A Day In The Life As An ID Teacher

It’s Monday. And what’s Monday without it being chaos. The kids were pretty good but V really struggled today with his emotions. I can’t figure out if he is wanting what other students want to seek attention or if he truly needs something. I left for a field trip today. It was overall a decent experience. Came back and didn’t have to teach much. Again. Super nice. I can’t wait for this week to be over.

Woah a Saturday post? Well today I got to take my ID Teacher hat off and be just a chaperone. We brought 12 students from the HS to work concessions for the football game.

Tons of laughs. Tons of fun. We hit the road at a solid 5am and won’t be home til at least 6PM. I am taking a nap when I get home and reminding my students Monday to wear pitstick all the time.

Two students absent means the day is some how easier. A and Z were absent. However again a successful gym class. Another successful math class. B took a turn after that causing some drama but pulled it around after lunch.

I keep thinking of the lesson from Monday that I taught about soft skills and hard skills. How the students embraced the idea. I think I need to start pushing soft skills in the classroom more. First quarter will be soft skills headquarter. I just hope they catch on and start to use those skills rather than just listen.

Overall a real boring day. Still sick so my bed is where it’s at. Already in need of a sick day but won’t get one ha.

Illness is hitting full force over here. Kids are already dropping like flies and we are only 10 days in. Is this any indication how this year will go? Let’s hope not.

Overall another decent day. I have started on Tuesday and Thursday to have 20 minutes of reading and a writing prompt. I think the kids like it. Mouse and the Motorcycle is so far a hit!

I think these next few weeks will really keep the focus on building relationships. The hard part is we all spend so much time together and they have to get along 99% of the time. IS was testing everyone today. From putting stuff on another persons desk to annoy her to smacking another student in the head when staff turns around. I’m not sure how we are going to manage if he continues these behaviors. It’s so hard to find a reward system for a nonverbal and low student. That’s my next project for this guy.

Lastly an IEP to end the day. The sweet girl, M, never ever would I have thought she would have told me her own strengths and weaknesses and even her needs. Small victory, I think not, GIANT victory! Who knew she also thought my fidgets were lame ha.

My 3rd and final (I hope) new student started today. He seemed very polite and kind so that’s a huge plus. I’m sure we will have a honeymoon phase but I’ll take it!

Gym started off fabulous and continued great with a lot of student engagement! A needed to leave about 1/2 way through because we forgot his headphones. Totally our fault, that set the tone for the morning today with him. Aside from that you know you can adapt to make any song a dancing song when the kids want Super Mario Brother 64 songs and you pretend your Mario, jumping, shrinking, growing. It’s pretty impressive! Ha. I did win fire ball power sound of the day. Beating out our adaptive PE teacher.

Annnnnnd then we hit the wall. It’s amazing how sick a student can get as soon as they’re required to do work. B was full of sass today and lack of effort. Magically she got sick when asked to do her math and then when she was asked to work with another aide for her history class. The famous excuse aside from sick is her being lonely. I’m not sure how many more times I can hear I’m lonely then 10 minutes later she has a best friend here. Hot dang girl! This continued the rest of the day off and on. Emotional roller coasters. Honeymoon is over for B. Lasted 8 days..guess that’s a record ha.

To top everything off I’m already nice and sick so bed is calling my name! Gosh here is to Tuesday!

I survived…a full moon…Friday the 13th…Freshmen Biology….&&Home football game supervision. Nothing like a 16 hour day to start the weekend. Nothing real exciting for a Friday, we wrote our weekly letter home, made stir fry and played with the x-large parachute for gym.

The only rough part of the day was trying to decide how to handle the unknown of a student incident. Students with ID, even those who function very high socially, will possibly fall victim to manipulation. Students with ID, most of the time, view life as either black or white. Not grey, purple or teal. This has proven hard for C as he makes the hardest choices about how friends and their behaviors. To follow the crowd he has been with for a long time or to make the hardest choice and leave them. Monday we will see how the weekend played out as he will need to stay away from temptations and those who have mislead him. It’s a waiting game. One I am not very good at.

It is so late and my day was so uneventful that I will keep this short.

Have you ever went through the day and didn’t know what day of the week it really was? That was 100% me today. At one point I thought it was Friday and then the next I thought it was flipping Wednesday. This led to me showing up late to my own meeting and being late to nearly everything!

To start our day we attend adaptive PE. This last year was like pulling teeth. Most of my students were transitioning from middle school to the HS. One student struggled even participating in the classroom let alone trying to leave. Another was so angry that she was in HS and not with her old teacher and her friend, the boy of her dreams, at the MS. However, since starting this year we have a setting where we are almost 1 staff/student helper to 1 student on most days. This is really helping the students participation in class. Gym class is a hodge podge of sensory nightmares if you really think about it. This giant room filled with sounds that echo, lights that don’t dim, and chaos all the time. Today was the first time in gym where I saw true joy on all of my students. Our college student observer came up with the parachute and brought soft mini dodge balls, he called them popcorn kernels. Holy man did we pop that corn. We lifted the parachute and ran under it. We laughed and joked. It was truly a victory. A small victory but one none the less.

Fast forward to 6th hour science. A lot of the students are divided between two general education science classes. Science seems to really not jive again with my students for some reason. Well we enrolled all the sophomores in an environmental science class. I must say, that was one of the best choices! Today, B, a girl who really struggled last year, participated in a lab the entire class!! She laughed with staff, she tried to fish using a straw and gold fish, not once did she draw or color! Again a huge win! Woah 2 wins in 1 day, that hardly ever happens!

What I’m really going for here is life in education is hard and some days you don’t know really what day of the week it is. There are some days where you literally walk out crying wondering how you possibly will ever get a win. Then you will wake up the next morning and start the day fresh and hope with every ounce that you will get that win. Never give up on the kid you thought couldn’t get a win. Today just proved we can get that win when we least expect it.

We are officially back to the school grind and have successfully made it through 7 full school days. What have I learned this far? Well, some students behaviors never change, especially those who aren’t being medicated 100% of the time. Another thing I have learned is that there are some that grow over the summer and their growth can change how you enter the new school year.

Through the blog you will learn about my 8 students who are identified as having some form of intellectual disability. Not a single student is the same, meaning not a single minute of my planned day is ever really followed. You will also learn that I have several general education students who find my classroom home. They’ll be mentioned I’m sure as they play such a huge role for my students and myself.

Lastly, you will learn what it’s like to be in my shoes for just a little bit. I hope it opens your eyes to how amazing these students are and the struggles we may never face.