Day 17 — PD Day Fire Alarm Fun!!

A LONG, LONG staff meeting today, which started off with a nicely catered breakfast. Thank you Mr. Principal Man! The meeting seemed endless, and it wasn’t helped by the fire alarms going off in the middle of it. We all evacuated the building, and then were told by Mr. Principal Man to go back in. Then we were told by Ms. Veep to go back out. Much confusion ensued. This rigmarole added at least 30 minutes to our already long staff meeting.

When we were all assembled again in the library, a former parent, and personal trainer, came and did a workshop on doing exercises with our students. It’s the mandate that we do “DPA” (Daily Physical Activity) with our kids for 20 minutes a day, but that’s difficult in a classroom situation. She brought her assistant with her, a very fit enthusiastic young woman, who had us all up and dancing. Mr. Principal Man decided this would be the best time to get the camera, so he could post the pics on our school website, which is his pet project. The exercises that were recommended were generally good, but FitDude, our awesome Phys.Ed guy, brought up a couple of potential safety issues with some of them. The presenter seemed a bit miffed by these ideas, and seemed to think that we were being unruly (she didn’t say this, but her attitude said lots) but I think that FitDude made some good points. Safety first.

At noon, I had to leave, as I was on my way to another meeting at a different school. This was a meeting put on by the Deaf Ed. department with my board, and was to deal with assessments and IEPs. It was a good meeting and nice to see some colleagues that we don’t usually see. We talked about our dept. getting together socially more often, and providing opportunities for the kids to get together, as they’re pretty isolated. This Friday will be our D/HH picnic, which is always a hit with the kids, so that should be fun.

Days 15 and 16 — I’m a Bad Blogger

It’s been a super busy week, and I didn’t blog in a timely fashion. This is being posted on Sunday, but I’m blogging about the mid-week nuttiness.

The end of the week was crazy. Mrs. K was sick, and my job is MUCH harder without an EA. The kids are so needy, and really do need tons of help throughout the day. So…I did my best, and it was fine, but tiring.

We talked about Canadian Thanksgiving, which is next week, and discussed the foods that one eats during that time. When we got to pumpkin pie, they all looked at me like I had 3 heads. They know about pumpkins, but it never occurred to them that you could eat it in pie form. This was big news.

We’re going to bake this week.

Day Fourteen — The Heat is Back On

Another insanely hot day — up to 40 degrees Celcius (well over 100 F) and I had to deal with sweaty, exhausted children, not to mention myself. Mrs. K, our EA (Educational Assistant) went home at lunch, as she had a bad cold, and I’m sure that the excessive heat didn’t help.

No return note from Russ’ dad today, so we’ll see where that takes us. Another day of math, and ‘writing workshop’, where the children wrote about favourite holidays. After they have a few pieces of writing, I’ll ask them to take their favourite, and we’ll work on it more extensively.

Drama in the afternoon — we worked on tableaux. It was their first experience with this, and they did quite well, but need to get more focused. The heat probably wilted their brains.

I’m tired.

Day Thirteen–Exactly What is Wrong with 82.5%???

I arrived at school late today, as I had a doctor’s appointment. Upon my arrival, I was bombarded with children greeting me at the door. Kenny shook my hand as if I’d been gone on an extended holiday. The others were pleased to see me, and pretty invasive about their questions about my late arrival.

I was handed Russ’ math test that I had asked for the parents to sign. It was signed, but there was also a note attached, indicating that the father didn’t agree with the mark I had given the child, and that some answers that I had marked wrong were, in fact, right. In the note he asked if Russ could rewrite the test, and that he, Russ, was very frustrated when he got home. Oh…by the way….did I mention that Russ got 33/40 on the test??? Which translates into 82.5%??? And that the kid is in GRADE FIVE?!!?!? Everybody get a grip!! I wrote a note back, explaining the answers to the misunderstood questions, told him that Russ was not frustrated when he was at school, but that he was worried that the family might think that his mark was bad. I told the dad that he could not rewrite the test, as an ‘A’ was a good mark, that we should celebrate Russ’ accomplishments, rather than nitpick over each mark. I also explained that my class focuses on language, and that the questions that Russ got wrong (same types of questions he had previously done correctly in homework) were language related. I don’t know what these parents want from this kid. He’s very sweet, and bright enough, but VERY behind in all areas, including math. He’s stronger in math than language, but still has a long way to go. They’re going to make this kid a nervous wreck.

On the more fun side, I taught a science lesson to the Grade 5’s (Russ, Peter, and Ivy) about the human skeleton. It was hilarious filling in the picture of the skeleton with the correct bone names and trying to find those parts on our own bodies. We played ‘Simon Says’ with body parts — “Simon Says ‘Touch your skull!’ ‘Touch your patellas!’, and then moved onto ‘Human Skeleton Bingo’ which I bought at the end of last year. A great time was had by all, as I made like the carnival barker and was tremendously excited with each turn of the wheel. Nothin’ like hearing kids shout ‘BINGO’ as if their life depended on it.

