No Child Left Behind

All right. I'm exhausted. In my professional quest not to leave any child behind, I've lost myself.

I have a minimum of 28 students in every class all day long. In each class, I also have inclusion students (special needs). While I agree that these students deserve more than to be hidden like they were when I was in school 15+ years ago, placing more than 10 in a class of 28 with no additional support for the teacher is just bad business. Everyone suffers. The "normal" student loses attention. The "special" child doesn't get the attention that he or she needs. The "gifted" child is no longer pushed as hard as she could be because there just isn't the time, nor are there the resources. The teacher? We just keep the same salary from last year (slight pay increase eaten up by much larger insurance premiums) and lose some sanity.

I only have 13 years into this profession. How can I feel this tired this early in the year? What can I do about it? I try to get parents involved and then end up playing "phone tag" at 7:30 in the morning because that's when my planning period is.

So why do it? Because I really do love the kids (most days! ;-D) Because it's such a rush to see what they learn and see their faces light up when they get it. Because they make me laugh. Because they truly do value what they learn and will even come in during lunch to get extra help because it's important to them. Because some of their parents absolutely don't care about them... and they deserve someone who does. Those are a few reasons why I do.

Off to get some sleep!

Kelly