Shaken...and Stirred

Today was our first full day back at school. So far I have only spent time with my homebase of 25 kids. There are three classes on my team. For those of you who don't care for math...that is 75 kids on my team. As far as homebases go, I have really enjoyed these kids so much more than any group previous. That is saying a lot given that I have such strong bonds and connections with my previous kids. My homebase kids and I have clicked so well that it was a bit of a dream.

My students began arriving at 7:30 this morning. The tardy bell rings at 7:50. My homebase students were all situated, I took attendance, and proceeded to hand out their ID cards and their related arts schedules. Since this is the first time my students have a variety of schedules, I had to take special time to explain how our related arts schedules rotated on an A Day / B Day schedule. Once everyone was clear and comfortable we escorted our kids around the building to show them to their related arts classes. It is precious. They still have this deer in headlights look about them. I love it!

Once the kids returned from their classes, they returned to their homebases. We alloted 90 minutes to get through locker assignments, practice time to learn how to open a combination lock (3 right - 2 left - 1 right...why is that so hard?!?!?!?), and a table activity to keep them occupied while I dealt with students learning their lockers. My rule with the kids is that they have to open the locker 3 times on their own before I will allow them to put their belongings in it. You should see the excitement that they emit when they are able to get the lockers open.

The remainder of the day was split into three abbreviated-block classes. Our kids rotated through the three teachers on our team. Each of us had an icebreaker activity, and we would spend time in each class going over some of the rules and procedures of our school.

All was going great! Block I was a load of fun, and they actually paid attention and asked questions. Block II...same thing. An absolute joy. I was on cloud nine! Then...

BLOCK III

As my teammate would say, "O...M...G!"

The block III students arrive in the room. They are doing fine. I began explaining the icebreaker activity. As I so often do, I tend to over-exaggerate my explanations so the students will stay focused and interested. It was going great. Then I heard it..."He's stupid."

I could not believe my ears. When the statement was said, it was said pretty softly and only meant for the members of that table. What my students fail to realize (or have yet learned) is that I have exceptional hearing. I hear most whispering that goes on in my classroom. There was no denying what I heard. A student actually called me stupid. I was flabbergasted.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew who the culprit was. I have heard that voice before. I instantly turned to Dabo (name changed to protect the kid).

A bit about Dabo for you. He is a student who is returning to the sixth grade. Last year in sixth grade, Dabo got expelled for something pretty bad. I don't know all of the specifics, but it had to be pretty bad to be expelled mid-year. The administration was going to "socially promote" him to the 7th grade so he could be placed in the alternative school. However, his mother insisted he be held back and placed in sixth grade again. She threatened to file a lawsuit, which means our administrators will bend. Ugh! So, Dabo landed on my team. Ironically, our team is now in the exact location of his team from last year. Our principals have told my teammates and I that Dabo will be with us until Christmas (if he makes it that long), and then he will be promoted to 7th grade and sent to the alternative school. Love that "No Child Left Behind" CRAP! Dabo has yet to realize that we are perceived as the toughest team in the sixth grade. He has absolutely NO FEAR and NO RESPECT for anyone. We have news for Dabo...we also have NO FEAR, but we have a great deal of respect.


Back to the story...

I asked Dabo what he said. In true form, he denied saying anything. So I asked him point-blank if he called me stupid. He instantly said "no." What Dabo couldn't see was the teammates at his table were all shaking their heads in the affirmative. I calmly (truthfully, I was calm) explained that it was not the best idea to come into the classroom of a teacher he did not even know and make this kind of first impression. I said that I have one basic belief...RESPECT. I told him that the comment was so very disrespectful.

From there, it seemed to snowball. I decided to wait patiently at the front of the room until Dabo confessed or told me what he really said, as if I had heard the wrong thing. NOT! Dabo just turned away and mumbled snide comments under his breath. I asked him to repeat his under-the-breath comments, but he denied saying anything. His teammates were giving him up so easily. Every time he would lie, they would shake their heads to tell me the truth.

I finally had enough. I called the office and asked the secretary to call our assistant principal and our school resource officer (a city cop) to my room. After hanging up the phone, I proceeded to continue my instructions for the activity. Before I finished my instructions I apologized to the class for wasting their very valuable learning and fun time. I explained that they should not have had to suffer because of the comments and actions of one. As students ofter are, they were very forgiving, and we went on with the activity.

