Yesterday afternoon I stopped by my principal's office just to see how she was doing. We had a pretty crazy Monday. Because of our 7th grade numbers, we needed to add another teacher to the school to offset the class sizes and keep us at or below the state mandated maximum number of students per class. It was decided that one of our related arts teachers would move into one of our 7th grade teams. This meant that some students were moved to a new hall, one teacher was moved out of her classroom so the related arts teacher would have a classroom on the right hallway, related arts schedules had to change almost instantly, etc.
I digress...I stopped to talk with our principal. She was holding up just fine. While there, she asked me about a parent of ours. Evidently, this mother had called the superintendent to complain about the condition our team. If you recall, our autistic student is prone to outbursts and screaming in almost every class every day. The students are terrified of him, and they have pretty much alienated him. It is sad for all involved. This mother was concerned for the well being of her son, the other students on the team, and the teacher. The mother made a comment that the students and the teachers have had all they can take. My principal was curious to know how this mother would get the idea that the teacher were fed up.
By some miracle, I gathered the gumption to say that we told the mother nothing. It was clear that her son was going home and reporting the events of each day. It is clear to this mother's son that the constant disruptions and screaming is having an affect on the teachers and the learning environment.
We have open house this Thursday evening from 6 pm - 8 pm. My teammates and I are poised for what could be a number of parents complaining about the learning environment. We have never had to deal with this type of situation before. We are not sure what to expect. We have requested that one of our administrators be close by if some of the parents express concern. We will see how it goes.
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That was certainly more than I had expected to write about tonight. As my title of this post said, I have had a paradigm shift in how I just a good day on my team.
Today we shuffled our groups to reorganize the classes. Our kids were still on the same team of 75. They still have the same homebase teacher. Their classroom teachers are still the same. The only change is which block each student was scheduled. This is not abnormal. We do this every year to even out the class sizes, demographics, etc.
Before this shift today, my two largest issue-ridden children (my autistic child and the student who called me "stupid" on the first day) were in the same class every day. Now they are in separate classes.
Dabo (one who referred to me as "stupid") is now in my first class. This means he is not as hyper as he would be during the last block of the day. He has a table to himself as well. He actually worked on his assignments today. He kept trying to get up to get my attention. He knows students must raise their hand to leave their seat. Yes, he is testing the limits. Kept him in check without any confrontational moments today. All-in-all, not a bad day for him.
My autistic child is in my last block of the day. He was gone for the first 30 minutes of my class today because he is going through a battery of tests to assess his abilities, levels, etc. When he came back, my special ed assistant worked one-on-one with my student. My student's first comment as he came into the room today was "Let's go for a walk now. I want to go for a walk." Yes, it was out loud. My wonderful special ed assistant took no time in squashing that behavior and telling him that it was time to work. She actually got him to take a quiz and work through a mapping skills packet.
He was actually quiet for the entire class except for the last 10 minutes. He started to make comments aloud again. I instantly got his attention, locked eye contact with him, and said that I would not listen to him unless he raised his hand like all the other students are expected to do. Within a matter of two seconds, he raised his hand and said, "Do you see it? I raised my hand!" He had this huge grin on his face as he said it. I couldn't help but laugh and smile. I called upon in and then he had nothing to say.
Yes, a minor milestone was accomplished today. He actually listened and followed directions. I could not believe it! During the locker time, my student went to his locker and then was hanging out in the hall instead of coming back to class. I instantly called him back down the hall. He quietly walked down the hall to me, and I asked him to go back to class until it was time to go home. He told me that he rode the first bus and did not want to be late. I promised him he would not be late. I would make sure of that.
Yes, we had a conversation with each other that did not involve laughing, squealing, screaming, etc. It was a glorious step for us.
This is now what I see as a good day. Who would have guessed that a good day would be a troubled student who learns that kindness and respect are much more preferable than confrontation? Who would have guessed that a good day would be getting a non-responsive autistic student to raise his hand to speak and then have a short conversation with him?
I laugh just thinking about it now!
It has been two days without a confrontation with Dabo or any outbursts/screaming from my autistic student. Let's see if we can make it a third day. I have hope!
Take care,
Joey
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