Placing Kids for Next Year

2008-05-15T01:50:00Z

I don't know how other schools handle class placements, but at my school, our teams get together in May (about a month before school ends) and begin figuring out which kids will go to which teacher in the fall. Today my team (second grade) met with the first grade team.

It's always an interesting process, made extra interesting when one of the classes doesn't actually have a teacher yet. Do we go easy on the new teacher? What if the new teacher is actually really experienced and we all end up with really difficult classes except her?? What if the new teacher is just out of school and can barely handle a moderately disruptive child? We've had philosophical discussions about trying to find the best match for the child and yet not wanting to load one teacher with all the ADHD students (even though she loves them) or giving one teacher many of the high students (even though he's great at challenging them).

Which kids balance each other out? Does 1 self-mutilator equal 2 ADHD kids or does 1 kid who still has accidents equal 1 student with a difficult parent? And why do certain teachers always get the whiny parents? Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you necessarily want to deal with it day in and day out!

What about those really, really low kids? The ones who didn't qualify for special ed in first grade, but might by the end of second grade? How do we spread around the wealth so no one teacher gets stuck at countless after-school meetings or has to spend hours figuring out accommodations for the child who still can't read.

What's fun is when a child's name comes up and a teacher shouts, "Oh, please, let me have him!" Sometimes it's nothing more than loving the way that child smiles at others in the hallway, but that smile grabbed that teacher's attention and she's been waiting all year to claim him for the next.

Of course, we also get the siblings- sometimes a good thing, sometimes not so good. In past years we've tried to place siblings with the same teacher the brother or sister had, but lately we've been doing more switching around. I turned down three siblings today because I really didn't want to deal with either the parents or the kids.

I know- I teach whoever walks in my door. And if those children get moved around and show up in my room in September, of course I would teach them and enjoy them and eventually probably love them, too. It's just nice sometimes to have a choice.

I do like the fact that we get to have input into the decisions. I like how we are able to talk about the children and decide together (especially with the difficult children) where the best fit for that child might be. It's always interesting and makes these last weeks of school kind of fun as I scout for "my" children in the hallways! They won't know until right before school starts- but I can start building the bonds in my heart right now.

When black is white and up is down

2008-05-11T15:10:00Z

My first blog post-
I decided if I'm going to keep a journal about my days with children, I might as well put it out there in the public eye where others can vicariously enjoy my life. I know I love reading everyone else's!

My newest student comes with a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD. What that means in practical terms for me is that I now have a student who wants to argue about everything. If I say it's a beautiful day outside, he tells the class that the forecast predicts rain. If I tell the kids we're going to do a fun activity, he loudly whines about how he hates doing that activity or he already did that activity at his old school and it wasn't fun or he knows he can't do that activity so he's not going to bother.

Do I teach special ed? No. Actually, up until 2 weeks ago I had a really delightful class of second graders who were enthusiastic about learning, cooperative and friendly with all, and were told by a guest teacher that they were the nicest class she'd ever taught in our whole district. And really, they still are that way, except Mr. ODD keeps trying hard to change the dynamics of our group. He has succeeded in alienating every child, save two. One is autistic and would be friendly to a convicted murderer and the other is also brand-new, barely speaks English and doesn't quite understand what's going on with his new classmate.

This is not my first experience with ODD (thank goodness) and I'm pretty sure I can survive these last six weeks of school but it won't be pleasant. My current most-uttered statements to him now are, "I'm not sure what the consequence will be for that, but I'll think of something, so don't worry about it. I'll let you know later what will happen" and "It's OK with me if you choose not to work right now. There are lots of opportunities later today for you to finish that work- like recess time".

He hates both of these comments and if looks could kill I'd be dead on the floor! On the other hand, he does seem to be figuring out how things work in our classroom. Obviously not the way the system worked in his old school, but hey....life's about change, isn't it??

My next goal area is to work on diminishing the whining. I doubt I'll have much success with the lying that goes on, but if I can stop the whiny complaints I'll feel much better about him (and so will the other kids). I think on Monday I will tell him that my ears don't hear whining voices, so if he is talking to me and it seems like I don't hear him, it probably means his voice is whining (demonstrate) and he'll need to use a second grade voice instead. It's worked in the past, so we'll see!

robin's nest

Placing Kids for Next Year

When black is white and up is down