It's weird; I've been thinking I actually might like this job. The strangest part about it is that the last couple of weeks, since we've gotten back from Winter Break, have been a couple of the worst.
I had to do the saddest thing. Imagine that you're eight, in third grade, and failing miserably at everything. You think things can't get worse, right? Well, then your teacher refers you for special ed testing, which you don't know about, but in the course of the secret meeting about you, it's decided that you're going to move back to second grade - effective immediately. No warning, no chance to say bye to his friends - hardly even a chance for me to come up with some weak excuse to tell his classmates so they won't make fun of him.
It wasn't my decision. It wasn't even my idea. But, of course, I had to be the one to write the letter to his parents [your kid is so behind and you're such bad parents for not putting him in kindergarten, but waiting to enroll him in school until he was six and half way through first grade, and his second grade teacher was such a failure at noticing that he should have been held back last year...] and tell the kid himself that he was going. The new teacher said he's even having trouble keeping up in there. Sad.
I'm starting to get things figured out, though. I'm getting slightly more organized, and I'm actually having some degree of success at teaching Math. [Math was my main fear/hated part of the day at work, because they just don't get anything.] Thirty percent of my class passed the Math TAKS Benchmark in January, which is better than they've done all year. They're all just so behind. I don't even know where to start. I did tell my principal that I'll stay another year and do third grade again. I want another chance with a new set of kids.
I had to do the saddest thing. Imagine that you're eight, in third grade, and failing miserably at everything. You think things can't get worse, right? Well, then your teacher refers you for special ed testing, which you don't know about, but in the course of the secret meeting about you, it's decided that you're going to move back to second grade - effective immediately. No warning, no chance to say bye to his friends - hardly even a chance for me to come up with some weak excuse to tell his classmates so they won't make fun of him.
It wasn't my decision. It wasn't even my idea. But, of course, I had to be the one to write the letter to his parents [your kid is so behind and you're such bad parents for not putting him in kindergarten, but waiting to enroll him in school until he was six and half way through first grade, and his second grade teacher was such a failure at noticing that he should have been held back last year...] and tell the kid himself that he was going. The new teacher said he's even having trouble keeping up in there. Sad.
I'm starting to get things figured out, though. I'm getting slightly more organized, and I'm actually having some degree of success at teaching Math. [Math was my main fear/hated part of the day at work, because they just don't get anything.] Thirty percent of my class passed the Math TAKS Benchmark in January, which is better than they've done all year. They're all just so behind. I don't even know where to start. I did tell my principal that I'll stay another year and do third grade again. I want another chance with a new set of kids.
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