Full Moon

So it's not a full moon right now, but you would think it is upon walking into my classroom today. Today proves my theory that when one student is having a bad day, the others can feel that enegry and it trickles down. Loud, not following the directions, just out of control.

1. Beth (autistic) had a few tantrums today over stickers in the morning. She didn't want to eat her lunch and ended up dropping the tray all over the floor and her shirt. Then she tried to take her shirt off in the middle of the lunchroom because it was dirty. That was fun.
2. Lacy was reading a story with me, and when she read the character's name "Sally" she stopped and said, "Oh, that's my imaginary friend's name. She'll be here in a minute." ok. she's going to be 10 mext month. she also had put some sort of lipgloss/lipstick on and it was all over her mouth. she looked like a clown.
3. Stephen came up and said, "Rob put boogers on my pants!"

Juniors

Today my students walked by some pictures of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and at least two of them said, "That's John McCain!" Ummm, no. I think we need to have a history lesson.

At the beginning of the school year, George (one of my highly intelligent autistic kindergarten students) did not speak or follow many directions. He is now saying a few phrases like "hello" "goodbye" and "What are you doing teacher?" This afternoon the class was playing Monopoly Jr. (practicing the value of money, counting, and social skills). George wanted to be in charge of the die, and he accidently elbowed Jack in the nose when he was trying to grab it. I told George to say, "I'm sorry" to Jack. So he said, "I'm sorry." Then he said, "Are you ok?" and rubbed his back to sooth him! To some people it may not seem like a big step, but to me it is. He formed an appropriate question of concern by himself AND initiated appropriate human contact. Smile :)

Elephant!

Today I did a read aloud of a book called "Tooth Trouble." It's about a walrus who's tusk hurts and he has to go to the dentist. Brad, who is mildly autistic, really likes elephants. So I asked Brad, "What other animal has tusks?" I pointed to the tusks, said the animal is grey, and pointed to a picture of an elephant. He finally said, "elephant!" The only problem with this question-answer was that for the rest of the day, every answer was "elephant!"

Mrs. Jones: "Where does the story take place?"
Brad: "Elephant!"

Mrs. Jones: "Why did the walrus go to the dentist?"
Brad: "Elephant!"

Mrs. Jones: "What did you have for lunch?"
Brad: "Elephant!"

Inauguration Day

This past weekend I went on a trip, and I was not at school on Tuesday (Inauguration Day). Last week I talked to the students about how I would not be in class on Tuesday and where I was going (NOT to Washington D.C.). I wanted my students to watch Obama being sworn in as the 44th President of The United States, so my teaching aide turned on the television.
Throughout the day I sent her text messages asking how the students were doing. Here's the run down:

1. Rob threw a chair because he didn't want to do his work
2. Jack got very worked up and threatened to hit Rob many times because "he was looking at me."
3. Stephen, who is usually well behaved, cried and hid in the corner of the room and under his desk all day because he was "last" in line for the bathroom.
4. Rob tripped on his untied shoelace and fell on his face. Then Jack jumped up yelling and blamed Lacy for tripping Rob. Lacy was sitting in her desk on the other side of the room.
5. The whole class kept claiming they saw me on T.V. at the Inauguration. They said I was at the White House all day. When my aide asked them to point to me, they pointed to one of the 60 yr. old men on the stage with Obama. I feel so pretty now.

Thank you

One of my autistc students does not speak or respond to questions often. She will usually sit in her seat when I offer her Hello Kitty stickers. She wants the whole sticker page though, so she gets mad when she only is offered one or a choice between two. Eventually she will take one when I say, "Ok, then no sticker," but be angry about it. Today I gave her a sticker for sitting in her seat and she said, "Thank you!" I almost cried.

