school started

I live in IL and we went back to school the day after Labor Day. It hasn’t been too bad. I work in a SCCC class which stands for self contained cross category class. I work with students who have learning disabilities for the most part but could have autism, downs, or other impairments along with their learning disability. We have 9 students right now and one got sent home on Friday with COVID symptoms. She disclosed to me when we were going outside for gym class that she had thrown up the night before but didn’t want her mom to know because then she couldn’t go to her grandma’s house. I asked her if she had thrown up that day and she said no but that she felt like she was going to.  We just found out yesterday that her test was negative which was awesome and I believe she went back today. I stayed home today because I get vertigo and it’s pretty bad to the point I can’t get out of bed because the room is spinning so much and if I do I have to be very careful I don’t fall down. Usually it goes away if I sleep for a few extra hours which it did. The teacher I’m working with this year I was supposed to work with last year but mysteriously I got transferred to work with a different self contained class in the building. I loved the teacher I worked with last year but she was terrified of a student that was going to be in our class this year so she decided to go back to middle school which I don’t blame her. This student has a very foul mouth and just says whatever comes to mind. So to be honest I was nervous about having her in the class too but thankfully she is doing remote learning for now. I have dealt with some pretty rough students especially one of the ones I had last year. I can deal with them swearing at me but I don’t put up with disrespect either so if the other girl would say something rude I would probably say something rude back to her. My building is super new. It opened last year and it’s pretty big but thankfully only one floor but with the COVID situation you basically have to walk ALL the way around the building so my sciatica has been REALLY bothering me and one of my knees that I fell on a few years ago has started bothering me too and then of course there is having to wear a mask most of the day. I understand why we have to but I’m so happy this year they have me going to specials,recess and we get mask breaks as well but it kills me when I have to go from one end of the building to the other. I’m overweight so that of course doesn’t help me either. I’m seriously considering quitting just because of the the fact I can’t breathe in the mask and I’m in pain every day. I just feel like I can’t do my job well  and that I’m letting everyone down. My husband is OK with me quitting because last year was a rough one so he said I came home upset quite a lot and then was not in a good mood with him or my son which I agree on. This year the class we have is not bad at all. The kids are really well behaved. So anyway the teacher i’m working with asked me to come chat with her about something towards the beginning of year saying that she heard I didn’t like her and that we didn’t have to be best friends but obviously we have to be able to work together which I don’t ever remember telling anyone I didn’t like her. There was a student we had last year when I was with her that she babied really bad and that drove me crazy because he would just leave the room but she would never write him up but if any of the other students did that she would write them up in a instant. The one thing I’ve learned working in a self-contained room you can’t treat certain students different than the others because then it causes meltdowns by the student or the others who don’t get to do what they get to do. The only other thing that bugged me and the teacher I worked with last year was my current teacher and a previous teacher I worked with became good friends which is awesome I have nothing against that BUT the problem I had was they would post pics on FB of them going out to eat with other school people but we never got invited to anything. It made us feel like we were on a deserted island by ourselves. So hoping this year goes well and most of the time I feel like I can suggest things to the teacher I work with. With her I’m almost afraid to suggest anything or even ask if she needs help with anything. I don’t know. Also possibly pretty soon they might be having the schools go remote because our positivity rate for COVID is up but according to the health dept. person the students who are getting it are not getting it from school or it’s not being transmitted through the schools. Something like that but we won’t be surprised if it does happen. Other than school stuff not much else going on. My husband’s birthday was yesterday and he seemed to enjoy it even though he didn’t get any gifts from us but they are on their way so this whole week he will probably be getting them. His mom is on hospice care and has dementia but he isn’t in contact much with her or his brothers. So yep that’s about it for now.