Saying Goodbye...

Monday
I can't believe it's already my last full week! Six weeks later and you feel like you just got there. Anyway, today was crazy in every sense of the word.

We had two paras out today so I was essentially just filling in wherever needed. Luckily I have enough experience in this classroom to where this wasn't a huge deal. I'm finally starting to feel comfortable working with each of the students in the classroom now. Figures that I have to leave next week.

In the morning, I was asked to take JK to the bathroom -- no big deal, right? I had a pretty good idea of how this student used the bathroom and how I needed to help him with that process. However, it seems like every time I open up these students' bags to pull out a clean diaper, there aren't any. So frustrating. I guess I would've been the one responsible for making sure that we had everything to begin with. Luckily the student was dry anyway so we didn't need to change his diaper after all. Dodged a bullet on that one! However, I came back later on in the day to find out that the same student had an 'accident' and needed to be completely changed into new clothes. Not my fault, though, -- right?

We started a new unit today! It's about fairy tales :)

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the other unit (the decades, remember?); but how many weeks of that can one possibly take? I don't know about the kids, but I was ready for a change.

Today I had the privilege of working with HP since a para was out for the day. This is the student with a behavior plan -- she can get aggressive and she doesn't really tolerate anything on her desk or in her space. I've worked with this student a little bit but never really one-on-one for the duration of a full lesson. So, this was a treat!

Everything started off fine. Until she ripped her already-taped-down handout. She got frustrated and just tore it up. Wow. So, I taped it back down and we kept chugging along. Anyway, during the lesson she decided that she didn't like my hands near her paper or on her desk so she scratched my hand. Hard. I mean, I can still see the marks. Let's just say I had some stuff to write in her behavior binder after that lesson.

I also got to witness my first ever IEP meeting today. I was supposed to go to HP's on Thursday of last week but my coop was out due to sickness so she took me to this one instead. I'll just say a few quick things about the meeting:
-- I felt fully prepared for the meeting (there were no surprises!) Thanks to my Trin prof.s for that!
-- The student's parent at this meeting was fantastic; he and his wife are wonderful people
-- The meeting itself was much shorter than I envisioned these meetings being: it was only about an hour and a half

-- I especially liked the beginning when all of the members of the meeting shared little stories about the student
-- It was interesting to hear about initial transition plan ideas beginning (the student will be fourteen next year)
-- Members present were: sped. teacher, assistant principal, district member, speech pathologist, OT, and PT

I learned a lot from the meeting; it was really interesting to see an actual meeting instead of a simulated or videotaped one. I feel like I have some kind of experience now, even though I didn't contribute at all.

Tuesday
SNOW DAY!

Glorious :)

Wednesday
Well, back at it. Today was mostly normal. Although, we still had a para out due to personal family stuff. We also had a student out -- I guess she wanted an extra day off.

Anyway, this morning we had a huge dog visiting our class. Apparently he's a therapy dog who travels, along with his trainer, to all of the classrooms in Elim to visit students. The kids in our room at the time really seemed to enjoy this experience. The trainer was great; she let the kids give Diesel treats and she played with them and cheered them up. It was fun to watch the effect that this animal had on these kids. One of my students, the one with the behavior plan, was being a little aggressive with the dog at times. She wasn't in a particularly good mood and she was hitting the animal in the head -- luckily not too hard. According to my coop, this child has a couple of dogs at home, but for all my teacher knows, she treats her animals the same way.

Most of the kids had really good days despite their return from a short break. JK had no minutes of refusal again which was encouraging to see. He had another great day!

This student already wears
light-sensitive glasses...

SH, a pretty laid back child was unusually loud today. He would scream and scream despite his para's efforts to adjust him in his seat, fix his glasses, take him to the bathroom, etc. According to  my coop, this student used to be very loud much of the time. I guess he's been doing much better in the past few months, but today was a bit of a relapse to his old behavior. It's always strange watching these students act differently than I've seen them behave the last six weeks. It always takes me by surprise.

Despite the fact that my full days of teaching are over, I find myself restless sitting in the back, observing and helping where needed. It seems almost boring now as I wait for opportunities to arise in which my teacher needs help or an extra pair of hands. Usually, though, with six paras in the room, they have more than enough help anyway. Don't get me wrong, I still teach a bit and help sometimes, and I enjoy observing my teacher and the paras, but it's just such a different mentality. I find myself wishing I could be more hands-on with the students and work with them more. I never thought it would be tough transitioning out of this role as student teacher.

Thursday
It's crazy how quickly a week can go when you've had a snow day!

Today I taught my last lesson and, as expected, it was bittersweet. While I'll definitely be sad to leave this school and these kids, I also think I'm ready to move forward and try something new. Still, it was hard to teach my last lesson in front of these kids. It was a News-To-You story about fire stations. It was a lot of fun to read the story, have the kids answer two journal questions, and watch a couple of videos about firefighters. They really seemed to like it. Overall, my last lesson went really well. It was a bit short again, but I kind of figured that going into the lesson. Unfortunately, because my teacher set the lesson up and had essentially everything planned for me, there was little I could do about it. I guess she just has an easier time dragging out a lesson. Besides that it went great!

