I've had that experience, too

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Home : 2002 : February : 7

I've had that experience, too
By Carolyn

When I first started teaching, I not only was offered the worst class in the school, but also the worst possible classroom accommodations. My class was like a stacked deck: kids on IEP's, limited English proficiency students,
kids with documented severe emotional/physical problems (one who had tried to commit suicide)--the works. It was so much more than I felt I could deal with. I couldn't take them to the bathroom without their bouncing off of the walls. They would not get in line in an orderly way. They would not work quietly in the classroom. They were also very rude and disrespectful. Rules meant

nothing to them. Two of my students had parents who were in jail.

One thing I found out was that the most experienced teacher on our fifth grade team got all of the gifted kids. She was also given the largest room. I, on the other hand, was offered an old run-down trailer at the back of the school and had to teach those kids in it. I quit the job after two months. I had decided that my sanity was more valuable to me than that job.

The following year I got a completely different class in a new school. Although I had learned a few management techniques which made me better at handling discipline problems, I knew that even all of the best managament techniques in the world could not handle the class I had in that trailer.