This week was a l o n g week. I love my job and I love working with my students, however there are those weeks that I am more than willing to wave farewell to. Here's a recap:
Monday: Good day! Students worked hard...overall fab day.
Tuesday: Another good day! I can see that some of the students are getting sick, we had a lot of coughs and noses being blown. One student got sick, and we ended up sending him home just as a precautionary measure. Another student, who had been out of school in the hospital for two weeks returned today! Everyone was so excited to see him again. His spirits seemed to be high as I completed some of the lessons he missed with him in the morning. It was a relief to see him doing well and willing to participate with his teachers and fellow classmates.
Wednesday: Challenging day. Behaviors were abound. One kindergartner went on a field trip the School Forest with an assistant, leaving us with a substitute aid. While I understand and completely appreciate all that the subs in the room do, the entire room (schedule, tone, students, even myself!) gets thrown off when this happens. At about 9:00 a first grader was brought into my room to be disciplined for stubborn, defiant, and inappropriate behavior. The rest of the morning/early afternoon went alright, but at about 1:30 all of that changed. There were many, many things going on at this time so I apologize if it gets confusing, but here it goes...I had two groups going at the time, one was a lower math group consisting of four students, the other was a high math group consisting of two students. Typically, I work with the group of two leaving the other group to one of my aids we attempted this and it did not work out. One of the students in the lower math group was quite grumpy due to lack of sleep, and was only happy when being fed. He joined my higher group and I had to change my plans to letting the two complete a worksheet with my verbal help while I fed my hungry student. As I was working with these kids, I could hear the nurse and the sub instructing and pleading with a student to have good behavior, which was quite obviously a futile cause. At the same time a co-worker of mine came in to ask some questions that ended up distracting me from feeding which resulted in applesauce and chocolate milk all over the table, floor, and surrounding chairs. After my co-worker left, I was being called across the room to retrieve a band-aid for another student and while I was there, to discipline the defiant/stubborn student. When I returned to the aforementioned post, more applesauce and chocolate milk had been spilled and splattered all over. Next thing I knew, I looked up at the clock and saw that it was 2:00, and we needed diapers to be changed, snacks to be eaten, work to be finished, and packing up to be done. At this time in the day I decided it would be best if we stopped the school work, and simply attempt to maintain behaviors and moods until the school day came to and end, which seemed to work out. The tone in the room was changed from one of high stress to one of neutral, and once the kids were on the bus I was able to take one deep breath before cleaning and setting up my room for an IEP meeting. The meeting went well, and all information (although it wasn't all favorable to the parent's ears) was received well, and arrangements were made to encourage success for the student at hand.
Before I go on, I would just like to say how blessed I feel to be working with the general education teachers that I am this year. They are wonderful, and I absolutely love working with them, and seeing them strive to help each one of my students succeed. YAY :)
Thursday: Typical day, some trouble at recess, but overall a good day.
Friday: Honeymoon period for my students is 100% over. Behaviors, Behaviors, BEHAVIORS! One student in particular was being very defiant and inappropriate throughout the day. Toward the end of the day he ended up sitting in the safe place for blurting (after being encouraged and reminded in many ways) answers and silly phrases without raising his hand and waiting quietly. After a few minutes he was able to rejoin the group, but would only last up to 5 minutes before the next outburst. Unfortunately, this student did not receive 5 stars and was then expected to sit on a shape until it was time to pack up. Somehow, he ended up pushing a fellow classmate, which then prompted another student to do the same thing. They were both told to apologize and that they could not pack up to leave until their classmates had finished packing first. I was met with a response of swearing, which then caused the student to wait until all the other classmates were on the bus before packing up.
Here's the issue that I struggle with the most: How do you teach a student the difference between right and wrong behavior when he seemingly feels no remorse for imposing pain and/or discomfort to those around him? Each time I talk to/discipline this student he has a smirk on his face, and does not appear to have any compassion for anyone outside of himself. So, that is the question and I am hoping that I will find the answer soon...maybe even this week!
I am looking forward to a new week with new experiences and a clean fresh slate! See y'all later :)
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