2nd day of school

Today was the second day of school, I am so tired! I am having a blast as I am going through this adventure. As you all know, my placement is a Special Ed teacher working with Asperger's students... but i don't have kids in my program yet. Sooooo, I have been temporarily placed in kindergarten to co-teach in a classroom with 27 kids. It has been CRAZY. First, the teacher I am co-teaching with (she is the one in charge of lesson plans, management, etc as it is her regular classroom) does not have the greatest of management skills nor has any sort of organization. So, the room is really hectic and I am afraid to take too much control since its not my room, although I did today as I had to teach for the afternoon, more on that in a second.

Today was insane. I cleaned up vomit, had a kid spit on me, and dealt with 4 kids with the worst behavior I have ever witnessed in children, one of which has fetal alcohol syndrom and has a chronic behavior problem that is REALLY hard to manage. The highlight today was losing a kid for two hours. I had a meeting today at lunch and when I got back to the kindergarten classroom, the teacher that I am working with informed me that she was missing a kid. I ran to the office and told them. Announcements went over the intercom, all teachers were told to count their kids, and the search went on. We looked all over the school and neighborhood, the police were called, the media was called, and the parents. It was a disaster. Finally, I decided to check every kindergarten class again and personally count the kids myself (after the teachers were told to count the kids three different times)... and alas, I found little Eddie just chilling in the bilingual class (which is funny because he is not in a bilingual class). I took little Eddie to the office where he was welcomed by the whole search crew, including his FREAKED out and EXTREMELY upset parents who decided to scream and yell and punch the walls in the office. I understand their anger, their kid was missing and the teachers did not properly count their students. In addition, the teacher did not even recognize that there was a strange student in her class who was not wearing her classes special name tag. CRAZINESS. After this whole ordeal, I had to teach for the afternoon because my co-teacher was too distraught after losing a kid and getting reprimanded by our principal (oh! and the superintendent was at school today to give my principal her evaluation and review while this all happened!)

So, I am tired. I love kindergarten but would have a hard time doing it for two years. Much love to you all.

We reported to work on Monday, after two days in the classroom in meetings and setting up, things are looking a little better. I am really excited to get my students. Right now, there aren't any students in my program; there won't be any until after the school year starts. So, right now, I am trying to learn as much as possible about Asperger's and the types of students that I will be working with. I have been busy setting up my classroom so that it is conducive to the way students with high functioning autism/asperger's learn the best. My classroom will be a relaxing, peaceful, soft atmosphere which studies show is the atmosphere that these students need. My job is going to be to co-teach with the students' general education teacher as much as possible so that my students are mainstreamed as much as possible. I will only be able to pull my students out a little bit each day to work on social behavior skills, relationship building, etc. I should eventually have 10 or so students whos case loads I will be taking on.

While my classroom is large and in good condition, I do not have a lot of stuff, namely books. If anyone would like to send me books, I would love it! Used books are much appreciated. In addition, I am trying to figure out a way to get a tv for my classroom and a cd player/stereo. Children with autism need soft music in their working environment and learn well from instructional videos that show relationships and good behavior.

I went to Indiana a week ago and had the most wonderful trip ever. I went up to visit Kendi, my girlfriend. We had a wonderful time. We watched senior national swim championships, I watched her bike race (and win all three races!), went to Bloomington, and saw many Greencastle sites. It was so nice being there and seeing her friends and where she grew up. Unfortunately, because of the horrible distance (she is still a student at Whitman), we decided to break up. I flew back to Houston absolutely miserable. The last place I wanted to fly to was Houston, a city I am VERY slowly learning to appreciate. I am slowly getting better but still really sad.

I am in class right now, we have class 3 nights a week from 5:30-8:30 in addition to every other Sunday, this schedule is horrible for a first year teacher, Teach For America does a wonderful job keeping us busy and NOT relaxed.

Roberto