Day Twelve…Friday is a Beautiful Thing

The secretary buzzed up this morning to let us know that Crystal’s finger was broken (no kidding) and that she wouldn’t be in, as she had spent a good part of the night at the hospital.

My girls were late yet again today. Fourth day in a row. Today’s story was that one of the bus drivers quit suddenly, so the children had no way to get to school, and they would try to get them there as close to the start time as possible. We start at 8:30, and they got to school at 10:00. Great.

I gave the grade 5 kids and Kenny their math tests today (Bernadette and Michaela are integrated for math) and they worked well. I’ve got to do more ‘test’ sorts of situations, because some of them don’t follow the directions. Peter thought he was finished about 4 times. I kept sending him back to continue the test. They all got good marks — Russ was concerned because he ‘only’ got 33 out of 40, which I thought was pretty good. He’s worried that his dad won’t think it’s a good mark. His parents think he’s some kind of math genius (not so much) and want me to do more multiplication, division and the like with him. They let me know that the homework that I sent home the other day(place value) was too easy.  I wrote him a note indicating that I need to teach what’s prescribed in the curriculum….and that’s more than just basic ‘drill and kill’ numeration skills.

We had our first library visit today — these kids love to read!! Awesome….I’ve had students in some years that I have to practically pay to read a book. These kids were begging for more reading time today. Sounds good to me!!

I’m tired…it’s been a long week. Ah…..the weekend is a good thing!

Day Eleven — Meet the Creature Night

Tonight was curriculum night, so I was at school until 7pm. Should have been there until 8pm, but I had no parents show up. All of my students are bused in from various parts of the city, so it’s no surprise that they wouldn’t come. Some don’t have cars, and have to travel a fair distance. I used the time to catch up on some work and get a bit organized.

Today, one of my former students, Crystal, came in and said “Ms. Education, look at my finger!” After a quick glance, it was obvious that it was broken. It was purple and very swollen. She had fallen off of her bike. Why her family didn’t notice, or take her to the dr. is beyond me. Crystal is now in the room next door to mine, and her teacher and I work together quite often. I took Crystal to the office and called her mother, who told me that she had put ice on her finger, but that was about it. I told her that the child needed to get an x-ray. She said she’d take her after school. Both my colleague and myself were pretty angry at this situation. This was a hurt child, and no one was taking care of her in a timely fashion. The office staff brushed it off (it’s just a finger…there’s nothing we can do) and the principal wanted me to splint it. (um…yeah…I have first aid training, but this kind of medical attention is a bit beyond my purview.) I know….it’s just a finger. But the child was in pain, and I just hated the way that no one was paying any attention to her. I told Crystal to remind her mom to take her to the dr. or hospital in the afternoon….and that her teachers were really concerned about her finger.

We’ll see what happens with her tomorrow.

Day Ten — “Candy”?? Whatever happened to “Cheese”??

Remember picture day? You’d endure the annual humiliation of getting arranged in order of size, smallest to tallest, and then walk single file down to the gym to have your class photo taken. (I was always the tiny kid in the front. In the corner.) Then…more trauma. File down to the next area to have your individual picture taken, with your friends trying to make you laugh and you feel like the biggest dork on the planet.

Well…not much has changed. We did go single file down to the gym. We did have our class picture taken. Thank God that I’m now the teacher and can stand in the back, because I forgot it was picture day and was in my uber-casual clothing. Oh well. The photographer got us all organized, all little feet neatly flat on the floor, all hands placed just so on the laps. She went behind the camera and said, “OK, now on the count of three, everybody say CANDY!!” Candy?? Whatever happened to poor old cheese?? When I was a kid, cheese was good enough for me. These kids today won’t smile unless they say ‘Candy’.

Ok, I thought, when we do the staff photo, we’ll say ‘Cheese’. Nope. Apparently, the thing that really makes today’s adults smile is saying ‘MONEY’!!! No more cheese. This is probably good news for my friend, ArtGoddess, as she’s lactose intolerant, but sad for the rest of us.

Farewell Cheese.

The rest of the day went well. I read a story to the class, which is always a challenge with hard of hearing kids. TIP: When reading to HH kids, don’t hold the book facing them, while you read (as you would to a hearing group of children). Rather, read the page while it’s facing you, and then show the picture afterwards. That way, the kids can read your lips without being distracted by the pictures.

Science, math, and an early wrap up so the class could have a chance to play outside rounded out the day. It’s great to watch them play together on the playscape. They have to be really creative in their communication. They sign a lot in these situations (Coordinator Man wouldn’t be pleased….I have an ‘oral’ classroom). Whatever. I’m all for any kind of communication that works for them.

Day Nine — When Is a Cochlear Implant Not a Cochlear Implant?

