Living in Egypt , near denial... or I'm ready to quit

[Veronica]

I have a very difficult class this year.

Last week I got on one of my boys because he was totally wasting his time. They were suppose to be solving some math problems and he was goofing off. When it was time to correct I called him for the answer to the second problem. He didn't have it of course and I went into my "Life Choices" speech. In essence, the choices you make today, effect who you become tomorrow. Poor choices in your youth are probably going to lead to a hard life as an adult. I made him cry.

His mother called me and left a voice mail, very upset with me for upsetting her son about his future. Of course he didn't tell her how he'd been wasting his time all morning. In her tirade she says that they are a Christian family and she is trying to instill Christian values in her son.

Yeah...

Today I discover him playing with a cootie catcher. I didn't look at it until after school. Four of the answers under the numbers... n1gger, f@g, pu$$y and f@ck off.

Those Christian values seem to be really taking hold.

Then there's the kid with anger management issues, who doesn't know why he's mad another kid, but he is, so he gets physical with him.

The kid who made a flip book on Friday with guns and a guy saying, "Run b1tch!" and "F@ck you!"

The four kids who are working at a second grade level in a fifth grade class...

The three English Language Learners...

The kid with so many disorders, I don't know where to begin...

The kid diagnosed with ADD who takes 90 minutes to answer 16 multiple choice questions. Everyone else finishes in 40 minutes...

I don't get to spend too much of my day actually teaching.

I think I'll be doing a long yoga session tonight... or eating a bunch of ice cream.


Oh... and these are kids in the 'burbs, not inner city children.

Veronica

[Biciclista]

wait! what's a cootie catcher?

Take the whole class outside for a walk around the school perimeter. Then bring em back into class and get a little work done!

[Veronica]

It's not a question of them needing exercise.

Many of them have some serious emotional and behavioral issues that I am not able to deal with and these issues are impacting the learning environment of the other students.

And then there are the ones who are just little jerks. I've been teaching 5th grade for 15+ years. Yes, there are little jerks at 10 years of age. It is amazing how well developed the personality of a ten year old is.

Cootie Catcher link. http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/Art...eCatchers.html

Veronica

[Biciclista]

I had no idea that's what those were called.
I just read this article today:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/1...tion-problems/


Parents of children with attention deficit problems are always looking for new strategies to help their children cope. An interesting new study suggests that spending time in nature may help.

A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child’s concentration skills. The researchers evaluated 17 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who all took part in three 20-minute walks in a park, a residential neighborhood and a downtown area.

After each walk, the children were given a standard test called Digit Span Backwards, in which a series of numbers are said aloud and the child recites them backwards. The test is a useful measure of attention and concentration because practice doesn’t improve the score. The order of the walks varied for all the children, and the tester wasn’t aware of which walk the child had just taken.

The study, published online in the August The Journal of Attention Disorders, found that children were able to focus better after the “green” walks compared to walks in other settings.

Although the study is small, the data support several earlier studies suggesting that natural settings influence psychological health. In 2004, a survey of parents of 450 children found that “green” outdoor activities reduced A.D.H.D. symptoms more than activities in other settings.

“What this particular study tells us is that the physical environment matters,” said Frances E. Kuo, director of the university’s Landscape and Human Health Laboratory. “We don’t know what it is about the park, exactly — the greenness or lack of buildings — that seems to improve attention.”

Dr. Kuo noted that the study used tight controls to make sure that the walks were identical except for the environment. Who the child was with, noise levels, the length of time, the time of day and whether the child was on medication stayed constant.

“If we kept everything else the same, and we just changed the environment, we still saw a measurable difference in children’s symptoms,” Dr. Kuo said. “And that’s completely new. No one has done a study looking at a child in different environments, in a controlled comparison where everything else is the same.”

Dr. Kuo said more children were initially involved in the study, but logistical problems like weather changes, late arrivals or changes in medication made it difficult to maintain tight control, leaving the study with just 17 children from which to draw conclusions.

