Overview:
Teacher TS Carney reflects on her transition to working with emotionally disabled students in a challenging elementary school, using humor, empathy, and de-escalation skills to support students often overlooked by the education system.
If you have read me, or have been reading me, or if this is your first time reading me, then you will/or will now see that I can be deeply sarcastic, throwing jokes under the radar that you might not catch unless you listen.
Another thing that is not one of those things is that I changed positions at school.
No, not for disciplinary reasons, far from it.
In fact, you could call it a “promotion” because I was moved from pushing classrooms and assisting general education teachers to working with students with emotional disabilities. Some would say this is not a promotion (why would I move from a stable to an unstable position?), but I disagree; probably the best promotion one can get because my superiors see that I excel in diminishing situations. It’s like having John McClain run Nakatomi Tower, instead of someone else.
Now, the problem with this room – I’ll call it the “JUMP” system for privacy reasons, is that it’s in the basement, next to the restaurant, and the restrooms. In addition, we have mice that come in and out (thankfully not on the moon) and are near the Dining Room.
And that’s why I call this room “The Ouibette” to call back to the prison of the Middle Ages – the room of the forgotten. Our job here is to make sure students stay calm and composed, while at the same time completing work. We can “forget” them in many ways because the hard hitters are put down, and the hope is that their behavior is “forgotten and controlled”.
It’s funny because a lot of people thought it was me I won’t be good in this setting, as people thought I would not be good in a push situation, but my first work in this district was with older students under the age of ten (many of whom were involved in other serious matters).
I don’t want to name names, or even refer to things that have already been published in court papers, but I’ve had students ranging from petty theft to double murder. My readers, even now they are still very much the same as before, and I still bring that bad attitude that people know and love; and in traditional “Carney” fashion “Three Wise Men of Moral Expectations”:
So here we are at Ouibette, tucked away between the noise of the restaurant and the scurrying mouse. The show may want these kids to be forgotten, but Uncle Sam, Dalton, and I aren’t going anywhere. We will continue to play our high stakes moral chess game in the basement because someone has to manage Nakatomi Tower. And if it takes snark and some pop-culture policing to keep the peace, then please put the sugar on top, let’s get to work.
