OT - teachers! STRESS

Is it the same for teachers in the US?
 
It is 10 pm here and I am still sorting out exam work for students (16 year olds).

I have coursework coming out of my ears. The students are fed up with coursework.  I can't sleep because I am panicking that we won't get it all done before the submission date (externally moderated by a national exam board). I am ticking boxes, filling front sheets, entering mark data, checking standards, idnetifying gaps that students need to fill (absences etc).

And I reckon I still have more work for the students to do than can be fitted into the time available!

And then today I found that a colleague to whom i had delegated a large unit of work has screwed up! OK, i was in charge but I told her what to do, i checked it a month ago, told her the gaps, showed her how to fill them. And she is an experienced and competent teacher! But she hasn't done it!!! How am i going to get another term's work redone in 3 weeks???!

STRESS. STRESS. STRESS.

Kate

Oh Kate I feel your stress!!!  I teach middle school children with intensive special needs and they are required to participate in the Massachusetts (MCAS) testing through the use of a portfolio.  They are alot of work and I have to complete 8 of them this year.  I have gone into work early and stayed late almost everyday, and working on them at night too.  I clocked in over 40 hours over my February vacation.  They are due on April 1st and I'm freaking out!!  On top of that it's the normal IEP goals, data collection, evaluations etc.  I just hope I will breathe a little easier after April 1st I just can't take it anymore!!  Good luck to you we can do this- I think???   Karianne

Karianne, mine are special needs kids too. 10 of them, some ASD (but at the milder end), some generalised learning difficulties. Our scales won't equate to yours and so using them would be meaningless, but they are the sort of children who will be able to hold down jobs as adults, not quite bright enough to be on the supermarket tills, but able to stack shelves, be builders' labourers, hotel cleaners etc.. Some have behaviour issues as well as learning difficulties.

I am doing the courses that will take them to the end of compulsory education (age 16) on to further education until the age of 18.

So a Personal Social Ed portfolio on everything from managing money, to using leisure time to healthy living,  food safety and more! Evidence, worksheets - sounds like you know just what I mean. All annotated, cross-referenced etc..

Then coursework on functional Maths, functional English, Science.

Never-ending!!

And, yes, we do IEPs, statement reviews, data collection, value added assessment.
.
This is the last year! I have had enough!!! I am supposed to be retired! But was talked into coming back for first one day and then a day and a half a week. And then somehow i got the Asdan portfolio (the PSD) to do and then somehow the English coursework!

And added to that, i was (calmly and quietly!) encouraging a boy to finish a piece of maths today and he lost it! Threw a computer and monitor across the room!

Kate

Sorry, Karianne, so engrossed with my own woes I didn't say....

Chin up! This too will end!  WE WILL GET THERE!!

Kate

Thanks Kate LOL!  My student's are all non-verbal, non-ambulatory with very rare DX.  So it's certainly not a desk job due to all the positioning needs.  I have 2 full time RN's in my classroom (suctioning, seizures, and tube feedings) and 3 TA's.   I work with a variety of low and high tech augmentative communication devices.  My student's work on accessing the curriculum and I do have 2 students who are learning how to drive power chairs using the headrest.  I would like to have a secretary that would be fantastic!! 

I tutor a young man with Autism on the weekends which is really neat because he signs and can walk with no medical needs so it's completely different than what I teach during the week. 

It's great meeting other teachers!!! Thanks for the post I actually feel better already just talking about it.  Sometimes I feel a little isolated in my classroom because none of the others teachers really understand what I do everyday.  I will keep my chin up and I am really looking forward to my April break, I promised my kids that I wouldn't bring any work home and not take in any foster children during that time-Just a family week-I can't wait!!! Kari

We have two classes with students like yours and although I have never been the teacher as such I have helped out. It is  differnet world, isn't it!

I'v moved a round a bit! Most of my teaching career was actually lecturing in Psychology to 18 year olds, on their way to university! Then I got fed up, had a mid-life crisis and applied to teach in a Spec Ed school! And I love it - despite this post!!

But the policy in our shcool is (apart from PMLD which is what we call the children you teach) to move teachers around to gain overall experience. So I have taught from age 9 to age 18, from barely verbal and only just communicative through to my present class of students who are fully functionning but very slow learners with all the behavioural issues that often brings.

Kate

 Karianne I can totally feel your pain!  I teach high school special ed. and I am in the same boat.  The IEPs and data collection can be enough to send any special ed. teacher over the edge at times.  Then when you at alternative assessment on top of it, the insane time begins.  People think we have easy jobs (or at least they do around here).  The stress can be extremely high, but worth it......I think!  LOL

Another special ed teacher! I think we are all insane!

Kate

Stress releif :-)

My sister teachers Jr High, in a inner city school. She is always "catching up" on the weekends, holidays, during the summer break, plus the attitudes of teenagers is enough to give any one stress. Report cards, parent teacher conference, she does decathlons with them, it's a never ending job. Teachers really don't get enough appreciation or money. Hats off to them all.