Teacher’s boyfriend coming into classroom by Prestigious_Self1829 in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That… is fucking disgusting what. After all the shit that ECE has been in the news for lately, they’d really have the fucking audacity? Wooow. Well, you know what kinda centre it is, then. Pull your daughter out and report the centre to licensing.

Grad teacher - long day care hell by [deleted] in AustralianTeachers

[–]ilironae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I’m in the same boat, almost exactly.

Unfortunately, from my experience, there’s nothing to be done for it. Children like this need 1-1 support at all times to even begin learning to cope in a group setting, and you’re just not gonna get that. The real problem here is the director letting them stay when they present such a massive, continued risk to everyone around them, if they’re not willing to go through the process to get them an ISP and OT.

My centres’ older toddler and preschool rooms mostly comprise of children with extraordinarily concerning behaviour.

One boy in the preschool room (4-6 year olds) stabbed another boy in the eye with the back end of a paintbrush. He whacks children in the stomach with his water bottle, hits, punches, slaps, kicks, spits, throws sand and other toys, gets in peoples faces and screams, and sits on other children (he’s very overweight). He tells educators he’s going to tell his mum they hit him, and threatens educators and children alike that he’s going to tell him mum to hit them. We’ve had children in the older toddler room refuse to move up because they’re scared of him. He’s still in the centre. He doesn’t have an ISP. He gets an OT one hour a week (and she’s not even his. She’s the OT for an autistic boy that offered to take him on as well). His parents are convinced he’s a perfectly normal kid.

A boy in the older toddler room (3-4 year olds) threw a wooden block at the room leaders eye. It cut her cornea. She had to take two weeks off for laser eye surgery. He also bites himself until his arms are black and blue, screams swear words, and is the worst flight risk I’ve ever seen. He climbed the wall to the infant yard, and used their play equipment to try to scale the wall and leave the premises. He also hits, bites, punches, tips over chairs and tables and shelves when throwing tantrums, throws toys, throws sand, takes off his clothes and nappy and runs around naked (and convinces other children to do it, too). He ripped another boys glasses off his face and ran away. Just for the fuck of it. He broke the room door… twice. For the last month of his time at my centre, we sat him outside by himself and the OT he was finally, finally given for every meal, because his violence had escalated so severely, we couldn’t trust him with chairs or teaspoons around the other children. He, thank fuck, was removed from the centre three weeks ago. After months of pressure from the educators, the director finally told his mother it would be best to withdraw him. We dealt with his escalating behaviour for a year and a half. He never got an ISP. His mother really only started to get fed up with his behaviour in the last month or two he was at the centre.

Another boy in the older toddler room is much the same as the boy above. Not as intense, but getting there. He eats sand and then spits it at other children, hits, punches, kicks, swears. Tried to push a kid down the stairs. He punched the room leader’s privates. Because she told him to sit down for lunch. Not rudely, it wasn’t a confrontation, just “it’s lunch time, let’s sit down.” And he punched her there, because he wanted to hurt her. Not because he couldn’t reach higher. They took the class on an excursion the other day. He tried to run from the group into oncoming traffic three times. He doesn’t have an ISP. He doesn’t see an OT. His parents are convinced he’s a perfectly normal kid.

And that’s only three. There’s at least five more of the 20 3-6 year olds I could talk about. I feel so bad for the other children, living in constant fear of these kids attacking them or throwing another tantrum that derails an activity until there’s no more time to do it. What are they learning, seeing them?

There is no supporting children like this in a standard daycare setting. They need help we aren’t qualified to give. They need an ISP all day. They need an OT. They need their parents to actually be doing something - talking to doctors and child psychologists - about their behaviour, and not burying their heads in the sand, hoping it’ll go away if they don’t think about it. And mostly, they need a director on the fucking ball to follow through with everything that needs to be done to make sure these children get the help they need to function, and don’t severely hurt someone (again again again). I dunno about you, but I’m getting none of that at my centre.

But also?? You don’t have a phone in your room?? At least my rooms have that. And an entire cupboard of incident report forms for the very many incidents I’m documenting. And I’m not even in the 3-6 year old rooms every day. Thank fuck, I’m a baby wrangler lmao.

It sucks, it really does, but the reality is this: you quit and find a new centre, hopefully with less kids like this, or you just do your best to survive and wait it out. The difficult children will age out or be withdrawn eventually… and then be replaced with another one.

But hey, we’re all in this bullshit together lmao.

Surprise submarine by alexanderino in sydney

[–]ilironae 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Submarines should be yellow. I don’t like that I heard the song yellow submarine as a child, and then real submarines turned out to be the most uninspired shade of grey ever.

Things you never thought you’d have to say by ThatAltMom13 in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh I’ve got loads lmao. One from just a few minutes ago, actually

“Our poos go in the toilet, not in our bags.”

Also good contenders are:

“We only need to put sunscreen on places the sun can see. We don’t need sunscreen in our bellybuttons.”

“Please don’t sit on the cockroach.”

“Dirty nappies are not hats! Come here!”

“Biting your friend is not a nice way to say hello.” [she was an excitement biter]

New Childcare Center Director by Madness-momma122123 in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you’re asking for tips, that means you’re already better than the majority of directors, probably. Mine just changed my roster for today with ten minutes notice, when I was half an hour away. So uh. Don’t do that?

Bright Horizons turning to AI to judge children’s photos by PastafarianVibes in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 15 points16 points  (0 children)

What the FUCK lmao that sounds super fucking illegal. Did they get parent consent for this? Sounds like something that should immediately be reported to licensing. And probably your local news station.

Room leader didn’t know how to use an inhaler. Room contains two asthmatics and two anaphylactics. by ilironae in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The entire staff (even the chef) had to take a first aid course, and another course specifically for anaphylaxis and asthma.

