I teach six children with severe behavioral and communication needs. They range from K-4 grade in one room. Their abilities are very scattered and they all have huge gaps. I have one child that I know is intelligent but I can't prove it; she also spent the first two years of her school life there doing only pre-k stuff so when I pull out grade level or near grade level material, she is catching on but there are gaps that I don't even know where to begin.

They all have behavioral needs. The last two weeks have been hell on earth for me for a variety of reasons that were out of my control. Can't tell them otherwise it would probably out who I am. Lets just say that we missed a lot of school and there were staffing changes. So my children who depend on that routine and consistency have not had it in the last two weeks.

I'm burnt out. Every day things are going great and then suddenly half my room is in full meltdown, with one being violent. (I make sure to deal with the violent child; my para takes care of the rest...usually the other children are melting down because of sensory issues.) I feel like a horrible teacher when it happens even though people tell me that it WILL happen -- these kids sometimes can't handle one child going into a tantrum so others will. It can take 15 to 20 minutes for me to regain instructional control.

I'll be honest, I have not collected any data except for some behavioral things in the last two weeks. I did mid-term report cards and progress IEP reports and had to rely on three weeks of data instead of five. I felt awful. I feel awful still.

It's Saturday and I'm about to head up to the school to plan for my next week...

I guess this is more a rant than anything else. I know things will get better. But it's hard seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

[TheTrunch]

I started counting the days till the end of the year..... but made a decision not to do that today. It's so hard to come home every day too exhausted to do anything.

[CaliDreamin]

I had that year last year. When I finally gave in and realized that every week was going to be the same, I decided to plan many hands on very fun tasks and not worry so much about everything else. I let my program specialist and administrators know that due to behaviors I wasn't able to get data at the rate I previously had been at. I also was charting behavior so I could point to that if anyone questioned data collection. No additional help was provided to me, but doing the fun activities did help (even though I still had the violent tantrums). And it helped me.

I bought a Stomp Rocket from Amazon, and the kids really loved that.

I put out play dough every day and they also loved that.

I bought favorite foods for the kids who it really helped and I have been anti-food as reward my whole career.

Do what you have to do to survive and keep speaking up to your superiors about safety and the need for additional staff, consultation with expert staff, etc.

Good luck!

sorry for you struggles. I was in your position once when I took on a hard class of 3rd to 8th grade, SH some behaviors, some not--but I struggled. When teaching Special Ed. I found that the School Psych has a lot of great insight and great advice. She reminded me that all behavior is a form of communication, and if a student got really upset I would give choices or change their schedule, just try new options. What you need to do is seek help from other team members-- Good Luck