Where in the World Isn't Bob Saget?

Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
JenniferS said:
You both look so pretty with the shorter do’s. And younger! At least 10 years in your case.

Also, thank you for donating your hair. That is a lovely and very noble deed. Respect.
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Thank you! I actually think I look better with the shorter hair, but it's more important to me that some kid doesn't get bullied for having no hair. It's something easy that I can do and it's free other than the cost of the haircuts, which we would have to pay for anyway. Thank you for the kind words.
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Songbird76 said:
Wow....so DID you tick off someone in admin?? How do they do class distribution there?
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No, without trying to sound arrogant, it's because I do a good job with handling behaviors. The class lists process goes like this...

1. Grade level teams sit down at the end of the year and make initial lists for the following year.
2. The lists go to specials teachers (music, art, etc.) and counselors, and they give their feedback.
3. Over the summer, our administrative assistant and principal sit down and go through the lists. At this point, they look at many factors such as parent requests, teacher personalities fitting with certain students, etc. I think it's at this point where bigger behaviors get swapped and put into my room. The principal then assigns the final class lists to teachers.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
PUSH said:
No, without trying to sound arrogant, it's because I do a good job with handling behaviors. The class lists process goes like this...

1. Grade level teams sit down at the end of the year and make initial lists for the following year.
2. The lists go to specials teachers (music, art, etc.) and counselors, and they give their feedback.
3. Over the summer, our administrative assistant and principal sit down and go through the lists. At this point, they look at many factors such as parent requests, teacher personalities fitting with certain students, etc. I think it's at this point where bigger behaviors get swapped and put into my room. The principal then assigns the final class lists to teachers.
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When I was teaching 9th grade science there were two of us teaching the course and I would always get the Sped Education students put into my class (and regular ed students too). The Special Education teachers would put them in my class because I worked with their students better than the other teacher. It actually made me feel very good about my teaching skills, you probably have a similar feeling.
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ajrwdwgirl said:
When I was teaching 9th grade science there were two of us teaching the course and I would always get the Sped Education students put into my class (and regular ed students too). The Special Education teachers would put them in my class because I worked with their students better than the other teacher. It actually made me feel very good about my teaching skills, you probably have a similar feeling.
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Yes, makes me feel good, but doesn't make it less exhausting. Especially when there's no support in my room. I think part of that is this specific student was in a 1st year teacher's room last year. So when they put together his IEP, she didn't advocate for him to get support in the classroom because she didn't know the process. And with a lack of staffing, it's easy for the spec ed director to say let's not have a para with him.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
PUSH said:
No, without trying to sound arrogant, it's because I do a good job with handling behaviors. The class lists process goes like this...

1. Grade level teams sit down at the end of the year and make initial lists for the following year.
2. The lists go to specials teachers (music, art, etc.) and counselors, and they give their feedback.
3. Over the summer, our administrative assistant and principal sit down and go through the lists. At this point, they look at many factors such as parent requests, teacher personalities fitting with certain students, etc. I think it's at this point where bigger behaviors get swapped and put into my room. The principal then assigns the final class lists to teachers.
Click to expand...
Do they take friendships into account at all? That can be a blessing and a curse. At my kids' elementary school, they always discussed the kids with the teachers of the next grade, and they'd look at friendship groups and try to make sure that everyone had at least one friend in their class. Sometimes larger friend groups got split up, but they tried not to put just 1 kid from a friend group in another class from the rest of their friends. But sometimes, there's just no way to keep friends together if two kids are toxic together.

