I had my visually impaired student say the funniest shit today.
She's normally a very cheerful if timid kid, being happy to talk with adults she knows, getting shy and nervous when talking about feelings, and being anxious about getting hurt. There's a history of kids in the halls not paying attention when rushing from one class to the next and knocking her over. That's why we try to leave class early and get to the next before the bell.
Today, we were only halfway down the hall when the bell rings and kids come pouring out and rushing past. No problem. I, unlike her last para, am fully willing to body block for this student, and shoulder check an inconsiderate kid to the ground if I must. So I'm walking a step ahead of my student, at a slight angle to give her room for her cane, and have her between me and the wall, because I may be short, but I am HEAVY, and I will be a wall.
So we're walking, a few kids bounce off me because they are that unobservant. And my student goes "oh man, there's so many loud kids! I hope I don't get knocked over and fall!" And of course I reassure her, and tell her i don't want her to get bumped, and that's why I'm walking the way I am, so they bump me instead.
And she nods and, I shit you not, goes "yeah! Or I can get them with my cane!" And starts swinging her cane right in front of me, managing to reach just far enough that I'm not at risk for getting tripped, and a kid comes rushing out of a room and would have definitely ran into me, if my students cane hadn't smacked his feet and made him stumble before I can tell her not to.
And I just... You gotta understand, this is a 12 year old girl that walks like a little old lady. And she just tried to accidentally cane this kids shins, because she also wanted to do her part so neither of us got bumped.
I just got a call-back about a paraprofessional position at a Middle School. It's not a teaching job, but it does put me at the grade levels I want to teach.
I'm contemplating moving into Special Education or getting my Master's but I don't know if it's worth it.
Things I experienced today as a Special Education Paraeducator
1. I told one of the people that I work with that I'm really grateful that the teaching certification program I'm going to is only 1 year because I couldn't have done another 2 years of college, I barely made it through my BA which took me 6, and that I had to do another 2 I'd have dropped out. She insisted that I'd have been fine.
So, I reminded her that I have ADHD and that doing my BA was extra hard because of my ADHD. I explained that I was changing majors all the time as well as schools. She told me "all young people do that," I told her I attended college between the ages of 20 and 26 much older than your average student. She repeated that it wasn't my ADHD it was just because I was young.
She's wrong, it absolutely was due to my ADHD, you don't repeat classes because you don't understand the course work just because "you were young" you also don't impulsively change schools because you're tired of the one you're at because "you were young." You also don't almost flunk classes because you couldn't do your final paper because it was too much work in one chunk and you waited too long to get started because "you were young"
Like fuck off Karen (that's her actual name) and shut the hell up your opinion has no bearing on my lived experiences.
2. Same bitch insisted that the kid with CP whom I've been working with for 4 months couldn't have deliberately refused to eat solid foods until I informed him that his mom told me he could eat solids and I would no longer be blending his food because "his brain doesn't work like that, he's not capable of premeditation".
Like really Karen, REALLY. Because first of all Cerebral Palsy is a PHYSICAL disability and while some people with CP do have cognitive disorders there is nothing in this student's file to indicate that he does. Not to mention that while he's not capable of speech he is completely capable of following directions and answering grade-level reading questions.
So you're telling me that a 3rd-grade boy didn't think he would get away with not chewing (something that's physically challenging but important for him to do) as long as he could because he had a new teacher who didn't know better just because he has a PHYSICAL disability? That's what you're telling me?
3. Overheard her comparing her Autistic nephew to Rainman and talking about him as if he was 10 when I asked how old he was she informed me he's 47.
This bitch is getting a teaching degree with a special education endorsement, she wants to teach Special Education...like WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK!
She seems to think that because she works in sped and likes kids with special needs she'll make a good special education teacher but no bitch FUCK NO!
You can't just like special needs kids, you have to ADVOCATE for them, you have to treat them as EQUALS, you have to respect their autonomy, and you have to see them as INDIVIDUALS capable of complex thought and motivations.
Just fuck you, Karen, no wonder kids hate school, and no wonder adults leave special education with horror stories if this is the kind of mother fucking cunt getting teaching positions.
Sidebar: This absolute fuck nugget always acts like I'm some kind of whiny ass child for talking about my ADHD because I relate ADHD to everything because you know, ADHD kinda affects every fucking part of my fucking life, like ya know fucking A DISABILITY.
Also, she constantly reminds me she's been working with special needs kids for 15 years. Yet fails to acknowledge or respect that I've been working with special needs kids longer. You see I've been working with autistic kids SINCE I WAS 11.
I started as a recess companion for an Autistic kid in another class in my elementary school (the school I now work at). I would walk with him at recess and make sure he stayed on school grounds so he could pace and stim as needed.
In Jr. High and High School, I was a TA in the Sped classrooms. In Jr. High I also started babysitting for a family with two Autistic boys, soon I was babysitting for 4 different families with Autistic children. This went on for TWENTY YEARS until the kids were self-sufficient enough to no longer require babysitters or even caregivers.
I then went to work as a representitive payee, working with cognitively disabled adults helping them to manage their SSI, making sure they were budgeting getting their food, paying rent etc. That was 2 years of my life. The last two years have been spent going to school to get my teaching certification in special education while working as a para in special education.
All told I have roughly 25 years of experience working with people with disabilities of all ages, yet for some reason, this woman can't respect me.
Like is it because I only have 2 years as a para? Is it because I took the faster cheaper route to do the same thing you're doing slower and paying more for? Like what is it bitch, what the fuck is wrong with me that you don't respect me as a disabled adult who knows some shit about working with people with disabilities?
I HAVE LITERALLY LIVED MY LIFE IN THIS WORLD why doesn't that count for anything?
