Promotion

Three of my four students attended the promotion ceremony from 8th grade to the high school yesterday. I had to pick up Trains! myself because his mother was working and couldn't bring him - at least that's what she told him. When I arrived at his house his mom was there and had "just gotten home". I said, "Great. So you're going to be able to take him." She said, "Well, I just stepped in the door." Me: "We've got time. It's his 8th grade graduation." Her: "Umm...I don't think I can make it." Me: "Really? It's a really big deal that he's in the ceremony." Her: "Yeah. I just stepped in." Me: Staring at her for a moment then turning to Trains! "Ready to go?" In the car Trains! told me his mom had been home for an hour.

This is a mother that I had never met before in person and would never answer my phone calls or return them. In two years I spoke to her maybe 3 times. She never came to the school and it was like pulling teeth to get her to return forms with her signature. And Trains! is so great and has made so much progress these two years. (I would never have thought he would qualify for the promotion ceremony last year and this year it was a no-brainer.) The weird thing is that Trains! doesn't seem to think it's all that weird. I would like to hurt her and he's talking about the camping trip they're going on later this summer. Ack.

Near end round up

Apologies for the long layoff. To get those who are interested up to date:
1) Got a new student, we'll call him Mario because he loves all thing Mario (the Nintendo game character). He went after a kid at his old school with scissors and when blocked by the assistant principal, he went for him. He missed. The IEP meeting that occurred before he transferred here included 16 people (2 parents, 2 lawyers, assistant principal, school psych, speech pathologist, behavior consultant, autism specialist, case manager, general ed teacher, counselor, occupational therapist, district program manager, me)- usually you have 4-6-ish. He had one blow out so far but as I write this he's on a field trip. Let's hope it goes well.
2) Got word that the magician is moving away. Too bad. We were making some progress.
3) All of my 8th graders are going to graduate and be allowed to attend the promotion ceremony.
4) Found out I have 3-5 new 6th graders for next year. One of whom has a mom who tried to drown him when he was 2. He's living with her again. I had his sister last year.
5) Got offered a position as district behavior consultant. Not sure if I want to leave the classroom yet. We'll see.

More updates about the end of the school year and Mario to come.

Thanks, Mom

Miss Popularity wanted to be in a program we have at the school for students who are under performing. It's supposed to challenge them to succeed in school while giving them the support they need to do it. She wrote a really great application to the program that talked about how she knows she's screwed up her education and wasted two years of school. She wrote that she thinks she's smart but doesn't think anyone else believes that. She wants to stop messing around and really do well. Sounds great. Unfortunately her mom refused to sign the application - a necessary piece - because she didn't want to commit to coming to the required meetings. Nice.

Piling On

The guidance counselor got a semi-anonymous call from someone who is a friend of Fake Gangsta's mom. This woman reports that FG's mom's drinking has been out of control. She's been leaving FG home alone with his 2 year old sister for hours at a time, has imposed no curfew so FG is out at all hours of the night, the house is a disgusting mess and they frequently fight loudly. She wanted to let us know and she planned on calling Child Services (as would another friend of FG's mom). Receiving this information made it necessary for the guidance counselor to call Child Services. So I expect this to be a tough week for FG.

You can only hope that state involvement would force his mom to step up a little and really do some parenting. But I'm not holding my breath.

Why is my job necessary?

Why is a job like mine necessary?
Let's Ride Bikes' mom was a drug addict who frequently left him alone as a child until he was taken away from her.
Math Major's father seems to be incapable of saying a kind word.
Virgil fled an his home country and became a refuge in a boarding country until eventually coming here.
Headache's father is in jail for abusing him and his brother.
Fake Gangsta's mother keeps him up all night watching TV & then let's him wander around town at night by himself - when he's not babysitting his two year old sister.
Trains! has a disappearing/reappearing father and step father.
43%'s mom is unstable and was abused by his father - which he witnessed.
The Magician's mother seems to have 1 method for communicating with him: yelling.
School Much?'s mom had a restraining order against his father - with whom he now lives.

That's just for starters. With most of my students, the history is much longer. I'm sure there's an organic cause for their disabilities but there's no doubt it has been exacerbated by their environments.

