I set the bar pretty low for professional development days, especially the mando ones before school starts. Experience has just taught me that if I don’t expect much, and I remember my laptop to covertly work on classroom prep, then the day tends to be less of a waste of my time and less frustrating all the way around.

I think this year, even if I had laid my fictional bar on the ground, the reality that was my 2 PD days would have found a way to tunnel underground beneath my bar!!

(Disclosure, this is most likely going to be my bitchiest, whiniest blog post to date, but I have concluded that if I don’t rant this out, there just isn’t any hope my BTS mood is going to improve before the bell rings tomorrow! Please excuse any grammar and spelling errors)

How hard is it for admin to look at the list of required staff members they are herding into the meeting room to at least get a head count, and THEN actually make sure there are enough chairs for everyone??!!!

For the third year in a row, we walk into the staff meeting, with pretty tables decorated for each of the grade level teams BUT NOTHING FOR THE SPECIAL ED TEAM!! No table, no chairs, no acknowledgement of our existence. And this year it wasn’t even us neglected. All the specialist (music, science, PE, SLPs, nursing) were left out. We are so use to it that we just start filing towards the back joking among ourselves that we will just be exercising our rights to flexible seating; and, heat rises so it’s cooler on the floor anyway.

After participating in the high energy ice breaker, the grade levels divide up and start talking math curriculum. YAY! Super relevant to those of us in the back row. I flat out asked to be excused this year. I just didn’t have the time or patience to pretend to be interested this year. Plus, I still had not put the finishing touches on my paraprofessional training for the next day.

So let’s fast forward to that. No need to dwell on the many other waste of time activities I was dragged back to interrupting the actual productive time I was having with my SPED team.

Instead of just reading from the page, I made a PowerPoint presentation. I know they are over done and boring, but I added transitions, animations and pictures to try and break up the boring.

MY TITLE SCREEN WASN’T EVEN UP FOR 10 SECONDS BEFORE ONE OF MY PARA’S POPS OFF WITH A COMPLAINT!!!

“I can’t really read that font, can you change it?”

“It’s kind of hard to see, can you make it brighter?”

WTF!!! Put on your glasses, and let me turn off a couple of lights before you open your mouths! STFU!!!

What we do most in a SPED class is give positive praise/reinforcement all day every day! I have to do it for my para’s as much as I have to do it for my students. That said, I wasn’t expecting them to blow sunshine up my ass with compliments/positive reinforcement for the countless hours I spent working on their training and catering it to exactly what they need to be taught/retrained on. BUT I did expect less complaining. That’s my fault. See, set the bar too high. Bar lower then compliments, but higher then complaints was too high.

I also spent a huge amount of time cleaning and reorganizing my classroom to meet the needs of the students I have coming in this year. For instance, I got all new (to me) desks that match. No one has a desk that is a different color, size, shape, better or worse than anyone else.

“I don’t really like it”; “Can we go back to the way it was?”, “I think the desks should be turn around the other way; this way the kids can get into everything in their desks”! The last comment was my favorite of the stupid classroom comments. Well, duh!! How else are they going to get their morning work binders I have spent all summer cutting, laminating, and cutting again, or their IEP work bins if their desks are turned backwards. Not to mention, student desks are not meant to be sat at from the back!

Again, set me bar too high! This time I guess I kind of did expect a compliment, or at least a kind word. A “hey thanks for cleaning up the HUGE mess we made over ESY” would have been greatly appreciated!

Those are my rant highlights! The ones that keep circling in my head. There were many other WTF moments over those 2 days but, hopefully now that those are out, I can get some peace.

Tomorrow starts the first day of instruction. When I left exhausted, feeling defeated and super frustrated on Friday, I left all work there. I promised myself a weekend free of classroom responsibilities and thinking. That of course was also setting the bar to high because I can’t stop thinking about classroom stuff; what needs to be completed; do I need to change my daily schedule; did I plan enough activities; back to school night is this week, do I need a new parent questionaire; look at what that teacher I follow in IG is doing for BTSN, should I do that?

I think it is wine time! Wish me luck tomorrow!!

