2 More Weekends
Two more weekends and that's it for home for me. I was more depressed last week and the week before than I am this week, but it's starting to hit me again. This house is so familiar that it's very difficult to imagine someone ELSE living here. I think I'll miss the memories that this house holds for my family and the small things that are all too familiar to me.
We are having a yard sale next weekend and the weekend after will be mostly final packing and moving days. How depressing. The other side of me is really happy that my parents finally get to retire and enjoy themselves in Vancouver. I am hoping to spend the summer over there, but I know when the time comes to leave again, I'll wonder what the heck I'm doing coming all the way back to NB!?
The school year is almost over. I think we must be down to around 30 or so teaching days now. I can hardly believe my first year of teaching is almost over! Where did the time go? I'm in semi-panic mode as I have so much I left that I feel I need to cover (and practice) with them, but there is no time. It's full speed ahead from now until the end of June. My kids have to write a district math exam at the beginning of June and I'm going to be forcing math down their throats for the next little while.
I can't remember whether I mentioned the story about a note I received a few weeks ago. One of my behaviour kids showed up the day after he was out with a note from his mother saying "Dear Ms. Tan, please excuse him from school yesterday. He refused to get dressed for school so I grounded him for the day". Hm... I wonder who won that fight? This is the same parent who was so annoyed at me because her son received a "letter of concern" because of all the days that he's been out this school year. She ranted and raved for about 3 days straight until I called her and then suddenly, all was fine.
During my principal's observation of my teaching a few weeks ago, she had to pull one of my students out of my room because he was just being much too disruptive. I think she realized exactly how bad it can get in my classroom with the combination of students I have. This child, I really don't understand - he was flailing his arms, making noises and making faces and just generally moving in every which way that he could in his seat. He was trying his utmost to get everyone's attention, but the strange thing is, none of my kids were paying attention to him (I don't know whether this is because I told them that if they react, they'll go to the office, or whether it's because they are just so darn used to it that they don't care anymore)! So why would he continue to behave in that manner?!
When our positive behaviour intervention and support coach came to observe this student, she found that it wasn't him that was disruptive, it was the OTHER (not the one with the note, but another one) one that was causing a lot of disruptions. The frustrating thing is, nobody has seen my class in complete "action" when all the behaviours are at it AND the rest of the class thinks it's a free for all. Anyhow, she was also commenting on how she doesn't know how I can teach when I get interrupted at every 2nd word and the class thinks it's time for them to have conversations across the room. UGH! We did this lesson on "Knowing when to quiet down" on Friday, and the lesson stuck in their heads for all of 30 minutes. It's ridiculous!
It's not all bad though. I see their academic improvement and some of them are trying very hard to improve their behaviours. I've seen some children come along extremely well that it's hard to believe that it's the same child that walked into my classroom at the beginning of the year. I'm not saying it's all me, by far, a very large part of it is parental support.
Anyhow, I'd better stop here. Enjoy the weather!
Starting to miss...
Starting to be forced into packing up the last of my stuff and getting ready to sell things that we can't take with us. I think I haven't mentioned it yet, but our house has been sold and our closing date is around May 18th.
Our house is gradually emptying out and I'm beginning to feel depressed! I can't imagine driving into Fredericton and not being able to come HOME. The thought that this house will soon not be ours and will belong to someone else is really, really weird.
As for the future.. I'm not sure. Half of me hopes to land a contract for the next school year so that I can gain another year of experience but the other half of me hopes that I can move out West this summer. Ideally, I'd move out West and get a job immediately, better yet, have a job offer first! Realistically speaking though, that's not going to happen. I've been dragging me feet when it comes to applying for a BC teacher's license as the freaking application is over 10 pages long! The bigger problem is that I will need my principal to fill out a 2 page evaluation form about my philosophy, my planning and my teaching before I could actually submit it. Although I think she's understand if I asked her to fill it out, I wonder whether it'll make her hesitate when it comes to offering me another year at this school.
