poorly written movie moments: part three

This movie moment comes from my sister, Sissy. You may call her JennaBoyd. 

I have been a teacher with SECEP in a classroom for kids with Emotional Disturbance for the past three months. There are only three girls in there, which doesn't sound like a lot, unless you've actually met them. I'll call them Cupcake, Cookie, and Sugar. These three little girls are more difficult to singlehandedly work with than 18 preschoolers because they:

- Throw classroom items and shoes

- Climb on shelves, tables, and chairs

- Bite themselves and others

- Push items off of the shelves and tables

- Tear down anything that's posted on the classroom bulletin board

- Lay down in the school hallway and refuse to get up (about 20% of the time and only with one of the girls, but it's still a pain when it happens).

- Pull on their clothes and won't let go

- Scratch

- Pinch and won't let go

- Pull hair

- Run away if you're not holding their hand

- Poke people in the eye

- Kick people

- Spit in people's faces

With that background information, here's what happened last Thursday:

              My teaching assistant (who is amazing, by the way, and has been nominated as Teacher's Assistant of the Year) had called out sick that day and I didn't realize that until about 8:25 when she still hadn't shown up for work. I called the office to make sure that we were going to have a sub. They said they had sent one, but that she was probably going to be a little late. This meant that I was going to need to get all three of the girls. This wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that I only have two hands and you just read about what the girls do. Anyway, I got Cupcake off the bus as I do every morning, then we went to get Cookie and Sugar from their buses. I held onto Cupcake with my left hand and had both Sugar's and Cookie's hands in my right hand while we walked down the hall, and I prayed harder than I ever have before. We made it back to class without a problem and I was able to breathe again.

That day, our internet wasn't working. This wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that the majority of the things that the girls enjoy are on there. There are songs, nursery rhymes, and cartoons that they love to sing along with and watch.

The sub got there about 10 minutes later... with laryngitis. I found out later in the day that it was also her second day subbing for SECEP. She did a great job, but I still felt terrible for her.

Our reading specialist was supposed to observe me teaching a reading lesson that day, but Cupcake took that time to do almost everything I had listed above. On the bright side, the reading specialist took pity on me, didn't do her observation, and is currently working on materials to get the kids more excited about learning.

The rest of the day was spent with all three girls running around the classroom when they weren't supposed to, Sugar poking Cookie in the eye, Cookie nearly running into the street because she escaped from the playground before we could get to her, and Cupcake trying to throw things and bite herself.

During all of this, I kept thinking that I felt like I was watching everything go wrong for a teacher in a movie. Only it was my own real life. On that day, I was very happy when 3pm came around.


(I'm guessing she went home and did this:)

Juuuust kidding. That's sparkling apple cider.