News at Home: Spring Break! Yay!
Y’all I’m officially on spring break and I could not be happier! I am so ready for this week – except the part where it will be over in a blink and then we’ll be on a super long stretch until the end of the school year.
But this past week wasn’t bad. My absolute worst student – has no respect for any adult (parents and teachers), any other student, etc – was removed from my class (as of Monday) because he assaulted one of my girls last week. He pushed himself on her to kiss her. In her words – “I told him no and tried to push him off but he was too strong. My lips hurt.” It was awful – and even more awful because if anything in this system worked right he would have been removed from my class a long time ago. I’ve done the paper work to show that he needs more help than can be provided in a Gen.Ed. classroom. And while he’s been removed from my room, he’s just in one of the other Gen.Ed. Kinder rooms. He wasn’t even suspended because we have this FANTASTIC law that says you can’t suspend a K-2 kid. Unless they bring a weapon or commit assault. According to our school board, what he did wasn’t assault because he’s only 5. I say Bull Fucking Shit. But at least having him gone made our week a lot better. One of the kids asked if he was going to be back and I told them, “No, I don’t think so.” and the kids literally smiled, a couple sighs of relief and one raised his hand and said “he scares me.” Y’all I really believe my class has been hell in part because my kids have been living on edge, wondering what this other kid would pull. And all I can say is I’m sorry I don’t have the power to protect you like I’d like to. Again. Bull. Fucking. Shit. This is the stuff that’s fueling me to go to school and open my own charter.
On a semi-positive note, I have an autistic student in my class and last week I finally got his mom to BEGIN to see that Gen.Ed. is not the place for him, right now at least. I’ve been trying to get her to see that since SEPTEMBER, but legally I have to go through so many steps to prove that – even though anyone can clearly see it’s not working. He’s a sweet boy and had he been in the right program all year, he’d be that much closer to actually being able to succeed in Gen.Ed. But mom has been so resistant because he’s smart… y’all SPED does not mean dumb. It means Special Needs. Some of the most BRILLIANT minds have special needs. It pisses me off to no end that people can’t seem to make that differentiation. But on Friday I was having a conversation with mom, explaining all the problems he’s having because of all the things I can’t provide him being a Gen.Ed. teacher with 21 other students to care for and she finally asked “well is there a class where he can get that?” and I was like, “yes! we’ve actually mentioned it before… would you like us to setup a tour of the many programs we have in our district?” and bam! now that’s she asked, I can FINALLY skip some of these documentation steps and get a move on getting him where he goes. I literally was JUMPING and CHEERING in my principal’s office when I told her. She may have jumped up and cheered with me 🙂
So anyway – all that is behind me and I’m looking forward to my week. My mom signed her lease last week and will be moving out sometime this week. Just waiting on when her moving help is available… I hope it’s early in the week so I can get settled. I also plan on doing some GRE studying, asking for recommendation letters, writing application essays, etc for Grad School! And relaxing. A lot of relaxing 🙂
Blog News
This week I shared my review for the audiobook of A Wrinkle in Time over at Books of My Heart. It’s Anne, who used to blog at the Book Nympho before it shut down 🙂 Go check out her new home and my review!
COYER is over 🙁 I did okay – better than my last few COYERs, though I did peter out towards the end. Looking forward to planning the next one for this summer!
Bloggiesta kicks off in a week! We’re already having chats in our Facebook Page — which I believe will be moving to our Facebook Group next week. Have you signed up yet? Bloggiesta is just a great opportunity to work with fellow bloggers to get your blog in tip-top shape. You can sign up now 🙂
I’m super proud of myself- I visited blogs Sunday – Thursday of this week 🙂 I know, not great, but an improvement. I plan to visit today and get all my posts for the rest of the month done this week. The goal is to get back to where I had a buffer!
#FitReaders Update
Here are my goals for March:
Do yoga every Monday – Friday: This was a fail this week. I’ve been too tired in the mornings. Will try again this week.
Drink 64 oz of water daily & track it!: Nailed it!
Track all food – hit goals of 37% protein, 27% carbs, and 36% fat: Did a great job tracking – met goals 5 out of 7 days.
Complete March #strongestwomenindallas challenge at my gym – 20 classes, 2 of each format: I only have 4 classes to go! I’ve been killing it at the gym. Sunday I did a triple – Flexin Flow (yoga), Complete Core, and Turbo Kick; Monday was Body Sculpt; Tuesday I had a massage 🙂 ; Wednesday another triple – Dance, Humpday and Cycle; Thursday was a double – Turbo Kick and Pure Strength; Friday I did HIIT; Saturday another triple – powerbelle (barre), Dance, and Cycle.
