Full Teaching Fun :)

Monday
A full week! Because of my crazy, jam-packed weekend (a women's retreat through Trinity and then a day at a hotel with family), I was sure to get to bed early last night. I figured, with a full week ahead of me, I would need the extra sleep. Let's just say I don't regret my decision.

The day started off pretty similar to the others at Elim so far. Not much out of the ordinary. Nobody was out today, so that made life a little easier already. That one student only had six minutes of refusal all day -- not bad! It was shaping out to be a pretty smooth day.

Right after snack time, the students choose a friend to hang out with -- they play a game, read a book, or go on the computer with that person and make a few comments back and forth. It's good for their social skills. Anyway, two students had already paired off, one was eating, and two were at therapy. If you're into math at all, you'd know that there were two students left in the room at  this point, unpaired and ready to chat.

Let me back up for a minute. One of my students had just recovered from a 'meltdown,' if that's what you want to call it. She's (currently) the only child in the room with a behavior plan and she can get aggressive toward others and objects. So, I was a bit hesitant to pair her up for social time. But, the other student was bored, quickly losing interest in whatever was happening around him, and he deserved the chance to play with a friend. So, after asking him what he wanted to do and retrieving the puzzle, he sat back down at his desk waiting while I summoned the other child over. Everything started out fine, but soon the second student just wasn't even entertaining the idea of the activity. She was pushing against me as I guided her over to her friend's desk, scratching me and hitting desks. You get the idea. After several minutes of struggle (she is surprisingly strong) and a little help from a para, we got the child to sit down at her friend's desk. After several more minutes, she was playing in what I deemed an acceptable manner. What a victory. To say I was relieved at this point is a vast understatement.

So, the day went on. As I pulled up the 1980's adapted story 'powerpoint' on the computer at 1:30, the P.A. system announced to the school that there was going to be a lock down drill. Now, to be fair, I had been warned. However, my teacher was still out of the room and I had to administer a drill that I've never even practiced myself. The paras and I got all of the students into the corner of the classroom, locked the door, closed the blinds, and slid the green 'all clear' paper under the door. What followed were the longest 15 minutes of my life. With a little coaxing, the students were unbelievably quiet. I was amazed at how well they responded to the whole ordeal. Now, that's not to say that we had a perfect drill. There was talking, grunting, sleeping, laughing, and one student took her socks and shoes off. But, considering what could have went down, I'll take that stuff any day.

There's just never a dull moment at Elim.

Tuesday
My teacher was out today. She told me yesterday that she wasn't feeling well and that she would let me know if she decided not to come in. So, sure enough, at 6:39 she texted to inform me that she was taking the day off to recover.

I figured everything would be fine; I've taught the class for well over a week now and the students know me and respond considerably well when I'm in the front of the room. We also had a student out (due to a procedure happening) and, consequently, a para in a different classroom.

Because I'm still a student teacher, the school still needs to replace my cooperating teacher with another certified individual. So, needless to say, a teacher sat in the back of the room all day long, watching me.

Not my favorite.

Actually, though, the day went surprisingly well. JK only had 2 minutes of refusal, HP had very little aggression, and the paras were helpful, as usual. One student slept almost the entire day, which isn't entirely out of the ordinary but is still unfortunate. He ate little, didn't use the bathroom at all, and didn't participate in the lessons whatsoever. Luckily, no seizures, though. Everyone else seemed to have pretty spectacular days, though. I was impressed.

My lesson in the afternoon -- on writing an advertisement for a toy from the '80s -- went pretty short. I knew, when reviewing the lesson, that it had very little to it to begin with. However, since I don't really plan the lessons, I wasn't sure what to do about it.

Cabbage Patch Kids -- toys from the ''80s

Side note: My teacher, along with the three other cross cat. middle grades teachers plan and share units. This year focuses on the decades.

So even though I knew the lesson would go short, and I tried to drag it out, we still ended about ten minutes early. However, it ended up being a bit of a blessing because that's when the snow starting getting bad and students got called down for early dismissal. One by one students started leaving until there were only two left.

So, today definitely had its ups and downs as I'm finding out is normal for the teaching profession.


Wednesday
My teacher was out again; I've been praying that she feels better. Luckily, all of the paras were in again so the day went as smoothly as usual.

The way we track a student's progress on goals

As yesterday, though, we still needed a sub in the room. Although I understand the procedures, it still just seems silly. Since I'm full teaching right now, she sat in the back of the room ALL day long. Whatever.

The divider we use a lot for JK

Besides goal work and sensory today, it was a pretty quiet day. JK had a bit of a rough patch this morning. He had fifteen minutes of refusal in one sitting. I guess he got sick of working on goal stuff. With three minutes on the way to the bathroom, he was up to a solid eighteen minutes before lunch. It was looking like  it was going to be a very long day. I walked over to him and had a bit of a talk with him about his behavior. I asked if he would like to make a deal: if he behaved and made good choices in the afternoon, he could earn some free time at the end of the day. It was official -- we even shook on it. He was true to his word; he had a fantastic afternoon and got his Night at the museum clip after he was packed up and ready to leave. Looking back though, there's really no way to know for sure if he behaved the way he did because of the little chat we had or if he even understand what I was saying at all. I've asked my coop and she doesn't know either. It's so difficult when you don't honestly know how much a child understands to begin with.

