Monday, November 8, 1999 – My Dad fell down the basement steps on Halloween. He received a serious cut on the forehead and was up here in U of I Hospital all week. He is doing much better now and is in skilled nursing care in New London for about a week. In the meantime things have gone pretty well at Longfellow. We didn’t get a troubled family we were expecting so that is a break in our favor. This morning we met with another tough family and that meeting went well. They have wanted acceleration for one of their children, but it is not going to happen. Relations with the disgruntled parent who complained to the the superintendent and the board have been better lately. You never know what this person will do so that could change at anytime. I am really trying to avoid conflict with him if at all possible. I am meeting with the PTA Exec. Board today to discuss PTA projects.
Friday, November 12, 1999 – Things have been fairly calm this week. The PTA is having their fall dinner tonight. I am planning on going and helping for an hour or so and then Becky and I are going out to dinner. This one is always hard for teachers because many have other plans for Friday evenings, but feel somewhat obligated to attend things like this. Night activities extend the day for the teachers. In this case it extends the week for them. It is early enough that it doesn’t take up their whole evening. I don’t know how many will participate. It will upset the PTA President if there are not a lot of our staff there. The PTA also wants to have their pajama night on a Friday night early in December. That is a busy time so we have encouraged them to consider having it in January or February. In the past it has been in the middle of November and not many teachers have participated.
Tuesday, November 23, 1999 – We had a meeting at Child Psych. last night regarding one of our students. It didn’t go well! One of the parents became very upset and directed most of the anger at me. I was simply trying to defend the teachers. That person still insists that there would be no problems if we do the accommodations. We do try to do all of the accommodations but that is difficult when we are serving so many kids. Even when we do there are problems. Last spring was a good example of that. We are trying very hard to serve this child and every time something goes wrong the parents think it is our fault. Child Psych. had told us they were going to recommend a more restrictive setting but they did not do that in the meeting. We felt they really turned on the school. The child will probably be coming back to Longfellow after winter break. We are having a transition meeting here on December 9, 1999.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
90s46 Telling Information
(Since my journal entries make reference to real people I have changed the information enough to protect identities.)
Tuesday, October 19, 1999 – I met with an upset parent and the Superintendent last week and it went Ok. I think he got his pound of flesh and I hope we can move on. He has very little support from the rest of the parents and the PTA executive board doesn’t support him. He has been very mean to just about everyone. I will try to work with him but can’t let him run over us on every issue. A student has had a lot of difficulty this fall. He is very verbal with profanity and pulled the fire alarm once. He has also pulled down his pants a couple times. We are meeting with his parents today and hoping they will agree to send him to Circle School at Child Psych. That could really help him! We have another child who is very needy and crying out for attention. He is a first grader. He is very disruptive and has been in time out in the office many times. He is very disruptive here, too. We have sent him home twice and may have to do that more often. We met about him this morning and tried to come up with a plan. Hopefully we can help him, but I think he may end up in a BD classroom.
Friday, October 22, 1999 – The parents have agreed to send their child to Circle School at U of I Hospital. That is good news and should help him and us a great deal. It will be a new beginning and should make a big difference for him. We are excited about it. Still dealing with our difficult first grader. We are hoping to get some help from the AEA and he is going to Child Psych. on Monday for an evaluation. Kids like these two are really difficult for us to deal with. Often we really don’t know what to do and try everything we can think of without much success. We really need more supports in the schools for these kids and their teachers. Hopefully, that will happen. In the meantime I think it often has a negative effect on all the students and staff.
Friday, October 29, 1999 – Two students who used to be at Longfellow have been charged with assault and theft. They are fourth graders in another building and may be returning here. Their case is in the courts and I don‘t know what it will mean. A parent made some comments in a public meeting that have several of our staff members upset. He said he and his wife had spent an inordinate amount of time teaching his children’s teachers how to teach. That is pretty offensive! One staff member has already written him a letter about it. The parents have always thought that if we would just do the right things their child would be fine. Their parenting skills are very weak. Their idea of handling him is giving into him so he tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. We have a behavior plan in place for our first grader who has major behavior problems. I hope we can help him.
Tuesday, October 19, 1999 – I met with an upset parent and the Superintendent last week and it went Ok. I think he got his pound of flesh and I hope we can move on. He has very little support from the rest of the parents and the PTA executive board doesn’t support him. He has been very mean to just about everyone. I will try to work with him but can’t let him run over us on every issue. A student has had a lot of difficulty this fall. He is very verbal with profanity and pulled the fire alarm once. He has also pulled down his pants a couple times. We are meeting with his parents today and hoping they will agree to send him to Circle School at Child Psych. That could really help him! We have another child who is very needy and crying out for attention. He is a first grader. He is very disruptive and has been in time out in the office many times. He is very disruptive here, too. We have sent him home twice and may have to do that more often. We met about him this morning and tried to come up with a plan. Hopefully we can help him, but I think he may end up in a BD classroom.
Friday, October 22, 1999 – The parents have agreed to send their child to Circle School at U of I Hospital. That is good news and should help him and us a great deal. It will be a new beginning and should make a big difference for him. We are excited about it. Still dealing with our difficult first grader. We are hoping to get some help from the AEA and he is going to Child Psych. on Monday for an evaluation. Kids like these two are really difficult for us to deal with. Often we really don’t know what to do and try everything we can think of without much success. We really need more supports in the schools for these kids and their teachers. Hopefully, that will happen. In the meantime I think it often has a negative effect on all the students and staff.
Friday, October 29, 1999 – Two students who used to be at Longfellow have been charged with assault and theft. They are fourth graders in another building and may be returning here. Their case is in the courts and I don‘t know what it will mean. A parent made some comments in a public meeting that have several of our staff members upset. He said he and his wife had spent an inordinate amount of time teaching his children’s teachers how to teach. That is pretty offensive! One staff member has already written him a letter about it. The parents have always thought that if we would just do the right things their child would be fine. Their parenting skills are very weak. Their idea of handling him is giving into him so he tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. We have a behavior plan in place for our first grader who has major behavior problems. I hope we can help him.
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