Search results matching tags 'classroom management' and 'stress'

now that was a margarita day if I ever had one

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:55:35 GMT

Yesterday was even more difficult than I had expected.

I got to work early, but it still wasn’t early enough to get everything done before the big meeting. The meeting was actually quite productive; Mom showed up, with Little One in tow, and Mom was very helpful. (Little one came over and collapsed on my lap, not long after I had mentioned that I didn’t think she had any special relationship with me, as she was in class so little of the time. It was amusing and sweet, but also concerning. She hugs total strangers regularly, which makes me wonder if she is insecure and/or insecurely attached.)

All of the problems were laid out on the line, and the Princess was wonderfully blunt. We ended up going with what the Princess said — we need to come up with a plan and do everything we can to help her be successful, and if that doesn’t work, we will talk about another setting.

We learned a lot from Mom, mainly that much of the behavior we’ve seen is not because she is overwhelmed and can’t help herself, but that it is deliberate and she is testing us.

We decided to start with a sticker chart for being in the right place at the right time (Mom said Little One loves stickers), and I put that into place right away that morning. ”You’re in line for breakfast! You get a sticker on your page…..You’re sitting down for morning meeting! You get a sticker on your page.” The sticker page and my setting firmer boundaries made an amazing difference. She was calmer, behaved more appropriately, and was probably only NOT with us for about 10% of the time, which is a huge difference from the previous two days.

She was still very difficult, and exhausting. I gave so much of my attention to her, and used so much effort to keep her on track, that the rest of the class started to fall apart. They were really jealous of Little One’s stickers, and some of them pouted when I said that they would have to wait for another day. They were hungry for my attention, and I had several children trying to talk to me or hug me at once for most of the morning. Their neediness was exhausting, as was the way they stopped doing things they had just learned to do (“Get back in line, please! No, come over here. No, it’s not your turn yet,” and so on). I snapped at them a few times, and felt terrible about it. I wished I had a clone.

To make things more difficult, my wonderful Americorps volunteer was at a training meeting, and my assistant and I were scrambling all morning. Plus it was the day for Friday folders, but I hadn’t finished the newsletter yet. I didn’t even get to look at my lesson plan before the day started, so after morning meeting I took the class outside and left them with the assistant teacher while I ran in and tried to find help. I saw the school psychologist and asked, “Do you have ten minutes to spare?” and he answered, gallantly, “For you, I do.” (Mental note: it pays to be nice and to be appreciative of EVERYONE.) He went out to help with recess while I quickly got the classroom ready for the next activity.

I never did get my margarita, but I did finish my day with a lovely glass of wine.

summer is almost over

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:24:53 GMT

I received my back-to-work letter from the Prince (my blog name for our principal). Our official back to work day is Monday, August 24, and the open house will be Thursday, August 27. We have tons of meetings scheduled, plus a full day of staff development, and only two half days open to work on our rooms. I’m wondering how he thinks we can get our rooms ready with only two half days….Especially since he said we shouldn’t try to get in our rooms this week, as the engineers are still working on getting the furniture back in. We always are able to work the week before; if this is really true, next week is going to be some sort of stress nightmare. I can see myself sitting in endless meetings, agonizingly bored and longing to get to work in my room.

Tomorrow I go to a leadership team meeting at school, so I’m going to ask him about this. I haven’t had a migraine for two weeks and I don’t want to start now.

my mystery coworker

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:58:33 GMT

There will definitely be an afternoon class this fall, and it will be in what previously had been MY classroom. I was on vacation when she got hired, so I did not get to interview her. I called her yesterday to introduce myself, and left a message. I haven’t heard back yet.

I’m quite nervous about this. We will be sharing a tiny space daily — overlapping at lunch time — and our relationship is critical to the success of the year.

Miss Slinger is nervous, too — she’ll be in both classrooms. We’re going out on a girls’ night out soon, and can hash things over. I hope the mystery teacher calls me soon so I can get to know her!

Friday: blood

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:01:05 GMT

So Titch kicked a little boy with Down’s Syndrome in the face and knocked out his tooth. Apparently there was blood everywhere.

We were on the playground, and I was trying to gather my goslings to line up and get ready to go home, and Titch — the line leader — was missing. Miss Slinger found him and brought him in, and then next thing I know, Titch’s dad is there, calm but upset, telling me what Titch had done.

Titch’s dad works at my school, and was responsible for the little boy whose tooth his own son kicked out. How’s that for complicated? After I sent the kids home on the bus, Titch’s dad and I went to talk to the assistant principal and I had to recommend suspension. Titch’s dad understood, and then I emailed Titch’s mom at work, and she called immediately.

Titch’s parents are getting divorced — painfully — and the stress is clearly finally getting to him. What happened today was the culmination of a difficult, and slightly violent, week for him. (Choking Harold in the bathroom, hitting Harold at gym class, poking Owen and Ferdinand during meeting, kicking Leo, etc.)

The hard thing is that his face looks happy and calm. He shows no signs of remorse or concern. “I was on the climber and he was on the ladder coming up and I didn’t want him up there so I kicked him in the face” as if it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

I started my weekend feeling so tense and upset and sad for Titch and his family.

4 minutes inside a teacher’s brain

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:03:06 GMT

Sit on your bottom, fold your legs, hands in your lap, eyes on the teacher.