Despite the small size, the study is important because it involves an objective test of attention and doesn’t rely on children’s or parents’ impressions. During the walks, all of the children were unmedicated — participants who normally took medications to control their A.D.H.D. symptoms stayed off the drugs on the days of the walks.

The researchers found that a “dose of nature” worked as well or better than a dose of medication on the child’s ability to concentrate. What’s not clear is how long the nature effect can last.

Dr. Kuo said that while there are “hints” exposure to green outdoor settings offers a benefit, the science isn’t advanced enough to give parents a strict formula.

“We can’t say for sure, ‘two hours of outdoor play will get you this many days of good behavior,’ but we can say it’s worth trying,” she said. “We can say that as little as 20 minutes of outdoor exposure could potentially buy you an afternoon or a couple of hours to get homework done.”

Dr. Kuo said it’s notable that parents themselves consistently report benefits for their children from green settings.

“One reason we believe this is that if the effect were short-lived, we don’t think that parents would have so consistently observed it,” she said. “But they do. They report it over and over.”

[Veronica]

My severe ADD kid is not really a behavior problem, just takes forever to get things done.

He spends A LOT of time playing video games. He LOVES to talk to me about them.

Veronica

[redrhodie]

Can you take a sabbatical? Or is it all or nothing, you either teach or quit?

It seems like 15 years is a long time to be dealing with little jerks (I know they're not all jerks ). Summer doesn't sound like enough of a break.

[solobiker]

Wow, sounds rough/tough. I have the opposite problem.( children of parents being in denile) I work with the geriatric population, some of which have significant behaviors related to dementia, alcohol abuse, general confusion. The list could go on. Well anyway when working with them in OT or PT if they do not progress it is often the therapists' fault and the children of the patients are often rude and often put the blame on the theapy staff why there 97 year old mother with dementia and pnuemonia is not getting better. Often what I have seen happen is that the Drs back out and leave it to the nursing home to " deal" with the end of life without letting the family know what their lovedone's prognosis is. I know that the family is going through a very tough time and keep that in consideration at all times. It just makes it pretty hard when I am doing the best posible job possible and still get all sorts of negative responses. Just my .02

[Aggie_Ama]

Wow, sounds rough/tough. I have the opposite problem.( children of parents being in denile) I work with the geriatric population, some of which have significant behaviors related to dementia, alcohol abuse, general confusion.

Oh my you work with my father? His mother has alzheimers and is an alcoholic yet he thinks she could go home if she keeps working. It is so sad!

V- I honestly don't know how you do it. I went through teaching certification and couldn't get hired in the area I wanted to live/work, now I am so thankful. I have a friend who teaches 8th grade (the area I was interested in) and I hear what she does day in and day out. I realize I am not a saint and I that you career teachers are. I hope the yoga and ice cream helped!

[Veronica]

It's funny. I really love some aspects of my job. I'm getting ready to do a unit using the book Yolanda's Genius. I'm really excited about that and I think the kids will enjoy it. It's an awesome book about a black 5th grade girl and her first grade brother who can't read. Lots of areas for great discussion... It's a book I've been wanting to use in my class for awhile, but just haven't gotten to. I have to create all my own stuff for it, since it seems like there is no pre made unit out there. It's a great book though, so it's worth it.

Right now I'm working on a test the kids did today on our first five math units. One of my girls who has really been struggling did really well - huge improvement for her. She's been working really hard, asking lots of questions, coming in for some extra help.... It's awesome to see it pay off.

One of my real lowbies finally passed his addition timed test today. He was SO excited. And he took the next test home tonight to practice, even though he didn't have to.

One of my girls did the most amazing presentation last week. They had to share a fact about the state they picked for the year. Her state is NH. Her fact was about Robert Frost. She memorized Stopping by Woods on a Snowny Evening and recited it, along with giving us facts about him.

