Whirlwind Changes: an East Side school

I just realized how long it's been since I've posted on this thing! A lot has happened since the end of last school year; I just finished long-term substituting at a school in Granite school district for a teacher on maternity leave. This upcoming Monday I start a new position (as a full-time fourth grade teacher this time) at a school called Oakridge in the same district. (It is a rather long story why I am no longer working in the Salt Lake City School District, albeit it was not my choice to leave SLCSD. But I am happy where I am now & am satisfied with my surroundings and the environment of Granite.)
To make a long story short, the school I was just subbing at was a Title I school (like those I have been teaching at previously.) My new adventure comes on Monday, when I start working at a non-Title I school, in an affluent neighborhood.....in short, an east side school! I have been lamenting having to leave the wonderful 4th graders at Wilson behind; they really made me feel needed & I had plenty of behavior difficulties to deal with between two young gentlemen mainly) to keep me reasonably occupied. I also had the standard issue of many students below grade level for reading, but now as I look at the kids' scores at my new school, I am going through a bit of culture shock; there are only two kids who do not appear to be on or above reading level! I have also already noticed how much more involved parents are at this school; when I went to meet my new class on Wednesday after my last day at Wilson, there were at least as many parents there as students, & they had plenty of questions for me.  It was a bit nerve-racking since in the past I have practically had to pull teeth just to have parents of students show up for a SEP conference. I was also overwhelmed with how many classroom volunteers this school has and the arts programs available to them; to be honest, my heart was aching for the underprivileged students and schools I have worked with & it made me sad. But nobody said change was easy.
On my last day at Wilson, a student composed a song for me about how I made them "shine like stars," & the full-time teacher Nikki was back, & she & the kids presented me with cards & gifts. I felt very loved & I know I will be missed there; I will certainly miss those kids! Even though they were only mine for about 2 months, we had really begun to understand & respect each other.  One of the troubled young men from my classroom kept hugging me and begging me not to leave. Another student claimed her world was "over" since the best sub was leaving. I hope to see those kids again in the future; I may get lucky & go back to Wilson for a job interview at the end of the year; the administration would seemingly like to see me back there as well. :)
I was glad that my last day with the kids could be celebrated with a Read-a-Thon. They all brought blankets or pillows from home & cuddled up with buddies on the carpet. I presented each child with a small bookmark I'd made the night prior; I felt like it was an appropriate "good-bye" present. They all really loved the bookmarks & were excited to use them! Youth & innocence is so refreshing & easily pleased.
I hope I can make an indelible impression at my new school the rest of the year; I have really been able to mark growth and make changes more readily, it seems, in Title I schools, but I am willing to accept the new challenge placed before me & see where it leads me.

One Long Day!

I don't even know how to describe my day today; it was more than hectic/crazy/emotional or anything I've quite experienced before. It may have partially been attributed to the weather; the students are just itching to have an outdoor recess again & the cold , inclement weather has made that an impossibility for them. They get really antsy and start misbehaving as a result though. They were hardly listening the entire school day, & then two students who were absent for the fractions intro yesterday tried to act like they already understood exactly what we were talking about today.
This morning I had an upset parent call the school counselor & insisting that I get her daughter referred to Special Ed because she thinks her daughter has dyslexia. She won't listen to reason either, because a student with dyslexia would not be able to read 89 words a minute with 99% accuracy. But  anyway............it is always interesting to me that parents seek to blame others (their teachers) for deficits or flaws in a child's learning, when it may very well be the fault of the parents for not reading with them or doing homework at home. That same parent, might I add, sent her child to school without brushing her teeth, & I gagged every time she came to talk to me or ask me something in class. How thankful I was that the school counselor gave her a spare toothbrush & toothpaste.
The mother of a MIA student (he has been in Mexico with his sisters since before Christmas Break) came to inform me that he is not doing well, & while she wishes for him to return, the doctors are concerned about him traveling, because he has low brain fluid (which will affect his health and his learning.) She was very stressed out about the whole situation.
One student who has ADD, and I suspect a touch of ODD, (because he becomes very defiant every time I catch him doing something he should not be doing) began a new behavior contract today. I was very hopeful about it, but he did not really do that well with it, which was discouraging.  I am trying to find a way to help him be successful and make the most of his education.
Then, I have this student who has reported physical abuse various times now, & DCFS finally came & interviewed him at the school today. Well, he was a mess after that, & didn't want to come back into class & have students looking at him. I squatted down in the hallway on his level, & talked to him, trying to reassure him he did the right thing in reporting the abuse. Poor thing! He really felt bad for "getting his dad in trouble" (even though it is a risk for him in his life right now.) He stayed glued to my side pretty much the rest of the day, venting about various things and writing his feelings out. That was very heart-wrenching and bewildering to read; he's only a 10 year old!
Probably one of the worst things is that by the end of the day, I was so emotionally exhausted that I was set off by every little thing my students were doing. I felt bad later, but I was mostly upset with them & expressed that at the end of the math block very bluntly. I know they will forgive me though, & tomorrow is a new day.....thank heavens!

