Week Eight

This week saw many challenges regarding student behaviour. One student has been confronting behaviour issues beginning mid-year and escalating throughout this practicum. Last week was a particularly hard week and I was finding my time with my students being eaten up by attempting to calm, please, and figure out this student. It was seeming unfair to the rest of the students because they were quite disruptive outbursts that would basically stop a lesson from continuing. It was helpful having my E.A., being able to take this child for a walk or my S.A. who would pop in every now and then to check on things. However, what I am left wondering is how would I deal with this situation if I didn’t have the support of my E.A., S.A., and child care worker? After discussing these outbursts and challenges with my S.A., she suggested that I talk to the parents about the declining behaviour we are currently seeing in the classroom. There were previous meetings where the parent had seemed open to conversations about their child, yet recently they were closed off. I approached the parent after school one day and voiced my concerns about the behaviour of their child and that it was unfortunately becoming extremely disruptive to the learning of the rest of the classroom. The parent was receptive about this communication which felt like a step in the right direction. It’s a difficult situation to be in, as a teacher, when a child is struggling emotionally in a classroom yet you still have 20-25 other students who depend on you in that moment. We are lucky here at my school because we have so much extra support for students like a counsellor, child care worker, IST, E.A.’s, etc. Yet, those resources are being spread so thin throughout the entire school. How do we make sure all our students’ needs are being tended to in a right and just way?