If you have not read the blog posts dated September 12th and September 21st you may want to so the following conversation makes sense.
On the day the scholars wanted to celebrate my day of origination individuals got bitten, chocked, slapped in the face, scratched, and knocked off a chair. All of this occurred in the same classroom in a seven hour time frame. This is a perfect situation to bring up the matter of S.H.I.T (Scholars Hinder Involved Teaching) again. I thought and thought about how having more visuals in the classroom would have prevented this disaster of a day. I racked my brain trying to determine which violent behavior(s) should have been ignored. Being sensitive to there needs never even crossed my mind when I saw a teacher wearing a band aide to stop the bleeding after being scratched by a scholar. Shortly after I posted the S.H.I.T. blog conversation I received and email message from a good friend of mine. A.O'D. is his name and he made me smile when he shared with me his thoughts on the mantra put forth by overhead personnel. I'll share it with you. The overhead person contributes "only worthless over-simplified feel-good platitudes.". As I sit here laughing to myself I have to say well stated my friend.
Speaking of overhead personnel one of them paid us a visit few days ago. As this person met with Gnu it was recommended that more visuals were needed in the classroom. There needed to be a visual for her instructional assistant (me) that would outline the days activities plus what my role would be. There also needed to be a visual for the scholars stating what the consequences were for negative behavior. Consequences for negative behavior? If you are ignoring bad behavior and are being sensitive to their feelings why do you need a visual with consequences for negative behavior? After the overhead person left I asked Gnu how the visit went. She told me about the need for more visuals. She also said when am I going to find time to do all of this stuff. Dear reader can you keep a secret? I wrote them and then stuck them on the wall so please don't tell anyone what I did. When I showed them to Gnu she said you didn't have to do that. I said you focus on lesson plans and academics and I'll take care of the minutiae of crap that needs to be stuck on a wall.
Despite the disaster that took place in the classroom on my day of origination I really had a great birthday. First I received a wonderful birthday card from Gnu, IvyL and Oreo. Their kind words about me and what I add to the classroom are special and they will stay with me for a long time. Next, the meal at home was excellent and included wine, cake and ice cream. My daughter and son-in-law as well as two very long time friends who didn't have to drive 353 miles to get here joined us. I got gifts. No, let me restate that. I got some real nice gifts one of which is a trip to Italy at some point in the future. Yes, the country that is shaped like a boot. Now that is what I call a birthday gift. Enough with my day of origination. On to more education related events.
Once a year I get invited to a professional development day. Well technically it's not a day but closer to three and a half hours. Those in attendance include only instructional assistants like me and I was surprised to see how many were in attendance. I also like to pay close attention to how, as an instructional assistant, I'm treated on these development days. As you've read I work in a pretty intense classroom. The average life of an instructional assistant in a special education classroom is two years before they are burnt out and move on. I'm into my third year. In the three years I've been in this classroom I am now working with a third teacher. Knowing how difficult my job can be I'm thinking the people putting on the development day would make a serious attempt to make me feel welcomed. I'll let you decide if I felt all warm and fuzzy inside as I arrived. First is the sign in process. As I sign in I don't here hi, good morning or thanks for coming. I hear you need to be sure you sign out at the end of the day or you will not be paid! Thanks, it's nice to see all of you wonderful overhead personnel. We do have coffee and donuts so help yourself. The donuts were gone and the styrofoam cup for the coffee held about six ounces. As I approached the conference room I hear pay attention to where you are walking so you don't fall down the stairs. The overhead person telling me this is someone I see at my school. No hi, good morning or thanks for coming just pay attention to where you are walking. Can you feel the love?
Despite what you've read I enjoyed the professional development day for one huge reason. The new school superintendent addressed the group. As he spoke he said he had three goals; improve our level of service to our customers, build our brand and student achievement (grow academically every year). Some of the terminology caught me a little off guard. There was no mention of students or parents. There was no mention of a school system or school district. There was no mention of passing those worthless statewide standardized tests. The words he used were customers, corporation, build our brand and grow academically. I like those goals. One last comment on our new corporation head. At his conclusion he said it is a "pleasure to serve as your superintendent." That certainly is refreshing to hear given our last superintendent.
I'm out. Thanks for taking time to read my blog.
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