Tuesday, August 30th, and by far my least favorite day of the ENTIRE school year.

Today was picture day, or as I affectionately like to call it, A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

No matter how you try and spin it, or set your expectations accordingly, it is a rough, exhausting, grumpy day. It starts off with emails from parents about their desires and hopes for this year to capture the perfect school picture. Followed by the parents who didn’t trust I would get their email in time so they’re waiting for me at drop off to give me their personal instructions. Seriously! What my internal (thank goodness my filter isn’t broken) voice is saying is “You’re child does not smile. Known your child for 3 years, never seen him smile!” or “You have never successfully had a good picture taken at Sears, why do you think I an going to be successful?!”

Here’s the ugly truth…most of my students are autistic. Anything out of the ordinary, out of their daily routine, stresses them out! Picture day is the colossal of stressful days. First, mom wants me to change their clothes before the picture is taken, “because she wouldn’t let me put on her new shirt this morning.” Great, thanks!

Next, we go into the auditorium where it is full of strange camera equipment, wires stretched out all over the place and big tall flashes. That’s ordinary and routine!

Lastly, they’re expected to pose and smile on command in front of a stranger, who is flashing lights at them. UGH! I deem it successful if they aren’t screaming, crying, and an actual picture is taken before they are running out of the shot. But the parents never agree with me. Hence, why picture day is my least favorite of all days the entire school year!

Oh, and I am still sick! Double shot of Niquil time for me! Good Night!!

Monday, August 29th…

And the WINNER is…ME!!

What did I win you ask? I am the lucky winner of the of the 1st official head cold of the school year. This is not a good sign of things to come in the coming year. First cold before the first month of school is in the bank. I hope that is not foreshadowing an El Nino year illness to come.

And, no I did not spend one of my 7 precious sub days and call in sick. I probably should have. Truthfully, if I had been one of my students, I would have been sent home sick, but most of the time it is so much more work writing sub plans and prepping for a sub than it is to just suck it up and drag your sick butt out of bed. So that’s what I did!

Now its Nyquil time….no extra work tonight. Off to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow.

Today is Friday, August 26th. Yes, I didn’t post yesterday. I just wasn’t feeling it. It wasn’t until I started blogging every day that I realized, some days are just boring and unremarkable.

Were my last two days teaching good? No. I definitely would not put a hash mark in the “Good Day” column. They were not even okay days. They were long; they were hard; even I can’t spin them into nuggets of goodness. I have been bitten, and I am bruised, and I am left feeling exhausted, and very, very ready for a relaxing Friday night.

Like many students, I have a ton of homework to complete that’s due for Monday morning, but just like those students, I have no plans for completing any of it tonight! I may not even touch it tomorrow! Sunday afternoon I will most likely be groaning, “Why did I leave it to the last minute?!” But even armed with that foreshadowing, I am still putting on grown up clothes tonight and going out with my hubby! And for tomorrow, I have a long list of things to accomplish…all of them fun and none of them productive.

Today, Wednesday, August 24th, I want to pose a question to my fellow teachers…

Do you ever come home at the end of a day teaching tired of the sound of your own voice?

That’s how I feel today. I don’t think I had a moment today when I wasn’t talking! Between the actual time teaching (and my students are non-verbal so I tend to keep up both sides of the conversation modeling total communication for them during the day), collaborating with colleagues, and participating in meetings, I was TALKING ALL DAY!

Enough already. I want to SSSH myself! Time to clock out. Anything left undone at this late hour will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 23rd, and today’s post would be more accurately titled “I survived…where’s my wine?!”

It is not like any one exceptional thing happened today, but the collection of things adds up to one really long day! I am sporting a couple new shin bruises; my ears are literally ringing from the verbal protests of my students (some would call them yells or screams, but I think verbal protest has a more positive twist to it); and, lastly, my brain hurts. Being a team leader means I have the adults to lead, direct, and (most days) think for. I promoted one of my students today to Student Teacher, because despite all his challenges, he follows directions much better (and the first time I might add) better than the other adults in my room!

