The Highs and Lows of 2011

I’ve decided to end out the 2011 blogging season with a compilation of the highs and lows of 2011.  These appear in no real significant order, except that this is the order in which they popped into my head.

High:  We are all, despite this cold that we’ve all had since sometime in October, in relatively good health.  No trips to the ER this year.  No one has swallowed anything they shouldn’t have.  And while John has had some discomfort due to the MS, he hasn’t had any major setbacks. 

Low:  While Anna had made a little improvement with her eyesight, the end of the year finds us, not at square one, but with no improvement since September.  The doctor says that she can have surgery to straighten out the right eye, but that unless she starts to use it, she will lose sight in it.  He wants us to start patching the “good” eye again.  I haven’t leapt into action with that one just yet simply because I know how it’s going to turn out.  I have asked her teacher to help us out because Anna loves Miss Diane and does everything that woman asks.

High:  Anna.  She is a completely different child from this time in 2010.  She really is.  I cannot believe it.  The behavior is much better.  Her attitude is much better.  She really is doing so well.  Miss Diane has given me hope that Anna will be able to go to kindergarten next year with little problem.  We’re holding off deciding whether that will be in a completely mainstreamed or in an inclusion classroom, but it WILL NOT be in a substantially separate classroom.  Yippeeeee!

High:  Family time.  We’ve had a lot of time this year to be just us—the four of us.  That has been pretty amazing actually.  The best thing about our trip to Disney was not necessarily the Disney part, so much as the US part.  Our time on the Cape, our time in Disney, our time around Christmas = Perfect.

High:  The kids’ teachers have definitely been high points.  Both last school year and this school year have provided my children with some amazing teachers and support staff.  I couldn’t have asked for better.  I think the people who make educational policy and put more and more of the blame on teachers for students not meeting ridiculous achievement goals should come see what these women do.  If they could just watch these women in action, they would know that even the most miraculous of teachers cannot fill the education gap (first, actually, they need someone to explain to them about the concept…).  I cannot thank these women enough for what they do for my children.

Low:  Jack got jumped in the bathroom last month.  Seriously.  First grade.  I guess the kid who jumped him has some issues, but it was probably one of my most frightened moments as a parent.  It upset John as much as it upset me, and it upset Jack a lot.

Low:  Work.  I can’t go into it.  I really can’t in this forum, but those of you who work with me know my frustration.

High:  The people I work with.  During this most recent work drama, I was given the support of pretty much everyone in the building.  People went out of their ways to find me out and give me support.  While things went exactly the way I thought they would have gone, I got a huge boost in my self-esteem.  It felt good to be me.  I felt validated on so many levels.  It’s almost worth doing this thing again, just for the way my co-workers made me feel appreciated.  Thank you, all.

High:  How cool is Netflix on PS3?

High:  How cool is the Nook Color?

High:  How cool is the iPhone 4s?  (Am I spoiled or what?)

High:  I did an absolutely amazingly friend thing this fall.  While I hated all of the things that led up to my doing this, I am happy that I did it.  One of my ultimate lows this year was when my friend Brian passed away.  After he had died, someone stole one of his most prized possessions.  I had that replaced for his parents, our friends, Judy and Darryl.

Low:  Brian died.  Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him and miss him.  Not a day goes by when I don’t get at least teary-eyed over his passing.  The potential that was lost is devastating.  I still can’t believe it.

High:  Pomegranate martinis. 

That’s really all my brain can come up with right now.  Perhaps, with the three days left of my vacation, I’ll come up with some kind of thought provoking, year-end blogging extravaganza.

In the meantime…Happy New Year!!

Worst Phone Call of my Life

We live in what educational professionals who classify communities call an "urban setting."  John and I refer to it as the 'hood.  When we first moved here, it didn't really matter to us.  We bought the house, honestly, for the garage.  We had planned on staying here for the short term and then moving on.  Well...we haven't moved on.  We aren't in a position to move on, and we have to take what we can get in terms of a lot of things, including schools.

