me: M why is the eraser on your shoulder? 

M: Smiles

Me: Is it helping you get the essay copied down? 

M: Yep I need it.. 

Well okay then.. I might add he had the essay copied in record time. 

Hmmm

So we are at almost the end of January... We have been in school since the middle of August..

My fifth grade teachers just realized TODAY that it takes me two class periods to assess the 5th graders because they are split  between both classes. Hmmm yeah, ya think?!?

They tell me that they will do better to send them all down at the same time. (There are 4 of them).. Okay...

What they really want - is for me to be in class with them for the other afternoon class... yep...

Carpool

Tales

Oh so many tales to tell.... 

I was told I was a buzz kill today because I told a student to rethink her math answer. So sorry..

I was told I have way too many minions and Mr. Potato head items in my room.. Too bad

 
Teacher: Can B no longer have a pack up buddy at the end of the day. She is doing so much better now that she is on medication. 
Me: I don't care, you're the classroom teacher, she's not on my caseload, not one that I keep track of  I don't care what you do. 
Teacher: Okay, I wanted to check with you before I did anything

Spoke with school psych, about when she was going to test a student she says she will let the teacher know. I let admin know, because heaven help me if I don't. 
Teacher at cluster meeting: Oh just so you know G is getting observed and tested on such day. 
Admin looks at me clueless.. Dude.. its part of the testing process... Oh okay
Day of testing: 
Office emails me - mom dropped papers off for you, G is getting tested today. 
Scanning in papers at copy machine to send to school psych - classroom aide oh you know G is getting observed today right. 
Lunch - my para - Oh P told me that G was observed and tested today (5 inches from my face) Me: yes I know she's in the testing process


Teacher emails parent to let parent know that student is missing 5 assignments and she is very concerned (this is week 1 of quarter 2. Also not a new problem)
Parent replies thinking organization and needs to be looked at. Parent then realizes I'm not included in on the email and responds again to include me
Me: How about we do an expandable folder, do away with all the folders. I can help with organization
Parent That sounds like a great idea
Teacher: we need to come up with a plan
 Ummm.. Okay

Later that day.. 
I'm writing down homework assignments, 
Teacher walking by -We need to come up with a plan, He's missing 5 assignments I'm concerned

Oh an I have confirmed that I will be at this child's parent teacher conference 


Student tells me that she was waiting for me outside my office working on her science test and someone called her fat and stupid for asking how to spell a word. 
After much research - and pulling video camera footage the situation didn't happen. 
Student was shocked that we have video cameras and that I thought to pull them and watch them. Amazing how quickly I got an appology. 


Parent email's staff giving some background information on student and update on doctor's appointment. Also gave perspective on how they think it is going. Parent is fairly accurate on some accounts. Not so much on others but that is typical. 

In the email parent ask for a meeting with the staff and gave several times they were available.  No response was made. So I took it upon myself to try and get it set up. Classroom teacher comes out and says that she has emailed parent to say the 5th grade can meet with parents is at 9:30 because the time offered by parent they were teaching. Keep in mind I offered to cover classrooms to get the meeting scheduled. Teacher failed to tell me she talked to mom and demanded to know what I had told mom. My reponse - no one said anything about meeting with mom so I took it upon myself to set it up.  Shocking how I got her email communication with mom when I included admin in on the conversation

The same teacher expects me to send her all communication that I have with parents in her room. Why? She sends me her weekly email to parents.  

We meet tomorrow with said parent. Will be so much fun!


Have a teacher insist that a child is dyslexic because he can't pass a reading test. Nope.. maybe it's a bad reading test. She is worried that he won't pass standardized testing this year. Well he did last year and I'm really not worried about what he gets on it If he were 100 points off I would worry 

Same teacher wants to send same student down to have tests in my room for two different reasons two different week
Teacher - I want to send him down because he can't pass his reading test
Me  great go for it. 

Teacher- I feel comfortable sending C down more than M. 
Me - Why?
Teacher - C has a diagnosis, M doesn't
Me- What diagnosis does C have?  
Teacher - He has dyslexia
Me umm no
Teacher - yes we have the documentation 
Me- nope- I don't have it not in his perm file I don't have any idea what you are talking about
Teacher - you mean mom just gave me the report 
Me - yep
Teacher - besides M doesn't have any diagnosis - I can't justify sending her down.  
Me - she can't focus to save her life. I don't need a piece of paper to have her come down. If she needs to come down send her down. It doesn't matter. 

Conversation turns into demanding to know why we don't have a building wide policy as to which kids come down and who don't and that it shouldn't he a teacher by teacher decision

Policy - if they need it come down.  

45 min later at cluster meeting teacher brings up that we need to have a building wide policy for who comes down to resource for tests. Which the leads to some teachers feeling bad for not documenting things. (Don't be) Which then leads to a whole argument on who decides and how it is decided who gets a 504 plan and arguing about why certain students have not gotten one. At one point I just stopped talking.  

