Journal for 9/29/09 Almost October...

Domain 8 Multicultural Perspectives

One of our 6th graders with an emotional disability had a "breakdown" today. There was a sub in his class and this happened the last time he had a sub too. I never really found out why he was crying so much, but after Mrs. Kirk talked with him and brought him back it, the aide said something like, "That was real pathetic." And Mrs. Kirk was yelling at him the entire time...the kids were distracted, and I just kept wondering what all the other teachers were thinking. Again, it just goes back to the fact that he is treated like he is a "normal" child, not like a child with a disability.

Time management has been a little harder since I have switched all our activities. We do the worksheet stuff in the afternoon and the hands-on lessons/instruction more in the morning. That way, if the aide has to work with them in the afternoon, there is work she can do with them. It just makes for hard planning in the morning because now I have to judge more by time. When we did worksheets in the morning, it didn't really matter what/when we got them done, but now I just have a bunch of plans, and I will just decide when it is best to do them. It's not very good "planning ahead", but I plan the night before and then prepare as I need to during the day. In this time of environment, it works, but I still feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants sometimes. I have been doing much more instruction though, and it's kind of nice because they are experiencing different learning opportunities. Today, for their weekly reader, I did a whole center rotation; it was easy to plan, technology was used, and the students loved it. We did math, reading, social skills, and fine motor skills. I still have many lessons planned that we have never done or probably won't get to do, but it is nice fitting some of them in this last full week of teaching. I'm sure I"ll get to do more next too, but I do wonder if she will keep any of it?!?

One of my students cried today because his tummy was hurting. I asked why his tummy was hurting, and he said he was hungry. They sent home food with him.

I forgot to look at my cupcake plans, so when we make our cupcakes today for good behavior, we just decorated them; I didn't want to take time to go get the plans, so hopefully I can look at it later and apply what I observed.

These are all kind of random thoughts, but just some reflections as I near the end of my time here. I'm getting more and more excited about my next placement just because it's going to be so different. I love this one, and I know I will love the second. God has blessed me so...His love is too amazing!

We'll see you tomorrow! I won't expect you at any certain time...surprise;)