Why doesn’t this work anymore? Why are my students ignoring me? Why is Duck lying down on top of Ferdinand?

Everybody needs to sit down and listen right now. I appreciate the way Edward is listening. Thank you, Edward.

Good morning children. (”Good morning, Mrs. X!”) What is the letter of the week? (”W!” “wuh!”) Right, the letter of the week is Ww. It makes this sound: wuh.

Why is Leo wandering the room? No, no, no, let’s not start that again.

Leo, if you want your clothespin for centers time you need to sit down right now in the meeting area. Okay, let’s practice our letter sounds. Do you think I can trick you? (”Nooo!”)

Leo is not paying any attention. Try to hook him.

Leo, look, I’ve got the letter cards. Do you think I can trick you?

Leo is not looking at me. Move on.

What sound? (”MMM!”) Right, mmmm.

What sound? (”KKKuh!”) Yes, /k/.

What are Miss Nelson and that special ed teacher from the district talking about over there? Are they watching me? Talking about me? Argh, it’s so distracting.

What sound? (”NNNN!”) Yes, nnnn.

What the heck, Titch is totally not paying attention. I know he doesn’t know most of the letters and sounds, and no wonder. He’s not looking or listening at all.

Titch, please look up here. Titch. Titch! Thank you, sweetie, please pay attention and do the sounds with us.

What sound? (”aaaa!”) Yes, aaa.

Great, lost him already. And Duck is picking his nose again. And wiping it on the kid next to him!

Duck. No. Please keep your hands in your lap. What sound? (”LLLL!”) Yes, llll.

Leo is only doing about every third sound, and he usually loves to do the sounds with us. GREAT, now Owen is not paying attention either.

Owen, Titch, Duck, look up here. You need to look to learn the letters and sounds.

Why isn’t Swimmy wearing his glasses? Why was he pouting this morning? For that matter, why was Titch pouting this morning? Why did Duck and Owen get in trouble in music class? Why didn’t I remember to write the morning message? Why have I been getting migraines every day for three days in a row? Why are Duck and Princess so hyper today?

What sound? (”RRRR!”) Right, rrrrr.

Will you look at that? Princess is paying attention! She is looking at the cards, and listening to her friends say the sounds, and copying them. Oh man, at least Princess is learning something today.

Thank heaven for small mercies.

What to read when your class is being naughty

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:33:56 GMT

At the end of a long morning, at the end of a long week.

Teacher: Children, it has been a hard morning for us. We’re having a lot of problems with fighting, not listening, fighting over clean-up, yelling….I want you to know that I love you. And I love you even when you make mistakes, even when you are being wild in the hallway, or when you’re arguing and yelling at centers time. I love you all the time. But I want Monday to be a better day.

[Teacher reads No, David! and the children are entranced. They repeat all the lines after her: No, David! No, David, no! No, no no! Not in the house, David! Settle down! When the mommy hugs David at the end -- Yes, David, I love you -- the children's eyes are huge.

[Next the teacher reads Where the Wild Things Are. The children join in for the terrible roars and terrible claws...and the teacher starts to relax. After the goodbye song, a boy who has been having so many struggles he is now on a behavior chart comes up and leans against her.]

Teacher: Honey, do you need a hug?

Boy: Yeah.

Teacher: [hugs him, notices he won't let go] Do you just want to sit in my lap?

Boy: Yes.

[Teacher sits boy in her lap and wraps her arms around him, and continues dismissing children to the cubby. A girl who has struggled all morning comes up and leans against her, so now she's got two troublemakers looking for love.]

Teacher: I love you two very much. Even when you make mistakes. Now go to the hallway to get ready, very quietly.

[Filled with love, the boy and girl go out to the hallway, where....the girl sits in her cubby and starts to screech and the boy grabs his jacket and starts whapping other boys with it.]

Teacher sighs.

conducting the preschool symphony

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:57:44 GMT

Things I heard today:

*the music of Dan Zanes, which I played during journal time

*Ruby, telling Miss Slinger very clearly and indignantly that Boy A had touched her on her bottom.

*Miss Slinger putting my sudden thoughts into words: “Maybe he’s the one who has been touching Princess on her bottom!” Princess is nowhere near as articulate as Ruby; in fact, she can barely tell a coherent story. And the boy who normally stands behind Princess and in front of Boy A has been gone all week….So maybe Boy A — who is quite restless and is always touching other kids — has been touching her on her bottom all week! And Princess might have gotten it mixed up and told her mom it happened on the bus. AUGH!

*Edward, struggling to count to one. No, I am not kidding.

*”Three! Four!! Two!” the class shouting out numbers after I asked them to listen to my castanet sounds and count in their heads how many clicks I made. This turned out to be quite difficult.

*Chester telling me quite confidently the sounds for five letters of the alphabet. He also counted to five for me, accurately, and in English. Phew!

*The noise of the kindergarten class next door, totally running their inexperienced sub ragged. (Miss Slinger said that when she peeked in, the sub mouthed to her the words, “this sucks!”) Poor woman.

*The silence that fell next door when the Prince went in and restored order.

*My sneezes, which increased in frequency as the morning progressed. I suppose stress can weaken your immune system….