Whose Child Is This?

Second day of school. Everyone is still learning the ropes. Kids are still learning the rules. Teachers are still learning who the students are, which is critical for what happened today.

Mid-morning an older woman comes into school looking for her granddaughter. Apparently her grandson put the granddaughter on the wrong bus. The little girl was supposed to go to another school in our town, but she got on the bus that came to my school. When the grandmother asked us, it seemed odd because we figured that it could not have happened because the teachers take attendance and someone would have noticed an extra student. The little girl was a kindergartner so my principal and the grandmother walked to the kindergarten wing. They asked the teachers and no one had heard of the girl. Luckily the student teacher was listening and told the principal that a student with the same name told her that she was in first grade, so she walked her down to the first grade wing. So principal and grandmother walked down to first grade and there was the little girl, walking beside the teacher, learning the rules of the classroom. When she saw her grandmother, she ran to her and hugged her. The teacher was bewildered and didn't understand what was happening. Apparently, when the little girl said her name, the teacher misheard her and thought she said a name that was similar sounding. The teacher thought she was a student that was not present on the first day of school. Being in first grade, the teacher did not have a true idea what the girl looked like, and assumed she was the missing student. The funny thing is, the little girl is actually in kindergarten but decided to tell the student teacher that she was in first grade. In the end, the grandmother was happy that her granddaughter was safe and sound, and took her to the correct school. It was truly an odd story that had a happy ending.

BBC

First Day

Another first day has come and gone. I asked my principal how first days affected her. She told me that she has nightmares about them. I haven't gotten to that point. My role on the first day is to be supportive, and since the first day is all about learning the rules and routines, I'm not needed as much. I spent the majority of my day working on scheduling meetings and tracking down information on new special ed students. Eleven new special ed students and I only have information on half of them. My school has so many new students, yet so many have left. There is a constant struggle with residency issues, and we suspect that there are still a few families that try to break the rules and send their children to school. The first few days are spent waiting for students to enroll because of late vacations, not being aware of when school started, or pending residency confirmations.

The day was uneventful, but my principal did pose an interesting question. As I passed by her office, she called me into her office. She asked, "What do you call those small bags that marijuana is sold in? (pause) Dime bags." She answered her own question. The odd thing was that she was busy typing something as she asked me the question. Now I'm wondering who she was typing this for. I simply remarked, "I'm not going to ask," and walked off.

BBC

RTI: The Experiment

"It's just like stuff we've already been doing." That's what my principal said in response to teachers asking "what's RTI?", when she informed them that there was a professional development day that would focus on it. Yeah, this year is going to be great. (sarcasm alert) When she said that I looked across the room to a couple of special ed. teachers and chuckled. This is going to be a mess. Where to begin? First, there is nothing happening in my school that is related to RTI. For some reason my principal thinks that it's better to introduce it as something that has been done before, but it's not. This is a huge shift from everything we've been doing. Our pre-referral process is a nightmare, and it needed something major to fix it. This is a start if it's implemented well. Second, the fact that teachers haven't heard of RTI is a major concern, but it has always been my concern. This is supposed to be a regular ed initiative, but regular ed people haven't been talking about it. This should be interesting.

BBC

Corporal Punishment

There are 20 states that still allow corporal punishment in schools. Click the link for the New York Times article http://bit.ly/NAKlJ I grew up in one of those states, and luckily live in a state that doesn't allow this practice. One would think that special ed students would be exempt from this form of punishment, but that would make too much sense. I hoped in 2009 that most states had moved away from this and it would be an interesting, antiquated story from my childhood. Unfortunately, more people will be able to share stories of paddlings for years to come.

BBC