A Work Dilemna

[Veronica]

What to say?

One of my coworkers has anxiety issues. She is already doing a job share. Next year we are going to have a combo class (4th & 5th grade), a class with Learning Handicapped kids and a regular class. She and her job share partner will have the regular class. She keeps saying how guilty she feels about that. I don't know what to say. Her medical issues prevent my principal from placing her in the other two highly stressful classes.

I'll admit, I'm not too excited about having to have one of those other classes. I don't want to lie and tell her it's okay. I also don't want to add to her stress. It's stressing me out!

Veronica

[Crankin]

I am not sure if you should say anything. People with a lot of anxiety catastrophize stuff and often have a lot of negative thoughts, so I'd just nod my head and move on.
Maybe later you could ask her how she is doing and what she is doing to treat her anxiety.

[ny biker]

+1 to what Crankin said.

[rebeccaC]

put positive teaching skills into the learning handicapped class and thank her for letting you do that!!!!

[Veronica]

She did tell us at lunch today that her doctor told her that if her stress did not get better, she would not be able to keep working this year. I feel really badly for her, but we all have a job to do and there is SO much that needs to happen at the end of the school year. Her job share partner is really good with classroom stuff, not so good with grade level stuff. How much do the two of us at the grade level take on? How do we do that without making her feel worse and without stressing ourselves out? I had two kids not on their meds today - I think I need some meds myself! Like a pint of ice cream!

Veronica

[Veronica]

put positive teaching skills into the learning handicapped class and thank her for letting you do that!!!!

You know I've been teaching for more than 20 years and I have learned that I do NOT do well with LH students. Like anything else you find what you are good at and that's not it for me. I lack the patience and the understanding of what struggling to learn feels like. And it's really hard to fake that for a year.

I volunteered to take the combo. We're getting new Language Arts and Math curriculum next year, so I get to learn about two new sets of curriculum at once! Fortunately, my principal knows how well I know the standards and curriculum is just a vehicle for teaching the standards. She's already told me to do what I need to do to make it work. This choice suits my strengths of being organized, great classroom management and knowing the standards inside and out.

Veronica

[Crankin]

When I was teaching, we didn't have a choice about who had kids with learning issues, ADD, etc. That was because everyone had them, in a full inclusion model. The sped kids had support in the classroom with either a teacher or an assistant. We had a real co-teaching model. We did decide which kids would do better with which teachers/teams. It doesn't seem right or fair that some in your school get to opt out of having to learn how to address learning issues, like the person in question. Of course, this takes lots of collegiality, commitment, and modeling on the part of the administration. For quite a few years, I was on the looping team (6-7th). Our team was attached to the 2 classes for the more severely handicapped kids. Most had LA and math in their respective classrooms, at first. So, I didn't always have them in all 4 of my LA classes. But after a few years, they were put into my classes once they had a semester or 2 with the special ed teacher in LA. They came with an assistant, and in the case of the PDD kids, sometimes 1:1 assistants. The sped teacher did the exact same curriculum with her kids, on a modified basis, so we were always doing the same work. That way, when her kids came into my class, it wasn't a huge change. But, some of the LA teachers on the other teams, who had the more mildly handicapped kids thought I didn't have to deal with the same stresses they did. It wasn't true, I just had different stresses with the kids I had. As a former sped teacher, I always got my share. Usually, I got more than my share of the "gray area" kids, who never qualified for any services. Now that I know what I know, those were the kids that actually needed more help, in terms of social and emotional support.
Maybe this woman really does need to take a medical leave. And her partner needs to do her share of the grade level stuff!

[Veronica]

I think that model works better in a middle school setting. We've been trying something like that this year. It hasn't gone terribly well, but we're not giving it up. Remember our SPED team has to cover K -5. Not all of our LH kids have an aide. I think California's educational system is messed up in a lot of ways. We exited one of my resource kids today because he has no discrepancy. He's functioning at the level he's capable of -low average. It's a rare grade level assessment that he scores more than 50% on it. Our system has no place for kids like him. He's a nice boy, kind of lazy, well mannered and kind to his classmates. But our system is failing him. He's already been retained once. There needs to be a place for our "dumb" kids and there isn't. He needs a small group setting of ten or less and a much slower pace than what is expected in a regular ed room.

Veronica

[Crankin]

That's exactly what I meant by the "gray area" kids. They needed as much, or more help than some of the kids who were diagnosed. Some of them have talents in hands on things, which, in elementary and middle school, have no outlet.
The model I described does work well in middle schools because of the physical structure of the day and teams, but we used the same thing in the elementary school I worked in for 4 years. For 2 of those years, I was the special ed teacher and the other 2 years, I taught 5th grade. There were 2 special ed teachers for grades 1-5 and we used a lot of assistants. I went into 2nd and 4th grade classrooms and co-taught math and LA, and then did pull out for reading for the most severely impacted kids.
I still think that your colleague needs to get her medical situation in order, either by a leave or some new medication. Anxiety can be crippling, but it is the most common mental health problem that is treated in the US. It's not the same as stress. I have 2 former colleagues who were a real pain to work with and I was told now are on medication and in therapy. I saw one of them when I was doing an eval at my old school; what a positive change! She had a pretty severe mood disorder, which, while it was never aimed at me, and she did great work, always got her into trouble with parents, kids, and sometimes the principal. She would just say mean things and then I would have to mop it up. I am really happy for her, because she has 2 little girls now and she is really calm.

[Veronica]

I REALLY can't wait to be done. I'm going to miss my kids. You get attached after two years. But... the adults...

Fifth grade decided to do fun events for the students the last 4 days of school - a picnic, movie day, an ice cream social and a field day. Three of those days are half days. The job share team is useless for doing any of the planning. I don't dare ask the one with anxiety to do anything and her partner is so clueless about anything outside their classroom. The other teacher in the team, any time I see her, she's sighing heavily and saying, "Ai, ai, ai." I guess because her class is just driving her crazy. We asked our students to bring in money to help off set the cost of our picnic at a local water park - 10 bucks a kid to pay for admission, pizza, drinks, snacks, parking and craft supplies. I have 26 kids going. I have $260. The other two classes have $50 and $140. They each have about 25 kids going.

Our clientele is basically the same. I don't have more well off families. I did have two families donate more than what was asked for and a couple of kids who didn't bring in anything. One of the nice things about taking the combo class next year, is I will not be working so closely with these teachers anymore.

Veronica

[Crankin]

Try to enjoy those fun days, Veronica. Truly, that's what I remember! And looping is the best.
I had an aha teaching moment last week. I was at a meeting with a parent of one of my clients and her guidance counselor. This kid is in 8th grade, which is at the high school, in my old district. We were brainstorming ways to get her involved in after school and summer activities; she is severely depressed and sort of hanging out with other kids who support this. The guidance counselor suggested the drama club, for the stagecraft stuff, not the acting, because she is very quiet. The mom piped up and said, "No, she loves acting. She had a big part in "the" 7th grade play." I looked at her and asked, "Do you mean "A MIdsummer Night's Dream?" When the mom said yes, I realized that something I started as part of the ELA curriculum is now "institutionalized." It's "the" play. It was a validating feeling.