It’s so hard to know what to expect each day at school these days. My challenge girl, Mia, was 'off' yesterday - as in she got in big trouble and I have to remember to write up what she did. First of all, she got into trouble at lunch and then, on our way back, she was going to come through Chantelle’s room to open my door from the inside. Summer W. had asked me if she could do it and I said ‘yes’. When Mia was told by Chantelle that it was Summer’s turn, Mia flipped out and ‘ran away’. I could see where she was and asked one of the TAs to watch my class while I went out and talked with her. She finally came inside, but it was so frustrating. She is an aboriginal girl and so, after school, I spoke with a teacher who works with the aboriginal children at the school and told her that, after the break, I would like to speak with her about ways I could possibly work with Mia and her immaturity. Today, both Bailee and Mia were away and I thought it would be an easy day - WRONG! The kids are so ‘off’ and not just mine - the other teachers are feeling the same thing about their kids. They tell me that this happens because it’s the end of the term. I am hopeful that after their two week break, things will get better.
I felt bad for Chantelle today - a parent whose child cannot handle being outside (too aggressive) had spoken to Chantelle last week and had agreed to the different strategies they were using with their son inside and outside of the classroom. However, earlier this week, the parent became frosty and asked for a meeting with a variety of people re: her son. After school today, both parents, Chantelle, and two behaviour specialists met and the mother ‘went off’ and said that she didn’t want any special treatment for her son because she didn’t want him centred out. Once the interview was over, the mother asked to speak privately with Chantelle. She asked Chantelle if she could remember what she said to Billy when the mom took him out of school early for an appointment one day. When Chantelle said ’no’, the mother said that Chantelle had said “well, maybe at the appointment, you (Billy) will find a brain”. When Chantelle told Pam and I this, our mouths dropped open - Chantelle is the sweetest person. I told Pam later (when Chantelle wasn’t there) that I wish it had been one of us who the Mom had taken on - we are both seasoned teachers and older as well and have thicker skins. Poor Chantelle, who is young (23) and in her first year of teaching just teared up as she told us about the meeting. I told her that things would get better as she gained more experience. I also told her that I would be in her classroom tomorrow morning when the parents brought Billy in in case there were any issues. She was appreciative of my offer. Each of the past two days, I just came home and flopped onto my chair and sat there for the night.
Dad has been back at it these past two days - he thinks that the next six weeks will be full-on for him re: the census. He has so much preparation to do - not only with getting ready for his meeting with his collectors, but also trying to connect with the people in the public places where people pay to stay (eg: nursing home, caravan park, hotel, etc.). Someone in those places (someone in charge) has to give out the census forms to people staying there on census night. Dad has to train these people so that they know how to do what they need to do on census day. Dad also did ‘Meals on Wheels’ today - a new guy has started and they have paired him with Dad and Dad says that this guy is really good and they get through the route really quickly. Dad spent some time at the Family History Centre last night with Bill, the first counsellor in the Bishopric - once Bill got to putting in some of his family names into the program, he caught ‘the bug’ and he and Dad spent a couple of hours doing genealogy. Dad gets really excited when people ‘catch the bug’ as it is likely that these people will continue to come back and use the genealogy library. Tonight, at SES, they did another search exercise - they were “looking” for a little girl or signs of a little girl in the area they were searching. They found a rather large rag doll which was the only thing which had been hidden. Once they found the doll, the team stopped to talk about what they would do if they were really in this situation and, as it turned out, they decided that they would send a female in to talk with the little girl as little girls tend to feel more comfortable talking to a woman. Dad was a team leader and he is beginning to feel more comfortable being a leader in these practices.
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