Well my aide did it. She called me tonight at 8:30 p.m. to tell me that she wasn't going to be in tomorrow morning in support of the protest. She said she would show up later to "volunteer" in my classroom in the afternoon. As my regular readers know I am really ticked off over this. I more or less said to my aide that we cannot pick and choose what time we come into work. I said either you are working the whole day or you aren't. She said she wanted to come in the afternoon to make sure I wasn't shorthanded. She'd be there but she wouldn't claim it on her paycheck. Real freaking big of her! I said that wasn't acceptable and that she could volunteer her time in the office. I also let her know I would be having a chat with my Prinicipal about this in the morning. I then called my other boss (I am shared by the Prinicipal and the School Psych) and let her know that my aide had made the choice not to come in. I then said I wanted her out of my classroom next year. She's not a team player and I don't work with people who aren't team players. Unfortunately, my boss wasn't in so I left her a voice message. My aide wanted to make a stand and so have I. My students come first-end of discussion. Why can't I just teach without all the drama? Is that just too much to ask these days? I'm beginning to think it is.

                       Picking May 1st which is a day that used to be known as International Workers Day in Communist Russia and China (until they embraced capitalism) is not the way to win over the hearts and minds of middle America. This is not a Marxist country. Pulling your kids out of school and not showing up for work hoping to shut down our cities and towns is also not going to win over the American population.  General strikes may be common in Latin America and in Europe but they don't play well here. In fact, a brief study done by a university in Florida, showed that people here were less sympathetic to the immigrants' cause after a protest. The anecodtal evidence suggests that people were put off by the waving of Mexican flags and the impression that the people who are here illegally were demanding the law by changed for them. This protest could have been held on a weekend when children didn't have to be pulled out of school.  

               Anyway, I'm fighting mad now over this. I wouldn't have been this way if my aide had just come in and done her job like my other two. Classrooms should be free of a political agenda and the students' welfare and learning experience should always come first. What you do on your own time is your own business but when you mess around with my classroom time-it's war.

 

 

                             Today the temps here have soared into the upper 80's and it's warm out. One of my students got a really bad nosebleed which I believe was caused by the heat. We happened to look over and there like a major artery had been severed is my student with blood all over his face, hands and clothes. I jump up and throw on my latex gloves and get to work trying to stop the bleeding plus clean the kid up. Ricky who is sitting right next to the nosebleeder says to me," Miss. B. you are like a doctor". To which I say, "Just call me Dr. B.". At time I wasn't thinking about who I was talking to at the time. Then about ten minutes into the nosebleed I hear, "Dr. B., how are we going to stop the bleeding"? I look over and there is Ricky looking at me like my medical assistant. I promise him that his classmate was going to be ok. However, it took forty minutes total to stop the bleeding.

 

 

 

                          I'm sure a lot of you know that on Monday, May 1st, there are going to be immigration protests all over this country. People are urged to keep their kids out of school, not purchase anything or go to work. I've already spoken about how I feel about people keeping their kids out of school. However, what I haven't said  is about the issue of professionalism in the workplace. One of my aides is thinking about not showing up on Monday. This pisses me off to the highest degree. Politics do not belong in my classroom or even on my campus. I do not get a replacement for my aide should she not show up. I have to work shorthanded and my students suffer in the process by me not being able to give them as much attention as they need. I have made a lot of concessions for this aide and my other two aides this year with family problems, school issues and illness. This particular aide missed all of last week working due to car problems and now she wants to take another day off for a freaking protest? You have got to be kidding me. We hired this person to show up everyday to work with the condition that there are days when you are sick or have a personal reason. A protest does not fall under illness, family emergency or death. A protest is not a valid excuse to miss work. Quite frankly, the way I feel now is that if this aide does not show up on Monday, she will not be working in my room next year. I don't need that kind of lack of professionalism. What I need is a team player because in order for my type of classroom to run smoothly, I have to be able to rely on my aides to be at work at all times when possible. I have never just not shown up to work. I draw the line when the professionalism (or lack there of) of a staff member affects the educational process of my students. The students come first-bottomline.  

 

 

               Today was one of those days all teachers dread- The Rainy Day Schedule. There is nothing like being trapped indoors with eleven students on a sugar high from breakfast. Someone please remind me that when I get a sugar-laden breakfast again given to my students that I march them over to the district offices (right across the street) and drop them off for several hours in the office of the woman who purchases these psuedo meals so she can have the joy of my students' exuberance and subsequence crashing from the sugar let down. This was the same person that thought nachos would be good for breakfast one morning. I ran the students around the classroom during music. I had them do an aerobics video with me. I swear, it had no affect. They were the rowdiest they have ever been. 

