Rant about teachers who make our job harder
Today I was at one of my 3 schools (other 2 are elementary where I don't have this problem) working with my 9th graders. When students are scheduled for speech, I always call the teachers and say, "Hi/Hello/Good morning! Is (student name) available for speech therapy?" to be mindful of the fact that they may be doing something important in class that cannot be missed. I leave that up to the discretion of the teacher or try to compromise. I have been very understanding and flexible all school year.
We are now in the final 3 weeks of school (none of them even full weeks), and 1 of them is finals week. Not to mention the therapy time that has been cut into from professional development days, field trips, state testing, etc. this quarter. I am trying my best to meet minutes, as I am only there TWO DAYS of the week. So is the virtual SLP, who needs me in order to even be able to do her job virtually (the school claims no other staff are available to set up virtual therapy - but I digress). Teachers know this by now. I have told them AND it is in my email signature where I am which days.
Well today this art teacher that I have had problems with on multiple occasions in the past pissed me fully off. (No, she is not a new teacher. She should know about IEPs). I have avoided pulling students from her class the best I could this semester, but today's scheduling/students to see didn't leave me much choice. (I can count on both hands how many times I have even attempted to pull students from her class the entire school year). I called her room and someone else answered. I said what I usually do. They relay the info to the teacher/student. I hear the teacher say in the background, "Do you REALLY want to go? You don't HAVE to go, you know." GIRL, EXCUSE YOU?
No, I am not going to absolutely force a student to come to speech therapy. I have written down refusals on plenty occasions and not tried very hard to convince them to come to speech knowing I could make their sessions up another day. But why are you, as a teacher, in the last couple weeks of the school year, knowing what you know about our (myself + SLP) limited schedules, actively persuading and telling students that speech therapy is OPTIONAL? That is for US as the speech therapy team to decide with YOU as the teacher. Is he available or not?!?!? You could've just said no, I need him in class. Instead you want to make the student at fault for the "no session provided"?? WE HAVE A JOB TO DO TOO. WE HAVE MINUTES IN IEPS TO MEET. IEPS ARE LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENTS. WE BY LAW HAVE TO TRY OUR BEST TO MEET SAID MINUTES AND ALSO HAVE DATA TO REPORT ON THEIR GOALS BY THE END OF EVERY REPORTING PERIOD. I AM FUMING.
And respecfully, this is ART class. I do not like to single out any one teacher, so I actively avoid doing so by spreading out which teachers/classes I pull from each week to the best of my ability. But I can only pull from electives. I am not going to pull from core classes, which leaves my options limited with various student schedules, me only being here 2x per week, AND the bell schedule/class periods being different both days that I am there. Scheduling has been HELL there and teachers like her make it even worse. On top of admin being HORRIBLE communicators. I love the kids but damn do these adults make me hate my job sometimes. Anyway. The student ended up coming for only 10 of the 20 mins he was scheduled for. At least that is better than nothing. Rant over. *giant sigh* 10 more days left of the school year...... I can do this