Joke, Not Funny

Fake Gangsta has been been doing great lately. The other day he was working on an assignment that I thought was going to be too difficult for him but, in fact, he completed it without any help triggering the following dialog :

Me: I'm going to lose my job if this keeps up.
Fake Gangsta, with worry in his voice: Why?
Me: Because it seems you don't need my help anymore and my job is to help you.
FG: [Looks at me worriedly.]
Me, hurriedly: Just kidding. I was trying to say you're doing awesome.
FG: Oh.

Beginnings and Ends: The Hardest Parts

I've written a little bit here about how difficult the beginning of my work with a student can be. Basically, it's a bit of a race as we try to quickly figure out what a student needs, how we can fill those needs, the student's current behavior and the consequences of that behavior. So beginnings are often very difficult here. If we can start meeting needs before the student has burned too many bridges, it will be OK. But if we're trying to figure needs as well as do damage control we'll all have a much tougher go of it.

The other most difficult part of my work is fast approaching: the end of my time with a student. In the best case scenario this happens when a student graduates. The problem is that, as I've written before, the high school program here is not a good one. So as we approach the end of the year, I worry more and more about the students who move on.

A student round up:
Math Major should be OK. He's got pretty excellent academic skills- though he's lazy when it comes to writing. He has the occasional kicking and crying fit but these have become more and more rare. If he finds some friends and gets a little adult support, he should be set. If he alienates everyone with his moodiness and temper tantrums, then he'll struggle.

Let's Ride Bikes should also be OK too. He's got solid academic skills paired with very rare behavior issues. But he needs people around him who he knows care about him. Will that happen at high school? And he needs some decent friends who aren't in a behavior program or living in his foster home. He more or less rises or sinks to the level that is set by the people who care about him.

Headache worries me. He's made tremendous progress since he started here last year. In fact, Headache is an out-dated name for him because he doesn't fake headaches any more. But that's largely because he's grown comfortable here and feels safe. Hopefully he gets into the alternative high school that is a bit smaller and friendlier. Either way, it's not going to be easy for him. With his anxiety ramped up next year, I expect he'll take a lot of days off. Unfortunately he doesn't have the academic skill to keep up when he starts missing days. I can see him spiraling down without enough support and his surliness can push people away that might otherwise help him.

Trains! really worries me. He really needs adults to pay attention to him. Last year before he got comfortable here he would wander the halls if he knew I wasn't going to be in class with him. He used to run away from school the year before that. Also, he never does homework and he works at a snail's pace. His academics are solid but he needs at least twice as much time to do any assignment as anyone else. I don't want to expect a lot of failed classes next year but...it's a real possibility. Will someone take the time to sit next to him as he completes his work even though he can do the work on his own? His needs aren't academic- they're personal.

We've more or less figured all of these students out so that they have near zero behavior issues and they're passing all of their classes. They're feeling good about themselves, starting to make friends (besides each other), and really having unprecedented levels of success. And then we let them go. We move on to other students that come up behind them and they move on to figure out a new school with all new teachers and three times as many kids. It's a lesson in letting go.

This is progress

Headache was told he wasn't allowed to use the computer in my room because, according to The Wrestler (my assistant), Headache "took the afternoon off" in his classes by not doing any work. He got frustrated and tore up his half-completed math packet. He was then told he had to leave the room and go to the detention room for the period. What would have happened last year and even a few months ago is he would have put his head down in the detention room and pretended to be sick the next day to stay home. Instead, just 15 minutes later, he requested a new packet, got right to work and had the whole thing done before the end of the day. The next morning he tried to explain why he overreacted and then proceeded to have a really good day.

Other signs of progress: The Magician hasn't been suspended in a month. Fake Gangsta is 100% caught up in his school work.

Sign of regression: 43% has been absent 3 days this week.

Mom should definitely know better

Miss Popularity's mother works for child services. Despite that we've had to call child services a number of times due to her throwing things at Miss Popularity, her access to alcohol and more. Recently, Miss Popularity was kicked out of her home by her mom. She's 12. Miss Popularity can be difficult but she is not a dangerous kid whatsoever. And she's 12 - did I mention that?
So we called child services and they had to assign a case manager from a different county in order to avoid a conflict of interest. The case manager instructed mom to allow Miss Popularity to come home because she has to provide a place to live. That lasted about a week until she got kicked out again and is living with a friend.