              The most interesting part of the day for me was when we were doing Super Story. Today I had the kids write a story about themselves in style of their favorite book "No David" and "David Goes To School".  It was quite funny to hear them say things about each other that I would say to them. It started off as "Miss B. always says, 'No Janie! No kissing Miss. B.' ! Then as we went to each child, their classmates would say something about them that I always say such as: "Isaiah. . .zip up your pants" or "Lorenzo . . .no more tattling".  I was most amused to hear my words come out of my students' mouths.  Kalep took great umbrage over the one his classmates assigned to him. They all said, "Kalep...sit up". I have no idea why he would be so mad because at the time he was hanging out of his chair almost upside down with his head against the floor. Actually, everyone got a little touchy about what everyone else said about them which truly tickled me. They all can dish it out but they certainly cannot take it.

 

 

P.S. Janie didn't make it in from recess on time so all is back to normal.

 

 

                                  There are certain things that you can bet your paycheck on as a teacher. I could bet that when I say, "It's time to clean up", one of my students will suddenly act as if they were deaf and didn't hear me. I could also bet that someone will fall out of their chair at least once before lunch and that when my candy jar is empty, all eleven of my students will point that out to me numerous times throughout the day.  Now if I were a gambling woman and I am, I would have bet that Janie would never be the first one to line up after the bell rang at recess. If someone would have said that Janie would be there first to me, I would have laughed my head off. After all, I have chased her, ran after her, counted her down from 10, timed her out, bribed her with Hot Cheetos and lord knows what else to get the girl to come in from recess on time. We've been working on this since August 1st. I pretty much gave up the idea that she would actually do it. Well low and behold, the bell rings and I'm looking to see where everyone is. I turn around and there is Janie standing there as the first one in line. I have to do a double take to make sure I'm not hallucinating this. She grins and I know at that precise moment in time hell has finally frozen over. There is no other explanation for this but that. If this should happened again tomorrow, I will know that I have been dropped into a parallel universe.

 

 

 

                         If Oprah can have her own book recommendations, so can I.  I came across a book called, "32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny" by Phillip Done. He is a teacher that wrote about his experiences in the classroom over the past 20 years. Some of the things he mentioned made realize that kids are universal whether they are in a Special Ed class or in Gen. Ed. Anyway, I read the book in the hair salon whle I was getting my hair done and was drawing strange looks from other women due to me laughing out loud.  It's a very funny and touching read.

 

 

 

                             For those of you who aren't involved in education, an IEP means "Individual Education Plan". (I'm not going to get all techincial about the legalities of this-just want to keep the info as basic as possible)  All children in Special Education have an IEP. Children who qualify under Section 504 also have IEP's but that's a bit more complicated. IEP's are done every year and we call those "annuals". However, every three years we do what is known as a "triennial" where the child is re-tested via the psychologist, teacher and anyone else that provides services to the child such as Speech. Individual goals and benchmarks are then created for the child based on their strengths and weakeness.  I had three triennial meetings to conduct this past Friday. This is what has kept me away from blogging. I've been working on calculating scores from standardized testing, writing educational reports and then writing the IEP's themselves. Triennials are a lot of work.

                            Now this being said, I still get as nervous before conducting an IEP meeting six years into teaching as I did the day I did my very first one. IEPs can be a hard thing especially when a child hasn't made as much progress as the parent wanted or there are behavior issues that must be addressed. I try to put as much of a positive spin on the IEP as I can. I was once told in my beginning year of teaching that an IEP for a parent is almost like going through a death again because each year they are reminded that their child has disabilities. I have seen this happen. You can see the looks on the faces and you know what the parents are feeling. I get just as emotional sometimes too because I want progress just as bad as the parents. For seven hours a day I am the parent just as much as I am the teacher. I want those psych scores to be higher than they were three years ago. I want to see my students move out of my room and go into a more Mild/Moderate setting rather than be in the Moderate/Severe classroom. Sometimes though those scores are flatlined and a child has "maxed" out. (That's my own terminology for maximum potential) That's the downfall of teaching the Moderate/Severe. Sometimes you've gotten as much out of a child that they are capable of doing. That's nobody' fault. The various abilities are what they are-no more and no less. However, just because a child may have maxed out doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying. You just never know.