I must sign off for tonight. This post was my mental break time from the academic assessment report I need to finish for my first Triennial Review IEP scheduled for Thursday, and with it the IEP I must write. Oh, the joys! But at least doing it from home means I can do it with in my pajamas with a glass of wine in hand. A job perk!

Monday, August 22nd…this rant is going to be a short one!

You know what should be included in Back To School Shopping? A list of what a SPED teacher actually needs. No not hand sanitizer, Kleenex, crayons or glue. It’s BODY ARMOR!

Let’s go top to bottom…A SPED teacher needs a helmet to guard against flying objects, with a face guard to protect against spit. Next, you need chain mail. Yes the kind that knights used to wear. Archaic? Perhaps, but I am not sure of any modern day invention that would better protect against biting and pinching. Next, a chest guard, like the ones baseball catchers wear. I am currently sporting some serious chest bruises from kids who’s favorite mode of attack is head butting. Lastly, chin guards. Can you imagine what a soccer player would look like half way through the season if they didn’t wear shin guards? My team and I look like that currently, and it is only the 6th day of school.

The district and admin provide nothing in the way of school supplies for our classrooms. I promise I would not complain another day if they provided us with the much needed armor my team and I need to protect our bodies!

It makes me laugh out loud to imagine how parents and admin alike would react if we actually wore this protect gear!

OK, rant over…off to prep for tomorrow!

Yes, I am tardy with my Day 8, Friday, August 19th post. I went straight from teacher duty to mom duty yesterday, and didn’t get to my blog post (and I am a teacher that accepts late work ;-)).

Today I have decided to share a guarded secret…Teachers have favorite students! Any teacher who tells you she doesn’t, is lying…or you’re a parent of a student, who is not her favorite!

Don’t get me wrong. Teachers are perfectly able, and honestly do, teach all students with dedication, but it’s a lie to say that some students don’t capture our hearts more than others.

As teachers, we have favorite students for all kinds of reasons: the ones that make us laugh; the ones that work so hard and never give up; the ones that make us want to improve as teachers just to help them. The one common theme among favorite students is that they are NEVER our favorites because of the SUCK UP parent! There is a big, HUGE, neon line between being the friendly, thoughtful parent, and the kiss-ass, brown nosing parent that makes us groan when we see you coming!

So after a long, LOUD, week where most of my students spent their time protesting being back at school, I took the opportunity yesterday on my lunch break to check on a former student (and still a favorite) and it made my WHOLE DAY!

Today is Thursday, August 18. It is late and I am so very tired but today was a unique and special day so I wanted to share.

I teach a special day class and my students are very unique, awesome individuals who also have severe disabilities. One of the responsibilities I have, and take extremely seriously, is to ensure that placement in my classroom is still the most appropriate and that my students spend as much time as reasonably possible with same age general education peers.

On the occasion when I feel like my kids are ready to move up the ladder to a higher special day class it is difficult.  The ideal situation would be for them to spend time in a more moderate class to see if it is a fit, but we don’t have one on our campus. Each elementary school has its own special day class program, so trying out a new program requires endless meetings, and a geographical change in school placement.

That is why today was so amazingly incredible. I went on a field trip with one of my students! It was not a long journey, just the time it took us to walk down the hall, but it might as well of been a plane trip to a new world! It was like going on vacation.

My student and I spent most of the day participating in a general ed classroom with same grade peers, and my student did INCREDIBLE! Sat at a desk, followed directions, and participated in learning activities. With some extra support and prompting, my student fit in! What is even more heart warming, the other students were so welcoming! Never asked “What’s wrong?” or “Why is that student in here?!” Instead, table mates introduced themselves, offered help, and even freely gave compliments for efforts made. Proof that adults have a ton to learn from children!

I enjoyed my day in the very different world of a general education classroom, and I have a ton of data to prove that my student really is ready to move on from my class. Perhaps not ready to be completely independent in a gen ed classroom, but certainly ready to fly out of my room. Now the hard part…proving it to the know-it-alls that outrank me and making this change a reality!! I am up for the fight though.

