Day Three

Today seemed to go much quicker, however the behavior problems were horrible. Two of the students had some serious problems with fighting, destruction of the classroom and swearing. One was pulled out of the room twice and both had to be restrained at one point by the behavior specialist. The nice thing is that it is usually only one or two a day that cause problems, not all of them at the same time. We also had a new student.
I feel like I am learning so much and yet nothing at the same time. I am definitely learning about the public school environment and procedures. I am also learning how to deal with young children. I am not, however, learning how to appropriately handle children with behavioral disabilities. The reason I say that is because I found out today from one of the aides that the teacher and both the aides are not trained to deal with kids that have severe behavioral problems. I knew they were struggling with this, but now I realize that they are feeling similar to the way I am, which is inadequate and under prepared. What they do have, however, is experience with autistic children and with teaching, so they are doing the best that they can with the situation that was given to them.
I haven’t learned anything much about teaching, though, which is disappointing to me because I was hoping to get some insight on how to make inclusion work in my own classroom someday. There are 2 work periods on the schedule everyday, however work time is when things really get out of control. The kids don’t want to work, they are all at completely different developmental stages. When one see what another is doing, then jealousy and fights begin, when the fights begin, the autistic children get upset and then everything is complete chaos.
I’ve been thinking that this group may be an exception to the norm, but I ran into one of my classmates who is also working there, but in the early education multi needs room and she looked about as overwhelmed and stressed as me! Everyday though, I feel quite a bit more confident with interacting with the children, which in and of it self is good. I love children, but I am one of the youngest in the family, so I haven’t had very much experience with kids. That worried me a little when I decided to go into teaching, but I know now that I will be just fine in that respect.