Thank you for all the feedback...(long)

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Thank you for all the feedback...(long)
By Amy

My first year could have been worse, I know. I am teaching at a school that overall isn't too bad. I was hired about a week before school started. I was asked about a day later if I would take the inclusion class. I didnt
feel at that point I could say no, so I took these students. I started out with a class of 18 because I was put into a work room. So many new students transferred to my school so I was given a larger room and all of the new students (about seven!). And of course these were children that we didnt know a whole lot about. Two out of the seven couldnt read (i teach third grade) on grade

level, they are about two years behind. The other five were just hanging on to grade level in reading. Our county uses a special type of assessment for reading so I had to test all of the new students to place them. For the first half of the year one out of our five teachers did some remedial work with below grade level students during science/social studies block. Therefore her students were split up into the other four rooms which gave us about 35 to a class. I know it could be worse but I know I was not as effective as I could have been because of the large number of students (plus three more inclusion students that were added during this split). And to make a very long year short...I had one parent of an inclusion student say that she didnt think I was qualified to meet the child's IEP goals so she wanted him moved to another class. Then a new student's parent told the principal and guidance counselor that I had not completed the child's beginning of the year reading assessment correctly and the parents did not believe I was doing things "correctly" in my room. They knew this because they were "educators" as they told me at conferences. So this child was moved into another class but the "funny" thing is that he didnt change reading groups when he was moved and he is still doing the same things in the other room that he was doing in my room! Everyone else on my team says its because Im a first year teacher...I of course put a lot of it on myself in the beginning but not anymore. After these two students moved out of my room, I got a total of four new students and two moved out of district. My kids keep asking if we are going to get or lose anymore students! I also had difficulties with a child who was making post-September 11th threats against Americans!!! He left for eight weeks to go back to his native land and has just returned-missing an entire quarter. I dont know how I am expected to catch him up by the end of the year.