Eyeballs

Today my teaching aide turned to me with a piece of paper in her hand. On it was a drawing of two circles with a dot in the center of each. She said, "Mrs. Jones, this is a picture of two eyeballs, right?" as she looked over at Rob and Stephen. I said to them, "That better just be a picture of eyeballs. If it's not a picture of eyeballs, then we will have to go show it to Mrs. S" (the assistant principal, who can be very intimidating). "Is that a picture of eyeballs?" I asked them. The looks on their faces was hilarious as they nodded their heads up and down vigorously.
Speaking of principals, I went to a professional development session yesterday at another school. I went to school for 1 hour, and then went to the other location. When I signed in and out I noticed that my principal's name was printed and signed on the sheet as well. There were 15 people at the pd - none of whom were her. Must be nice to pretend you're back in college and get your "friends" to sign you in.

Family Guy

Every Monday I ask my students to tell me one fun thing they did over the weekend. At least one child tells me that they watched "Family Guy." This show is animated, but every episode involves either sex, violence, drinking, rude behavior, swearing or all of the above. My students are ages 6-9, and they tell me that they watch this show with their parents! I must admit that Family Guy is a funny show - for adults. No wonder Jack said, "I'm going to suck your mom's titties!" to Stephen when he was mad.

I thought these days were over

Jack is one of my 3rd grade students. He is diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and cognitively disabled. I think he is also dyslexic, but the doctor has not diagnosed this. He is a very nice, caring boy 90% of the time; however, he is very impulsive, which gets him in trouble. He can have a conversation with me about football, the weekend, his mom, etc. He talk constantly, and very loudly. He only knows 22 of 26 alphabet letters, and can only count to 13. I love him so much though, because he wants to learn and read so badly. There's just something missing in his brain.

Unfortunately, he had a horrible day. This was the first really bad day he's had all year (this kind of day happened at least 3 times per week last year) : He told Daisy: "you're fired" when playing "store" and made her cry like her leg was being run over or something, then he ran out of the room and kicked the door as hard as possible 5 times. Later he hung out in the staircase when he should have been in my room, so he missed computers and was mad so he threw a desk over. He cried hysterically while trying to run out of the room. I had to wrestle with him to keep him in the classroom. Then he cried for 20 more minutes yelling, "I want my mommy" even though he said she's going to "whoop me" when he gets home. Tomorrow is a new day (Friday!)

Needless to say, I have drinking a glass of wine as I write this.

We have school!?

Yesterday was the first day back at school after holiday break. Rob, one of my students who had 30 unexcused absences last year, did not come to school. That's 25%of the school year! He showed up today and told me there was no school yesterday. He said his mom didn't know we had school. Really? It's written on a huge sign on the school, and it was in a newsletter that went home before break. Then again, this is the same kid who we caught riding his bike in front of the school at 11:30 a.m. one day last year when he was out "sick." Right.

Welcome to Special Ed

Let's start from the beginning:
Yes, teachers have a summer, holiday, and spring break. Yes, teachers get out of school earlier in the day than most jobs. No, teachers do not have it easy. 6.25 straight hours of having 14 pairs of eyes and ears, anticipating every students' moves and thinking, modeling positive behavior, teaching (or trying) academics and social behavior, and never having a chance to go to the bathroom. 6.25 hours of being "ON". But I love it.

I teach a cross-categorical classroom of 14 students (currently) in a low income, 95% Hispanic population large city public school. All my students understand English, but many of their parents do not. Most parents work two jobs to support the family, so parental involvement and help at home is rare. In fact, a few of the parents are not legal U.S. citizens. I have a full-time bilingual teaching aide who is strict and I can trust.

There is a mixture of full-time students and resource students (meaning they only come in my classroom for reading and/or math). Some of my students have a learning disability, while others are diagnosed with a cognitive delay, emotional or behavior disorder, or autism. This makes teaching academic subjects very challenging because I have students that are reading at the 2nd grade level and others who cannot even have a conversation or respond to their own name.

Every day teaching special education is an adventure. Some days are great, some are not. Some days are fun, some feel like hell. If one kid has a bad day, then pretty much every one in the class does too. This blog is my therapeutic tool for handling the roller coaster of my job. It will make you laugh. It might make you cry. It will keep me sane.