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]

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]

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