Organizing Chaos

Have you ever walked into a room and the moment you closed the door you felt overwhelmed with dread and anxiety? That was one of our classrooms just last week. If you walked in there now, you would not even recognize it. The room had been mass chaos from the first day.

It was a combination of poor classroom management the year before with some of the same students, and a brand-new teacher with no idea what they got themselves into. There were two paraprofessionals, that everyone said didn't do anything in the class, but if you ever went into the classroom, you would see that it was quite the opposite.

My school is one of the few in the county that has classrooms for special needs students, like ESE and ASD, especially toddlers. We get a lot of students throughout the year, really more than we should be getting. But there are no other schools on our side of the county that can take them in.

This past week our new teacher friend started a new position at a different school, leaving one of our classrooms without a teacher. This wouldn't be a problem, but at the beginning of 2023, one of the paraprofessionals left us to start nursing school fulltime. That leaves one person who knows what they are doing, and two substitutes with no idea what they are getting into.

By the grace of God, Jehovah Jireh, I and my husband have been one of those substitutes for most of the week. We and the para are working together wonderfully to bring the classroom back to order. We've decorated barren walls, we've rearranged furniture, we've set up a schedule to follow, we have consistent consequences, and we're actually doing story time and helping them to learn.

It has been an amazing turnaround from a classroom that used to give anyone who walked into it, a panic attack. This coming week, she will be out taking a much-needed training, and my husband and I will be subbing with a third clueless person. I will be implementing more structure, more learning, more fun and I am so excited.

This week we will be learning about recycling. And I just spent the better part of three hours that I should have been finishing this blog, working on the materials and lesson plan! I'll take some pictures and share them on my Instagram so that you all can see what the class manages to accomplish. Should be fun.

Have a wonderfully blessed week! Maybe the Father be with you in all that you do with your whole heart for Him.