I am also rejuvenated and ready to return home tomorrow. I loved my vacation to the land of general ed, but my classroom and my students are my home and where I feel most comfortable. I think tomorrow we will play with GLITTER!

How best to make the first Wednesday of the school year more painful then to also make it BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT??!! Yes, Day 6, August 17th, long, long day at school (complete with new student) and also Back to School Night.

Here’s an idea to make it more enjoyable for all. Let’s make BTSN a cocktail party! Or if not a party, how about if we start it off with Happy Hour?! No? Still not appropriate to encourage drinking on school campuses? Bummer. How about a pot luck? Something to make it worth the long, extra hours for the teachers, and let’s give them credit too, the parents. It’s always held during dinner hours anyway.

But I digress…Back to School Night is the night I feel the closest kinship to my Gen Ed colleagues. The formula is the same for all of us: This is Me introduction, complete with our education history and years of service; this is the classroom schedule and classroom rules and expectations; these are the curriculum standards an expectations of learning; and the kicker that always gets the parents attention…these are the homework expectations.

“WAIT?! I HAVE TO DO HOMEWORK WITH MY CHILD?? BUT THEY’RE IN SPECIAL ED?”

Yes, it’s true. I do expect you to read to/with your child every night, for 15 whole minutes.

“BUT I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!”

Really, not 15 minutes? Because wait, there’s more! I also expect you to do 10 minutes a night of other, curriculum themed assignments that will reinforce what we are learning in the classroom as well as encourage learning that will benefit their IEP goals.

“BUT THAT IS WHY MY KIDS ARE IN SPECIAL ED. IT’S YOUR JOB TO TEACH THEM!”

Yes, it is my job to teach them, but in only 6 hours a day, I need to fit in lunch, recess, pull-out time with specialist, push in time with gen ed peers, curriculum lessons, IEP goal work, life skills training, and progress monitoring. So yes, I do expect parents to spend 10 minutes, 4 nights a week to do some homework plus read to them another 15 minutes a night….or less time spent watching a sitcom on TV!

Today is Tuesday, August 16th. For the most part, it was a pretty smooth day. I would put a hash mark in the Good Day column. At least until 6 o’clock tonight. Perspective and managing your expectations helps.

Today all my students showed up, on time, healthy. We did some productive work and accomplished most things on my lesson plan. We even finished a fun art project to display for Back To School Night. Whining, crying and complaining were limited (and only to adults). All extra meetings and interruptions were saved for lunch time and the end of the day.

See…a Good Day.

Then I am sitting at home, preparing my agenda and necessary materials for Back To School Night tomorrow night. I am bored of what I have used in the past, and I  have repeat parents for several years (like you tend to in Special Ed), so I just felt motivated to mix things up this year, have fresh handouts and go about sharing classroom news differently.

That’s when the dreaded email chirp sounded. Just like you can tell when you phone rings that it is not good news calling, I just sensed that this particular chirp was NOT GOOD! You know how I find out when I am getting a new student? It typically comes in the form of a call from the front office during my school day letting me know my new student’s parents just came in to fill out the enrollment paperwork. “But that’s typically how new students to the school district are registered.” Yes, that’s true. But rarely (in that I have never heard of it happening) does a family with a child having severe special needs just walk into a school office requesting to enroll their student. They always go to the District Special Ed office, fill out paperwork, supply a copy of their current Individual Education Plan (IEP) from their former school. At that point they are put in contact with a program specialist, who reviews the IEP, meets with the parents, and together they decided which program is appropriate.

You would think at this point the teacher in charge of that program would be informed. Wish that was true, but at least we a few days notice of their start date, when the parents come into the school office, fill out additional ‘school specific’ paperwork and a start date is picked.

Either that all happened in the span of a couple of hours this afternoon, or someone dropped the ball, but a new school day starts in approximately 12 hours, I received an email letting me know tonight, and all the information I have includes the gender and first name of my new student!

Off to finish preparing for my new student…the OT hours are starting to add up!