At school, we are organizing the classes for next year. There will inevitably be changes, but we always set the classes in June for the following September. Knowing which students are coming into grade two next year, it will be a hard year. There are a lot of needs.
Teaching looks quite different than it did twenty years ago. There is a lot more anxiety in kids. There are a lot more allergies. Even though I think kids are over diagnosed with things like ADHD, there are definitely a lot more issues with attention and behaviour than there were twenty years ago. COVID and the fear and lack of socialization it brought were terrible for children. But, in a lot of ways, kids are still just kids.
So, a few of the staff have been asking me which kids I would like to have in my class next year. And more specifically, which special needs kids, since every class will have some. And my honest answer is that it depends which support worker is attached to the child. Kids who qualify for an EA (education assistant) are generally assigned two EAs: one for the morning and one for the afternoon. To me, it makes all the difference which EAs will be in my classroom. Most of them are ok. Some, I really would not want to work with. And a handful are wonderful.
This year I was lucky enough to have Cheryl in my class most mornings and it was amazing. This year was also supposed to be difficult based on some of my behaviour students. But it wasn't. It probably helps that I generally like the quirky challenging kids. But it was also Cheryl. We had fun together. Her goals for students match mine. She doesn't hand-hold or baby the kids. She's firm and fun and helps everyone. Having someone like her in the classroom is a gift to the kids, and to me.