Right before lunch, we spent some time on a sensory activity -- we made texture books. The idea was pretty simple. Students each had four black rectangles of construction paper. On each piece, they glued a different textured material to create a book of sorts. The four materials we used were: aluminum foil, cotton balls, sand paper, and macaroni noodles. I was surprised by how well the activity went over. Usually, the majority of the students do not enjoy these kinds of sensory activities. They refuse to even try to touch the textures. All of them did really well today though. Win!

During snack, HP decided (for reasons unknown to us) that she was going to refuse to 'eat' her snack. She's g-tube fed so she began pulling up her shirt and pulling at her cords. When her para tried to stop her, she started hitting and scratching her. After the student settled down, I was told that she has rarely become aggressive during snack. We still aren't entirely sure what caused that behavior.

Also during snack, another student started getting really upset while her para was preparing her orange. She got really loud and then began crying. This behavior hasn't been particularly uncommon recently, but in the past few weeks it has gotten worse and worse. We were guessing that she didn't like the snack she was about to have, but again, it was only a guess.

This same student later asked for pressure on her head. This isn't uncommon in the classroom; the students like the feeling of pressure and will often ask for it. When it was given to her, she requested more (via sign language) and then became much quieter. My paras threw around ideas for a bit and decided that maybe she had a headache. This was just another instance that hit me hard. I was reminded about how these children cannot easily communicate with those around them. Imagine being in pain and not being able to say anything to explain that feeling so nobody has any idea about it. How frustrating!

Thursday
Today was kind of all over the place. First off, I forgot to send in the attendance before nine again. Oops. Dang it.

BB's desk with an
accommodation on his chair

One of my paras was out again which meant that we had a sub in the room who doubled as a para for the day. Too bad she knew absolutely nothing about that student. Anyway, I ended up doing a lot for both him and the one I usually work with. It was quite exhausting.

Other 'highlights' from my day:
-- a student sobbing during one of my lessons for no apparent reason; what do you do about that?
-- a student dripping snot all day long
-- a seizure
-- a para distracted by personal issues (and understandably so)
-- a confused parent about a letter sent home from the speech therapist that I had no idea about whatsoever
-- my teacher was out again for the third day in a row
-- an IEP meeting that I was supposed to go to but didn't because my teacher was out
-- accidentally sending home a student's personal (in classroom) DVD player because I didn't know it was supposed to stay in the classroom

All in a day's work. I think I'm actually starting to enjoy the craziness of all that is Elim, though. It's something new every single day.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Friday
Well, my coop wasn't quite 100% but she felt as though she needed to come in -- she missed an IEP yesterday and 3 days of IAA testing...I can see why she felt pressured. Anyway, today things returned to what one might call 'normal'.

The Last Supper: our Bible lesson -- the kids got
to taste bread and juice (if they were able)

JK had a pretty wonderful morning. He didn't have any minutes of refusal and was even participating with the class. After lunch, though, he got tired of his sensory lacing activity and everything went downhill from there. Even though he usually loves Bible, he wasn't listening to staff so the dividers went up. About a half an hour later, he had PT so he started off walking down fine, but I guess the situation only got worse in the hallway. He dropped to the floor until the therapist came. So, despite the solid start, I had to give Joey his 'No DVD' card at the end of the day. He seemed a bit confused and he pointed to the green card, requesting instead that he could watch a DVD at home. This was the first time we've seen any real realization that he understands the consequences of this system of discipline.

HP had a pretty awesome day though. She was pretty good with me and only was aggressive a couple of times throughout the day. Not bad! MS only had one seizure in the morning too -- the day was looking up!

I was also videotaping a couple of my lessons today too. For my seminar class, we have a huge project due and we need clips of us teaching. Anyway, I lugged the camera in today and tried to get a few solid minutes of me teaching. Of course, nothing goes as smoothly as you'd like, but I'd say I managed to get a few good clips. My paras weren't exactly keen on the idea, though. They asked how long it would be running and whether or not they would be in the line of vision. I laughed to myself, but did my best not to get them in the videos. It definitely added a little bit more 'crazy' to the day. Right as I was setting up the last angle for my Bible lesson, JK melted down and we had to put the dividers up. Needless to say, I didn't really get much in that last 30 minute segment. Oh well.

I also taught a little lesson on toys from the 1980's. It was fun! The kids asked for a turn and then came up to the SMARTBoard to guess whether or not the given toys were from the 1980's or not. They seemed to really like it. The paras in the room knew all about the toys too -- they were a little surprised when I told them I hadn't heard of some of the toys. What a fun lesson! Some of the toys were: transformers, koosh balls, slap bracelets, pogo balls, cabbage patch kids, My Little Pony, etc.

Overall, it was a pretty solid last full day of teaching.