I do think that Jack is being held back in school.  I think he's pretty stinkin' bright and that the school system is in no way prepared to provide what he needs because there are too many students who fall on the other end of the spectrum.  On the flipside, Anna is receiving some pretty incredible services.  If we lived in a smaller community or one that was a little more affluent, she wouldn't get all the things she gets.  There has been such an improvement in her that we'd be foolish to leave just now.  We can find ways to suppliment Jack's learning.  I mean, I am a teacher in an academically accelerated program afterall.

And, while he certainly isn't being challenged in the first grade, he's happy.  He's got an amazing teacher whom I cannot say enough about.  He had a great teacher last year.  There are adults in the building who care about him and, until today, he felt safe going there and I felt safe sending him there. 

Today, right at the start of ninth period I got a phone call.  It was from Jack's school.  I took the call because it was my kid's school.  I had to answer.  I expected it to be the nurse to tell me that Jack had fallen on the play ground or that maybe he was sick.  Instead, it was the principal who told me that something had happened to Jack today.

What she told me made my heart stop.  She said that Jack had been in the bathroom when a kid jumped on him and "put his [the other kid's] hands around Jack's neck."

Now, the woman's delivery was off.  She spoke slowly and deliberately.  My mind wasn't working slowly and deliberately.  So that I was in panic mode when she said "jumped on him." and I had LOTS of time betwen "hands around" and "Jack's neck" to jump to all sorts of conclusions.

The principal assured me that he was fine and that she had checked on him multiple times, that he had spoken with the school adjustment councilor, that he seemed fine. 

I started crying and left my classroom, asking my friend Caitlin to keep an eye and ear out.  I went and called John.  He was as upset as I was.  In my mind, some little brat had "jumped" my son in the bathroom.  John was ready to call the police. 

My principal found someone to cover (Thanks Kerry, and Colleen and Mark), and Caitlin handled both her class and mine until there was an adult (Thanks Cait) there.  John and I met in the parking lot of my school and we drove to school.  I had called the principal and told her that we would be coming in and wanted to speak with her and the school adjustment councilor.  Of course, everyone we were driving behind was driving slower than...well...than we wanted to go.

We met with the principal, the assistant principal, and the school adjustment councilor who worked with Jack last year when he was having trouble going to school.  The adults who handled the situation were confident that this wasn't an attack.  This kid is apparently exuberant and "handsy."  He would have done what he had done to anyone.  Jack was just in the bathroom at the wrong time.  What really happened was that Jack was just finishing washing his hands and this kid came out of a bathroom stall.  The kid saw Jack and then made some kind of movement with his hands kind of like he was aiming a bow and arrow and then jumped on Jack putting his hands on the back of Jack's neck giving him a push.

Jack ran from the bathroom and found the first adult, the assistant principal.  The assistant principal then looked for the kid, but based on what Jack had said, he and the people who were helping him had a pretty good description of who it was.  They found him.  They took "disciplinary action."  They talked to Jack about it and sent him to the nurse.  There were no marks on him.  Apparently, the mother of the other boy apologized to me through the principal saying that she wouldn't like it if someone had put their hands on her son.

I'm relatively satisfied with the way things went down.  I wasn't called immediately after it happened, but I was called after the "disciplinary action" was taken.  My son wasn't really hurt so I can live with that.  The principal did the right thing by calling me after the kid had left the building and after she had dealt with the mother. 

Jack's upset.  He's already talked about how he doesn't want to go to school tomorrow, but I've told him that since he doesn't have a fever he's got to go.  I'm a mean mama.  I know.  I've asked them to keep an eye on him because he's so anxious.  He's been so good about going to school every day that I would hate for him to start that crying thing again. 

We'll see how that goes.  Now I'm exhausted.  John's exhausted.  Emotionally drained.