Day 14: Unprepared?

I went to Back to School night last night. The parents all came and we told them the activities that their students get to do in the 5th grade, the discipline plan, and the rewards system. That was all well and good, the part that I was really struck by was the concerns the parents had.
Earlier that day a student had told me her stomach hurt. I assumed it was just a 5th grader trying to get out something. When her mother and she came to Back to School night she had just come from the ER to get her stomach checked out. Wow. That was much more serious than I had thought it was. This morning when the student came into school she said she had spent the night in the ER and couldn't have any gluten. I really got that wrong.
Another parent came up to my teacher and was concerned about the melt down her son had had earlier in the day (see yesterday's post). I discovered he had Asperger Syndrome and that answered a whole slew of questions I didn't even know I had. It explained why he was so upset about a punishment he had never seen issued, why he was upset when he had to run and couldn't use his inhaler before he ran(I had told him I use my inhaler before I run). I never would have known!
I realized that I have been worrying about the curriculum and such, but there is another entire side to teaching that I haven't even thought about!
When I asked my teacher about this she said it comes with experience. Unfortunately, I don't have any. Fortunately, I have so many people around me (and will have people around me) who do have experience. Having a team is so important! Especially with teaching!

Today was much smoother than yesterday and we introduced a new thing to the kids. Tiki Time. If they have finished all of their work for the whole week then they get to go play games for the last half hour of school, in the Tiki Room. If they have not finished then they have to stay in the classroom until they are done. This room has been fondly dubbed the Torture Chamber. The kids who were in the Torture Chamber only had to stay there until their work was done, then they could enter the Tiki Room. Those kids got their work done so fast!