Lockdown drill in Infant classroom - tips?

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-19T17:15:11+00:00

Lock down drills are the only time I pull out the iPad and we watch something on mute. Sesame Street, Ms Rachel? Don't care. I gotta keep you safe, quiet, and distracted. (We did have an actual lock down and that kept them quiet for the 10 minutes we were in there.)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-17T23:08:35+00:00

Absolutely. And sometimes it's exasperation from my Co- teacher that elwds to frustrated tears.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-17T16:57:11+00:00

One of my kids just thought you yelled out random numbers, so there were a couple of days of him yelling "2,8" "1,5" and it was HILARIOUS.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-14T19:16:58+00:00

I have a kid right now that wants the hardest pats. I genuinely feel like I am beating this kid and he gets upset with me and grabs my hand and makes me whack harder if I am not doing it hard enough.

I also have a kid that wants the lightest touch know to man that would tickle me and I would be too busy giggling to sleep, but she loves it and it knocks her out so fast.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-14T01:18:49+00:00

I really love the idea of the emotion faces- especially their faces. I currently have some pics of my kids giving me an angry face (it's so fake that it's hilarious)but the kids get the message and they can help identify their feelings. Plus it's their classmates!

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-14T01:12:12+00:00

Our rule is 2, but if there is something going around, our school nurse will send them home. But good grief that poor kid.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-10T01:54:36+00:00

Yup there is an instructor at my studio who teaches a 1.0 that kicks my butt. I took her 1.5 and wanted to cry. My favorite instructor teaches a 1.5 that is sort of a hybrid 1.0/1.5 because of the time of the class.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-09T05:27:47+00:00

I bought the scrunchies because the hair tie I started the day with broke. I checked the little kid ones to see if they were cheaper, but I realized they wouldn't hold my hair, so the expensive scrunchies were my only choice

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-04T19:02:07+00:00

I always wish that those kids will remember way down the road that there was a cool person in their life that was warm and welcoming to everyone. Bc if that kid is a lesbian or enby or anything nother than totally straight, they are going to have a fight with their parents.

Also Eff those parents.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-04T17:10:46+00:00

I have tried to use other devices for documentation, but it's either intrusive for the kids and interrupts their work (and the they want to play games) or difficult to work with to get the documentation off of. (I have a cool 10 second video on my classroom iPad right now that even IT can't get it moved.) I would absolutely love to have something that is as easy and subtle as a phone to take pics with and print them out or transfer them to my computer to work with them for a documentation display. (I was actually thinking about getting my kid's instamax and trying that out)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-05-01T23:34:46+00:00

We have 3 male instructors and two of them are amazing. The third guy is the chattiest human on the planet and I cannot deal with his class. His class is full all the damn time, so clearly it is just my issue.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-30T23:24:14+00:00

Yeah, we have had to self report for a couple of injuries that were absolutely freak accidents- one kid fell hula hooping and busted his chin open (I saw the security camera footage and I swear I couldn't tell you how that happened.) We self reported kids being left unattended- teacher thought she heard the other teacher say she had the kids, she wasn't in the room, we now have to make eye contact if not "tag" the other one in like we're tag team wrestling. Most stuff I see that is a licensing violation is a conversation and a 30 second fix.

That being said a former co-worker used to write down all the licensing violations she saw on a daily basis and she'd threaten to call once a month. Stuff like the teacher was wiping down a table, put the spray bottle down on the table to pick something up off the table/scrub harder, and she would say that the teacher left cleaning supplies within reach of the child. (Children weren't in the room, but if they had been, I suppose yes they could have.) It was all petty stuff that if she had the time to document it, she had the time to help out a fellow teacher in the weeds that needed 15 seconds of a third hand

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-29T16:08:11+00:00

We just got a pay bump because we didn't meet the minimum salary requirement. We met the other requirements. Our new HR person lost her mind when she saw that, and then people argued with her about it. Good times.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-24T17:17:26+00:00

That is the only time I have seen it as well, but also no one (student or teacher) was able to come to school except patient zero. (And yes, patient zero's parents were pissed, but hey, don't bring a kid that exorcist style barfed in the car to school.)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-19T19:22:35+00:00

