Some things have come to light about my former job and the teachers that were hired after me. They are things that make me incredibly sad and frustrated that I didn’t pass that fuckin exam in time to get rehired. Yes, I know the timing wasn’t right anyway. I know it was way more important that I was here at home to help out with Marion than to be at EDCO but I think about the kids that are there now and how these teachers are selfish, rude and immature. They are unable to not take things personally with the students. Grow the fuck up! Seriously?
My chosen profession of Special Education Educator can be quite challenging at times. If you are especially good at what you do~ ie: not sending kids to the office every hour. You become a dumping ground (I know, bad term) for all the behavior problems that other teachers are struggling with. I used the word dumping because that is how a weak administration often handles difficult students. Grouping them all into the category of they must have cognitive weakness otherwise why would they behave so poorly. At times this could be a good fit for my class or it could be a negative fit. One student a young lady Patience (names were changed) was put into my mildly cognitive challenged self-contained classroom. She had quite a few problems going on at home, mom was trying her best but Patience challenged authority of every kind. So someone said, oh Patience struggles with the material so let’s put her in Jen’s classroom. As soon as Patience was placed in my class I knew she was much higher functioning than any of the students in my class. She quickly went through the assignments with little or no guidance. I pointed this out to our department chair and administration. So her schedule was changed, she was put into more appropriate classes. She refused to do work. The administrator was pretty savvy started having Patience walk the track whenever she was refusing to work. For some reason this worked. Now Patience lost some weight and started receiving attention in a positive way for staying in class and being open to new topics. The reason the walking around the track helped was she was doing something physical, and she got to talk to a teaching assistant or other special ed. teacher. But this also worked because it appeared that Patience realized she was important and not to be discarded.
In my current placement, I have a student, Roman. Roman’s mother died a couple of years ago, it was also at that time he found out he was adopted. Roman is now living with grandparents. And English is not their first language, they are also very religious. Roman, is gay and rather low cognitively. He is very critical of himself constantly putting himself down. Roman is in a class with some tough students. Kids that are used to being critical of themselves and others. I was able to have a little one on one time with Roman the other day. I told him I didn’t want him to be so critical of himself. I also told him, I was so happy he was in my class and that I loved him. I really loved him for his interest in plants and animals. How he thinks of others and is kind. He started getting a little teary-eyed. I did too when I realized the reason he was acting out, he didn’t feel loved or wanted. Just the simply saying that yes, you do matter and you matter to me was enough to help him get back on track. Is he perfect? No – but he is trying now, which he wasn’t doing before.
My students just want to be seen.
josburn52 