My 3 girls were late again today (10:00 a.m.!) due to busing issues. I had time to work on math with Peter, Russ and Kenny. They were happy to get a textbook today, and felt very grownup as they perused it. It always takes awhile to get the students used to setting up their notebook, but Kenny was very helpful. I always model what I want the children to do, and as I was writing the title, date and page number on my page, Kenny had already completed these tasks, and had taken out his ruler to underline the title. He also drew a margin down the side of the page — our math notebooks are compiled with grid paper, and they don’t have margins. I was able to show the other boys Kenny’s neat notebook, and they were very impressed. I get the feeling that lots of people start out underestimating Kenny…his speech is so awful, and he seems much younger than his twelve years. He’s sort of a social misfit. However, he’s so incredibly smart…and finds ways to show us. Lots of writing and gesturing today to help us to understand him. We’re going to work on his speech, but it might be partly a physical problem…it seems as though he can’t form his mouth to create some sounds.

Another problem discovered was that Kenny is not hearing us at all. I was about 1.5 feet away from him, on his CI side, and was calling his name. No reaction. At all. Nothing. No movement, no head turning, nothing. He should at least be able to attend to his own name, but he’s not. I checked his speech processor, and it’s working, but he’s not getting anything. When his back is turned, and he’s not speechreading, then he is completely deaf. I wrote a note to his family asking when the last time they had it checked out was….I hope they get back to me soon.

While doing a science lesson today, Peter was looking at one of our books about the human body (our current topic), and he noticed a picture of twins inside a womb. He was quite intrigued, and wondered how the babies would get out of there. He had some idea of a Caesarean section, but none of vaginal birth. I explained that the mommy would push the baby out of her body through her vagina….blank stare. I asked if he knew what a vagina was….oh, sure, Ms. Education….it’s something for good luck, like when you don’t know what to do, and ….Ok, Peter, not so much. I explained, and much to the horror of Peter and Ivy, they realized that babies were relatively big compared to their exit location. ‘That would hurt!’ declared Ivy. Um….yeah.

The next few minutes were spent in stunned silence. Ah, the joys of answering the questions of Grade 5 children!

Day Eight — This is a Scarf….

Today we played ‘This is a scarf’, which is a drama game I really like. Sitting in a circle, you take a scarf (or any piece of cloth) and say ‘This is a scarf, but it’s not really a scarf. It’s __________’ The idea is to use the scarf in as many ways as possible. It was Kenny’s first day at school today, and I was delighted to find that he is a creative and very communicative boy! He had amazing ideas for this game, and while his speech is very difficult to understand, he makes sure we know what he’s talking about. He used the scarf as a ghost, a haircutting ‘apron’, and Superman’s cape, among other things. We also did this game with a marker, and the kids used it as a spoon, baseball bat, and toothbrush.

I wasn’t sure what to do with Kenny today, as I’m not sure how to assess him. I’ve been sort of spoiled in deaf education so far, in that almost all of my students have had intelligible speech. I had Kenny write about his family, and was really pleased. He writes well, and very quickly. I gave him a math computation diagnostic assessment, and he scored higher than all of my other students (he’s at a Grade 5, 8th month level, which is at least one full grade level higher than my next highest student). His eyes are constantly darting around the room, taking it all in. It’s clear that he’s very bright and loves to be involved in everything. I’m going to really need to keep him busy and learning all the time. He didn’t seem to like the games that we have in our room, but did play a game of chess with Peter this morning, so that’s his new best friend. It’s great how quickly the children in the room have accepted him and are generous with showing him around, and taking him out to recess and lunch.

On another topic, my friend CyberGuy isn’t happy with his blog pseudonym. He’d prefer if I change it to CyberSwami or TechGuru, or some such thing. We aim to please here at ‘Underheard’, so the next time I write about CyberGuy, he’ll be renamed. Stay tuned.

Day Seven — Visit From the AudiologyQueen

Today, the AudiologyQueen came to visit, which was a good thing! Our FM system hadn’t yet been working reliably for all of the students, and while I’m relatively good at the technical side of my job, only the AudiologyQueen can really fix some problems. We got all of the kids working fairly well, and only some minor problems which were ‘taken back to the shop’ to be repaired. Good equipment makes my job much easier, and is a necessity for the kids. Without the FM system, they are often ‘lost’, particulary when being integrated into the larger classes. Some teachers are easier to understand than others. For example….we have our friend CyberGuy, who is the AMAZING teacher of gifted students, and this year, our computer teacher. He’s an awesome teacher, but CyberGuy talks VERY QUICKLY for any children, particulary the hard of hearing. Also, he has a goatee, which is very becoming on him, but makes him a bit harder to lipread. When my kids came back from their class with him last week, they looked like they had been through the ringer. Should make every Day 4 amusing.

I’m off for the next 2 days, and I’m hoping that there’s a reliable supply teacher in the room. I’m hoping that the same person will be there for the 2 days. I’m hoping that the new student doesn’t show up until Monday. I’m hoping that I’ll win the lottery, and I can go live with DateBoy on a deserted island…..