Last Days of School 13

I'm really not sure what one story to tell to wrap up this school year, so instead I'm going to tell 13 mini stories. (This is a Thursday 13.) 

Note: Tomorrow will be my annual post of my year end stats where I wrap up the year with a tally of how many days I worked covering each subject. (I do this post more for me. It can be dry. It is definitely long. And I completely understand if you wish to skip it.) 

1. Last Tuesday was Natalie's birthday. Each student gets a small celebration for their birthday. We had pizza for lunch, and Vera made Natalie chocolate brownies. I think Natalie appreciated having "Happy Birthday" sung to her (multiple times). Although, we let her spend most of the day on her computer. 

2. Also on Tuesday, one of the teachers hosted a softball game in the park. Jennifer and Jonas went along. Which meant more pizza for those of us still in class. (They ordered pizza for those that went to the park, so Jennifer and Jonas didn't miss out.) 

3. Our school is right next to an elementary school. (At one time, I think our buildings were actually part of their campus.) Our classrooms are separated from their sixth grade classrooms by a fence. Last Friday and Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) the sixth graders were very loud. Understandably so. It was their end of year celebrations. (It's not like we were taking finals or anything.)

4. Thursday morning, I was on bus duty. (It wasn't actually my day, but Mr. G was late, and the other aides weren't there. However, the buses were.) Jennifer: "What's going on over there?" She was referring to the elementary school. Me: "They are having a literal field day." Earl: "It looks like kickball." We decided it must be a kickball game of faculty versus the sixth graders. No one bothered to confirm or deny our supposition. 

5. The reason the staff was missing for student arrival: the principal had brought in goodies from a local bakery and had invited everyone to partake. (I got some cookies and fruit salad later on in the day.) 

6. Wednesday morning. Me: "I don't have anything planned for today. What do you want to do?" I'm not sure who suggested a movie. I was down for that. I opened the floor for suggestions. Keyla: "I think we should play one of the classics for a change." That's when I knew. Cinderella. Jennifer was unfamiliar with the story. I was quite pleased that we didn't miss out on that little bit of Jennifer's education. 

7. Also on Wednesday, Ms. L, the teacher who retired, came by to say hi. Jennifer was thrilled to see her. Jennifer had been making Ms. L a book. (I helped her punch holes in the paper so she could "bind" it with twine.) Jennifer got to give it to her in person.

8. We had some drama in our yard. Remember the neighbor who keeps chickens? One day I looked over and saw a warning sign on the back of the fence, saying not to touch as it was electrified. It took the administration about a week longer to notice, and then it became a thing, as I guess they're not allowed to put up electrified fences next to schools. The school put up caution tape around the whole thing. 

Apparently the city got involved. I mean, it wasn't like the students really go near it, so the tape was kinda unnecessary. 

9. The only student who's generally out there is Domingo. He has his little area... 

...although he wanders the grassy area much of the day. One day I didn't see him. He was on the other side of the caution tape. Earl informed me that he just pushes the caution tape out of the way and goes through whenever he wants. 

So, yeah, that caution tape really made the students safer...

10. The last week or so, we all got our summer school assignments. The adult transition center's program goes for two weeks and two days. They're bringing in a teacher from the high school that feeds the adult transition center to run one of the classes. I've met her. This is not her usual gig, but she does have a special ed credential, and it might be a nice change for her. I wish her luck.

11. I got an email from the sub caller asking if I wished to teach a summer school class. While I do want some time off, I am aware that I'll likely be bored, so I said yes. I'm not sure if this is the right choice, but when this post goes live, I'll be on day 2 of that assignment. 

12. While I will miss these students, I'll be glad to do something different now. It's a reason I sub--I like the variety. And, I'm still on the sub list. If one of the teachers needs a day off (and they have taken days off), I can be the one to fill the gig next year. So, it wasn't like it was a forever goodbye.

13. On the last day, I checked in my computer, turned in my keys, and left the campus for the last time this school year. The 2021-22 school year is officially complete.

Petty

The adult transition center starts its day about an hour later than everyone else. Which has been really nice. 

The school shares its parking lot with the elementary school next door. There's always plenty of parking. 

I've been rolling in 30-45 minutes before the start of the school day. It gives me time to set up things and get ready for the day. 

As I was driving in last Wednesday, I passed another elementary school on my way to "my" school. I noticed that they had everything set up for a sixth grade promotion ceremony. I got a little teary-eyed thinking about how the sixth graders were transitioning.

The obvious didn't occur to me until I got to "my" school. 

But when I saw cars pulling out of the parking lot, I knew.

The elementary school next door was also having a sixth grade promotion ceremony, and all the parents had overwhelmed the parking lot. 

They had spilled out into the street. And there was no leftover parking for, um, teachers who hadn't started our day yet.

Grumble, grumble.

I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the neighborhood across the street. I found parking, and I walked in. (The street is fairly busy, so this walking in included going half a block to the nearest crosswalk.) 

As I headed for the classroom, I ran across a car parked in a loading zone. Normally, I wouldn't really care. But this car was in our loading zone. That is, it was in the spot where the buses for our school have to park to drop off our students. 

Oh no...

So, I called and reported the car to our office. (I may have asked if the car could be towed.) Because our buses were arriving in about fifteen minutes, they'd need a place to stop. 

Was I being petty? Yup. But I'm okay with that. There's a reason that's marked as a loading zone.

Every single aide was late. As were the other two teachers. (Well, later than they normally are. Not very "late" late.) We all had the same issue.

I asked about the car in the buses' loading zone. They said it was gone.