Speaking of my principal, she came in to evaluate me on Friday. She was actually suppose to come on Thursday and she accidentally went to my colleague's class instead (my colleague was scheduled for Friday, so she (principal) mixed the two of us up). Anyhow, I was teaching Math when she came in and at first, the kids were being pretty good. As our activity progressed, they started to become chatty (not as chatty as they usually are, but chatty nonetheless). I was kind of shocked (why, I do not know) that they would continue to behave in the way they were behaving even after I asked some in particular to stop talking or to pay attention. At the end of her observation, she actually took one student with her because he was just being disrespectful and very disruptive (he's one of my behaviour kids and was recently diagnosed with Aspergers AND ADHD). Anyhow, I had spoken to him multiple times and he did not stop. I didn't feel too badly about that because I told briefly told her that he has just been diagnosed and that I had requested for the Aspergers/Austism specialist come see me to help me put a plan in place for him but we had no luck with a meeting time yet. I think I didn't do as well as I feel I could do, probably because I was feeling really self conscious with her there. I'm going to have to revisit that lesson, especially after my "personal review" on it.. (I think I'm going through brain block right now because I can't think of what I wanted to fix)
Anyways, that's all for now.
Missing Child...
Our school's home and school association hosted a movie (Waterhorse) after school this afternoon in the school theatre. I left around 5pm today (early by my standards) and just received a call from my colleague about a half hour ago.
She said, after I left, an announcement came on asking all staff to help search for a student who belonged in my class. Good lord. They were calling and calling him for over 30 minutes and were starting to get frantic as they had searched the entire school, the yard and the vicinity. No student. Finally, one of the parents (or someone) said they were going to drive around to see if they had any luck. Low and behold.. where did they find him?! WALKING home.
Now, this is not just a short walk home for those of you who do not know the area. This would probably take a good 40 minutes for an adult to walk, nevermind a THIRD GRADER!! I can't believe he took it upon himself to walk him because he thought nobody was going to pick him up. It just reinforces our suspicions that he is NOT receiving the proper parenting at home that he needs. (This is the same child that is being referred to mental health) ..
Thank god he is safe is all I can say. I don't know how I would have reacted if I had still been at the school or if he hadn't been found.
What a week... and it's only Thursday
I've had such a week already. With my kids being extremely chatty and hyperactive, I've had a nasty note from a parent two days in a row. Her first complaint was that we sent a "Letter of Concern" home because of the many excused absences of her son. This being said, she's the mother who allowed him to stay at home because his two brothers were home sick and she thought it wouldn't be fair for him to come to school when they were home. I'm not sure how much was twisted by her son when he told me, but this is the same child who tells me he's not feeling well or he has a "tummy ache" and then goes home and is perfectly fine. This leads me on to her second complaint: the school should not allow students to call home when they are not sick. "As a parent, we feel obligated to come get our child when they call home and say they are sick". UMM.. RIGHT. I'm seriously going to tell your kid that he can't call home when he's telling me he's sick. Are you kidding!? When I phoned her and talked to her about this, she said that if she says no, he begins with the waterworks and the last thing she wants is him crying at school. Ok.. I'm not a parent, but GET A BACKBONE LADY!
The third complaint she had was that I gave him detention. It went on and on about another student and how that student is not disciplined (whether she is talking about at school or at home, I do not know). I didn't really respond to her complaints that day and only wrote that I had talked to her child about the repercussions of getting a "sad face" (sad, yes I know.. HAHA) and he will have detention now that hockey season is over. Her response to this was that she wants to know whether other children receive the same repercussions and that she wants to make sure that her son is being treated fairly and courteously. COURTEOUSLY!? He doesn't treat ME courteously! ARGH!! Each kid has an INDIVIDUALIZED plan because some kids respond well to one thing but not another. Her son does not respond to being sent to the office and the only thing that has worked for me so far is keeping him in to do work.
This is extremely frustrating because all of his behaviour stems from how he is at home. He's a smart boy and has a lot of potential but chooses not to do his work or to behave in class. Anyhow, she calmed down when I called and had many explanations to things that were both relevant and irrelevant to what she wrote. I get she's frustrated, but hey, I don't need to start my day off with a nasty note from a parent! Thank you very much.
The other major thing that's been going on is that I had to call child services. Scary. I didn't anticipate having to do it, but I had two incidents that made us suspect abuse. In all actuality, I feel that it's just a lack of understanding/education on the parents part - not knowing that some things are extremely old school and considered to be a no-no in today's society and that children are NOT like adults and need to be handled a little more gently. I shall not say more for I am paranoid of getting into trouble. It seems like teachers need to be sooooooooo careful about everything we do... it's like walking on bubble wrap and the goal is to not make a sound...
Hopefully today the kids will listen and behave.. I have my 2nd evaluation today (although she did say she didn't need to come in. It's only 15 minutes so I'm not too worried yet). The more important reason for me wanting them to behave is that I have a HEADACHE!
CIAO!
