Mothers and Road Blocks

Last week was the theme of mothers. Delayed, dramatic, divorced, divas, delivers of life came stormed into the resource room week. They were relentless, wanting to know information about other students, teachers, school politics, or other juicy information about everyone else besides their own child.  I have several stories but they are sensitive for the public internet. 

 However, one story deals with the opposite, the mother of denial....

I want so badly to have her understand her son's school performance but she just seems to ignore, suppress, or deny everything about her son.  This week, I have really encountered feeling like I can't provide the best service for a child.  I know that a Least Restrictive Environment is not the best education, but when I'm providing my best and it feels like the parent is doing everything to disrupt their own child's progress, I just want to shake them through a strongly worded email! I would rather have thoughts and emotions expressed than not returning emails after you asked for my"professional" opinion. 

ANGST! lots of it. 

But everything will be okay. I need to learn how to deal with it now because I know I will just run into this more and more.  Parents seem to be a blessing or a curse to work with. I have been told warned about the potential frustrations when working with parents, but now I have been able to experience it first hand. 

I think the most unfortunate aspect of it is the disappointment and frustration I feel when I don't think parents are doing enough for their child.  These are capable parents with means and they just don't understand.  No matter how many times we communicate or how many different specialists/people tell how their child is functioning and the parents deny everything.  I feel like I can be more understanding with families who do not have the resources or parents who have cooperated but nothing seems to work or even the parents who are completely apathetic to their child's education.  The parents who act like they want to help but once the truth gets tough, they say we're wrong or ignore any type of communication.  What a huge road block to the potential of a child's education. 

Dissatisfaction. 

Consistency

This week started a bit shaky but now it seems like smooth sailing. 

Earlier this week, my supervisor came out to see me. I was very excited and just a little nervous. I walked into the classroom that morning to find that my mentor teacher wasn't there. The principal came in and said that I don't have to have the class by myself today and I can just close the door for the day. I welcomed the challenge and told him that I will keep the room open for the day. In the morning, there are two more teachers in the room. 

The morning was fabulous; the children were working quietly, following directions, and completing work. How wonderful, I thought, I am a very capable teacher. I'm doing this a week before I normally would take over the class! Yay! Well, I did forget one thing, my mentor teacher doesn't take a break for lunch, the aid leaves at 12:45, and the other teacher leaves at 12:00. That means I don't have lunch and I'm by myself for the rest of the afternoon with my supervisor coming in to observe me. 

PANIC. 

The afternoon, started a bit rowdy and worked up to a full roar. The most demanding students students come in at the same time in the afternoon. At 1:00, I have 14 students by myself all doing separate things and managing 5 different behavior contracts. The plan was to work with one student and work on my lesson plan that I submitted but the other student's behavior was escalating. I tried my best to manage students at a different table, implement my lesson, and control outbursts of a different student. The one student started having a bad mouth and refusing to do work. I gave him the appropriate consequences and remained calm. I finally warned him that the next card flip means a trip to the office. He said, "I don't care. Let's go. I hate math". So, I stood up, sent the other students back to their classroom and escorted this student to the office. He started crying and screaming saying, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry.  I will never do it again". We kept on walking. "I hate you. Why are you doing this to me? I'm going to get grounded because of you". I kindly told him that I gave warnings, this is what Mrs. Russell would do, and everyone is responsible for their own actions. His didn't change his behavior. We got to the office and he sat down in the principal's office with a fuss. I went back and grabbed his math. Finally, came back to the classroom and decided to shut down Resource for the last hour while I talk to my supervisor. My supervisor thought that was fine, and so did the principal. 

That Monday was not what I had planned. It was a Monday, I didn't have lunch, a student had a melt down, I was being observed, and I was emotionally exhausted. 

I did title this post Consistency. That day was quiet the opposite! I just wanted to share my no good very bad day. 

The rest of the week has been much better. I now have confirmation of my placement and more specific instustructions. Since then, I feel confident and ready to work. I created a unit plan for one student and a new behavior plan, complete with a FUBA/BIP. I just need to write down more concrete lesson plans for the next week and continue charting behaviors. I feel like I can finally be creative as we'll as meet Westminster and my personal expectations of work and professionalism. 

I am happy to see behavior improvements already. His percentage of on task behavior has improved and the amount of work complete has drastically increased. This has been a great accomplishment for the morning. Next week, we will stop using the motivAider but keep the contract. The teacher will set the timer for 20 minutes and mark 0's at the time of redirection. The rest will be +. The afternoon, however, is a slightly different story. We still need to increase his productivity level and amount on time on task. He does not like the motivAider on him all the time. I think it adds an element of anxiety. But, he is increasing a productivity. Slowly but surely. The real mystery of what happens at lunch is still unfound. Maybe he isn't eating lunch and comes back hungry. Maybe he didn't eat lunch and is tired. Maybe he eats lunch but is just exhausted after lunch. We're not sure what is happening between his work before lunch and his attitude after lunch. 

For the unit plan, I am very excited and proud of what I have created. I created literacy rotations for one student. We're starting with a lot of phonemic awareness, OT skills, and sensory learning. Some of the the stations resemble some Montesorri work. I have researched some methods and I think picking and choosing from many differnt models of learning will help my student progress into words with consendent blends. With developing rotations, there is heavy planning needed at the beginning, but as time goes on, adding activities to the rotations should be easy for another teacher to do. That is my goal with these rotations, having the concept be understandable for another teacher to pick up and implement. We'll see how the first couple of weeks go.