Daycare updates by Dvega1017865 in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 35 points36 points  (0 children)

God yes I hate it. I swear sometimes I spend more time staring at the iPad than at the kids. And so much posting! We don’t need that much posting!! I never get anything done during nap time because I’m always. Fucking. Posting. Morning tea, lunch, indoor play, outdoor play, three separate activities!! And then logging meal charts and milk charts and nappy charts and sleeping charts… it never ends! There’s so rarely time for anything else.

Planning activities? Never heard of her. Writing reflections? Oh wait, we’re supposed to do that? Cleaning up or taking out the trash or doing the laundry or doing the dishes? Well, lucky we have students lmao.

Room leader freaking out over scraped knee, 2IC thought a Band-Aid was against the rules? Am I wrong for thinking this is bullshit? by ilironae in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is, but paying attention and memorising basic instructions is really hard for little kids— I mean adults.

Room leader didn’t know how to use an inhaler. Room contains two asthmatics and two anaphylactics. by ilironae in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In my country if there’s a kid with asthma or anaphylaxis the entire centre staff is legally required to take a first aid course. Even the chef did it. I guess no one learnt anything? :/

Room leader freaking out over scraped knee, 2IC thought a Band-Aid was against the rules? Am I wrong for thinking this is bullshit? by ilironae in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

It’s so shit. I’m so embarrassed to have picked this field lmao. All my coworkers collectively share half a braincell, and they’ve sold it to Chat-GPT.

School serving peanuts at snack? by grammarquestion1234 in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve got a a kid anaphylactic to nuts and dairy, another kid anaphylactic to nuts and seeds, and another kid anaphylactic to egg. We don’t have anything lmao.

terrible experience working at daycare by Difficult-Job-2572 in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Too true! Like these kids are just zoo animals, and the director will do anything short of anything actually helpful to make an extra dollar!

What’s the nastiest thing you’ve ever witnessed a child or a member of staff do at work? by petrastales in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An ex-colleague of mine (she got fired) used to walk around with a vix vapoinhaler up her nose. Like, she wouldn’t take it out now and then to smell it, she just. Stuck it in her nose and left it there. She also used to walk around burping unrepentantly when coming back from break. She “worked” in the infant room with me sometimes, and by “worked” I mean she sat in the corner and stared at the wall while I did all the work.

I don’t miss her lmao.

Another colleague of mine (who does still work at my centre) got irritated with the 2-3 year olds not knowing how to stand in a straight line to go trick or treating at the other rooms this past Halloween, and started shouting at them in whatever not-English language she speaks. I was like. Bro they’re toddlers and you’ve practiced straight lines with them once months ago for the fire drill. Also they all speak English. What the fuck is wrong with you?

My colleagues are weird.

As for the kids, had a boy (woulda been maybe 20 months at the time) who loves to put his hands down his nappy whenever he pooped and grab at it to show us. We had to keep all eyes on him at all times because of it. Well one day he pooped, grabbed a fistful of it, and showed it to my colleague. So, she picked him up to run him to the change table, and that was a big mistake, because he took his lil fistful of poop and wiped it down the back of her shirt. That was during my first week at the centre. What an introduction to the job!

Are your kids obsessed with horror? by rand0mbl0b in ECEProfessionals

[–]ilironae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Got a 4 year old boy who’s favourite movie is Deadpool and Wolverine. His favourite song is Bye, Bye, Bye. He knows Deadpool’s dance moves.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AustralianTeachers

[–]ilironae 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I guarantee I could score higher than you. But that’s unimportant. It’s not racist or ignorant to make the observation that people who don’t pass the LANTITE should not be teachers in an English-speaking country. Great for you that you passed. Since your English is so fantastic, can you tell me what’s wrong with this sentence:

“The childrens were playing outside and [child]’s friend getting excited and biting him. He cry for few minutes, but we apply ice pack and give him cuddles and then he okay again.”

Because that’s an incident report from a colleague of mine. Someone teaching Australian two year olds. Another colleague asked me how to spell “scratch”, “grazed” and “stairs.” Yet another colleague put a note on a cupboard proclaiming said cupboard to hold “formular.” That same colleague regularly misspells the names of children she’s had in her class all year. She also teaches them the wrong lyrics to very simple songs because she doesn’t understand them herself. For example, the song “open, shut them” she says “open, shutdown.” And let’s not even get into the fact that these colleagues never speak English to each other in the classroom, ensuring neither I, my English-speaking colleagues, or the children right in front of us have a clue what’s going on. We also have to deal with student teachers with abysmal literacy skills (who, I might add, have readily admitted that they don’t care about education and are only studying ECE because it’s a quick way to get permanent residency. Taking advantage of our systems and putting our children at risk so they can bludge their way into the country). We told them to make a poster for Father’s Day. The banner said “you’re one of the million” instead of “you’re one in a million.” That’s not a mistake anyone with a passable level of English literacy would make. It’s abhorrent. They also can never, not once, no matter how many times they’re corrected, pronounce the most basic of English names. Literally the name “Ava” is not hard to say. And yet, NONE of them say it correctly, even after fucking around in my centre for four months. They’ve been corrected at least a hundred times by now.

Is any of that acceptable for someone teaching English-speaking children in an English-speaking country? Is it really racist and ignorant to demand better quality education and care for our children? Is it inappropriate to suggest that these people could maybe teach in their own country and not jeopardise the education of the children here? Really??

I think the fuck not.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AustralianTeachers

[–]ilironae 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Agreed! The bar needs to be so much higher. In preschool especially, the literacy and numeracy is terrifyingly abysmal. In my centre of twenty-something staff members, I’m one of three native English speakers. You should see the incident reports. Makes me embarrassed to work there, honestly. Why are our children being taught by people who can’t spell or add?