Last Day

My principal retired on Friday. It was a weird day because everyone wanted it to be over, yet at the same time didn't want it to end. My principal helped transform my school into a school that has a successful positive behavior support system, great teachers, awesome students, and a warm and supportive climate. She will be missed. I realize how fortunate I was to have a positive relationship with an administrator. It seems that for most people in my profession this is not the norm. I think that part of the reason we had such a great relationship was the fact that she didn't supervise or evaluate me. We also had great conversations that expanded beyond the day-to-day building business. I will miss working with her.

The new principal starts July 1st and plans on meeting with staff individually during the summer. It should be interesting to see how things will be different.

I'm off for the summer. I plan on taking full advantage this year. Last summer flew by and I was really disgruntled by the time the new school year began. I'm going to enjoy this summer to the fullest.

BBC

Trifecta

Oh, today was one of those days. I was sitting in my office when the secretary got a call from the gym. The gym teacher was calling because she had-not one, not two, but three kids having simultaneous meltdowns. I headed to the gym to get them, but I picked up the social worker as backup along the way. I've never dealt with three kids at once, so there was no way I was going in alone.

Two of the kids responded badly to receiving strikes in class. My school has a positive behavior support that involves a strike system. It's basically a "3 strikes and you're out" system. The kids need to stay strike free in order to win a reward on Friday. Well, it all boils down kids not being able to handle disappointment and setback. They have no resiliency. I have to figure out a way to reach these kids and get them to handle negative situations in a positive way. It has happened time and time again. A kid gets a strike, he doesn't feel that if is fair, and he has a meltdown that includes crying, immobility and a refusal to talk. Now the situation is worse because the immobility usually disrupts something like a class change. So I get called in.

I ended finding out what the issues were. If these kids could handle a setback, then they would have been able to move on and the strike would have been a single incident. Instead these situations ended up turning into a 30 minute ordeal. I think I know what my assignment over the summer is going to be.

BBC