I’ve had some time to sit on it and I’m a huge soundtrack fan, but it’s literally one verse that keeps bringing me back.
“Picture if you can a younger you
Think of how that little soul would feel if they could see you
There's no doubt their jaw would drop and say, "Oh, wow"
You're more than you had ever dreamed you'd be
But sometimes we get caught in the trap where we can't see
Our own strength and beauty.”
For personal context, I’ve been a para-educator for half a year and I have a mile long list kids excited to see me (never saw myself a teacher). I really don’t have to picture a younger me because I’m with so many little souls that it drowns out whatever I could view myself. And they’re all jaw dropped “ohh wow you’re in my class today” to seeing me. Nothing ever slapped me into reality harder than that verse. It made me realize I’m living it, I’m where I’m supposed to be. frick that’s why I’m here, slap me back into reality RWBY music, just help me be tough and hit stuff.
I never post about work, but the end of the school year so close, I am just... I gotta share the crazy.
So I'm a para at a middle school in the special ed department. We got one kid who, for behavior, has to have a 1-1 para all the time. We're gonna call him Beetlejuice, cuz if he's gone and we say his name to many times, he just shows up out of nowhere. I usually have him at the end of the day, and another para, who we're gonna call Mrs. Holiday cuz she goes all out for literally every holiday, has him in the morning.
So today was a reward field trip for good behavior. Beetlejuice can't go because he has referrals. But Mrs. Holiday got Beetlejuices dad to sign one anyway. And he's all excited to go on this field trip, until we have to say, "uh, Mrs. Holiday was wrong, should have NEVER had your dad sign that, because they're gonna check the list and you AREN'T going to be on it." So Beetlejuice starts flipping out. He spends the next two hours cussing Mrs. Holiday out. The other kids are gone, he's litterally the only student in our classroom, with me and mrs. Holiday.
He's saying shit like "you're a waste of sperm" "just shut up and die" "you're a fucking ugly bitch". And he just keeps going and going, and finally admin comes in and pulls him away and they have a talk with him and call his parents. Turns out admin said he HAS to go home, and they strongly suggest he just... go on summer vacation early.
Well he comes back to the classroom, totally normal, and tells us he's going on break early and his dad is coming. So I'm like, might as well try and get some work out of him now that he's calm, and ask "okay, well, why don't we do a little work before dad gets here and see if we can git in some choice too." And Beetlejuice looks at me, shugs, and goes, "okay".
And he sits down. Just like that. He was screaming obscenities at us for two hours, because of a mistake Mrs. Holiday made, and now that he gets to go home, he's super chill. So I'm just like, FUCK IT, grab his work binder, and as soon as I sit down with him, the principal walks in to tell me his dad is here.
And Beetlejuice goes "ugh! We just got the binder!"
And I'm holding in my own obscenities, as I walk him down the hall to the office, and he's all chill. And then he throws in the "Man, we were just about to do binder," while we're walking in the hall.
And I just... Wtf, kid. You make our lives hell. Absolute hell. All day. And then just, oops, bow that I'm leaving I'm a goofy little angel???
I think I saved a kids life today, long story. so I was with special Ed pre-K and we had fall day fun day today, whole 10 yards petting zoo, arts and crafts, games all that. But the teacher and other para left for emergency reasons and I was given two last minute subs (note I’m a sub too just was in yesterday) and they were like well you know the kids names and have the lesson plan so you are in charge. So we went out for fall day fun day and were at the petting zoo and one kid was freaking out cuz she didn’t like the animals. So I held her (I’m the only one she liked, knew or trusted) and stood a ways off but kept an eye on things and told the other 2 subs to watch them while I deal with the upset one. So they had a pony out walking around for the petting zoo and the kids walked up to it but half of them walked directly behind the pony reaching out to touch (and knowing some of them probably pull on the tail) and my dad mode activated (note not a dad). I basically teleported 15 yards grabbing a hand like a foot from touching the tail (pulling the tail more like). Now with a squirming crying kid in my arm I said “no friends we do not walk behind a horse, we only pet from the front or side” and ushered them to the side. The two handlers of the pony said “thanks you were really FAST on that” and proceeded to explain to the class why you don’t walk up behind a horse. Meanwhile I was like of course I was fast, I heard the news headline in my head “child dies at school from petting zoo event more at 9.”
A teacher sub we have regularly came in after dental surgery. She can't talk. At all. She keeps trying to get us paras to teach for her. We cannot, because we have 1) nonverbal autistic that throws things when her para is interacting with others, 2) a nonverbal medical who has seizures, 3) a near blind student that needs specialized equipment to participate, and 4) a kid that flees the room when he's angry, who she already ticked off once today. She can't be with any of these kids, so she needs to lead. She knows this. And even when she can talk, she tries to pawn off leading on us. I bet the only reason she came in today was because she thought she could get sympathy and do nothing (which she kinda already does). Fuckin shitty subs.
I hate the dicks in administration. I really do. We're getting a new building, and construction is happening on campus, so our air quality is shit. Well, one of the councilors got a deal with the department of health for some air purifiers, but did a stupid and didn't get any replacement filters. So our filter, because our classroom is literally RIGHT BY THE CONSTRUCTION SITE, is totally gross and needs to be replaced. Except, when I went to get the supply request done so it could be installed before spring break, the office tells me "oh, you guys are a sped room, so go through sped to get a replacement". And I'm like, thats fucking stupid. Speds budget is like 10% for the entire district, so if its not sped specific, they won't approve it. And sure fucking enough, put in the request with sped, and they said no. And when I tell the office and ask them to put in a regular request with, you know, the rest of the replacement filters? Office said no, because "you're a sped room, you have to go through sped." So guess who had to spend 40$ of their own money to buy a pack of replacements. 😑😑😑
