1. I have a first grader who
writes all his words backwards. I
went to the 2 school psychologists and told them the situation. I said I have no idea what the signs for
dyslexia or learning disorders are but it may be a good idea to test this
child. Chaco (her name) told
me to talk to the teacher the year before to see if he experienced the same
problem. So, I went to Miriam (Peruvian
teacher) and asked her and she said, of course, every time he wrote
backwards! Then I mentioned the
idea of possible dyslexia and she exclaimed, “oh no! he was just absent from school a lot so doesn’t know his
difference between left and right”
Now, like I said earlier, I have no idea what the signs are, but I am
not going to allow a child to go through another 4 years of school without
knowing if he does or doesn’t have it because I’m too lazy to do anything about
it!
2. A boy in second grade touched
another boy in the crotch. When
the administration was told about it, they shook their heads and were just
like, “he is going to be such a problem when he is older” and then never mentioned
it again.
3. A learning disabled girl in
the second grade wants to learn English.
But, administration tells the teacher not to let her in the room because
she cant learn anyway and she will only disturb the other children. The teacher has to sneak her in when no
one is looking.
4. First grade, there is a boy
who really does not know his ass from his forehead. When you speak to him he looks right past you and then does
not respond and continues to stand there for the next 5-7 minutes. To get him to move you have to gently
guide him. Even then, he does not
comprehend what you want from him.
At recess time he stares at the other children and does not move, just
stares. When we are able to get
him involed in their games of tag, when he is tagged, he just starts running in
the other direction opposite from the other children and they begin yelling at
him to turn around. He then turns
and just stops and stares at them.
One time he even walked head first into a swing set because his
attention is nowhere in the present moment. We approached the psychologist (both first grade teachers)
and instead of working with the child, she told us to take extensive notes
about what he is and isn’t doing in class for a month. Now, call me silly, but isn’t that a month’s worth of time that she could
e working with him on social skills, motor skills and every other skill out
there since he is lacking all of them?
5. The one copying machine for
the entire school breaks down.
What to do? Change your
lesson plans so they do not require any worksheets!
6. 2 months into the school
year and the English team finally sits down to discuss resources that are
available to them.
7. When a new English teacher
(someone who has never taught before and never went to school for teaching)
asks the administration for guidance they respond: we don’t want you to rely on
us so do it yourself. Ummm.. what
does asking for guidance and relying on someone to do your work for you have to
do with one another, especially when there has never been any direction for
these new teachers!
8. Laugh about it over wine and cookies at your boss's apartment!