                        The first meeting I conducted with a parent on Friday was one of those meetings where the parent seemed to be  a little disappointed in what her child had acheived. Tears welled up in her eyes. Now mind you, her daughter has made some tremendous gains since the beginning of the year and that was what I wanted to point out. Sometimes I think the parents hope that I'm a miracle worker and that their child is going to somehow miraculously find their way back into a Gen Ed class next year. If I had a magic wand I'd wave it so that would happen. Unfortunately, they don't give you one when they give your degree.  I truly believe my student will have the potential to learn job skills someday so she can be semi-independent when she gets to be an adult. I was pointing this out to mom and saying that my greatest joy as a teacher would be to run into one of my students out in the community working. As I was saying this, I got emotional and tears welled up in my eyes and my voice cracked a bit. Mom and I were both on the verge of having a crying fest. However, that statement of running into my students later in life is so true. To me, that is the greatest gift I could ever receive. You see, even though I may wisecrack on here with the various stories I tell, I truly love my students. Each one is a gift in their own way.

 

 

 

                       I had really missed being with my students. I didn't realize how much until I was doing Super Story today with them. For some reason they didn't want to talk about Easter. Today was all about being in the dark and nightmares in their closets. I let them craft their story about having monsters in their closets and under their beds. Then I had everyone draw me either a closet door, a bed or a monster. It was their choice. I always do my own little drawing on the board which helps give a visual to those students who need one. I drew a red furry monster with big yellow teeth because the monster did not brush them. I said, "If I saw this monster, I'd be scared". To which Janie replied, "No you wouldn't. You'd just pee your pants".  Ahhhhhh...nothing like being back in Room 1 :)

 

 

                         I was out doing yard duty as I have every day for six years since I have to keep an extra eye on my kids. I'm at the point where I think this year we could let the kids go off on their own but I just cannot take that chance. It just stems from the fact for the past five years having worked on campuses which were host sites and not home schools, I was liable for accidents and keeping my students under control. Now that we are part of the home school, that pressure is off but I cannot let go. There are just some things that are better left in place.

                    Today's story actually involves another teacher's students. Easter is not one of my big things I do with my students. Usually by the time it rolls around, I'm exhausted from the long haul from the last vacation. This year was no exception. We may have talked about the Easter Bunny once and that was it. My kids were not that bothered by no egg hunt either. One of the kindergarten classes had made little pink rabbit ear hats. They had also painted their noses and gave themselves wiskers to look like little bunnies. They were adoreable. All of a sudden I see a herd of pink bunny girls being chased by some Kindergarten boys at recess. The girls all ran up to me complaining that the boys were making fun of them because they were dressed like bunnies. I gathered all the girls around  and gave them this advice, " If you think boys are silly now, just wait until they get older".  This brought out some quizzical looks and some of deep dissatisfaction. I figured it was a bit redundant to go yell at the boys when they were wearing the same outfits :)

 

Room 1 is now in vacation until April 18th...Weeee! Have a nice Spring Break everyone!

 

 

 

                             Just when I thought I knew it all, Ricky gave me a lesson on the fine art of wedgies. Now for some of you out there that don't know what that is, a wedgie is when someone takes the waistband of your underwear and yanks on it causing it to "wedge" as it were between the cheeks of your behind. I found out today there are more than just two kinds of wedgies. How I was ignorant of this I'll never know. Here are the definitions and descriptions as given by the master of wedgies himself during a game of memory:

 

 

The Classic: Just as I described above. One takes the waistband of someones underwear and yanks it so it wedges between the cheeks of the behind. (I see it as the precursor of thongs)

 

The Atomic Wedgie: When you take the waistband and pull the underwear so high you can touch the person's head with the underwear. Apparently the sand in the sandbox here has magical properities which can make that happen. I tread lightly when near by.

 

The Yo-Yo Wedgie: You take the waistband and yank on it up and down like a yo-yo.

 

The Wedgie Twist: Take the waistband and pull it up and twist the underwear at the same time.

 

The Double Wedgie: You give a wedgie once and come back and wedgie the person again.

 

The Self-Wedgie: You hike your own underwear up to your armpits. Apparently girls love this and it makes you irresistable to the opposite sex.  It's Ricky's favorite method of wedgie.

