Johnny’s I.E.P.

Had an I.E.P. for Johnny today, first thing in the morning.  In my experience, in an IEP, teachers usually sit and nod and say, “uh huh” from time to time.  At that was true in this case.

We know Johnny’s mom was a bit high mintanance, so I think everything took a bit longser.  And since I had a planning day in the morning, I didn’t have an excuse to leave early.  It took about an hour, with a lot of explainations of tests.

Turns out the tests showed that Johnny has a lot of needs.  He is pretty smart, but his language processing skills are very lacking.  The poor kid.  He’ll be getting about 2 hours a week of small group help with our Speech and Language teacher.  He needs it, and it should really help.

I’m thinking of making a bet with a fellow teacher who happens to be an L.A. Kings fan.  The fan of the loser of tonight’s game has to wear the jersey of the winning team.  What do you think?  The Kings are due for a lose!  Again, we’ll see.

*****

I’ve lost 3 students in the last 2 months, 4 all together.  I’ve gotten 2 new ones, one just lately.  So I’m down to 27 students.  I haven’t had that few students in a very long time.  What that means is I’m going to get all the new 4th grade students that come.

My new girl is really nice.  We’ll call her “Daisy.”  She’s bright and friendly, and seems to fit right in.  The boy I got about6 weeks ago is very sweet, but a bit odd.  He’s being tested.  Something seems a bit off with him.  It might just be his personality.  All the teachers love him because he is so sweet.  But he is always the last to do things in my classroom.  We’ll call this boy “Johnny.”

Redemption

Another 4th grade teacher asked me to mentor one of her students.  Apparently the boy has a good family going through some hard times, and he’s acting out because of it.  Maybe I can help.  Say hi to him when I see him, call him out by name.  Hang with him from time to time.  We’ll see.

I’m a Bad Person

There’s a special breakfast this morning for teachers who are mentoring students, and their mentees (sp?).  I feel like I’m about the only one who isn’t mentoring a student, and I feel GUILTY.  That and selfish.

I try to remind myself that I”m already working with 5th graders at church.  That’s mentoring, right?  But those guys have so many more advantages than these kids.  At least I think they do.  That might be making assumptions that I shouldn’t.

So I feel guilty and selfish.

Back at School

Christmas break ended…and it was not long enough.  I’d like to say it was good to be back, but I’ll take home with my family every time!

Getting back was made a bit easier by the fact that NEXT week would only be a 4 day work week.

Christmas Break

Boy, that week before Christmas vacation is great!  Seems like no matter what happens, you keep thinking, “Just a few more day.  Just a few more days.”  We had Pajama Day on Thursday, and an assembly and minimum day on Friday.  It’s too bad we couldn’t have switched those, but oh well.

Cleaned up the room a little, then left at around 1:30.

Parent Conferences (and other ravings)

I don’t understand parents sometime.  What makes them think that it is okay to request a time for a conference, confirm that time, and then not show up to that conference, without a note or a phone call?  Do they not care about their child’s education?  Do they not think it is rude to just not show up for a scheduled meeting?

I honestly think a large percent of these parents do not place much value on their child’s education.  Maybe they figure that they didn’t get one, and they’re doing alright.  So anything their kids do at school will be an improvement.  I don’t know.

But I keep reminding my students if they want the best chance to do something for work that they actually enjoy doing, they had better get an education.  If they want to avoid working every day doing something they don’t like, they need to get an education.

But I think most of the parents think they have no control over what their kids do at school, and how much the child learns.  They expect the teacher to do all the work, and I think most are too busy and too tired to really put much effort into their child’s education.  Let me say that again.  I think most of the parents feel they are too busy or too tired to put much effort into their child’s education.

And I think the parents just feel they cannot get their child to do what they want them to do.  Between the TV, the game system, and their busy schedule, they feel like if they ask their child to do something, when the child doesn’t, or says no, then there is nothing they can do about it.

Two things I know.  If my kid was as low as some of my students, I would be in communication with the teacher frequently, and asking for help, and working night and day with my student to get them up to grade level.  And the other thing:  I would hate to spend a week in some of these kids’s lives.

New Kid

I got called into the office the other day.  They wanted to warn me that I was getting a new student, and his mom or dad was requesting testing and for him to be put into a Special Day Class.  Looking at his records, they didn’t see any glaring needs, and he scored high enough on one test to indicate that he wasn’t autistic.  They though his parents might have thought he had ADHD.

Later that morning the boy came to class.  We’ll call him Mikey.  Mikey did not seem ADHD, although he did seem to be a little odd, and he did have a rough morning.  He was crying in class, and students saw him hitting his forehead numerous times.  I had him go to the office with another boy to run and errand for me, and while they were out, I was able to talk with the class about the new boy, and how he was asking.  They all knew he was having a rough day, so they all agreed to be extra nice to him.

By the afternoon he perked up a bit.  While talking to him, he continued to be a bit odd, but nothing too radical.

That night, while chatting on line with our school psych, I mentioned that I did not think Mikey was ADHD, but that he did seem to be a bit on the spectrum of Autism.  She tentively agreed.

It’s been about 10 days now.  I think Mikey definately seems on the spectrum.  There is something familiarly odd about him.  He’s a really nice boy.  The way he talks, and some of the things he says, and they way he acts at time, make me think he’s spectrummy.  But I’m no expert.

Conferences

Had my first few conferences yesterday.  It was a half day, so I had 6 in the afternnon.  Well, 6 were scheduled.  But two of them were with students who were absent that day, so I had my doubts.  And sure enough, those parents didn’t show.  I wish they would have called, but that is pretty wishful thinking for these parents.

The worst part was that my 5:30 didn’t show.  I left a message earlier in the afternoon, and even at around 5:40.  But no luck.  The student told me today that she was sorry she couldn’t come to the conference, but she had fallen down the stairs, and that’s why she couldn’t come to school.  Hmmmm, there were 9 hours between school starting and her conference.  She could have at least called.

Planning Time

We have a half day today.  Well, it’s planning time in the morning for the Fourth Grade team.  So the four of us are in the conference room to do some planning.  Who knows what we’ll plan about, and what we’ll get accomplished.  Hopefully some science, and maybe some writing.  And math, too.