Circumstances

One of the things that has always had a big presence in my teaching career is the weight I carry for my students. For me, I take my students' successes and failures very personal. I feel responsible for them when they are not doing well, b/c it is my job to help them make progress. Having that responsibility at times (if not most of the time) is very stressful. I am responsible for their education and whether or not they do well in school. There are a lot of other factors (and people) involved as well, but I feel like my role is even more important. I am shaping their lives, and my lack of effort (or being able to help them), could have a detrimental effect on their lives, setting them up for even more struggles in their lives/education.
You can't control your circumstances-- you just have to make the best of them-- and try your best to adapt to them. Teacher's teach the student's, but it is the parents that know their children best-- Within United States Public Ed Special Education there is a 25ish page document of parental rights. It is something that is required to give to every parent, every time that you meet with them. Parent's have the right to not have their child in special education. It may make the classroom teacher's job more difficult, but those are the circumstances. Teacher's have student's in their classrooms that come from broken homes, neglect, abuse, but it is still their job to teach them, amid the circumstances that they come from. It has been the same here in that there are still circumstances, though they may be different, I have to work around-- and I just have to try to do my best to help my students.

This is week 6 of school- and 4 weeks into my schedule-- I think I have yet to teach a week without a different schedule-- b/c I am constantly tweaking my schedule-- to try and fit more more times with my student's -- and work around the replacement classes I am teaching. We are able to pull student's from 1 Bible class, 1 Spanish Class, 1 Morning Meeting, and 1 day of Sci/S.S. I have 3 replacement classes I'm teaching-- which means I am their Reading/Math teacher (and taking grades)-- and the student's are coming with me during their Reading or Math class time. There are a few classes that have the times I can pull students, when I'm teaching the Replacement classes--so then it get's harder to find a time to see them. I also have a bit of a scheduling crunch in the afternoon, b/c both 2nd and 3rd grade have reading from 12:30-1:30, so providing in-class support is more complicated. In the past I've had para/aides go into classes 5 days a week, whereas here they are going in 2-3 days a week-- and can make a difference with helping students with independent work.

Last year, my Friday schedule was a lot more laid back-- though it was pretty hectic in the morning-- This year I have a back-to-back schedule all day-- with Reading Tests in the morning- and then 2 grade levels with Reading tests, plus my replacement class all at the same time. It definitely give me practice in balance and flexibility!

I haven't had my Spanish classes quite as often during the week, mostly due to scheduling-- (but it's still been a few days a week). Sometimes my teacher hasn't been free when I was able to do the class, or if I've waited too long to sign up for the class, and she doesn't have any open times. Last night we conversed in Spanish-- There are still a lot of words that I struggle with-- and I do need to take the time to sit down and study some of the more common words. I have note cards taped on my wall with words/phrases that we've worked on so far. But I am able to understand more-- and she said I have made improvement, which is encouraging.

There's the possibility of a hurricane coming here in the next several days-- I've been told that hurricanes usually don't affect us here in Santiago-- just a lot of rain-- but since we don't get snow days here-- it would be kind of nice to have a Hurricane Day! The map shows that it will probably go south of the DR, but we can only hope...