 

The Wedgiesaurus: You give a wedgie and the underwear "come back brown". (Yeah...I too could have lived without ever knowing that bit of information)

 

 

 

 

 

 

                         Today as we were doing our aerobic walking tape in class with the kids, Lorenzo yells out to me, "Hey Miss. B....My stomach is going down already"!

 

                    What a day! The kids weren't bad but the weather was horrendous. I don't know what is going on but the rain can stop here at any time now. From the moment class started, it rained or hailed all blooming day long. In fact, the kids and I had to make a run for the school bus in the middle of a hail storm. Fortunately, the ice was small. For my students, it's the closest thing to snow they've ever seen.

                   I wanted to chat briefly about the President's Challenge again. I have finally reached my Gold Medal at 80,000 pts. I have earned another bronze with the program I started this year. I am now 419,964 points away from a Platinum medal. When I read that on my computer screen, I just started laughing. That probably will take me another two years. I haven't dropped that much weight this time-about six pounds. However, I have dropped another 15 inches. I am finally in the good range for waist-to hip ratio. For me that's a bit more important than the BMI. And for the first time in over a year, my blood sugar levels have dropped below 100 in the mornings. That's even a bigger deal to me because even after losing weight (26 pounds), I kept coming up as being borderline diabetic at 118-119. At 120, you are considered diabetic. I have started to workout on my lunch time so I can get more in. At the end of the work day, it's hard to get motivated sometimes due to being exhausted.  The students have also joined in with a walk routine that they all can do. I have a few DVDs of Walk Away The Pounds with Lesile Sandstone that my students like. It's four basic steps and if my students can do it-anyone can. Of course, five minutes into it, half my class is telling me they are dying. The whole routine is only 18 minutes long. It amazes me how unfit they all are as a group. I have been keeping track of their weight and height all year long. Nearly every single child has put on weight and in some cases a lot. I went from having one obese and one borderline obese with everyone else being normal, to four students in the obese category. This does not make me thrilled. This is one of my biggest concerns. My population is very prone to putting on weight easily. One of my students who has the most gross motor skills problems is the one that is the heaviest and has put on the most weight this year. That extra weight only intensifies the disability for this child.

                 When I was doing my Master's research last year on the use of aerobic exercise for behavior modification with children with developmental disabilities, I had  an idea. There are lots of personal trainers out there for people with normal abilities but how many trainers out there work with my population as adults? (If there are any trainers out there that specialize in working with developmental disabled clients, I'd love to hear from you)  I think that's a real niche in the market that hasn't been met. Children and adults with disabilities (especially those in group homes) could benefit just even having someone come take them out to go for a walk several times a week.  I know that Special Olympics is also a great way for my population to particpate in sports as well.  However, a  lot of children and adults with special needs are not having those needs met when it comes to fitness.

 

 

 

 

                         Now if one were to look at the title of this day's blog entry, you'd have to ask yourself how all three things are related. Only in Room 1 could there be a correlation between the three. It started off this morning with the showing of a video on storms to the kids. We are very fortunate in my school district to be able to access streaming video via our computers on educational subjects for our kids via www.californiastreaming.org. Since we were having yet another downpour with the possibility of some thunder and lighting action later, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk a little about the weather. Anyway, we saw a great video from the Discovery Channel on different types of storms from thunderstorms to hurricanes and tornados (or tornadoes...just the like the chili spelling issues of yesterday...both are correct). Ricky was fascinated by the whole thing, especially tornados. He kept going on about them but the only problem being was that he could not say the word correctly. He kept talking about giant spinning tomatoes. We tried in vain to help him correctly say the word but it just didn't set in. Ricky finally says to me before going home, "Miss B. , my mom's house was hit by a tomato". Translation: My mom said the house looked like it had been hit by a tornado.

                    Now then, during the video, in waltzes Gricelda with her mother. Gri had gone to the eye doctor and had to have her eyes dilated to do the exam. She walks in with the biggest pair of blacken glasses that she must keep on at school due to the dilation of her eyes. She looks a bit like Ray Charles and due to the dilation is walking a little like someone with extreme vision problems. We help her find her seat and all the kids now think she is way cool due  to the glasses. Couple this with the visual that Gri has on a shirt which says "Drama Queen" across the chest and you've got a nice little image there.