Notice how all that stuff is about teaching, not counseling. I wouldn't mind the counseling either, if it was only one kid at a time...

Veronica

[solobiker]

V, I was not trying to be offensive or discount anything you said. Sorry if you took it that way.

Actually PT and OT have a lot more to do then " making them exercise" If they can't return home "because" of therapy then the families blame us for taking their loved ones away and not letting them spend the remainder of their life at home with their wife or husband. And beleive it or not there are longstanding behaviors, I have been bitten and hit several times and not just because someone is confused. Often these pts have undiagnosed or undertreated psyc issues..

[Veronica]

I wasn't offended.

I was actually replying to Mimi's thing about taking them for a walk. It would be nice it were so simple. Anger management kid would probably try to beat up someone on the way.

I really wonder about parenting these days... or lack thereof.

My mother never assumed any of my teachers had it in for me. If I got in trouble (and I DID!) she always took the teacher's side. And if I had written any of those words or said any of those words in a teacher's hearing... I would have been in so much trouble.

But I guess the parents use those words in front of their children now, so they think it's okay.

Veronica

[redrhodie]

It's funny. I really love some aspects of my job. I'm getting ready to do a unit using the book Yolanda's Genius. I'm really excited about that and I think the kids will enjoy it. It's an awesome book about a black 5th grade girl and her first grade brother who can't read. Lots of areas for great discussion... It's a book I've been wanting to use in my class for awhile, but just haven't gotten to. I have to create all my own stuff for it, since it seems like there is no pre made unit out there. It's a great book though, so it's worth it.

Right now I'm working on a test the kids did today on our first five math units. One of my girls who has really been struggling did really well - huge improvement for her. She's been working really hard, asking lots of questions, coming in for some extra help.... It's awesome to see it pay off.

One of my real lowbies finally passed his addition timed test today. He was SO excited. And he took the next test home tonight to practice, even though he didn't have to.

One of my girls did the most amazing presentation last week. They had to share a fact about the state they picked for the year. Her state is NH. Her fact was about Robert Frost. She memorized Stopping by Woods on a Snowny Evening and recited it, along with giving us facts about him.

Notice how all that stuff is about teaching, not counseling. I wouldn't mind the counseling either, if it was only one kid at a time...

Veronica

Let me guess, you ate the ice cream .

[Veronica]

Let me guess, you ate the ice cream .

Yeah, but only just now, after dinner.

No yoga though. I graded math instead.


Veronica

[Veronica]

Do these students have an IEP, or just a particularly unfocused class??

I have 29 students. Five of them have IEPs. Two of them have 504s, kind of like an IEP, but no resource teacher involved. I have 3 English Language Learners and associated paperwork. And now the state or the district or both has decided we need to do what's like an IEP on our GATE kids. I have 6 of them.

That's almost half my students that require extra paperwork. Just crazy!

It's a class with a lot of issues - tough home lives, parents with lots of problems, parents not really involved...

The class can be really sweet and do really great work. I've got some awesome posters that they made up in my room. But when they are off... they all get riled up together.

See now, I'm to the stage where I'm looking at the positive...

Veronica

[Irulan]

In her tirade she says that they are a Christian family and she is trying to instill Christian values in her son.

Yeah...

Today I discover him playing with a cootie catcher. I didn't look at it until after school. Four of the answers under the numbers... n1gger, f@g, pu$$y and f@ck off.

Those Christian values seem to be really taking hold.

If it were me, I'd wish I had the nerve to show her that. I can just hear it now,
"my little darling?".

Burnout is real. Maybe it IS time to do something else, or move to an area where education is more respected.

We left the bay area before my kids reached school age, and I was glad as the public schools down there really, really scared me. It wasn't a good sign when the neighborhood district( Mt. Diablo) had to pass a bond issue to put sinks back on the walls in elementary school bathrooms, and fix the roof.

I know we all have reasons for living where we do, but quality of life/work issues can be a good reason to move.