So it’s Thursday, October 6th, and I have come to an important realization today: my BS tolerance is depleted! I can no longer take any more and my filter is holding on by a thin piece of duct.

Unfortunately I came to the realization in the middle of what can only be classified as a heated discussion with my program specialist. I can no longer tolerate hearing the same recycled excuses. When I hear her talk I have a mental image of her spinning the Wheel Of Excuses, landing on one and spewing it out at me, then spinning for another. She needs a bigger wheel with more options. I get everyone is stretched thin, over worked, not enough time in a week, yadda yadda yadda. Meanwhile I need classroom support, more importantly, my students need and deserve specialist support, and none of us are getting any attention.

And I told her so today. I told her it’s just not good enough. If no one that she supervises feels they are getting the attention they need, then she’s doing something wrong.

Honestly I would rather hear that roofs are caving in all over town, and when she is done digging out one classroom from the rubble she’ll move on the next. Even if that means she’s not helping mine first, it tells me she’ll stick around my room until my issues are under control.

Instead what I do hear in the under tone of her excuses is, “Suck It Up, help is not coming. Deal with it yourself.”

What I am dealing with (myself) is students in behavior crisis daily, like screaming, biting, hitting, collapsing to the ground, running and eloping away from us, exposing oneself, eating rocks/bark/leaves/twigs, or chewing on everything from classroom furniture, shoes, to the playground and chain link fencing.  My team and myself are sacrificing our own bodies to protect those of the other students, and to help lighten the gravity of the situation, we play over/under bruise count in the mornings before school. And during it all, I am actually managing to squeeze in some learning activities.

Off topic, here is my helpful hint I would like to share with all of you…otter pops make fabulous reusable ice packs! They stay colder longer than bags of ice, don’t drip and make a mess, and if a student accidentally gets a hold of one and bites it, they are non-toxic unlike other reusable ice packs! File that tidbit away for future use!

So feeling better for venting, I am off to redo my lesson plans. I thought I was so smart and tried to get an entire months view of what I wanted to accomplish, and in the first week of October, my month long plan is shot. After that I am going to continue researching classroom crisis behavior management. Last night I laughed my way through several websites…”when a student is exhibiting off-track behavior, it is best to wait them out”!! Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that. I will wait for them to decide to remove their teeth from my arm and begin their math activity.

The good news is I can do all of this with a glass of wine in my hand!!!!