"The Hulk"

So.....I ripped my pants at school today, just above the knee. I bent over to put the net books up,  & it ripped! I guess I shouldn't be surprised though; my friend Jamie told me yesterday that I am ripped & my trainer did work my thighs out like crazy last week. (When I informed her of what happened on the phone, she called me "the hulk.")Well, I'm at least thankful they ripped after school....I don't know how I would have explained things to my students.

We have had an intense couple of weeks. I had one student get written up by the assistant principal for slapping a little 1st grader across the face before school a few days ago.  What's worse is that she told the 1st grader to go & do that same thing to "someone she hates." Nothing like that Christmas spirit, right?!

The other day during my after-school tutoring program, one of my students started dancing wildly, & the other student with us at the table turned to me & said, "well, that was awkward." hahaha. It was said with such disdain I couldn't help laughing out loud.

Then to add to all the exciting stories today, one of my students crapped his pants.  I'm not sure how it happened, since he asked me to go to the bathroom, I excused him to do so, & then minutes before I excused them, I commented on the "fart smell," but of course no one would own up to it. I then instructed the class if they need to fart like that ever again, they should definitely go to the bathroom.
Well, come to find out he actually crapped his pants, because my colleague noticed the smell in her room, not long after my class joined hers for ELD.  They were doing projects spread out on the ground & she said she was checking people's butts to see who the culprit was, but it wasn't until they lined up to go home that she saw the brown stains seeping down his legs. Poor kid. Ugh!

Learning to take it!

This week was an interesting one, especially as far as professional development goes. I got to go observe some other math teachers at other schools & have already adopted a few math review games I really enjoyed watching. I introduced my ECAP comprehension goal to the kids & we practiced the different comprehension skills with a passage on winter this Friday. I'm thankful we only have 2 days  this next week, & that I get those 2 days to go back over what we started practicing & learning Friday. The only sad part is that when the kids got to choose free seating (from a class reward they'd earned the day before), some students were kind of left to themselves, & others were very particular about who came & sat by them. (The new class president had quite a gathering around him; he's kind of a goofball though anyway, & I believe the boys' intention by sitting by him was to goof off during the lesson!)  Two girls were even arguing about who got to sit by this cute boy they both like......this is not junior high, people! :/ And one little guy didn't get to sit by his friend ("the cute boy") because of all the girl drama, so he promptly began crying. He's only cried twice this year, but when he cries, he really cries! But the activity itself turned out good & they were mostly all engaged.
On Wednesday this week I got observed, as part of the formal observation process for provisional teachers, & while the lesson & instruction went well, my students' behavior really didn't. And while I noticed some things during the lesson, I wasn't aware of all the distractions & blurting out that took place (probably because I was so nervous to have the assistant principal in the back of the room, scribbling away on her paper.) So, this is a chance for a fresh start on a few things! After visiting with her (the post-conference) on Friday, we have pinpointed a few areas for improvement; cleanliness of the classroom & a tighter management system. I am going to implement this after Thanksgiving Break, & hopefully I will come up with a very effective way to teach it; my kids are wonderful, but they sure like to talk & squirm a lot throughout the entire day....it can really get to ya!

