The Rubber Meets the Road

Well, this was my first week of teaching and believe me, it had its ups and downs. Monday we did child find screening (using the DIAL-3) and then a meeting to schedule the 10 or so evals that came from that screening. Yikes! I went home with a headache just thinking about it all!

Tuesday was the first day of class, and I did not have time on Monday to even talk with my assistants and get all the details laid out for that first day. But on we went! My morning class had 4 children in attendance (which increases by 3 next week!) It went okay for a first day with a new teacher and new room arrangement, etc. The afternoon class was, well...hell! In 45 minutes I'd run through our entire planned program and still had 1 hour and 45 More minutes to go! Somehow we made it through. I was mentally and physically exhausted. I have one Runner (with a capital 'R'!) and since I am the only able bodied one in the classroom to run, I had to catch this kid. There are 4 doors in my classroom, one on each side that go outside, and two that connect to the middle room. This is NOT GOOD for children who like to escape! I have another child who is visuall impaired but just wanders about, having no boundaries. One of the children did not have any reasonable receptive language for following directions ( I asked him to put his bowl in the sink and he put it on the floor next to the table.) The fourth child is a soc-em pistol, adopted from foster care. He's manipulative and craves attention with an attitude! I bonded to him pretty fast! At least I can verbally communicate with him! Even if he does stick out his bottom lip, lift up his nose and turn his face away from me when I give him directions!

Well, after that day, I realized I needed to do some fast rearrangement of class schedules and organize what the assistants needed to do to set up class for am and pm and for clean up. Their day is 6 1/2 hours, with their two 15 minute breaks and 1/2 hour lunch. They take their breaks and lunch in one lump in the middle of the day, so they have 1/2 hour work time between am and pm classes. They arrive in the morning 1/2 hour before classes begin and high-tail it out of there as soon as the kids leave on the bus at 3:30. So! A schedule was needed so that our classroom could be maintained while I do paperwork (and help a bit with classroom setup/cleanup!) and not have to stay all night long!

Wednesday went much better with the new schedule. Thursday and Friday were increasingly better as we melded as a classroom staff team and the kids got used to our transitions/activities. The SLP and her assistants are putting together Boardmaker pictures for me, so that will help, but I don't have them yet! With that and Julie D's help, I think I'll be able to put together what I need to teach the children. My sense is that last year, the classroom was run with a goal of peace and quiet, rather than addressing the children's issues. These kids are lower than many of ours by the time they are preschool age. So I guess having the birth-5 is advantageous in that way. The system here is advantageous in bringing consistency and repetition to learning concepts in the 4 days/wk program.

I'm quite exhausted at the end of each day, but have found that rather than staying at the school until I'm about to keel over from hunger or eating really unhealthy snacks while I try to concentrate on paperwork, I can drive or walk home (I measured it and the school is only .3 miles from my apartment!), eat a healthy supper, take a walk, and then go back and work a couple hours. It centers me much more.

The politics are just as heavy. I thought I'd be able to ignore them by coming on new....at least for one year! but that doesn't seem to be happening. I've been asking questions about why they don't have a vision specialist in the district/area when there are 3 blind/visually impaired children in preschool/K alone. Another question I've asked is why there is no autism specialist when Oak Harbor is a military-family mecca for families with children on the ASD spectrum, since they can get special services in Seattle. Of course, you already know the answer....... NO $$$$$! I guess I'm just fed up with the system. Our priorities as a nation are so skewed!

And for those of you who I glibly told the verbal salary offer to: What a pipedream! Reality hit when they sent me my contract to sign this week. I'm actually going to make LESS than I would have made at ESD this year!. Considering I had big moving expenses, I'm certainly not going to be getting OUT of debt, which was a goal I had for myself this year!

I can't complain about everything. I still like the small town feel; the fresh sea air, the sea breezes, the misty rain, and the gorgeous sunshine that warms us in the afternoons when the morning mist has burned off. We have had milder temperatures and less rain than all of you. I really haven't needed a coat yet, but have donned my vests (would you know me without my vests?)

Soon, I hope to take a picture of my classroom to send along. I'm still putting some finishing touches on it and this weekend plan to prepare an IEP (meeting is on Monday....I've known the kid for four days! and working the new computer program is challenging!) and organize the office area. I've just been piling up the paper and need to organize children's files, other info I've received.

It is different to be a part of a whole school. There are requirements, like attending part of every staff meeting, taking daily attendance (oops! I think I forgot to do that this afternoon!) and picking up my school mail, reading the bulletin board in the staff room to stay abreast of school happenings (I missed a training because I hadn't read that board for the day!). It just adds another layer of responsibility/accountability to the whole picture of sped preschool. I haven't decided if it is good or bad. I see some advantages and some disadvantages. The main advantage I see at this point, is that we Are a part of the larger school so that the K transition might be easier. Also, the consistency of receiving instruction 4/days/week has got to have a positive impact. The disadvantages are from a philosophical point of view. Early childhood intervention is more preventative, I believe, while, school-age (which I am a part of) special education is more of a 'failure' based approach. In other words, the children have to fail before they start receiving services. And I really despise that and have had to deal with it during our child find activities.

Well, it really is late and my brain is pretty well fried for the week. Have a good weekend, all! Since tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, I plan to take advantage of some outdoor walking and deep breathing! Hope you can do the same!