I may have sent this after the meeting:

I got to thinking more after our meeting today. 

For students that you are concerned about, a great way to document your concerns for a student is through the TAT process. You can document your concerns and get some fantastic interventions for the classroom. As always make sure the parents are aware of this. 

Then at the end of the year we can sit down and determine if what was done is working and if it needs to continue or not. My wish is always that accommodations and supports are temporary and that one day won't be needed. There are times when students need the support of coming down to my room and then the following year they are fine. This is a sign of growth in the student. 

When students come down to my room, not everyone gets the same supports. Why? Each student is different. What is truly unique about all of the students I work with, is that they get that when they come down. They know not everyone is going to get/have/ do the same thing and they are okay with that. Why? Because they know that they are getting what they need for them. Students have always seen the area as a safe place, and have always established what happens in the room stays in the room mentality. 

We are very blessed here in terms of what support I can offer to students. A lot of the support I offer here in public schools would not be allowed. Partly because my caseload would be through the roof, and partly because in public school students have to have a parent signature to see me outside of the classroom. (Darn Special Ed license) ;) 

When we write plans for students, or even consider writing plans for students (IEP ALP) no two discussions are going to be the same. No two plans are going to be the same. Nor should they be. All students are unique individuals. Not all students need a plan or supports. Sometimes, students just fall into the area of school is just going to be hard and they are going to have to work a little bit harder than others. That's okay too..

Considering a student that needs some additional help? Start here with the TAT forms

Please don't hesitate for a student who you are concerned about. Please don't let outside situations influence what we do in the best interest of kids. Fair isn't equal, equal isn't fair. 

Okay I'm stepping off my soap box... 

At another cluster meeting I was told that a parent took their child to get tested over the summer and wanted to discuss the report. Teacher wanted to know what to do with this information. 

Me; Get the report and I will be at his conference to discuss testing 

Few days later got the report. It is not that great of a report. All of the tests fell in the average range. Accommodation recommendation were pretty much that since he is dyslexic, then he shouldn't be held accountable for anything. Nope not going to happen . 

Teacher feels that he needs more than a 504 plan, but also admits that he can do the work when he wants to. She thought she could outsmart me and show me NWEA. Reading he was in the 70th percentile.. nope Math for fall was weak but looked to be a fluke. Sorry not going to recommend testing for him



Email from today: 

Me:

Just a reminder for tomorrow.. 

I will be unavailable from 9:30 until about 10:15. I have a parent meeting that I need to attend. 

Chris will be doing her normal thing..

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Teacher 

I will be out tomorrow I am sure Vicki will use all the help that you can give her.

 

Me:

With tomorrow being Friday mass and test day... I doubt that I will have any time to come up and help.. sorry  

 

Teacher

  NP She can get it done.

 

Yes yes she can... 

New School Year

Ahh... welcome to a new school year!!! 

Teacher workdays start in the morning... and the end of the summer has ended on such a fun note... 

• Principal includes me in a response to a parent about speech services and says that I will get in contact with her next week when we are back in the building. Not a problem. Let him and the Admin Assistant know that I am on top of it. Email parent, then remember that the child already has an IEP so I email parent back saying oh wait never mind..I forgot she had an IEP.. and let her know we had it under control.. Let principal and Admin Assistant know she already had an IEP and this changes things but I have it under control 
• Admin Assistant replies to my second email telling me that I need to take care of this situation because I am the only one that knows how this process works.. Um mm... did you miss the message of I have it under control and I am in communication with parent?  
• Parent emails principal that her child who is going into first grade was diagnosed with ADHD over the summer and that the doctor feels as though that the child needs a 504 plan so how does mom go about that? Principal - not a problem thank you for following up with your doctor I am including the person to follow up with. (Me) She will follow up with you when we are back in the building and she will be able to write up the plan... Ummm... just cause you have a diagnosis doesn't mean you need a 504 plan Not even a child on my radar last year... 
• Met with a parent and child was diagnosed with ASD in addition to DS. At this meeting I am trying not to let my jaw hit the floor. As mom is explaining that ABA therapy works wonders (duh it was developed for people with DS) and my principal sits and asks dumb question after dumb question and gives mom everything she wants. We meet a staff after the meeting..\
• Umm.. what is our staff supposed to do with this therapist in the room full time? 
• Principal: So this was decided at the conference why wasn't I informed.. Umm No it wasn't decided at the conference. This is the first I have heard of it. Mom never even mentioned looking into ASD. 
• So when is her next conference? May 
• Principal: You need to reach out to HSE to get her diagnosis changed because it means more money for us. not that easy but okay... otherwise.. wow just wow
• Attended summer conference - staff demanded that I be in their room next year and was upset when I really had no reason to be. Sorry that you assumed... One literally told me that she can't teach without a second person in her room . 
• Principal hired a second part time aid for the year.. Didn't ask for one can't justify one but he wanted to spend HSE money so he decided to do it...mark my words there will be drama