Another Mustard Post

December 8, 2006 at 8:57 am (Crochet & Crafts, General Life, Teaching)

…time to catch up. I haven’t been blogging much this week. It’s been rather hectic. Here’s the updates on the goings on in Sarah-ville.

Monday’s crochet club was the second-to-last. I’m not sure if we will have enough squares to make a pot-holder, let alone a full blown blanket. I think I overestimated on this one! Even though I’m not going to have a project to donate to anyone at the end, I did have a fun time with the girls, and they did learn a valuable skill.

Tuesday I successfully avoided staying at work until 8pm for Parent-teacher conferences. Being that I don’t have a homeroom, I don’t have students that I need to meet with. I already meet with the parents of my kids on a semi-regular basis, so none of them requested that I meet up with them with their kid’s homeroom teacher. I was able to use that time packing!

Wednesday, lunchtime, I meet with my “lunch bunch”, a group of fifth grade girls who are especially upset that I’m leaving. We eat lunch together, crochet, talk about random things, etc. These girls are all kids that I either service on IEPsor ones that I tend to help out anyway. My biggest happiness of that day? I taught my 5th grader with Autism how to crochet a chain. (The same one I talked about here.) I was absolutely amazed about how quickly she picked it up. Those tears came back, but for a good reason.

Thursday, I was on a rampage. I had had enough with “Steve”, all the crap that he’s shoveling at my kids, all the harassment he’s been doing to other staff members. I sent the superintendentof the school I work at an email

Good Morning, Mr. [G]

I sat with Ms. [D] this morning. As the team leader of 6th grade, I have been going to her for months (as well as Dr. [D] and Mr. [M]) about my concerns about the grading and instruction of 6th grade students in Math and Social Studies. She made me aware of the meeting you had with her over these issues. If possible, I’d like to meet with you as well, specifically dealing with students I service.

I’ve been keeping a document running since the very start of the year with concerns I have had, steps I’ve gone through to correct these concerns, and the lack of change being requested. I also have various emails dealing with my issues.I don’t want to give the appearance that I’m going over Dr. [D]’s and Mr. [M]’s heads, but I really feel that as the superintendent of this school you should be aware of the issues I am having. In all seriousness, these may lead to future law suits if parents got a clue as to what is going on. I’ve contemplated going to you in the past, and with my departure from the school coming up, I think it’s time.

Thanks for your time

Sarah

He had me up to his office half an hour later. After a 90 minute meeting, he was in “Steve’s” class for the majority of the day. When he passed me in the hallway later that day, he whispered to me, “You’re right. It’s exactly like you said. He didn’t even try to change with me being in there. I’m meeting with him Monday.”

Yes. Maybe things will change. Later that afternoon, I broke up a fist fight between two sixth-graders. I didn’t get punched, this time. 😉

Friday’s started off a bit rough. One of the boys in “Jay’s” class, his mom died in a freak accident a few months back. (Doctor’s error in a routine hysterectomy.) Now, the grandmother who was taking care of him passed away as well. The little one is living with his neighbors, who have been taking care of him since his grandmother took ill. I was sitting with them this morning, a lovely gay couple in their 60s…they laughed that they are finally parents after all this time being together. They have temporary custody, appointed by the courts, and they wanted to see if I could help them get full time custody. Unfortunately, the next court visit is after I leave, but I am giving them a letter talking about the positive changes I have seen in their “son” since they had started taking care of him, about 6 weeks ago.

Now, I’ve got about 20 minutes to get myself ready for the day, before I lead off to 5D Music, to help “Jay” learn the recorder. 🙂