                   And then to add to the mix is Janie. Janie is in the middle of what can only be descibed as the world's longest case of PMS. Since mid January, the girl has been crabby as all get out and today is no exception. We are playing Bingo and she didn't win. She starts to cry. I get on her a little because she never did this before and all the other students are looking at her annoyed. Me, trying to make a point to the class, says, "Do we cry when we don't win"? The other students say "no". I thank them for not doing that and give everyone who is not crying a little treat thinking that reinforcing their good behavior will get Janie to knock off her bad behavior. Instead she howls louder thinking that's going to change my mind. You'd think after eight months together she'd know that would not move me. Finally I say to Janie, "If you are going to cry then you will have to leave our table". This serves to piss her off further but it was all drama from the get-go. I move her chair away from the table and over to the maps where she can get herself together. She is maybe five feet away from us. We return to playing while Janie is still carrying on in time out. I look over after hearing a noise and see Janie hocking a giant wad of spit onto the new carpet which we are all trying to keep nice. That did it. She had pushed one too many buttons with me that morning.  I haven't been that ticked off in some time. I got the box of tissues and handed her one to clean up the mess she just made while reading the riot act to her. Then I played my geography game we've invented and Janie had to just watch. I told her that her bad choices were not going to get her a chance to play and she LOVES this game. Ok..ok...I played the game partly because the kids love it but also to try to make a point that if you choose to act up, you don't get to do the things you like. In other words, knock it off and make good choices. I'm having a really hard time lately imparting that to Janie. I feel for her teacher next year because she is going to run him ragged if he doesn't get a handle on her behavior from day one.  Janie goes and sits at the back table with Miss. Carmen keeping watch like a correctional officer over her. She can watch the game and learn. She just won't get a chance today to participate. Finally, it's lunch time and I have the kids line up. Janie comes up to me and says, "Sorry sir". I look at her and say, "Are we going to have a better afternoon"? She says "yes". I say, "Ok Janie, apology accepted".  I hold her hand all the way down the hall to the cafeteria. I then go back to my classroom and collapse on the floor :) 

       And that folks is how a killer tomato, Ray Charles and bad choices intertwined on a day in April.

 

 

 

                    One of my readers just called me out on the spelling of "chillies". Apparently in New Mexico, it is spelled with only one "L". In Nathual, which is a language which can be traced back to being the mother tongue of the Aztecs and still is spoken in some parts of Mexico and perhaps in Guatemala as well, the word is spelled with "LL". This brings me to a whole other culture clash I've been dealing with for some time. Part of my mother's family came to this country via a land grant from the Spanish Crown in  1693. They settled in Las Vegas, New Mexico and lived there up until the 1900's when they came to California. I grew up eating and making a different version of enchiladas than what we have here in California.  I got to help make chili ristras (strings of red chili-New Mexico Red) growning up with the chili my grandfather grew in his backyard. That side of the family always held fast to being European "Spanish". Growing up in California and being exposed to a different aspect of the Hispanic/Latino culture through friends, school and now teaching, I identify with more with the Mexican culture. My family might have had roots in Spain,however when Mexico had their revolution and told Spain to get the heck out, New Mexico was part of Mexico until 1848 when the Mexican-American war ended. Then the territory eventualy became part of the United States. So for now, I will respect the one "L" spelling of chilies when I am talking about New Mexico. However to me, it's chillies with the double "LL" for everyday use :) Now I'm completely hungry for some homemade tortillas and fresh salsa made with some serrano chillies :) Can you feel the sinuses clearing as we speak?

 

Ok...Meriam Websters Dictionary shows the derivations of the spelling and techincally, either way is correct.

 

 

                     Today we found out that Old Tom left Prague and went back to New Mexico to the Banadelier National Monument. (I think Old Tom really loved the green chillies and keeps having to come back) He got to see where the Pueblo Indians built their homes in the rocks. He then departed for the lovely state of Oregon and spent a lot of time in Gresham and in Portland. Miss B. and her aides all want to come and visit now. Then Old Tom decided to hop a red-eye flight to Australia. He is currently touring the country seeing the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, the Opera House in Sydney and hanging out at the American Embassy there. We think it's lovely that our Embassies have been so welcoming to Old Tom.

 

This is where Old Tom has been so far:

 

1) Sedona, AZ.

2) Hatch, NM.

3) Dallas, TX.

4) Cambridge, England, UK

5) Hillsborough, NJ.

6) Ottawa, Canada

7) Albuquerque, NM.

8) Prague, Czech Republic

9) Bandelier, NM.

10) Gresham, OR.

11) Sydney, Australia