What will you miss most when you return back to school?

I have a list of things I will miss:

• Drinking coffee while it is still hot
• Peeing when I have to, without waiting ’til I can
• Reading books without pictures, for fun
• Binge watching Netflix
• Leisurely surfing the internet (TPT, IG, Pinterest, Amazon, etc)
• Not having to answer parent emails within 48 hours
• Not sitting through meetings (Staff, IEP, Professional Development, yadda yadda)

But what I think I will miss the most is waking on my own in the morning with the entire day ahead of me to do what I wish. Where will I take my own children today? Will we even get dressed? Will I clean, prep for classroom, be productive at all? Or will I play with my kids, make waffles for lunch, and lounge around reading.  Yes, what I will miss most is the freedom summer brings! I did spend way more time than I thought I would prepping for this upcoming school year while binge watching old shows with my children on Netflix, because teachers truly do not have summers off.  But I enjoyed so much more too and I am just not ready to go back to the real world tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will be sitting in mandatory professional development, which is undoubtedly going to be a waste of my time. And I would be lying if I didn’t have things planned that I can slyly do on my computer while I am being “professionally developed” to make the time go by faster. And it makes me tear up to think that my own kids will be home, in their pj’s playing without me. I wish I could Skype in tomorrow!

So tonight we are staying up super late watching movies and eating ice cream. I don’t care if I am tired in the morning. That’s what coffee is for! I am enjoying this last night of summer!!

 

Sunday loses its awesomeness the moment you wake up!

No, hear me out. Friday’s awesomeness lasts all day because, as soon as you survive the work day, your weekend starts and you don’t have to set a work alarm the next day.

Saturday’s options are limitless because as soon as you start to even get the slightest bit anxious about all the things that need to be accomplished this weekend, you have the scapegoat Sunday to put off all responsibility on. Plus, again, you don’t have to set a work alarm the next morning.

Then comes SMonday!!! You get to sleep in, or at least not wake up for work, but then as soon as you start wiping the sleep from your eyes, the reality of all the chores/errands/tasks/prep work you put off doing yesterday is now due! There’s no putting it off ’til tomorrow.

Today, I am mourning the loss of my Sunday. I didn’t take advantage of being able to truly appreciate you this summer, and now your all gone. Replaced by your ugly cousin SMonday. I go back to school this week. No more is it an option to go in and “get a head start” and prepping for the new school year. This week it’s mandatory. Along with professional development that is always so very relevant (NOT!!!) I still have a mountain of things on my to-do list to get accomplished!

I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK YET! I’M NOT READY!!!

I am going to drown my misery with bottle of wine! (I mean a glass) [No, I really don’t]

So I was Back-to-School shopping with my children at Walmart today. I was buying both their school supply needs as well as some (more) things for my classroom. We were next in line with a full cart of fresh new school supplies when I was discussing with my teenager why I was separating our purchases (I wanted two receipts so I could keep track of how much I’ve spent this year on my classroom) and how I was fighting the urge to not over stock my classroom this year in preparation for the new students I will undoubtedly get over the school year while everything was still easy to find and on sale.

This is when the woman ahead of my in line asks, “Are you a school teacher?”  I, of course answered yes, and then she follows up with, “And your buying your own school supplies for your students?” Again I answered yes. It is not the first time someone has asked me in Walmart while I am Back-to-School shopping these questions….but what happened next is!!

She then proceeds to insist on making a contribution to my efforts to provide school supplies to my students, all while she is trying to put a wad of cash in my hand! I try and refuse, explaining this is what teachers do, but she is amazingly persistent. The thoughtful things she said about teachers, the work we do, and how meaningful it is almost made me cry! I had tears in my eyes as I tried to refuse her money, even stating I don’t even have parents of my students who try and contribute, but in the end she won. She wouldn’t hear of me refusing her kind gesture. I thanked her repeatedly, even as she was walking away out the door.

I am so touched by this act of kindness from a stranger. Even as I type this I have tears. So often as teachers we feel over worked and under appreciated. Even blamed for the problems of our students. This generous, kind woman, who took the money out of her own pocket to help me and my students, did something few others (who aren’t related to me) have done…made me feel valued and appreciated!

