Something Very Exciting (9/8/10)

Fainnaly I am getting to do something exciting.  As a matter of fact very exciting.  Today I was asked to attend a meeting to help discuss and develop our after-school tuorial program.  Kimberley Park has always been known to have a syccessful program, which other schools envy. In this area, we are the crem-de-la-crem".  I am excited to be a part of the planning and developing committee.  To make matters greater, we met with the director of the 21st Century program to see how we can collaborate and pool our efforts to make our program even more successful.  As it turned out, I already know Mr. V, because we worked together at my old high when he was a one-on-one counselor for one of my old students.  We establihed the hours of operation for our program.  Then we talked our programs rules and stipulated mandatory parent involvement.  Next we outlined Enrichment and solicited some teachers to to teach various things that would be of interests to our students.  We decided that no child could attend enrichment unless they had also attended tutoring.  Our Principal made tutoring mandatory for students in grades 3-5.  We set up some tentative dates.  One was for our next meeting date and the other for our upcoming parent meeting.  Our program will be up and running by October 4.  We still have a lot of kinks to work out but it was so exciting to be a part of this because it allowed me another opportunity to develop a curriculum.   This is giving me good practice.  By the time I graudate I will be a pro at curriculum development.

The Never Ending Story (9/7/10)

I had the opportunity to work with the School Guidance Counselor today because she asked me to be on the C.I.S. team.  I have had prior experience doing this because when I was a high school teacher, I was the chairperson of the SAT teacm which is now changed to CSI.  I went to the meeting and was congratulated on my internship by Dr. Drew who remembered me from two years ago.  We discussed how the committee should get started for the year, so we decided to focus on the list of students whose names have already been turned in.  Mrs. D, the School Guidance Counselor had the names of five students.  She also stated she would send and email out to teachers to get them to identify any problems in new students.  The meeting was very brief and we decided to meet again next Thursday after we've received som input from the teachers.  I can see that there is a big difference between the way this committee operated in high school than elementary school.  There was also some discussion concerning our methodic approach.  Dr. Drew stated what was used last year, has been proven to be unsuccessful , so they are considering using another method.  This never ceases to amaze me.  The school system is notorious for hyping up a new program, spending a ton of taxpayer dollars on it, then abandoning it after it is proven to be unsuccessful. 

Music Class

Today the music teacher had to leave because of a family emergency.  I was asked to go to her class.  When I got there she was preparing to leave, so she instructed me on what to do.  It was a 5th grade boys class and they were playing musical chairs. She gave me music to pick from but it was hard to find the right music and keep the boys engaged.  So I just put on a CD and the game began.  I played the same CD over and over and over.  The boys were enjoying themselves so much, that as they played the game I found myself laughing and having a great time with them.  I had never had the opportunity to work with an all-boy class, nor do a music lesson.  I am still not sure how musical chairs ties in to the curriculum but I guess it does in some way.  The boys had a great time and so did I just watching them.. In the end I gave the final winner a prize and then it was time for the evening annoucnments.  Soon they began to pack up for the 2:20 dismissal.  It was an awesome experience.

Ever Learning

Today my principal sate me down with some bad news.  She said we were losing a teacher.  The "powers-that-be" called to say we had to give up a teacher.  It looked like we were going to have to collapse a class and combine another to make things works.  We felt bad about this becasue we have so man new teachers this year that we felt no one was strong anough to handle a combined class.  We were sad about this because we feel the children suffer when we stretch ourselves so tightly.  So the principal pulled out her calculator, teacher to student ratio sheet and we did the math.  She also showed me her teacher allotment sheet so when we put our heads together, we found the mistake.  We were being counted inccorectly it appeared we were given an additional Pre-K class that has already been counted in our allotment.  Our Pre-K student enrollment was higher than we anticipated but it was already counted in our allotment.  The principal informed her supervisor who said sh'ed get back to us.  In the end, we did not lose a teacher, nor di we gain one.  IFrom this experience I learned how political this job really is.  I guess all's fair in love and war, but NOT in education.  Wow!

Recent Work Experience

Yesterday I witnessed a horrific situation with a 2nd grade boy that I was unprepared for.  The child was having a temper tantrum becasue he was asked to go into time out for excessive talking.  The young man actually ran outside the building and was headed down the street before the school custodian caught him and brought him back.  At first he was restrained by the principal in the front office because he kept trying to get out the door.  Finally when he realized he could not leave, he flailed his arms and legs wildly as he rolled across the floor, all the while screaming and crying profusely.  At one point he attacked me by punching me several times in the leg.  I had to tell him if he didn't stop, I would have the School Resource Officer take him away.  He stopped hitting me immediately. The child's mother was called and we waited for him to calm down.  Aftere almost 20 minutes of this behavior he calmed down and crawled into a corner.  He refused to look at any of us.  This child was extremely angry and violent.  The principal said he will need to be in self-contained and smaller sized classrooms.  I concur.  The boy's mother arrived and he still refused to talke.  He nodded in response to her questions.  When she learned how he had punched me she asked him to apologize.  At this point he fell back onto the chair and rolled on the floor and began crying again.  His mother stated that the child's doctor said he has a condition known as D.A.D. (Defiance Against Adults).  I was shocked to hear such labeling because in my opinion all children hate to told "no".  I felt really sorry for this mother whorepeatedly asked for prayer before she finally took her son home for the the remainder of the day.  I was extremely concerned for both this child and his mother.  I sensed she lacked any parenting skills, and is at her wits end.