On Friday, before Labor Day, I was contacted by Human Resources of San Diego Unified School District to teach in a Mild/Severe K-12 class at Edison Elementary. Of course at 6:30 at night the school was closed. I was to start on Tuesday not evening know what the classroom looked like. Edison is located in City Heights area of San Diego near 805 and University Avenue. It is not the best area of town.
As I walked in to get keys, the Principal told me, "just ask for what ever you need." This had been an empty classroom for years.
Good things: There is an in-class bathroom, two sinks and a drinking fountain. There were also materials, toys, document projector, and a teacher office with a computer. My class came with two terrific aides, Kim and Marcia. It started with a K-5 class but I lost my K student after the first day as he was moved to a regular K class. So I only have 9 students and 2 aides.
Bad things: The computer is not hooked up to any printer. No air conditioning and it gets quite hot in the afternoon. I can not figure out how to connect my computer to the wireless network so no internet to share with my students. Two students are non verbal. Many have autism. I need more time to work on how to teach each child at their level. One child has severe behavior issues--kicking, biting, throwing anything that he sees in the classroom, and yes that does include the one student computer I have. I have filed a behavior report the second week of classes.
Overall, I am loving it but I am so tired. I feel the 1- 5 classroom experience will only help me with tutoring that age group. I had no idea how to schedule the day but I have something worked out. It was hard scheduling everything with speech two times a week, OT once time a week, Music once a week, APE once a week. Wednesday is our early day. I am trying not to be an overachiever as the principal told me I can only sub for 20 days as I do not have the proper credential.
No comments:
Post a Comment