During the activity I was able to move around the room and take part in the icebreakers with a number of individual students. They were so much fun to get to know and talk to during the activity. We really do have some phenomenal students coming in this year. The only sucky part of it all is that there will be a few students who will do their best to ruin it for everyone.

Consequently, during the icebreaker game, one of the assistant principals came into the classroom. He took Dabo into the hall to have a little talk with him. Dabo came back in the room about 6 - 8 minutes later. He did not misbehave or make another snide comment the rest of the day. In fact, he actually participated rather well.

It really showed today that Dabo can be reached on some level. I have already decided that I need to make a fresh start with him on Monday. I plan to pull him aside first thing in the morning and have a talk with him. I will simply say I will forget Friday if we can start over. I know that somewhere deep down he is crying out to be helped. I am up for the task. I just need to get my bearings back in order. We will succeed!

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Another part of this block III that I did not mention was my autistic child, Johnny (name changed). Johnny is truly an autistic child. He is able to function more than most autistic children I know. However, Johnny has some serious issues. He has self-harming tendencies. He has no social filter. He will blurt out everything and anything. He actually blurts out comments ALL DAY LONG. Today we discovered in his records that he was expelled from school last year for inappropriately touching female students.

All of the recommendations that have been made by our special education professionals, our diagnostician, and several psychologists is that Johnny needs to be in a life-skills type class. We call them CDC classes (comprehensive development classroom). The CDC classes are designed to focus on basic fundamental academics and preparing students for independent living and working. All that I have seen in the past two days confirms those findings.

Here is the problem...MOM! His mom is adamantly pushing to have Johnny in main-streamed inclusion classes. In other words, he will be in a regular classroom setting, but he will have a special education assistant working with him in there, too. True inclusion is designed to work with students would can be pulled up by their peers and by working with their assistants. Johnny is not one of those students. He only has a 63 IQ. He is substantially below his same-aged counterparts in school. He has serious lacking in social skills. A lot of that centers around his maturity level and mental age. However, mom shows up to every IEP (individualized education plan) meeting with a lawyer or an advocate. Their purpose in the meetings seems to be to intimidate the administration to get what mom wants. Because of such a meeting, it was determined that Johnny would be in an inclusion class.

Today Johnny was being his true self. While I was dealing with Dabo, Johnny proceeded to audibly laugh aloud for at least 5 continuous minutes. My teaching assistant and I both told Johnny to stop it. I went so far as to tell Johnny that laughing was not an appropriate action. Then he screams out, "I am no appropriate." (Truer words have never been spoken!) The rest of the class would find my teaching assistant trying to work with Johnny. She took him for a walk because he enjoys that. When they came back Johnny threw a temper-tantrum. He screamed and yelled for the longest time. We are told by his case manager that he does this everyday...GREAT!

What killed me today was the look on the faces of the other kids in the class. Everytime Johnny or Dabo would do something to interrupt the class, the kids would instantly look at me. I held my cool, but inside my heart was breaking. It still hurts thinking about this. I know these kids are suffering because of the actions of these two kids. It is not an inviting and positive learning environment for those other kids.

I did take the time during the class to sit down at each table and talk with the kids. I tried to reassure them that everything would be okay. I just feel they might think it will be an awful year. That means they would go home and report it to their parents. Parents would then begin calling the school. Not always a great thing.

Rest assured, my teammates and I are documenting EVERY incident with Dabo and Johnny. With Johnny, in particular, we are keeping every incident in a journal. When we feel we have enough data, we will call for a new IEP meeting with mom and our administration. We will fight to get Johnny into an appropriate CDC class. He needs to be in a place where he can get more individualized instruction and attention.

Wow! I had a lot to vent about today. I left school around 3:30, came home, and crashed hard on my couch. I am mentally and physically exhausted. Going to get some rest tonight and some this weekend. I plan on recooperating and being better than new on Monday. A new week will begin. We will overcome and succeed! I have to think that, otherwise we would crash and burn. That is never acceptable to us.

Night all!