Tales from a Teacher-Mama

Ahh, December, with all the holiday festivities, twinkling lights, smiling Santas, tasty cookies and goodwill to all! Tonight, Sarah seemed utterly bewildered that her daddy had yelled at her; “How can he yell in December?” she asked.

Her innocent child’s observation might lead you to believe that it’s because we’re “grown-ups” that we give in to stress during the holiday season, even yelling in December. But as a teacher, I’ll tell you that not only adults feel the pressure of the most wonderful time of the year. This is also the most dreadful time of the year.

Case in point: I had a rough day at school yesterday. The morning started out okay, with only minor resistance to get to work on daily tasks. But as the day wore on, it wore hard on one particular boy. I’ll call him Finn*. Finn has some difficulties with anger management, and on top of that he has a significant language delay for a boy of 10. So as his frustration builds, his resources for coping appropriately diminish. Finally a day like yesterday comes, and he loses it. When his 1:1 aide tried redirecting him, little Finn spouted off like a volcano. “I’ll slit your throat! My dad will beat you up and pound you into the ground!” I removed him from the rest of the class, which was going to do some yoga with our OT, and so he turned his anger on me. He screeched at me, waving me away and signing what I understood to mean, “I wish I could punch you out!” He retreated into our empty, darkened classroom, slamming the door behind him. I called for back-up from our crisis team, then stood outside my room to wait, keeping an eye on him to make sure he was safe. He destroyed a pen then crouched in hiding behind the oversize chair in our reading area. It was about ten minutes before I asked if he was calm enough to talk and he said yes. He was still seething a bit, but when my reinforcements arrived he admitted to what he’d said and apologized.

While the principal led Finn away to spend the rest of the afternoon in the in-school suspension room, I returned to my other students in the OT room. I met Micah at the door who was on his way to the nurse after vomiting. I left my remaining two students with the OT (bless her) for a bit longer while I walked Micah to the health clinic. When I completed my circuit back to the OT room, Dominic and Carly were still barefoot following yoga but now wandering the room, turning somersaults on the mat and playing with toy trains despite the OT’s repeated requests to put their shoes back on and get ready to leave. (I have to admit, the OT room is full of cool stuff to play with, and my kids have lots of sensory needs so I understand their hesitance to leave.)

Finally I got those two out of OT and dropped them off at art class so I could return to my again empty, darkened classroom and try to breathe. By then I was tired enough that the last hour of the day passed in a haze.

And I got up this morning to do it all again. Today all five of my students were present (Angel having been absent yesterday), and we were baking a cake almost first thing in the morning. Skip to 10:30 a.m. and I was already exhausted. After lunch we had a practice with a middle school class for the skit we will perform next week at our annual holiday show. My class is playing the elves, and they have loved wearing their little elf hats and pointy elf ears almost every moment for the past three days. But wouldn’t you know it, when practice time came, Angel, Micah and Carly suddenly wanted no part of them and would not join the rest of the little elves! I think I started twitching. I was too tired to argue with them. Somehow I managed to get the three of them into the practice: I had to cajole Angel with the thought of her mom watching her in the skit next week, put Micah in a brief time-out, and ask one of the middle school students to get Carly involved.

The small triumph of the day was no death threats from Finn. I wanted to collapse at the end of the day, but I had to straighten up the room and clear out a desk for the new student who will be joining my class tomorrow! That’s right, I get a new boy on a Friday, six days before Christmas vacation–and on Micah’s birthday so we’ll be having a party too! Why was I not in bed two hours ago?!

Oh yeah–because I’m blogging about this, the most wonderful time of the year. The two weeks before winter break…full of sugar highs and mega-meltdowns, overwhelming stimuli and disconcerting changes in routine. Yep, it’s great. I will be joyful if I make it to next Friday without fa-la-la-la-la-ing all the way to the nuthouse.

*Of course I changed the students’ names!