School Days

Today, I am still miss my baby Celia's ringlets.  She is cute, I can see her face more, but I am scared we might not get the ringlets back.  I will adjust though.  When I first started cloth diapering, I really had second thoughts because it gave her this big bubble butt.  I almost stopped because of it, I missed how she looked.  But then, I got used to it, and after a short while I couldn't imagine her without the bubble butt.  Now of course I only see the bubble butt when she wears her cloth diapers at night.  So I suppose it is the same deal with her hair.  Fortunately I know that my Mother-in-law is going to oh and aw over how cute she is tomorrow, that will make me feel a little better.  Then my Mom will also comment on how cute she is and I will feel a little better then too.

Okay school.  Christmas break refreshed me, it really did.  I came back to work in a better mood, and I needed that because we have had a very hard two weeks.  I have a student that has had severe behavioral difficulties.  These difficulties started a few months ago and I was frustrated because I kept hearing from others that he had never acted like this in the past.  I now have heard otherwise from others, but it doesn't seem like he has acted this bad for this long.  I viewed it as, well I must be doing something wrong.  But the truth is, these behaviors I now realize have no reflection on me as a teacher.  They are usualy at their worst on Mondays and he is great by Friday.  There are other signs that something is happening at home.  What is a reflection on me as a teacher is how I respond to these behaviors.  I have never dealt with a child this age, with this high of a cognitive leve, with these type of behaviors.  I reached out to our behaviorists and I have been working with them and developing my own strategies.  I am proud of my amazing assistants for hanging in there too.  It has been a difficult few weeks but maybe empowering.  I now understand him a lot more, I should I have spent almost all day by his side somedays!  Many of us have been hit and spit at (right in our face).  I have been called all sorts of lovely words.
This is a work in progress and I am not sure what the next few months are going to be like, he could go eitherway.  For the first time I am in a school that supports their teachers when there are behavior issues.  When I taught Multiple Disabilities, basically if you had behavior issues, you were on your own.  It did not matter if you had a student that knocked over bookshelves, punched you, bit you, etc... You just had to deal. 
I am not enjoying the fact that my other students are suffering with all that is going on.  But I feel like I have learned a great deal in the past two weeks.  I have always enjoyed trying to figure out solutions to behavior issues.  I am also not enjoying the exhaustion that comes with it- emotionally and physically.  But we will get through it!

So now we have a long weekend and on Tuesday my student will come in ready to cause trouble and I will be armed with a little more knowledge of the situation.