It hasn't been easy. The construction on my classroom didn't start until a week and a half before school started. Two days before school started, they figured out which room I would be in temporarily. 18 hours before my kids arrived, I was allowed into my classroom. Needless to say, it was not the smoothest start to the school year.
God has entrusted me with 7 kids to take care of and teach for the year. I have an assistant and an ASL interpreter that I work with every day. Some days, I've felt like we are struggling to make it to the end of the day. Some days we survive. This past Friday, we had a really good day.
It has been a huge learning experience! I've had to deal with difficult parents, teachers who don't understand/appreciate/respect my job. I've had to decide what my classroom management would look like. I've struggled with the switch from a wealthier school district where I did observations/student teaching to a high poverty school. (It took 2+ days to get my computer working and another week to get a working computer for the students.)
When you go to college, you are told that you should befriend the school secretary and the school custodian. Another important group of people are the cafeteria ladies. At the end of the 2nd day of school, the secretary showed me the supply closet! The custodian has brought and rearranged all of the furniture in my room. The lunch ladies have allowed my kids to come 10 minutes early to lunch, given us breakfast when the bus was late in the morning, and been really flexible with the chaotic-ness of our schedule. I am thankful for the wonderful people that have been in my life. Between these three groups of ladies, the resource room special education teachers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, those in charge of assistive technology, special education specialists, and our school's special education coordinator, there have been a number of great people in my life. God has blessed me with working with a number of Christians. I'm thankful for that!
I had someone tell me that I can encourage myself on the tough days by reminding myself that even if nothing academic got accomplished, we provided much needed respite to parents. My goal is to help these kids learn as much as possible to help them be as independent as possible, but some of my kids will spend the majority of their lives living with their parents.
My class is never boring. I had to get kids out from under the bleachers after getting stuck. I had 10 minute conversations with students on why to use the bathroom instead of wetting their pants. I had a kid pass gas in my face when I was sitting with him and trying to process why he was in trouble. I had a kid pretend to pass out. There is never a dull moment in my class.
This week is going to bring some new adventures with a behavior specialist and going bowling.
Just because... here are a couple posters I have hanging in my classroom :)
(this is in our library area)
Thanks for sticking through my rambling update of the past couple weeks! :)
Thank you for sharing!
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