Re: Dancing Nancy.

[Anonymous]

Oh,…….please be kind to teachers! We really do our best. :o)

Just try to imagine that you have:

– an administrator breathing down your neck re: non-stop internal (not even govt. mandated) testing

– the regular good ol’ provincial testing

-add to that the OFIP programs (DON’T EVEN ask…..just a load more paperwork comprising more pre-tests, post- tests, and data walls all courtesy of your Ministry of Education)

-add in an ADHD ASD student, 4 more ADHD students (one who I’ve NEVER yet seen the likes of yet and I’ve seen a number of the years (Did I mention only 1 of the 5 of them are medicated? *eyes opened WIDE*

– now let’s add on our other ‘regular’ plain old LD kids who are not ADHD, just the ones who still struggle to be able to remember the names of the alphabet, read a number (and I’m just talking numbers just past 10.

-but wait, we’ve forgotten all our Stage 1 ESL kiddies (That’s right! Not even the moms or dads speak English.) Oh no! Our test scores are ‘drooping’ and something MUST be done!! Now!

Do I still have ANY room left for a just a vanilla ‘kid’? Well, there are a few seats left and yes, we found seats in the classroom for them, too.

I’m sure you appreciate that MOST teachers are trying their hardest to teach and reach everyone of their individual needs. Even those ADHD kids.

My beef? More and more demands for improved performance on our part (the teachers, whoops! I should say in this case the ADHD teacher) and needier children.

Personally, I’m stunned at what I’m seeing walking in my classroom doorway these days. My heart goes out to these children since many of them walk in with the deck stacked against them all due to less than adequate parenting or parental support.

I’m dismayed at how I’ve had to ‘ignore’ many of my vanilla students so that I could give the rest of the class (yes, the needy majority that I just listed) half a hope that they will understand ANY of what they are expected to learn each year. Have you any idea how we feel about that?

Some days I go home and tell myself to just let the needy ones ‘sink’ because I need to do more for the others than to just call their name out when I do my attendance.

I plan and plan looking for the just the right combination of teaching/structure so that every child comes out a winner but I’m still searching. I’m in my 50s now and haven’t given up yet. :o) But some days…… oh, some days…..giving up has indeed crossed my radar.

By tomorrow I’m sure I’ll have found just the perfect words to make life easier for that little boy or girl who asks me,

“Teacher, tell me what you see…

Won’t you tell me what you see?

Teacher, tell me what you see … in Me !”

A few bad teachers have allowed the majority to all be painted with the same brush. Most teachers are in the profession because we really want to make life easier for our students. We want to provide them with the skills and knowledge that will give them the key to that ‘easier’ life. *sigh* Is it Friday yet? *frazzled look*

Can you tell it was Open House for parents today and I was bombarded with a billion questions from parents about how to ‘raise’ little Johnny all while I tried to teach little Johnny?

The bottom line? I love my group of students and I do my best to ensue that I get other people to see the good qualites that keep me coming back for ‘more’ fun and games each day. My 5 ADHD students? They are all very affected because of it but compared to my other LD students they are truly lucky to be ADHD.

BTW, thank-you for sharing the poem. I did enjoy it. The teachers I know and work with would enjoy it, too.

Too long, time to end this.

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