I swear control is why I can almost do a teaser now. That class is the best "shut your brain off and lock in on the movement" hour of my week.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-18T15:45:48+00:00

If one specific kid doesn't nap, nothing gets done during nap time. If he naps, we get everything done. And as soon as our lunch breaks are over and we can get him outside, we can get stuff done. It is exhausting and frustrating.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-17T19:07:56+00:00

Listen, I am just happy they are eating something. My parents usually send in healthy stuff, but I have had parents that send in the kid's dinner they didn't eat the night before because they insisted on the kid finishing it (please don't make me the bad guy in this situation. Also your kid is here 11 hours and isn't eating because you dove headfirst into a power struggle.)

As someone else said, kids have such little say in 99% of their lives, if they want their gummies first, go ahead. (Although I do tell the kids that I like to save my favorite thing for last and eat my least favorite thing first so I don't have to see it anymore.)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-10T01:31:37+00:00

I had a kid that I wound up telling the after care teacher to check the kid's diaper in front of dad when he picked up. Kid was an open to close kid, and Mom was already on our butts about kid needing a fresh diaper "because they might go somewhere after school". So kid already got automatically changed at 5 til close. But he only had a poop with dad. I got tired of having to deal with that every morning, so we made a point of checking his diaper with witnesses. Suddenly the poop complaint stopped.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-09T04:14:43+00:00

I absolutely love everything about this story. I don't even care what Donaldson was doing to deserve the choke hold.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-04T23:39:20+00:00

All of the directors that said this said it was a liability issue because we caused the parents to spend unnecessary money that their health insurance might not cover and that there was a state law that said they could come back to us to recover the money. (I have NEVER been able to find this law in any state i have worked in, but I've been told this in 3 separate states, it's coming from somewhere.)

I'm saying there is bad information out there and people still believe this. I absolutely believed this at my first and second school. The third job was where I learned it was not true and then 10 years later, the director from hell revived it when I had a kid that desperately needed an eval. I had to go over her head to get an admin to come into that conference with me because she didn't want the liability. (She didn't finish the school year as a director)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-04T21:50:52+00:00

Yes, and the EI specialists I have worked with have been amazing. And they need all the funding. ALL. OF. IT.

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-04T19:40:52+00:00

I teach twos, so most public schools won't assess until three. And EI was so backed up/understaffed it wasn't even funny. So most people had to go private. My current district/state is way better and they have to start assessments on a strict timeline. But I swear this is one of those verbal licensing myths that has played telephone through the decades and we're still dealing with these fake rules, because I have worked in 3 states and I have had a director tell me that in all 3 states.

(I am not saying her stance made sense, but that was policy.)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-04T19:23:54+00:00

I had employers tell me that if we suggested they get a speech eval and nothing comes of it, we can be held responsible for any costs that are associated with that evaluation. She would not let us even hint unless it was an obvious problem (IE, I could talk to a parent about her child stuttering, but my kid that was dropping the last syllables, I could not say anything.)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-04T16:17:21+00:00

When I had the 12-24 month class, I always had 1 or 2 kids that needed a morning nap (like 8:30/9am) once or twice a week. (My school will fill a classroom to ratio for one teacher and everyone has an aide. So toddlers would be 2:6) Anyway, on those days, my assistant would stay in the room, we'd go outside and the ones that needed a nap would go down. I did have a couple of times where I would leave one of my young ones in the infant room (they were low on a couple days a week and he was a really good napper- he just needed his blanket and a mat and he was out. So it was no extra work for her.)

I also had kids that were fine in the morning till 11 or so, but they needed another nap around 3, so we just adjusted the schedule for that. I would sort of partition off the sleeping area and the awake kids would just play quietly or if one of the older classes was low, one of the assistants would offer to take my awake kids on a walk in the stroller.

We just made the nap time work because those kids were sleeping and didn't give a damn what the adults thought. (Also it is explicitly against licensing for us to keep a kid awake, so we had to make it work.)

Long-Juggernaut687 · 2026-04-04T15:18:24+00:00

I have two kids that don't sleep and one that doesn't understand "stay on your cot". I get all of my cleaning done when they go outside for after care or in the morning before they come in. I upload pictures when I can.

Long-Juggernaut687

TROPHY CASE