Salsa and Veronica, I can't imagine teaching some of the kids that the teachers in our district teach after I hear their stories. How do we expect kids to come to school ready to learn when they have been molested the night before or had a table thrown at them by a parent that morning? Or the girl that was abandoned by her mother and feels like no one wants her and is contemplating suicide. It is terrible, but I am concerned that the school Counselors will be taken out of the school picture if funding gets cut.
I admire you both for working with so much diversity in a classroom. It is a bigger endeavor than most would be willing to take on!