springOverall, I can’t complain about today. I had my busy morning; time with Erin, who I love, and then 45 minutes with AB, who was very flighty and resistant today. Sue said he got his medication, so she thinks it was just him being purposefully stubborn. I just think she doesn’t like him very much. She has hit her limit with him; it’s my job to repair that bridge. Then I went to Jacqui’s room to work with CB, but she told me, ‘he (thinking I was there for NB)’s absent today’ and when I said, no I was there for CB, she said, ‘she’s out, too’. So instead of staying, I went back to my room and had fun.
Lunch was another ‘D and Kait issue’ (why is it always when I’M alone in there? And why is this turning into a Friday routine?). Not NEARLY as bad as last week. Thank the Lord. He sat down at the table with A, and then stood and went a row and a table over to stand behind his sister, pretty much shoving his tray into her neck. He assumed/accused that she was telling people about a bump on his forehead (the nerve!). Again, we had to tell him to give her space, and he wouldn’t. So Kati got up to get some salad dressing for her lunch, and in that 2 second period, D slid into her seat and refused to stand up, even with both Dorell and I urging him. Finally he got up, and walked out of the cafeteria.
Got down to the room, Parker started to talk to him and he started talking to Parker, and I told Parker that D did NOT have permission to be there. Fun when he started to bring his tray down for recess and I said, ‘and then come right back here’. He asked ‘why?’. When I explained that he left location and had also been bothering his sister, he tried to back-pedal pretty hard: “so you’re telling me I can’t go out, even if I do a re-start?” when when he first came in we’d told him to go back and ASK to come to the room, but he wouldn’t. Kept going back to ‘so you’re telling me_____’, but I held my ground, and Claudia and Parker did, too. I was actually really nervous during it, because I know how he blows, but I also know that it’s not fair that he get to do whatever he wants and get no consequences. No other kid in the SCHOOL would dream of talking back to a teacher that way, No other kid has the privilege/option of eating in the classroom when he wants to, and that we’re deserving of respect when we give him that option. I don’t think that option’s on the table for a while. He told me he wouldn’t take his tray down, so I said, ‘okay, as long as your tray is here, you will not be watching the movie with us; you and I will go into the room and do work or read’ and I basically got growled at, but he went.
I have to share silent reading. This is something that actually made my heart feel WARM, even if you’re about to read it and go, ‘big whoop’. In the work I do, with kids as tough as mine, you have to savor small moments where things go really right, or you burn out focusing on negative things (like D’s lunch drama). So, to rewind a little, A is my 6th grader. Not a typical 6th grader; he has a lot of mental disabilities (I'm pretty sure he suffered a TBI when he was 2-3), and functions pretty much on a kindergarten level. He cannot really read; made HUGE leaps from the start of the year, but the books he's reading are... designed for pre-k/k, and he still flubs through most of them. Mostly what's improved is his work ethic. So today, after lunch, we got our usual mini-tantrum that it was silent reading time. He said, "I want to listen to a book" (we have a few that are on CDs so he can just follow along). I told him that if I saw him actually looking at a book quietly when I turned back, he could have those. I reminded him what we've been saying since September; we don't care if you cacn READ the book; just show us you can look at the pictures/pages/be engaged in it, and we're happy. Today...he did that. He sta there and quietly flipped through a story, and then a second when I told him it hadn't been enough time, and he did that witout complaint, and he got his reward. And a very happy teacher : ).