The "New Kid"

I will admit that when I went into school this morning, the last thing I expected was a new student. But in he came while I was preparing the classroom for the learning activities today. His mother accompanied him, informing me that her son had moved schools several times now, & that he was particularly sensitive. She also mentioned that he was going through "puberty." (I put that in quotation marks because I'm not exactly sure how a 10-year-old is already experiencing that, but I just let it go.)
When he went to another classroom this afternoon, based on his English language-speaking level, he ended up next-door to me. Apparently his phone rang during that class, & he walked out of the teacher's classroom to answer it. When she came over & vented to me about the situation, I found it strange that he had done so. When school was over, he had to walk by my classroom, so I stopped him & asked why he'd answered the phone in the middle of class. He responded that it had been his mother, so he answered it. While I did not want to really rebuke him when that was his response, I still gently reminded him that cellphones are not permitted during school hours & he would need to check it into the office tomorrow. (What I was really wondering is why that woman called him when she knew he was in class. But I'll save that conversation for a later date.)
One of my students is becoming increasingly more like a student I had last year, in the tantrum-throwing sense. She threw her book on the floor today during the whole class reading, & pulled her hood up over her head. When I went to talk to her, she burst into tears & refused to take her hood off, at which point I asked her to go sign her card for not following directions. That only infuriated her, to the point that I had to send her next-door to write a letter home minutes later; many of her classmates were distracted & unable to focus & do their work.
Then one kid slept through nearly every lesson this morning. I made everyone do jumping jacks & Yoga after recess though, & felt like that might cure him. Surely it did not. He put his head back down on his hands, at which point I got very frustrated with him & told him that he's surely going to fall asleep if he keeps putting his head down. I was trying to be careful in the way I spoke to him though, because he wrote some pretty suicidal lyrics on the back of his self-evaluation sheet last Friday & I'm worried about him. What can you do?
I honestly wonder what I need to do for some of these kids who are emotionally unstable; it concerns me for them as well as their classmates (because it requires my attention & effort every time something happens.)

Drama drama.....fo yo MAMA!

I don't know where to begin! Between the incidents yesterday & today, I think I'm about ready to pull my hair out! I do have to chuckle at yesterday's incident, however much it may have hurt one student's feelings though. He told me someone special in his life had died & that another kid in the class was mocking him & calling him a "crybaby." I approached the bully student & began lecturing him for teasing another student about such a loss, when he himself had lost his father last year. When I called "the victim" over, however, I was remiss to discover that it was his crab (& not his "gramps") who had died. While I still made the bully apologize, I felt ridiculous for how I handled the situation in that moment.

Today at recess was also quite comical, though it involved several people crying & getting emotionally involved more than I thought was possible for 4th graders.
Apparently one student taunted another student that he was going to be the "new boyfriend" of this little girl, to another girl who is a friend to both of them. When that student taunted him, the "boyfriend" lost his temper & pushed this guy into a fence, & started chasing at him, yelling at him about how that was his girl. When I spoke to him in class, I set him straight & told him he can't even have a real girlfriend at this age, to which he replied, "Well, I've taken her to McDonald's." (Wow! Classy date right there.) I reassured him that the time would come when he could drive & take girls out & date them, but that 4th grade wasn't that time, & certainly not ideal for getting all wound up over either.

"Keep Your Butt to Yourself!"

SO today started off in a very unorthodox manner; a student came in & announced that a 3rd grader had threatened to kill her after school today.  When I inquired as to what was said, I realized the girl who threatened already had a history with her. This girl has been making derogatory comments about my student's mom, and my student started making them right back.  My student also petitioned this girl to share her friend (since she insists that Aaliyah has taken control of her friend.) I walked them both down to the office where the assistant principal admitted she was on her way to get the 3rd grade girl out of class anyway, because she has been bullying other girls (calling them “whores” and such. That was not a word I knew in 3^rd grade!)  They both were sentenced to a social skills class with the assistant principal after-school on Friday; that sounds interesting…..I wonder what those are actually like. At least my students were reading quietly at the back table, under my team member’s supervision, when I returned.  

Most of the rest of the day passed without incident, with an occasional interruption and blurt-outs. I did end up moving two students because one girl would not stop talking during independent work time for math, so I changed her seat with a girl in the front.  She who had been sitting in the front, is a “know-it-all” who rarely raises her hand to make a comment, was the perfect candidate to move back there, because now she will have to raise her hand to get my attention from all the way back there.

One of my most undisciplined students this year, shoved a crayon in the pencil sharpener near the end of the day when the kids were working on their soil profiles in their science journals, & that kind of threw me over the edge.

I kept another student after school to discuss his behavior with him. He was constantly talking all morning when he should have been working, and then when the kids lined up to get colored pencils, he was pushing his butt and backside into another girl in the classroom insisting that she started it while they were waiting in line. When I asked them to sign their cards, I told them they had to put “could not keep butt to self” & that we would be showing their discipline cards to their parents at parent-teacher conferences next month, so I hoped they were sufficiently humiliated at that point. I'm such a kind teacher! ;)