"The Maternity Leave Curse"

So school started up a few weeks ago which means back to work for me. This has been a very difficult and stressful transition for me, as for Sophia though she is doing great. At Swegle we have this thing that we have dubbed the "maternity leave curse". It seems that each time someone goes on maternity leave, the next school year they come back they have the class from Hell. Apparently this curse has been put on me too. I love my job and I am really learning to love my students but it has been a challenge. I am used to working in a stressful environment with very high needs kids that come from lives I could not even imagine, yet this year it seems to be taken to the extreme. I have a very high needs class, with multiple students that have multiple difficult things going on; including two autistic students, a severe diabetic student, multiple students with extreme learning/speech/behavioral needs, homelessness, poverty, language needs, and one student that needs an assistant (we call them one on one's) for behavior yet does not have one yet. Each day I go to work telling myself it will be a good day. I will focus on the good things and deal with the bad, and at the end of each day I just want to cry. It is hard and I am tired. But, each day it gets a little better and I know that I am the woman for the job, as difficult and as cheesy as it sounds I know I can make a difference. So I will trudge forward and hope to help provide these kids with a safe classroom community with the consistency and love that is often lacking in these kids lives. And after each day, instead of falling apart, I will run home and hug my baby and make the best of our time together.