It was Tuesday of my second week in the class at the adult transition center. And it had been a bit of an off day.
Krissa, the primary instructional assistant for the class, was out for the day. Nathan, however, was not.
Nathan hadn't been at school for a while. He was due to start back with the class on my first day there, but it wasn't until this Tuesday of the second week that he did actually show up.
Nathan is probably about six feet tall, easily two hundred pounds (likely more), and he has the mind of a two-year-old.
It was lunchtime. Nathan was lying on the pavement in the sun. He removed his helmet and began banging his head into the ground.
Apparently, this is a behavior of his (hence why he must wear a helmet). Because he was just starting back, the one-to-one aide assigned to him does not have a rapport with him yet.
But we can't have Nathan banging his head into the concrete. He could really hurt himself that way.
At roughly the same time, we had another Doris incident.
Doris dumped her food in the trash, and she came to me to ask for "more". Assuming she didn't like the first thing she was served, she was given a different meal (what everyone else got that day). After finishing that, she again asked for "more". (She signs this, hence the quotes.) Alas, I had no more food to give her, and the aides had gone to lunch.
So, Doris took the food from a different student.
This student allowed it, saying she wasn't really that hungry, although it did bother her. (I made sure we replaced what she lost to Doris when the aides, who knew where they hid the food, returned from lunch.)
But Doris went on to have a meltdown, throwing equipment around, banging on walls, and just generally screaming.
We had already called Nathan's family to retrieve him. I watched Doris to see if we'd have to send her home early as well. I was reluctant to do so as I didn't want to send two students home on the same day.
Luckily, Doris calmed down after this.
And that's when the aides returned from lunch. Sigh.
(We stagger the lunches for staff, but sometimes it's easier to send a couple to go at the same time when the students are out at lunch.)
Oh my … those are difficult kids to work with
ReplyDeleteYup. It was an interesting two weeks.
DeleteWow, what a challenge! Now I know we never had kids.
ReplyDeleteSome have some real challenges.
DeleteYou deserve hazard pay, Liz. Poor kids. Poor teachers and aides.
ReplyDeleteHazard pay would be nice ;)
DeleteI imagine that class is an even tougher challenge when you're subbing. Glad things eventually calmed down for you.
ReplyDeleteOof, that's rough. My son is thankfully not that bad, and he's been working with paras to help him learn self-control and de-escalation skills. I think my favorite quote from parent-teacher conferences last month was "he's only flipped his desk once this year." Gotta take the wins.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many different levels to this. I had the lowest functioning of the school. Well, maybe not the lowest...
DeleteI had to look up the term 'para' and still can only imagine the difficulty for both parents and teaches. Take care, Liz.
DeleteIt's definitely a challenge dealing with this population. It's good to have lots of trained individuals around to help manage the situation.
DeleteSounds like a tough job. You have to have a lot of patience.
ReplyDeleteGives new meaning to "out to lunch" Whew. I don't know how you have the patience!!
ReplyDeleteNo patience required. I knew what sort of class it was when I took it.
DeleteWow...
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
I could never work at this place and deal with students with special needs. This is most difficult.
ReplyDeleteIt's something I avoided for a long time. The more I do it, the better it gets.
DeleteIt must be hard dealing with those behaviours at home all the time. And as the regular teacher!
ReplyDelete