Lose 20 lbs: I haven’t lost ANYTHING since the start of the month 🙁 Frustrated but trying to stay positive.
Last Week on the Blog
- [6 Mar] Interlude in Death by J.D. Robb ★★★★
- [6 Mar] Seduction in Death by J.D. Robb ★★★★
- [6 Mar] Reunion in Death by J.D. Robb ★★★★½
- [7 Mar] Zero Day by Jan Gangsei ★★★
- [9 Mar] Reign of Magic: An Epic Fantasy Adventure by K.N. Lee ★★★★
- [10 Mar] My To-Be Read List March Winner is….
- [11 Mar] Sunday Post with Berls | Spring Break! Yay!
- [11 Mar] DNF, COYER Ends and Stupid Snow~ WIR & SP
Coming Next Week From Me
Saturday
Sunday Post with Berls | Spring Break! Yay!
Monday
Just a Few… In Death – that’s it for a while! #audio #review
Tuesday
A Week of Mondays #review
Saturday
Books From Kinderland
I am doing a HAPPY DANCE with you my friend. Sounds like a lot of positive. I have to agree with you that assault was committed, and I feel bad for all involved that he’s not getting the help he needs. Just keep documenting and keep everything at hand… it’s too bad we live in a world where that is so important.
Glad you are doing so well exercising – but not with weight loss. Have you tried the only liquid diet again to kick start stuff?
Enjoy your break week. We had one snow day last week and two this week. GRRRR.
Hooray for spring break! But sad how it goes by in a flash, *sigh* That’s crazy about that kid! That wasn’t assault? A child that age doesn’t understand NO?! That is just so wrong. But on a positive note, thank goodness the other mom finally saw the light and now maybe her kid will get the special help/attention he needs. Go you on the tracking and the water intake! That’s awesome! Hope you have a great week off this week!
My son needed some extra help in school. What was sad was how cautious the teachers were when they approached me. I think they were afraid I’d be offended and were relieved and elated when I asked for all the information they could provide. So glad you were able to help your student, Berls.
Enjoy your spring break!
I’m glad you had a good week, and that your student with special needs might get what he needs. Enjoy your break!
You are right; it’s too bad a student had to suffer that in order for him to be taken out of your class. I can only imagine how frustrating that was. I hopped over to your To-Be-Read post and was happy to see the choice was Six of Crows! Have a wonderful and calm spring break. 💜
Oh my gosh, how can they NOT consider what that kid did an assault!?!? I know how powerless it can make you feel as a teacher when you can’t protect the other kids. I remember sitting in my principals office sobbing one day because they refused to remove this violent student from my classroom. It was so unfair to the other kids because they were NOT getting a good education. I spent so much time dealing with that student, no one was learning. There has to be a better way to run schools. I hope you figure it out!
Have a great week!
I am glad your AU student is getting what he needs and his mother is seeing the light. It is SO hard to explain to people that SPED doesn’t mean a student has a low IQ or a cognitive/processing issue. AU students fall under SPED, even the high functioning ones. Students with ODD or ED or even PTSD or anxiety/depression qualify under the SPED umbrella. That is total bullshit about your student who assaulted another student. Excusing and writing off that behavior because of age is why in 6th and 7th grade right now we have boys physically and sexually assaulting girls and sexually harassing female teachers with the most minimal consequences. Less than if they got in a physical fight with another student. That is total bullshit, and as that child gets older, other parents DO have the option to press charges should something happen to their child by being assaulted by this kid.
So Jealous of your spring break! I can’t take a week until August and that’s still iffy.
So that kid should have been suspended, maybe the little girls mom could put in a complaint, you need to teach them when they are young that, that is not ok behavior.
I am glad that mom is finally ok with having him in a special needs program. It makes me so sad that people are so embarrassed of that, I am proud of my kid every day. He is a smart kid with some limitations but they don’t make him any less. 🙂
Have a great week, Berls! Enjoy your break!
Happy spring break!! Enjoy. I’m sorry to hear about the student who assaulted- yes assaulted!!- that girl. Poor thing, to have that happen to her. Good grief. He needs to be somewhere other than General, clearly. I hope people get their shit together w/ that. But… the autistic student news is awesome, and congrats on reaching the parent! That had to feel good. 🙂
Take care and have a super week Berls!