Today the little boy was wearing the same T-shirt he was given yesterday. I saw in Tesco that a pack of 3 school tops is less than £5 and really wanted to buy him a pack as it really isn't alot of money to help keep him clean.
He looks like he could use a good wash, today he was cleaning a cut on his leg with his own spit and you could see the dirt moving away where he wet it, I just want to take him home and give him a good bath.
I was talking to Julie about him today and apparently social services are involved in the case and it runs a hell of a lot deeper that I knew, not only is he not being clothed and washed, he's not being fed either so his school dinner is his only guranteed meal of the day, there is also a history of violence in the family so I've got top keep an eye on what he says to me and if he says anything about how he's being treated at home I need to tell Julie straight away. I'm glad I know this as it make me feel a little bit better.
Anyway onto other stories from the classroom...Keeley fell out with me today. It took me all day to get out of her why and it transpired that it's because I shouted at her and told her off. Ok I hold my hands up and say that I have been a lot harder on the kids today and had a much shorter fuse than normal, I've still got this stupid virus thats making me feel generally crap, now in an office if you feel abit under the weather you can just take it easy for the day, slow your pace of work and if you're irritable try to avoid people as much as possible, in a classroom the kids still demand your attention just as much and still throw strops when they decide they can't do the work. I've actually been really bad at the job today, all because I've been really short tempered, it started when my three decided that they didn't want to do the work, I yelled at them as I knew they could do it they just didn't feel like doing maths this morning (I know they can do it as they were all doing it no problem at all yesterday) Now there are only so many times (especially when you feel like crap) you can explain to someone that when you divide a number by 10 you move the decimal point one place to the left. I snaped and told Keeley off for saying she couldn't do the work when she'd just done 10 questions with no problem and got them all right with minimal help.
Then Steven decided that he should have attitude and tell me that I didn't know the answer to the dyslexia game we were playing, I did know the answer and assured him it was right, he kept pushing me till I snaped at him that I have a Degree in English and I'm quite sure that I know what the right answer is. (just to point out this was about the 3rd argument in as many mins I'd had with him about various aspects of the work).
I finally punished Keeley when she asked me if she could read to me because she was bored and didn't want to do science, so I made her read last...actually she didn't get chance to read so she gets to read twice as long tomorrow to make up for it. I do feel bad about that actually but she'd just been a total pain all day that making her wait to read seemed the only way I could assert authority over her.
I know I'm crap at this but it's very much learning on the job so I'm bound to have days where I don't seem to do it right, please tell me it'll take more than 2 weeks to get the hang of it all!