Question: How is it possible for this kid to do well in school at this point?
Answer: It's not.

And yet, she's here. She's staying out of trouble (more or less) and getting some work done.

To be continued, I'm sure.

No Trespass

Yesterday afternoon Fake Gangsta put someone's backpack in the bathroom at the end of the day in retaliation for the owner of the backpack stomping on his bag. The backpack wound up in the toilet, not by FG's hand - at least according to him. When this incident came to light, FG was already on his bus to go home so the principal pulled him off the bus to deal with the situation. The assistant principal let his mom know that he was pulled off the bus and that he would need a ride home. FG's mom, someone who is not in the running for parent of the year, said he could walk home. Here's where it gets bad.
Apparently, FG's mom came to the school yesterday evening and blocked the principal's car in his space as he was leaving and screamed at him. She told him that next time the principal pulls FG from the bus, the principal needs to drive him home. The principal didn't like that very much. The principal here is really good with parents and kids alike but he's totally done working with this parent who is out of control. In order to prevent her abusing other staff, he's calling home today to let her know she can't come onto school grounds without an invitation. Good times!
The question at this point is whether FG's 2 year old sister was in the car when mom went nuts in the parking lot and if so, whether this warrants a call to child services. I have to say, I have a lot of anger toward this woman because FG he is such a great kid but his mom just doesn't do any real parenting. If she did, FG would be much, much happier. He suffers from her choice to not parent her child. It's not fair to him and he'll carry it with him for his whole life.

Big picture, little picture

Most of my work is little picture work: how do we use a locker? Why are you yelling right now? Let's get that math assignment done. Can we get through 1 day without being kicked out of a class?

Some of my work ha a wider focus such as when I try to help a particular student's longterm situation by teaching problem solving skills, trying to get some mental health support for him or her, building up academic success so the standard failures that everyone experiences aren't traumatizing... But most of my work barely goes beyond this. It's one student at at time and, for the most part, one day at a time.

I like this work and I know it's important. These students need this kind of help right now. At the same time, it's really frustrating to think that every year I'll just have my 8-12 students who need immediate relief and nothing I'm doing will stem the flow. So while I recognize the importance of this work, it's frustrating to feel like a band-aid.

That said, I've joined a committee that is working on making my district more inclusive. This is partly to comply with IDEA 2004 which calls for more inclusion (which in this case means students with disabilities in general ed classes, with non-disabled peers, with access to the same curriculum, in the neighborhood schools as much as possible) and partially to address the problem of having too many students in a self-contained class (which here means in a separate, special education class more than 60% of the day). The committee needs to submit a plan by April 1st and we've begun collecting input from staff at our schools.

While the idea of this has been exciting, it's largely been met by the staff with responses from cynical to hysterical (with a few exceptions). There is one really rabid teacher in particular who claims that the district is lying about how many kids are in self-contained classes and that it's the fault of special ed that her standards haven't been as high for the last 20 years. In my mind, that says more about her than about her students but, what do I know?

So I'm hoping that doing some work that focuses on the longterm and continuing my narrow focused-work with my students will make me feel balanced. I'm not sure what to do if it doesn't work.