I also had the privilege of playing with JK during both recesses today. Often times, this student just kind of stands around and watches the other kids play, so today I asked if he wanted to find something to do. We walked over to the corner of recess stuff expecting to try out a scooter but instead we ended up with a Frisbee of sorts. We tossed it back and forth and he did extremely well. He caught it a few times, tossed it pretty well, and generally had a blast. It was great to see him interacting and playing instead of just standing around. In the afternoon, he requested the Frisbee again (via hand gesture), but unfortunately that was put away. So, we settled on a basketball and ended up rolling it back and forth with a para. We explored different ways of pushing the ball to her and catching it in return. Again, he seemed to have fun.

One of the students in my class is getting a new behavior plan set in place. The behavior therapist was in the room today explaining the whole procedure. The student's para looked a little overwhelmed and I understood why. The new process involves constant use of the timer where every three minutes of 'good behavior' earns the child a 15 second 'break' with a preferred item of choice. While I understand why the therapist is trying to implement a new plan -- to try to reduce her aggression -- this plan seems silly to me, my teacher, and the para for a few different reasons.

One of HP's preferred toys

A. The student can already sit through full lessons without becoming aggressive -- why move backwards to 3 minute segments again?
B. The child has very few preferred items with which the plan will work; and the items she does enjoy are all disruptive to the rest of the class
C. The child doesn't yet fully understand the idea of 'cause' and 'effect' let alone an intricate token system behavior plan

I was intrigued to listen to the conversations occurring between my coop, the para, and the therapist. While everyone was extremely polite and considerate about the whole topic, there are many different opinions about this child and which plan will best help her. I found it interesting to see how there is some disagreement between the professionals at Elim. While this might not be a good thing, it is realistic. Professionals all have different opinions and need to learn how to work together, collaborate, and compromise.

Tomorrow is my last day!

Friday
Well, today's the day.

It was a pretty busy one, actually. The students were in and out all morning for various therapies, so the morning meeting was shortened. Then, we headed over to the gym for chapel. I loved this! I guess they have chapel at Elim once a month; a teacher who used to work there comes back and plays guitar and the kids can request songs to sing. It's fun to see the kids singing along, dancing, commenting on their devices, and just having a lot of fun.

After chapel, we had recess and then swimming. Of course, it was hotter than blazes in the pool area again, but it's so interesting to watch the kids swim. Sometimes they seem like completely different people in the pool. They're relaxed and enjoying the water -- it's kind of like a therapy for some of them.

After swimming, we had lunch in the classroom. Because it was my last day, the staff ordered in Aurelio's! It was delicious and definitely a nice break from the usual PB & J bagged lunch I usually have.

After lunch and sensory, we had Bible. Today the lesson was on the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. To accompany the story, my cooperating teacher got buckets of water and washed her students' feet. This was such a cool activity to witness. Some of the kids really liked it, but some were not having it at all. I don't think they understood it, and they definitely don't like experimenting with textures. What I really liked, though, was the symbolism behind the activity. It helped me to better understand how Jesus washed his disciples' feet and the act of service and love that he showed for them.

Just Dance

Finally, before packing up for the day, my coop plugged in her Wii on the SMARTBoard and we all took turns helping the kids play Just Dance. The kids really seemed to love it and the staff was having a blast. It was a lot of fun!

It was definitely hard saying goodbye to my cooperating teacher and the paras in the room, but it was especially hard saying goodbye to those seven kids today. Now, I'm not usually an emotional person, but I almost cried. They've been a big part of my last seven weeks and I can't imagine leaving them. However, I've been invited to come back to visit, so I might just have to take them up on that!

These last seven weeks at Elim have been eye-opening to say the very least. Walking into that classroom back in January was tough. I'd never quite experienced the degree of special education that accompanied this placement. I was definitely nervous walking into Elim -- I didn't know what to expect and I doubted my ability to learn everything that I had to in order to feel like the teacher there and not just an observer in the back of the class. It was tough learning all of the details of each child: bathroom routines, behavior plans, devices, medical needs, expectations, therapy schedules, goals, feeding procedures, personalities, motivation, preferences, abilities, etc. I had so much to learn and I didn't know if I would be able to fully grasp what I needed to in order to be successful there but also to get to know the kids in a personal way.

So, while I still don't feel like I could officially take over the classroom all year (there are still things that I don't know about the kids), I can honestly walk away from that experience knowing that I learned a ton about special education in general and also about specific disabilities and situations. I can't even explain the amount or the quality of the stuff that I saw and was able to experience.

Despite my initial hesitancy, I can say, without a doubt, that I'm glad to have been placed at Elim. I wouldn't trade my experiences there for anything. I loved my coop teacher, the paras in the room, and I absolutely adored the children. I'm going to miss them so much!