There were 2 boys in A's class who were horrible bullies together. They did split them up at least one year, I know, but I'm not sure how much it helped. And then E had a friend who was starting to get aggressive in 4th or 5th grade. Her mom was mentally ill (she saw things that weren't there), and I think maybe the girl inherited some of the delusional behavior because she'd suddenly lash out at E and kick her, or punch her for no apparent reason, and when E would ask her why, she'd say something like "That's what you get!" And she dropped one friend because she said the friend called her a nasty name, but that girl was not the kind of girl to do that unprovoked, and she said she never said that. And the delusional girl also swore that she was terrified of police because they arrested her father in front of her for trying to kill her. But the father had co-custody that he'd never have been granted if he had actually tried to strangle her and police had had to pull him off of her like she said. But she really was terrified of police, so I think she BELIEVES that's what happened. Anyway, the girl was starting to get emotionally and physically abusive to E, and she wouldn't leave her alone in class. She'd keep asking E to help her, even when they weren't supposed to be talking, and she wouldn't stop pestering E while E was trying to get her own work done. So when they were going into 6th grade, I asked for them to be separated, because it wasn't in E's best interest to be in this girl's class. But this girl had literally no other friends and she had tried to keep E from having any other friends too, telling her if she played with someone else during recess, she wouldn't invite her to her birthday party, etc. So they split them up, and her mom was really angry about it, but I just couldn't let E be beat up every time the girl had an episode, and I wanted her to be able to focus on her own work rather than trying to explain things to this girl that had already been explained by the teacher. It was a sad situation, and I'm not sure how they decided which teacher would get her in their class. It must be tough when there are so many things to consider in placing students. And it must be hard as a teacher to always get more of the difficult kids because you "can handle it." Kudos to you for being good with that stuff. I was TERRIBLE at classroom management. It's the main reason I decided not to pursue teaching when I moved here. I'm just not good at that, and so much of teaching is dependent on being good at it.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
PUSH said:
Yes, makes me feel good, but doesn't make it less exhausting. Especially when there's no support in my room. I think part of that is this specific student was in a 1st year teacher's room last year. So when they put together his IEP, she didn't advocate for him to get support in the classroom because she didn't know the process. And with a lack of staffing, it's easy for the spec ed director to say let's not have a para with him.
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I get that. Having support makes it so much easier. And even though it makes us good that we can be the ones to "handle" more it would be nice for others to get the practice sometimes too.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
ajrwdwgirl said:
I get that. Having support makes it so much easier. And even though it makes us good that we can be the ones to "handle" more it would be nice for others to get the practice sometimes too.
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This. And out of curiosity, can a teacher request a para after the school year has started or is that something that has to b arranged before school starts? And I'm also curious to know, do the paras there go with the kids to specials? Where I was teaching in Wyoming, paras didn't go to specials with the kid. I never had paras in my classroom and I had kids who were hearing impaired and had a para to help them...they put all of the hearing impaired kids in the district in our school, and all of them in one grade would be in one classroom so they only had to outfit one classroom with the sound system and those kids wore headsets, etc. So there were 3 in one of my 4th grade classes, and I know they had an aide who worked with them in their regular classroom, but then when they came to specials, that must have been her planning period, because she never came to my classroom. I never had any trouble with any of those kids, but there were other kids in other classes who probably SHOULD have had help, but didn't. I never had any trouble with ANY of the kids who had aides, even though their paras never came into my classroom. But there were some kids who obviously needed some extra attention that they weren't getting, and as a specials teacher, I wouldn't have had support in my class even if they HAD a para assigned to them.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Songbird76 said:
This. And out of curiosity, can a teacher request a para after the school year has started or is that something that has to b arranged before school starts? And I'm also curious to know, do the paras there go with the kids to specials? Where I was teaching in Wyoming, paras didn't go to specials with the kid. I never had paras in my classroom and I had kids who were hearing impaired and had a para to help them...they put all of the hearing impaired kids in the district in our school, and all of them in one grade would be in one classroom so they only had to outfit one classroom with the sound system and those kids wore headsets, etc. So there were 3 in one of my 4th grade classes, and I know they had an aide who worked with them in their regular classroom, but then when they came to specials, that must have been her planning period, because she never came to my classroom. I never had any trouble with any of those kids, but there were other kids in other classes who probably SHOULD have had help, but didn't. I never had any trouble with ANY of the kids who had aides, even though their paras never came into my classroom. But there were some kids who obviously needed some extra attention that they weren't getting, and as a specials teacher, I wouldn't have had support in my class even if they HAD a para assigned to them.
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Our paraprofessionals are Special Education only. So they are already assigned to classes that have the SPED students. If students have individual needs that they need a para with them then they will got to all classes it all depends on their needs. It all is determined before school starts. For example, if a student just needs support in math or english then there is no need for the para to go to music or art but they might go with students and support science or social studies because of the reading and writing necessary with those subjects. Also if I have only one or two special ed students in my science class and if they are LD or ED they won't have the para but be able to go to the Special Education room for support as needed. But that is how our middle/high school is run could be different in our elementary (I rarely see our elementary teachers) or be different in different districts.
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Songbird76 said:
Do they take friendships into account at all? That can be a blessing and a curse. At my kids' elementary school, they always discussed the kids with the teachers of the next grade, and they'd look at friendship groups and try to make sure that everyone had at least one friend in their class. Sometimes larger friend groups got split up, but they tried not to put just 1 kid from a friend group in another class from the rest of their friends. But sometimes, there's just no way to keep friends together if two kids are toxic together.

