I began writing a teacher’s journal on the second day of teaching through the Los Angeles County Department of Education, children aged 4-7, children in danger to themselves or others.
The journal is based on the goals of THINK LIKE A WRITER and THE COOPERATIVE CLASSROOM. But it has the additional function of documenting contact with administrators, parents, itinerant teachers, and medical information, behavioral issues, as well as setting academic and behavioral objectives
The daily journal should be dated and in a bound notebook. If a computer is used, each day should be a new document so that each entry has a creation date. The teacher is creating a legal document that can be used with administrations, if necessary, in legal proceedings.
Here is my Story
I was teaching what, in retrospect, was the most challenging class I ever taught. You might be surprised to know that these students were 4 to 8 years old. I worked in a school for severely emotionally disturbed. This is where my experiment in using art to transform began. I kept a daily journal. Here is an excerpt.
Journal from my Classroom, SED Student
Jaylene, Chris and Jeremiah came off the bus fighting. Eight-thirty a.m., and my room was trashed. All three kids were cussing, throwing things, and hitting each other. I could not get the students’ attention long enough to calm them down. Jaylene and Jeremiah were finally taken to the timeout room. (These were locked cubicles where students were taken when they were endangering themselves or others. During lunchtime, I was in the teachers’ lounge when Patty, my aide, rushed in and announced that Jaylene had run off campus.
Seven-year-old Jaylene had crossed the busy street and climbed ae four-story firefighters’ practice building. The practice building is a concrete building that they lit on fire and used to train new firefighters to rescue people. It had a four-foot-high window, but no glass or screens. When I arrived, Jaylene was standing on the windowsill of the fourth floor.
Jaylene had her belt around her neck, like a noose, and was threatening to jump.
The firefighters were on the ground looking up at her. Next to the firefighters were some of the school’s staff. who were yelling at Jaylene to get out of the window, but she wasn’t listening.
That is when I came up from the teacher’s lounge. I ran up the stairs to the fourth floor and stepped into the room. Jaylene was on the windowsill with the belt still around her neck. I wondered whether I should run and grab her or try to talk her down from the windowsill.
I calmly said, “I think we should talk about this.”
She said, “F—-you.”
I ran and grabbed her. I had no idea whether this was a good idea or a fatal idea. My heart was pounding. Holding on to Jaylene, I looked down the four stories. The firefighters and half a dozen staff members from my school were looking up at me.
“Jaylene,” I said calmly, you know you are not supposed to leave the campus without permission.”
The principal ordered Jaylene to the timeout room. While I was with Jaylene, Christopher was crying and running around the room. Then he scratched Francis, the timeout aide, and was taken to the timeout room. Adrian was fine. They are going to try to get him into a more appropriate placement. Jaylene is suspended from school until Friday. The rest of the kids were agitated all day. I am feeling a bit of a failure, and it is the second day of school.
Jayelen, ten years later, her letter of recommendation
Mrs. T used to be my teacher when I was a little girl. She was very great and still is til this day. We made so many art projects. I can remember so many of them. We made candles out of our footprints. We made handprints out of clay and painted them. We made 3D shoeboxes with dinosaurs and plants inside. We made lots of collages and paintings.
We also went to the very special arts festival in Los Angeles. Both times, I had paintings that were entered in the art shows. I think I won 2nd place for one of my paintings. We made picture frames. We made flower pots. We made a puppet show for the whole school. We made dances and songs for the whole school. There are many more things we did in her class that I can go on and on about. Mrs. T has a heart for teaching art in schools, and we, as people, need to bring art back into schools all over the world. I know that when we had art class, it helped calm my nerves and was fun. The school has a lot of kids who are very bored because all they do is hard work, and they never have a class where they can go and have fun and learn at the same time. And when you have so many kids that are bored in school, they tend to get in trouble.
Example 2
May 8 —
May fell. I sent her to the nurses. The nurse reported that she seemed fine. I wrote a note to her mother regarding the fall.
May 9th. The adaptive P.E. coach was absent. Mary seemed to be more listless today. I wrote a note to her mother. The Class learned chair ball today. Eric taught addition to the other students. He liked being in front of the class. Jeremiah stayed in his seat for three minutes straight, a record for him.
I have to tell you that this journal has sometimes saved a child’s life, a child who has been overmedicated. And sometimes, despite my efforts, it did not save a child’s life, but I have documented proof of my efforts.
Any talks with the administration, itinerant teachers, parents, janitors, and lunch workers. I would ask them to be a team member for a child with behavioral issues.
Parents.
Sometimes parents face many challenges, one of which may be their child. For the elementary and even jr. high, parents are the most important team members, even if the parent or parents appear less than perfect. I remember one grandmother who had taken on the responsibility for three children, including a very troubled boy. She would sometimes come to a meeting drunk. Some teachers dismissed her. But I say, look deeper. If necessary, treat the parent or substitute parent as you would one of your students.
I took this idea pretty far when I was asked to substitute in an ESL classroom until they hired a qualified ESL teacher. The thing was I didn’t speak a word of Spanish, many of the students and their parents did not speak English.
Without asking the principal for permission, I invited the parent, generally the mother, to accompany their child to kindergarten. I taught English and basic preschool skills. I started in September. In December, I organized a talent show, and the students sang Christmas songs in English. From the audience, I could hear the parents who had come to class singing. I put this down in my journal. This action didn’t call for the school district to spend a cent more; the students were happy, and the families were happy.
Journal Story 3
It was in vogue in my teacher training classes that you use a red pencil to indicate the student had committed an error on their paper. So get out your red pencil.