Pregnant First Grade Teacher - Page 2

[Flor]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

How long is she planning on taking off. Some of that will be during the 2-3 week Xmas break the kids would have had. If she only gets 6 weeks off then I don't think the transition will be bad with whatever teacher comes in.

Here they get a full year off and long term subs are teachers who are willing to take on short terms like that.

With my teaching job, you get 6 weeks off for medical leave, you can take 12 weeks unpaid family medical leave, but you can take an unpaid leave of absence for up to 2 years. Most teachers take off a semester at tleast. So out at Christmas, not back until next September.

[lauren]

Have you asked the teacher or the administration what the coverage plan is? In my children's school, these things were decided and well known way in advance so that everyone could prepare. In several situations they have allowed an assistant teacher to take over the regular instruction of the class for the remainder of the year.

[boongirl]

Originally Posted by wildmonkeys

he said "I really need her too" I then used the great advice given on here "But, you will get to have TWO first grade teachers this year! How great! None of the other first grade classes will get two teachers" to which he said "I don't want a different teacher, I have the best one" sooooo.....I am not going to talk to him about it for awhile.

When I was teaching first and second graders, midway through the school year my teammate (we team taught, 2 of us in one room fulltime) announced she was pregnant with triplets and was leaving in a few weeks. (long story) This was shocking to everyone but we knew her health was at risk and it needed to be. We were able to find a sub for her who had subbed in our building and the kids were familiar with her. She took the job. The kids, of course, were shocked and surprised and sad. How we handled it was to acknowledge their feelings and help them to express themselves. There is nothing that can be done to change the fact that the teacher is having a baby and leaving. But, kids need help expressing their feelings and empathy for them. We taught them this phrase:

I feel _______ that/when __________. I wish that ________.

They filled in the blanks. Ex I feel sad that Jo is leaving. I wish that she would not leave.

We could not change her plans but the kids felt a lot better just being able to verbalize their feelings. Many kids (heck, many people) need help getting this out. We actually taught that phrase to all the kids at that school but it worked particularly well when Jo left.

[mommy68]

The worst part about school is not being able to choose the teacher for your child. They will have good ones and they will have bad ones. Hopefully they will have a sub that helps out in the class that will take over once the real teacher has to leave so atleast they will know the new teacher. Whether they like her as much is something we just can't do anything about. They would just have to eventually get used to it.

I will say that my 4 yr old had her teacher just up and quit about a month ago. She's only in kinder readiness but it didn't upset her like I thought it would. She knew her new teacher since she subbed in her class at times and forgot about her old teacher over the weekend after she left on a Friday. You'd be surprised at how well some kids can handle change.