There were 2 boys in A's class who were horrible bullies together. They did split them up at least one year, I know, but I'm not sure how much it helped. And then E had a friend who was starting to get aggressive in 4th or 5th grade. Her mom was mentally ill (she saw things that weren't there), and I think maybe the girl inherited some of the delusional behavior because she'd suddenly lash out at E and kick her, or punch her for no apparent reason, and when E would ask her why, she'd say something like "That's what you get!" And she dropped one friend because she said the friend called her a nasty name, but that girl was not the kind of girl to do that unprovoked, and she said she never said that. And the delusional girl also swore that she was terrified of police because they arrested her father in front of her for trying to kill her. But the father had co-custody that he'd never have been granted if he had actually tried to strangle her and police had had to pull him off of her like she said. But she really was terrified of police, so I think she BELIEVES that's what happened. Anyway, the girl was starting to get emotionally and physically abusive to E, and she wouldn't leave her alone in class. She'd keep asking E to help her, even when they weren't supposed to be talking, and she wouldn't stop pestering E while E was trying to get her own work done. So when they were going into 6th grade, I asked for them to be separated, because it wasn't in E's best interest to be in this girl's class. But this girl had literally no other friends and she had tried to keep E from having any other friends too, telling her if she played with someone else during recess, she wouldn't invite her to her birthday party, etc. So they split them up, and her mom was really angry about it, but I just couldn't let E be beat up every time the girl had an episode, and I wanted her to be able to focus on her own work rather than trying to explain things to this girl that had already been explained by the teacher. It was a sad situation, and I'm not sure how they decided which teacher would get her in their class. It must be tough when there are so many things to consider in placing students. And it must be hard as a teacher to always get more of the difficult kids because you "can handle it." Kudos to you for being good with that stuff. I was TERRIBLE at classroom management. It's the main reason I decided not to pursue teaching when I moved here. I'm just not good at that, and so much of teaching is dependent on being good at it.
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I'm not sure about other grade level teams, but ours looks at everything, including friendships. We see kids who are good to keep together, as well as those who need to be split up. We make notes about it, so when it gets passed onto others, they can try to keep it how we had it. For example, last year I had two boys who were friends, but got in so many fights and had so many issues getting along, so I split them up.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
PUSH said:
I'm not sure about other grade level teams, but ours looks at everything, including friendships. We see kids who are good to keep together, as well as those who need to be split up. We make notes about it, so when it gets passed onto others, they can try to keep it how we had it. For example, last year I had two boys who were friends, but got in so many fights and had so many issues getting along, so I split them up.
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Even in middle school we look at those things too. We split up two girls this year because they are just a problem together. One girl went in and begged our guidance counselor to put them back together, the girl called the other one her "emotional support animal" and that she was perish without her in a pre-teen drama flair. Our guidance counselor told her no, thank goodness.
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ajrwdwgirl said:
Our paraprofessionals are Special Education only. So they are already assigned to classes that have the SPED students. If students have individual needs that they need a para with them then they will got to all classes it all depends on their needs. It all is determined before school starts. For example, if a student just needs support in math or english then there is no need for the para to go to music or art but they might go with students and support science or social studies because of the reading and writing necessary with those subjects. Also if I have only one or two special ed students in my science class and if they are LD or ED they won't have the para but be able to go to the Special Education room for support as needed. But that is how our middle/high school is run could be different in our elementary (I rarely see our elementary teachers) or be different in different districts.
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Our paras are spec ed only, too. Their support is all written into student's IEPs. So if it's not in an IEP, they won't receive support. Many times in our school, students receive support in specials, but again, it's dependent upon what's in their IEPs. Our paras are mainly there for behaviors or disabilities. There aren't many kids who have academic IEPs, even though there probably should be. But in the younger grades, academics require a lot of hoops to jump through before they can qualify for spec ed. You need to have tried a certain number of interventions for a certain period of time. This is my first year in a long time where I have students who have academic minutes written in the IEPs.
 
PUSH

PUSH

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
ajrwdwgirl said:
Even in middle school we look at those things too. We split up two girls this year because they are just a problem together. One girl went in and begged our guidance counselor to put them back together, the girl called the other one her "emotional support animal" and that she was perish without her in a pre-teen drama flair. Our guidance counselor told her no, thank goodness.
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It's far more common for us to split kids up than keep them together. If there is a kid who has some anxiety, or struggles with something, I will keep them with a friend if they helped them with that. But for the majority of kids, they will always have or make friends in their classes. The priority is keeping certain kids apart, so that is preserves the learning for all.
 
MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Tiggerish said:
I'm assuming those temps are Fahrenheit. The forecast for my area for the upcoming week includes highs of 86. I am very unhappy about that. I've enjoyed this past week of mid 70s. Perfect weather.
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It's 55 here this morning! 🥰

(That said, I think we're also getting a day later this week in the 80s. Typical of September, the temps are up and down. I enjoy the cooler ones, when we can get them.)
 

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