PiscesMom
Active Member
hi! I want to get your thoughts - I work in a sped classroom - first grade-ish; kids have pretty severe needs. Anyway the teacher and two of the aides (there are like 4 or 5 of us) just talk pretty much all day. About...life, love, what they did over the weekend, recipes, gossip, they mock parents, even each other if one is not present... I really try hard to be there and give the kids an enriching experience, and most of the staff is pretty dismissive to me. I am sort of new, and tried really hard to get to know them, etc, but it is not happening. Its like high school. Or I am doing a bad job and that's why people are chilly? But that is not as concerning as the lack of focus on the children's needs.
The work is the same every day, nothing ever changes, there is never any attempt to make the work interesting or inspiring. It is solid, disconnected rote work. "Art" is cookie cutter and nothing to do with anything they know about. Everything is delivered verbally, regardless of hearing ability - they don't use any visuals, PECS or anything.
I have two kids with special needs and have always revered teachers (I LOVE my daughter's teacher) and really give people the benefit of the doubt. It is hard to work there because I feel sort of disliked - I interact w the kids a lot, play with them - I am shy and introverted and just don't like chewing the fat, also because I don't have a lot of respect for the teacher anymore.
Oh, and I previously worked in an excellent - no other word - program for three years. We all got close, but we never EVER behaved like that.
What can or should I do, if anything? Is this normal?
The work is the same every day, nothing ever changes, there is never any attempt to make the work interesting or inspiring. It is solid, disconnected rote work. "Art" is cookie cutter and nothing to do with anything they know about. Everything is delivered verbally, regardless of hearing ability - they don't use any visuals, PECS or anything.
I have two kids with special needs and have always revered teachers (I LOVE my daughter's teacher) and really give people the benefit of the doubt. It is hard to work there because I feel sort of disliked - I interact w the kids a lot, play with them - I am shy and introverted and just don't like chewing the fat, also because I don't have a lot of respect for the teacher anymore.
Oh, and I previously worked in an excellent - no other word - program for three years. We all got close, but we never EVER behaved like that.
What can or should I do, if anything? Is this normal?