Anguish

The Magician is my most challenging student right now. He has no idea how to make friends, refuses to work at times, lies, is disruptive, has gotten into fights...the list goes on. (On the flip side, he's super fun and loves attention. He loves magic tricks and will talk your ear off about his favorite magicians. And his laugh is a terrific giggle. ) Due to a serious fight at the bus stop, he's been involved with the juvenile justice system. His first court date was today and because he didn't understand what was happening to him, the court date had to be rescheduled. This made his lawyer, counselor and mother angry. His mother spent the rest of the morning yelling at him and then dropped him off at school.
Upon entering his math class he started pushing desks around. I got involved when I had just sat back down at my desk after getting a student started in another class when I heard someone screeching in the hallway. The shriek was other-worldly and primitive - like a non-human animal in it's death throes. It was the Magician. His face was teary as he stomped out of his classroom and tipped over a chair in the hallway. I gave him a beckoning signal so he followed me down to the office and sat in a conference room where he could be by himself. I reminded him to use his self-calming techniques like deep breathing and counting but not before he let out another anguished shriek to leave him alone.
At that moment, one of the APs asked, "Is that the Magician? His mom is here looking for you." His mom hadn't even left the building yet having stuck around after dropping the Magician off in order to let me know it was probably going to be a really hard day for him. She told me that she had yelled at him from the minute they got out of court until she dropped him off.
This is a really, really difficult kid whose behaviors are aggravating and off-putting. But if you heard the anguish in his voice your heart would have gone out to him. Even his math teacher, who is not the most understanding teacher (to say the least), was really concerned and forgiving of him.
Hi mom ended up taking him home for the day to make sure he didn't get himself into anymore trouble.

What professionals should know

I don't think anyone ever really says that general education teachers don't really have to teach everyone but that is certainly implied by the dual educational system we have. If there are special ed teachers then they must be the ones who are responsible for special education students, right? So as we all move towards inclusion, as long as there are still special educators the message will still be the same- not all kids are "right" for general education. This message is received by teachers, students, parents and administrators alike- so everyone's on the same page: the wrong one.

As long as this dual education system continues inclusion of special education students will come with an implied caveat that goes something like this: "This disabled student can be in the general education classroom as long as she acts relatively normal and doesn't force me to move out of my comfort zone." "Looking normal" would be something like not behaving or performing substantially worse than the "average" student. A teacher's comfort zone would include the behaviors she can deal with and the accommodations she is willing to make. If these conditions aren't met then the disabled student "just isn't ready yet."

So if I could, I would tell all educational professionals that we have a responsibility to educate everyone who walks in our doors. In fact, that really needs to be said to pre-professionals and then repeated every year until retirement. The problem is that I could say that with words, bu the institution of special ed, by it's very existence, tells them that I'm wrong. Bit of a sticky wicket. So what all professionals should know is that is that a) we have a dual education system and b) this system is unfair primarily to people with disabilities as secondarily to all of us.

Finally, all professionals should know that it doesn't have to be this way.

Make him pay

So there's a student of mine, the Magician, who is not going to PE right now. He's a very, very heavy young man and could really use PE. But he gets into a lot of trouble because of it because he is very embarrassed about his size, particularly when he has to change his clothes in the locker room (which we've found a way to work around, of course). So I've pulled him out of PE and given up a work period of mine so we can avoid that headache despite the fact that I think PE would be very good for him and that it's a requirement for students (though requirements can be waived in order to accommodate disabled students).

Today I got called out of a class I was working in to attend the weekly team meeting his teachers hold so they could complain to me to no end about his behavior. To be sure, they have plenty to complain about - he's a needy kid. Strangely, they were arguing for him to attend PE and I don't really get why. They say it's because he could really use it for his health. I don't buy their concern - perhaps it's loathing for his size? But one of his teachers is extremely overweight. I think they just want him to suffer a little because he's making them suffer. They'd like to see him get suspended so they'd have a break from him and they'd like to see him have to move to a new placement- which he would never qualify for because his needs are just not that extreme. Maybe I'm wrong about them and I really hope so but I can't imagine what else they're thinking.

I think that really difficult students traumatize us and we start to act like traumatized people. Just like them we use dysfunctional coping skills in order to deal with the "problem." Additionally, these students resonate and like tuning forks, when they start to resonate, so do we. It's so necessary that we interrupt this cycle because it's our job to work with all kids who come through our doors not just the ones that are easy to work with. Teachers who don't get that are going to suffer.

It's very easy for me to listen to their complaints and see how their responses are dysfunctional because he's not traumatizing me (for the most part). It's disappointing that they can't see this though. I expect we're going to be bumping heads all year. I imagine they will eventually become reconciled to the fact that even the Magician - with all of his disruptive, defiant and rude behaviors - deserves an education in a public school. How long will we have to wait though?