I did not ask your name today, but I do appreciate you and your kind generosity. THANK YOU!

SO, I think the toughest lesson I learned last school year (and there were many) was that my classroom cannot run without me. Should be flattering, right? But it really isn’t!!

I was injured and although I am still recovering, it took months before I could get the Work Comp doctor to clear me to go back into my classroom. I know my colleagues held images of my days spent in PJ’s binge watching Netflix! That is so very far from reality. My actual days were spent listening to reports (better described as complaints) about how my class was running and writing sub-plans, including all the prep work required. Which completely sucks all by itself, but then when you go in every morning to find that most, if not all, of what you had prepped for the day or two before hasn’t even been touched yet, you get completely overwhelmed with frustration.

Do you know what makes prep work fun? Or if not fun, at least keeps us motivated to do it? (And why we are spending our summers “off” doing it?) At least for me, the payoff comes when I get to actual use what I have prepped with my students! Seeing them learn from it, or seeing for myself that my new file folder game/activity/task box was a swing and a miss! And that was not happening for me. I would spend my days prepping and then go in the next morning to see it was a complete waste of my time!!!

My para’s made it very clear that they are not paid enough to “teach my students”, or clean up after them or themselves by the looks of my classroom! Instead they threw my classroom routines and schedules out door in exchange for all day play time and recess…and then complained to me that student behaviors were off the charts! WELL DUH!! When students lose their routine, and have no structure, they get bored and act out. This is a universal truth and students with severe special needs are not different in that respect. Their acting out behaviors may be different from other kids but the cause is the same.

So that is a whole lot of complaining in the guise of a background story. The lesson learned…I need to train my paraprofessionals better. I think I have discovered it is not enough to tell them the ‘what we do’ but I need to get them more invested by teaching them the ‘why we do’.  I also need to be more of a leader and less like a friend. I would never tell my administrators that it is “too hard so I am not doing it” because they are my bosses, not my friends. I need to somehow foster more of a “let’s figure this out” environment than a “give up and complain to a friend” safe place.

So that is how I have spent a lot of my summer time. In addition to prepping for my students and their new school year, I am prepping for my para’s. I get them for one whole day before the school year starts. A day they usually look forward to as time to catch up and gossip about their summers while I try and squeeze in a meeting packed full of important information. This year I am spending that entire day to train and prepare them for my ‘new and improved’ classroom. Hopefully at the end of this day they will take them that we are a team, and it is their jobs to teach the students in our classroom, to take data, and clean up after themselves! EVEN WHEN I AM NOT THERE!

 

So I will admit that I was late to the Teachers-Pay-Teachers party. I am assuming it is not new (although I have not Googled exactly when it became a trend) but I did not discover or really start exploring it until I was out this past school year recovering from my injury.

But now I am addicted!! As I spend countless hours searching for the latest and greatest things I can download and prep, I come across things that I have previously spent valuable hours creating myself for my classroom. And almost always the version I find on TPT is way more professional looking then what I have created. Not to mention the time I have spent recreating the proverbial wheel.

But here is where TPT is dangerous, especially during our summer break. Nothing is super expensive…individually! But before you know it, you’re at home not collecting a paycheck but spending a pretty penny on downloading a new lesson or task box labels or learning activity, etc. Then you have to print it (cha-ching) and then after the hours spent cutting it you have to laminate it (cha-ching again) and cut it again.

What I have also discovered as a side effect of my new found passion for TPT, is the time and physical commitment. I started my summer with 2 1/2 binder pages (front and back) of To-Do’s for my “summer break”. Thanks to TPT, a good chunk of the learning materials I wanted to create I have found, but also soooo much more I now want to try. So I have been diligently prepping these materials nearly every day since the 1st day of summer. What I have found is that I am only good for about 5 hours of cutting a day before my hand is cramping and ready to fall off. And my cutting hand is also my wine opening hand, so I need to treat it well! I also have to rest of the To-Do’s on my list to accomplish! Those I will discuss in a future blog.

