School Started...AGAIN!

Last Monday school began all over again for me and some of the other teachers in my school. After the students had taken the DIBELS test (The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills) they were grouped according to their scores and switched to the "appropriate" class. In the kindergarten, one teacher has an assistant and therefore is a "supported kindergarten" - with two adults in the room, that class gets any ESE (exceptional student education) students and others who are the lowest scorers; the second teacher has all the ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) students, two Hispanic and the rest are Creole; the third teacher has the middle scorers; and I have the top scorers. I had to give up 11 of my students and received 15 in return. Added to my other 9, that gives me 24 students in all....like beginning all over again. Aside from the paperwork involved, I have to redo my curriculum to be more of a challenge to these students. They are nice kids, though, and I am not unhappy with the arrangement. I did request to have my "reading assistant" taken out. She is very nice but could only come in for 45 minutes. My reading groups take at least an hour, sometimes more (in a two hour reading block). And there were days that she could not come in, sometimes with last minute notice, because she is the Media Specialist and has other things to take care of. My students don't need what we call "double dosing," working with another teacher AFTER working with their main teacher, because they are all on grade level. So....after talking it over with my principal, I am doing it alone. Believe me, it's so much easier than relying on someone only to have them not come in that day. I stayed at work every day this past week trying to set up my literacy centers, organizing files, paperwork, etc. At home I have been coloring, cutting and pasting to make File Folder activities as reinforcing activities of what they are learning. It just doesn't stop!

As for Gerry, he is doing ok. He had another treatment two weeks ago, and three days later went through three days of joint and body aches and sheer exhaustion. After that he is good, just tired very easily. But this will be what life will be like for him every three weeks for the next year or so.