I'm gonna be an teeture

Yes, mentors mentor other teachers.

Then I'm not sure I understand what you said earlier. Let me feed back to you what I think you're saying: There is a person in your school that has two hats on:

1. She is your mentor; that's a hat she wants to keep.
   
2. She is someone's liaison to the problem kid. (Whose?) That's a hat she wants to pass on to somebody else.

Is there something I'm missing here? If not, how does her giving up hat #2 affect her support of your work with this kid? She's still your mentor after all.

Thomas. Yes mentor to me and liason to students I teach. The liason has to be a certified special ed teacher. I am a certified regular ed teacher. So, the two Sped teachers oversee the 17 kids I teach.

Today was funny. At least there's that. I prevented the supervisor from sending a jaw-dropping email to the mom. And she thinks I am snippy! hahaha. Would have been funny though to hear about the response.

so in this situation, the kid has an "official" liaison. And that same person is your "unofficial" mentor. Is that it?


(trying to figure out who's there "officially" to help you out)

Beth - yes.

No one is there to officially help me out. Or, conversly, everyone is there to help me out. When they have time.

Sounds like one of those "everybody is special" kind of deals, and if everyone is special, noone is special at all.

If you say so. I have a really hard time reading through red tape.

littlek, did you want to be a special ed teacher or why are you not teaching
regular classes/subjects ?

I also smell non representation for you, k.

Keep notes.

I don't mean to agitate you, but notekeeping (which I despise) is generally a good idea.

hope it all works out for you Lilk.

Do you have a teachers union?
What role if any could the union take?

So, just an update. Things are ok. I have gotten feedback from the teacher I work with that I am a good sped teacher (just good to hear it). We're about to do another 5-paragraph essay, though, so things could go South PDQ.

Oops, I came here for a reason, other than updating you....

At the end of the day on Friday, the kids had some free time in math class. It was the last few minutes of school and there was a school dance later that night - so these not-so-little bundles of hormones were quite fun to watch. At one point a girl came up to me, pointed to her face and asked, "Are these herpes or mono?" She was pointing at two smallish blemishes near her lip. Frankly, I couldn't tell. But, it was an interesting exchange anyway. She was completely open and uninhibited, having asked me in front of several people (boys and girls).

And about time, too, k!
Of course, we knew it ages ago!



UhOh!

Good luck!

Thanks, I'll need it.

It's almost been a year since my last post! Last year was brutal.

I started this year off in 7th grade, but was switched to 6th grade. I was assigned to do 2 things. Primarily, I was supposed to be a 1:3 - I'd work with three special education kids. Secondarily, I'd also co-teach all the other special education kids who happened to be in the classes my 3 attended. Originally, I go to all the core classes plus "study skills" class (a good idea, but bad execution) with my 3 and teach one learning center class. I had to stop going to the study skills class to work 1:1 with one of my students.

These three came from the same elementary school where they had a special ed teacher, an assistant teacher and specialists for reading, speech and language and PT/OT. I take the place of teacher, assistant, PT/OT and in one case reading teacher. AND I co-teach 3-6 other sped students.

Two of the kids are diagnosed with Aspergers (IQs in the 130s and 140s) and one with an emotional disability. All are very bright. They can be very funny and sometimes very difficult.

Grade 6 is much less stressful than grade 7. I don't know why the 7th grade teachers work the way they do, things are less stressful again in 8th grade. Unfortunately, 6th grade teachers are sometimes a lot less professional. I have been astounded at what these people feel is ok. One belittles the kids. Two answer their cell phones in the middle of class and talk for a few minutes, leave me in charge of the class so they can run to the bank/get coffee/buy stamps. These two are very disorganized and often don't know what they are doing that day until after first period is underway. They don't write homework or lessons on the board and sometimes forget to tell the kids. Then they yell at them for not doing it, or they send the homework to the kids when they are in other classes. It's sort of a disaster. And this in one of the top performing schools in one of the top performing districts in one of the top performing states...... Amazing.

Meanwhile I am still not working up to my capacity given my masters in ed.

Good post.

littlek,
you've had now some experience in teaching, is it possible to switch schools,
or look for a private school, where you can be the main teacher as opposed
to special ed or teacher's aid? I am sure your salary would improve that way too, but I feel that they're taking advantage of you where you're currently at.

I notice that, while you describe your situation vividly and precisely, you're not saying where all this leaves you. Just how are you feeling about your job? Are you frustrated? Bored? Resigned? Content-ish? I can't quite tell from your description.

Yes, I was wondering similar things, Thomas.
I'm not sure when applications for teaching positions are made in the US, k, but what are the prospects for future teaching work for you?
I know jobs were very scare a while ago, but was wondering if the situation had improved.

Sorry to hear that the last year was so tough, k.

I am content this year. And a little bored with the work load, though the boys are a handful. I should be getting my ducks in a row to job search this spring. Openings are still limited and competition high, but there are/will be spots to be had.

I actually came here to describe the chaos of the school at large, but forgot to.

Many buildings in MA have had collapsed roofs. The custodians shoveled and snow-blew the roofs clear of snow last week. Early this week someone noticed that the brick veneer was peeling from the building near one section of the roof. They barred anyone entering and leaving the building from the nearby door and called in specialists. While we do not have structural damage, the veneer could fall on someone or become shrapnel breaking windows. So, many classes have been moved around.

On the first day, all gym, art, technology classes were moved to the cafeteria when lunch wasn't being served. Almost all of the 6th grade classes had to go to the auditorium or the cafeteria. That's 12 classes of around 22 kids each. And the teachers were supposed to teach during these times. The library was closed off to all (they got the windows covered with plywood within a day). As of today, gym is still in the cafeteria, art and technology were able to return to their rooms. The classes not facing the gimpy wall were able to go back to their rooms, but that left something like 6 classes which still had to be elsewhere. 4 teachers opted to stay in the auditorium and 2 opted to shuffle around between open rooms in the building.

We use the auditorium. We have chorus, band and studies in there. So, we have 4 teachers in opposite corners all trying to teach their regular lessons. Yesterday, the band teacher had a tantrum. Today we had three study halls in there and one was without a teacher. It's been nuts. But man was it funny seeing the rigidly concrete math teacher teaching with a 20-student orchestra practicing behind him. Hope all's resolved by Monday.