So for tonight I will sign off. I am out of wine, out of energy and off to hunt down some icy-hot for my hand. I may have been one of the last to arrive to the TPT party, but I am here to party til the sun comes up!

So I was thoroughly enjoying sharing my trials and triumphs last school year, then I just stopped. WHY?

I joked in a few posts that I needed full body tactical gear to protect myself from a few students and their aggressive behaviors. I should have taken that as serious advice. I was injured by a student, while in a “behavior crisis”, and spent most of last year recovering.

There is nothing interesting in reading about the headache caused by dealing with the district and workmen’s comp, so I will save you from that. The pain from the injury paled in comparison!  I was able to finally get cleared to come back to my classroom with only a few weeks left…just enough time to drown while trying to complete all the necessary end of the year stuff and attempt to do Progress Reports, Report Cards, and the all IEPs  that were not done in my absence (like all of them since none were done. I try and schedule an IEP one day late to accommodate a parent and get reprimanded for being out of compliance, but admin can put them off for months apparently)!

So that leads us to today! Only a little over a week before I have to report back to the new school year. I am NOT READY!!!!!

But I will be back to sharing, fun changes coming in my classroom this year….

I wish I could scream and cry the way my students do when they are not happy to be at school.

This week SUCKED!!! I mentioned I had 2 IEPs and an observation from my Frequent Flyer Parent. I think I neglected to mention previously that one of those IEPs was with my Frequent Flyer Parent.

Generation Y is now having babies. The generation raised entitled and feeling like the world owes them everything! My Frequent Flyer Parent is one of the most “I’m Entitled and so is My Kid” people I have ever met. He wasn’t getting his way when started demanding the moon and more, so he hired himself a lawyer. Now every IEP meeting includes lawyers, among the many specialists that work to support his child.

Meetings including lawyers are never comfortable. They end up being pissing matches because the lawyers have no education background (no matter how much they puff up like peacocks and share how many students they have represented) and have never taught in a classroom. The attorneys involved in my IEP have never even met my student. This is especially frustrating because the attorney for my Frequent Flyer Parent makes these over-the-top recommendations that are so out of line, and he would know that if he met this child! Oh, and he’s never taught so he has no frame of reference other than what he’s Googled for knowing how reasonable or plausible the recommendations are. But of course the attorney recommends it, so my Frequent Flyer Parent wants it. Myself and the team of specialist spend the entire meeting being interrogated about why this won’t work instead of focusing on reality.

And of course, even when we dedicate an entire day to the meeting, we can’t finish in just one day! So of course, this pleasurable (seriously, still no sarcasm font) will be continued to a later date.

YAY! Can’t wait.

I think I should send my wine bill to his attorney!!

Up before the sun today! I may have no regrets leaving early on Halloween, it being my favorite holiday, but I still had an observation from my Frequent Flyer Parent, 2 IEP meetings to prep for, and a new month’s worth of curriculum to roll out.

Today was a rough day. Many people assume that Halloween is the toughest day to teach, but it is most definitely the day after. I wish we could make this day a school holiday, and if I wasn’t so busy torn between two classrooms, I would love to call in sick.

Today was the loudest day I have had in my classroom to date. I don’t think anyone came to school happy, and they all wanted us to know their displeasure. My ears actually hurt today from all the screaming. Ironic since today was vision and hearing screening day.

I thought myself so smart to plan a low-demand day for my kiddos. I planned activities that should have been on the easier side, a messy art craft, nothing new and unusual, but nothing I planned today went smoothly.

That’s just how it goes some days. A long hot shower and a large glass of wine will help reset me. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will help reset me students.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Halloween!

Dressing up in themed costumes with my team, the parade, the trick-or-treating around campus, and day full of crafts!

Oh, and early dismissal so I can enjoy most of the day with my own kids!!

Now every year we are warned by HR that we are contractually obligated to work a full professional day even on early dismissal days, and even on Halloween. I rarely, if ever, work a “professional day” if by that they mean an 8 hour day. So I have no guilt or regrets when I chase the bus off campus on Halloween!