Shaddup Already!
2005-11-22
A hodge-podge of stuff
School.
Hmmm, what is there to say?
I've had some interesting conversations lately.
First, you all might remember C from a previous entry. I mentioned in that entry that I really enjoy C, but he is a handful. I feared that he wouldn't ever know that I really do like him as a person.
The other day, after I had spent quite a bit of time getting after C, we had the following conversation:
Me: C, everything that comes into your mind doesn't have to come out of your mouth.
C: My mom said that to me the other day.
Me: Your mom's a wise woman.
C: Yep, she's a wise, old woman.
Me: I never said "old," I said "wise." Your mom is probably about my age.
C: She's 38.
Me: Pretty close.
C: Ms. B, you're the only teacher I've ever liked.
Me: Thank you.
C: You're so nice. All my other teachers have been bullies.
Me: I really appreciate you saying that, C, but you know sometimes you can be a little, um, it sometimes requires patience, C.
C: Yeah, I have a big mouth.
Me: It's that whole thing about not needing to say everything that comes to your mind.
That was nice to hear at any rate.
Something not so nice to experience was a phone call with T's guardian about her grades.
Me: So T still has time to get her grade up to passing before the end of the nine weeks.
G: Is T wearing her hearing aids?
Me: Excuse me?
G: She has hearing aids, is she wearing them?
Me: Would I be able to see them?
G: Not if she has her hair down, they go in her ear.
Me: I wasn't aware that she had a hearing problem, so I haven't been looking for them.
G: She's almost completely deaf in her left ear and is losing hearing in her right ear. The school said they told all her teachers.
Me: Um, this is the first I've heard of it.
G: Oh, the school said they told you all. She's supposed to sit up front with her right ear toward the teacher.
Me: Okay, I'll make sure the other teachers are aware of that.
G: Is she wearing her glasses?
Me: She has glasses?
G: She was in a bad accident when she was a baby. She went through the windshield, so she has some problems with her vision and hearing.
Me: Oh.
G: Well, I set up a conference with the teachers.
Me: That's good, in the meantime, I'll make sure that all the teachers are aware of what you've told me (seeing as our ESE department isn't doing it).
I started wondering if I had missed some really important memo. So I went around and checked with all her other teachers. Their reactions were the same as mine, "huh?"
Today, all of another young lady's (R) teachers got a message from the guidance counselor concerning her sickle cell disease. She needs to be allowed to get a drink whenever she asks and she should be carrying water with her. Her hemotologist is concerned about her test results.
Well, I sent out a questionnaire at the beginning of the year and R's mom put this info on the form. So the team of academic teachers knew this information. Apparently one of her "encore" teachers is not allowing her to carry water or to leave to get a drink.
This made me think about the situation and realize that we were never notified of the problem by the school.
This is really kind of dangerous. We're not playing games here, these are real breathing, living children. We should be notified in the beginning of the year if any of our kids have sickle cell, lupus, asthma, hearing/sight problems, heart problems or asperger's syndrome. We have all of those on my team this year. We did learn of the asperger's early on because her mom is very involved and set up a conference right at the start of the year.
At any rate, shouldn't people who spend the most time with these children during the school week be informed of these conditions. Believe me, it doesn't affect how I teach the kids, but it does help me in decision making.
I'm not going to freak out if one of my kids is having a little trouble breathing after running through the hallway, but if it's my heart condition kid, you can be sure I'm gonna call someone.
Me and T, the science teacher, were talking about this and we came up with "What if one of our kids has diabetes?" Shouldn't we know this stuff?
It's aggravating, for sure.
Actually, frightening is much more like it.