"He almost fought me for it" or "Notes from the sub"

All three of the staff here were out for a training yesterday. Predictably, things were a bit bumpy here. Third period, which is usually a very good period for me, is when I teach social skills (how to make friends, how to have a conversation, etc) to Trains!, Let's Ride Bikes and Headache. Apparently, the Magician came in at the beginning of class (having left his language arts class in a huff) and was really "entertaining". He's a student that can get everyone else off-task while participating in class himself. So Trains! barely did any work because he was paying attention to the Magician, Let's Ride Bikes took apart a ruler and used a piece of metal to tear up paper, and Headache played with a rubber band ball until he dropped it and it was picked up by the substitute. She told him he could have it at the end of class. The sub claims, "he almost fought me for it," at which point she called for an administrator who straightened him out and then he was, apparently, extremely pleasant for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, we learned about the Escalation Cycle and how to interrupt it as well as power struggles and trauma. It was definitely useful.

Break

It's winter break here. I'll probably be off until at least mid-January.

If you sign it, they will come

Two of my students have now moved outside the boundary lines of the school which should mean that they would attend a different school in the district. These are "behavior kids" so they take up a lot of time, increase the number of referrals and, in this case anyway, decrease the test scores because neither of them are meeting their grade benchmarks yet. So you'd think the principal would be very happy for them to move on. Yet, in the past two days he has been proactive about filling out the paperwork in order to keep them here. He's signed the necessary documents and sent them on to district office. Does this happen elsewhere?

A few of my favorite things

- When Headache comes to school every day for a week
- When 43% attends school above his 43% average
- When Let's Ride Bikes talks about getting his grades up
- When Headache self starts
- When Trains! self starts
- When any of my students self start
- When I don't see Math Major- for him, no news is good news
- When a team of teachers said they thought they'd be OK with less support for one of our students because they know what to do now
- When the principal talks about civil rights for students with disabilities
- When I met School Much? for the first time
- When Fake Gangsta gets excited about good grades
- When Miss Popularity doesn't get suspended
- When Virgil comes to study hall and works the entire period- which is just about everyday
- When the Magician doesn't get suspended
- When Trains! tries to use "Snoop language" (ex. school = sch-zool, railroad = r-zailroad)- he can't really do it
- When the students are really excited to see me after I've been out for a day
- When the district & principal grants permission for students who have moved to continue attending the school because it's beneficial to the student though it impacts AYP negatively
- When the hype around a student dissipates and the teachers can actually see the student

We meet at last

School Much? is a student who has been on my caseload for nearly a year but who hasn't attended school here. He's got a laundry list of issues that keep him from actually coming to school but he has been going to the tutoring we've set up for him. So I dropped by a tutoring session (which are held at the local library) last week. He was a very pleasant, quiet and rather gigantic young man. He wasn't totally against the idea of attending regular school at some point. This is progress!

Another thing public education doesn't get right...

...appears to be climate control. In New York City, my classrooms were generally incredibly hot in the winter. Yes, the winter. The heaters would be extremely overactive to the point that I would wear short sleeve shirts when it was the dead of winter. Conversely, if you were unlucky your classroom would not be used during summer school so you wouldn't have an air conditioner which meant you would be crammed into a tiny classroom with 30+ students in 90+ degree weather. If you were lucky, you'd have an air conditioner that hummed so loud you never got that quiet, everyone at work feeling going and everyone froze because they were a bit too powerful. Additionally, the students always argued over whether it should be on or off. Good times!
Now, 3000 miles across the country, I have a feeling of kinship with my NYC pedagogical sisters and brothers. When I got into my classroom at 7:45 this morning, I was greeted with blasting air conditioning. A quick weather check on the computer reveals it being 33 degrees out this morning. It's parent-teacher conferences here so I'm now writing at 7:22 PM having spent more time in my classroom today than I do in most weeks (due to the fact that I only have 3 conferences scheduled today and I spend most school days all over the building- not just in my room). When the principal dropped by he was pretty incredulous. The heating and cooling is controlled at a central building which is not open at 7:30 at night. So I've got my fleece on (thanks, Dad!) and my winter hat and my hands are freezing. Unreal!