I'm allergic to babies

So today was a VERY exciting day one of our para's Lara told our class that she was having a baby (very exciting news for me) The kids were very excited but SH just sat in the back of the room and said nothing. So I asked him if he was excited and he said "Uh, no, I'm very allergic to babies."

SO HILARIOUS!

Support Your Teachers

So I NEVER use this blog as a place for me to complain about things at school, but I'm just so fired up right now and I'm sitting here working detention and I have to get something off my chest. If/When you become a parent PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take it easy on your kids teachers. They really do have your students best intentions in mind, especially the special ed teachers. I don't think parents realize exactly what we do in a day. I wish they would take into consideration that not only are we teaching their student, but we are also teaching other students, the ENDLESS paperwork that comes our way is another horrific task, if it's spring than there are IEP meetings out the wazoo, transition meetings to host, summer paper work to fill out, evaluations to prepare for, Student behaviors which really do seem to elevate in the spring time, CSAP's to administer, and of course there are the parent concerns, as well as anything else that may pop up out of no where. As Special education teachers we are managers, managers of kids, managers of paras and managers of tasks. We prioritize the tasks that lay ahead, and most of the time parent concerns come third to teaching classes and student behavior, but you never know what might come up and expecting us to get back to you with a detailed e-mail in less than 24 hours really is quite unreasonable especially when 15 of those hours occur when we are not working. If you e-mail us at 4:00 in the afternoon do not expect a lengthy response in 24 hours. It's not going to happen. Our job is not one that allows us to sit in front of our computers for hours on end responding to e-mails and we typically have 7 minutes between passing periods as well as a short amount of time during our planning period to even check our e-mail let alone find answers and responses to e-mails.
We do the best we can, and many of our parents could do with a healthy dose of perspective.
Again I apologize for the rant, just keep in mind when you have your own children that teachers need time to respond.

You can't give that to the kids...

We had our Valentine's Day party on Thursday this year so that we could have all the kids together, because Valentine's Day was on a Saturday. We also had Monday and Tuesday off so Today was the first day back. Our dear para Rosie had forgotten her Valentine's and was handing them out to the kids. There were a few kids who weren't in yet so she left them on the table. Stefanie comes in a little while later and shows me the Valentine's. Each Valentine has 2 pieces of candy taped to them. I think to myself how sweet she is and then Stefanie points out the type of candy that Miss Rosie has brought in. Miss Rosie has taped Bailey's Irish Creme candies onto all of our classes Valentine's. Boy was she embarassed.

Where's Phillip?

Today we had a class outing to the Target and Petsmart near by. As we were getting onto the bus. I did a head count, and then called Stef to do a head count. 16 kids, perfect. We get back to school and quickly prepare for 4th period. My math class comes in gets their work together and is ready to go. "Where's P.L.?" I ask
"Oh he's in the bathroom." Great, well let's get started. I start the fluency test and get the class prepared started. 5 minutes passes. P.L. is stillin the bathroom? I walk next door, no P.L. I call Cheryl over.
"Have you seen P.L.?" We walk down the hall to towards the bathroom. We stop a passing teacher and ask him if he would check the bathroom. No P.L. Now I start to panic. I head down the hall to Academic Support where Stef is working.
"Have you seen P.L." I ask
"No, was he on your bus?" Stef asks
"No, I don't think so, was he on yours?" I'm beginning to really freak out now.
"No, have you seen him since we got back?"
"No, you don't think he's at Target still do you?"
"I'don't know, should we run up there?" I walk quickly back to my class. Cheryl suggests that we call Target and Petsmart. Stefanie decides to head up to PetsMart. No answer at Target.
I run back to my computer to look up Target's number, when Cory calls. "A.S., broke his leg." Cory says before I can say hello.
"WHAT!?!?! Are you kidding me?" I shriek into the phone. I really can't handle this now.
"Just kidding, no, I have to go.... blah blah blah" I didn't hear the rest because now that I didn't have to worry about A.S., I started to worry about. P.L. again.
"Hey, Cory have you seen P.L.?"
"Oh yeah, didn't you read the note, him mom took him to the Dentist."
"WHAT!" Oh, the breath returns to my body.

Later I log into Powerschool to take attendance. Guess I should've done that first. I would have saw that he'd been excused. OOOPS!

Pencil Free Diet

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought that I would post a story from last year. I used to have a can of pencils that I provided for the students, however I was CONSTANTLY having to replenish them as they were disappearing faster than I could keep up with them. I jokingly asked my class if they were eating the Pencils and ATO replied "Ms. O. I'm on a pencil free diet."

Underarrested!

SH came back from lunch today to announce that CM should be put under arrest. Stef asked him why and he said "She took, my trash and threw it away without asking." Stef asked him if he was going to stay with the teachers or if he was going to go back to lunch. He turned around and walked out of the classroom.

During Weight Training SH was lying on the ground while CM was playing with her teacher. SH was becoming agitated with CM when suddenly he jumps up and says "CM you are under arrest for lying, stealing and fishing without a license!"

Hope you don't get caught for fishing without a license too!

Dirty photos

My dear SS has since departed our school and while I miss him dearly he has left my team with some excellent memories. A personal favorite is about a "dirty" photo. SS was in pottery and for the end of the semester the teacher was having them make collages out of magazine pictures. At some point during pottery SS found a picture of a woman in her underwear with flames in the background. The photo is so dark that you can't even really see the woman, but it did elude to the skin that should be seen. During this student's daily pocket check the "racy" photo was discovered and confiscated. Although it's not really a bad picture it's not a picture that I want to explain to parents about when they ask why I let him keep it.