Sunday, May 16, 2010

New Kid's Follow-Up Suspension Meeting

After New Kid was suspended (http://pigtailedteacher.blogspot.com/2010/05/where-to-start.html), a meeting with his mom was scheduled. The original incident happened on Thursday, so New Kid did day one of in-house on Friday (and missed the school walk-a-thon). He was supposed to do day two on Monday...the same day as his mom's meeting with the principal, the school psychologist, the school part-time counselor, resource teacher, school nurse, and me, but he didn't show up to school and neither did his mom.

No phone call, no e-mail, nothing.

"How are we suppose to help support your child when you won't support us, Mom?!?!"

We had the meeting without Mom, and we're finally talking about what's the right placement for this kid, especially for next year. We decided to invite a behavioral specialist into my classroom to observe the student, a higher-up in the special ed world was called for consultation, a new behavioral plan was put into place for him, and several other things were discussed. I did my best not to get overwhelmed and cry in front of my co-workers, but I think everyone in the meeting knew I was upset and concerned about the well-being of the other students in my class (and for myself!)

When New Kid came back on Tuesday he did his second day of in-house suspension (while missing a field trip to the theater) and then he started two weeks of supervised recess...that means he gets to walk around with the recess supervisors and watch the other kids play. I'll be giving you all more details about that next time!

-Pigtailed Teacher

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Where to Start?

I've been MIA for three weeks, so it's hard to decide where to start.

How about New Kid's two day, in-house suspension?

On April 21st, a Wednesday, I went to an all-day training with my principal and four of my co-workers. According to the note my sub left me, New Kid was a complete jerk to her, had a meltdown, refused to go to the office, etc. As my sub put it, "I felt like I had been drug behind a truck."

So when I returned to class on Thursday, I met with New Kid to discuss the consequences, including the fact that he probably wasn't going on the field trip with us the next week. He was a little upset, but seemed to understand. From there though, the day went downhill. Fast.

Here's what I wrote in my journal: "New Kid acted up a little during writing, then a bunch more in math-knocked his pencil box [over] in the process & he got got very angry & I sent for the Crazy Counselor [who was filling in for the principal while she was out of the building for two days]. Crazy Counselor let him play a "video game" [to calm him down]." Then, as I was bringing the kids in from lunch recess, New Kid bounced a ball off the wall above the doorway. Right after I told him not to do that, as I turned to walk back to the front of my line, he bounced the ball off the back of my head!!!

"I whipped around & told him I was so mad, rushed to the office, threw the secretary in with my class & had a breakdown in the back office." My head was fine, but I was so mad and frustrated that I couldn't help but cry.

Long story short, New Kid got in-house suspension for two days, missed the field trip, had to write me an apology and we scheduled a meeting with his mom for the following Monday. Next time I'll tell you about the meeting and the flying scissors.