I doubt they had enough time to tow the car. I'm sure they just called over to the elementary school and had someone make an announcement to move their car. But at least it was moved.

And when the ceremony was over and the parents departed, we all (one at a time) went and retrieved our cars and parked them in the lot. It was a minor inconvenience, really. 

I just wish someone had given us a heads up beforehand. We could have arrived earlier that day. Oh well.

The Evidence

I have mentioned Natalie's obsession with her computer before. 

Most of the time, when she has computer time, she goes on YouTube and watches station identifications over and over again. Lately, I've noticed she goes to CNN 10 and replays the video we watched earlier that day. She likes to replay bits over and over. I think she likes the sounds. She'll mimic them sometimes.

The other thing she does that she's not supposed to do is to open up her camera and take videos.

Early on, I put tape over her camera. I expected her to object, but she's left it alone the whole time. I don't think she notices the non-picture. I think she's doing it for the audio. 

But be that as it may, we don't want her recording random things in the classroom. (Who knows what conversations she's catching?) 

I thought I was stopping her from recording. I was wrong.

Last week, as I was clearing her computer, the camera app popped up. And I just happened to the file of what was saved. And it was a bit shocking...

That's more than 5000 images. As you can see, I was deleting all of them. The majority of them were just the blank screen (as I had put tape over the camera), but there were a couple with an image of Natalie's forehead. 

Then I got to the videos...

Over 3000 videos. 

If I had more time and more help, we would totally have someone spend the day with Natalie and work on having her do something besides take videos of a blank screen and her banging on her table. But as it is...

And she still manages to save a dozen or so new files daily (now that I'm checking daily). Sigh.

Virtual Ceremony

At the adult transition center, the students don't "graduate". We had our "culmination" ceremony last Wednesday. 

Today is actually our last day of school. Woo-hoo! I'll have the wrap up of the school year along with my year end stats for you next week. And then the week after... Summer school. Because they asked me and I said yes.

The students "age out" at 22. We only have one student who will be 22 in July. 

It was a virtual ceremony even though the other schools in the district are holding in person graduations this year. The principal had put together a slide show, and I set up the virtual meet to be projected in the class for all the students.

I have been projecting things to the students since I took over this class. No issues. For this? No sound.

I tried everything. In the end, while they could see everything on screen, they had to hear the ceremony via the speakers on my laptop computer. Sigh. 

It was a nice ceremony. The had pictures of all nine "graduates" along with their baby pictures. So cute. 

Because it was virtual, it went a lot quicker than it would have if everything had been in person. I totally copped out when it was time for me to talk about Elena. I wished her luck in her future. Luckily, Ms. L (the class' newly retired teacher) was there (as a surprise), so she said a few words about Elena. It was sweet. 

And then there was a spot for pictures (the families could come to have pictures taken) and cake. 

I'm going to miss this class when I leave. At least I got to do this celebration with them.

Slimy

One day on CNN 10 there was a story about "soft" robots. I thought they kind of looked like they were made of slime. I mentioned this and then asked if the students had ever made slime. They had not.

Oh, then we had to do this.

Like with the paper airplanes last week, this is not the sort of thing I would encourage in a general ed class. But these students are not those students. 

It took me a couple weeks to acquire ingredients. And then I figured last Tuesday would be a good day to attempt the "experiment". I found a video online that described the process, and I showed it to them.

This video used acrylic paint to color the slime, and I was glad to see it as in the very cursory research I did before springing this project on them, I only saw them use food coloring. We did not have food coloring. But we had paint.

Jonas and Jennifer agreed they'd like to try blue slime. I had Jennifer pour out the glue. Then she added the water. I did the bit with the borax, and Jonas stirred. 

It came together rather well, actually. 

We put glitter in, but you can't really see it.

We offered some to Natalie. She wouldn't be bothered (as she was on her computer, so she was content). We offered some to Penelope, but she told us no. Yohana liked hers so much that it got all over her sweatshirt (oops). 

Then Keyla offered some to Doris...

Doris remains outside and lately Keyla has been spending her days outside supervising her. So, I did not see what happened when Keyla took the slime to Doris. All I know is that Keyla returned a short time later, threw the rest of the slime (pictured above) into the trash, and told me I didn't want to know what Doris had done with it. 

Okay, then. 

Jonas and Jennifer put their slime into containers and took it home. I'm tempted to try the slime again, this time with less glue (as only a couple of them enjoyed the project) and different colors. But I don't think we'll have time to get to it.

Anyway, my curiosity is sated. I know how the thing works. And now they do, too.

Reshowing

Towards the end of the day, I like to muse aloud about what I'm thinking for the plans for the next school day. It was Thursday afternoon, and I didn't really have anything planned for Friday. 

So, I asked the class if there was something they wanted to do on Friday. 

Jennifer: We could watch a movie. 

That was kind of what I wanted, but I didn't want to inundate them with movies. But if the idea came from them... 

Then I asked what movie they'd want to see. Jennifer said she wouldn't mind seeing Sneakerella again. 

(Then we got off on a tangent as to why it wasn't called Sneakers. This is where I explained that it was a remake of Cinderella and how the title was meant to evoke that. Jennifer was unfamiliar with Cinderella, something I should probably rectify, so I explained the basic plot of the original, pointing out how Sneakerella used those elements. Jennifer didn't grasp the concept.)

This whole past week, Jonas has been using his free computer time to play the songs from the movie, so I wasn't surprised that he was okay with watching the movie again. 

On Friday, movie time, and I started the movie. Penelope had been out the prior week (on vacation with her family), so it was new to her. 

Jennifer took a count of the songs. (We thought there had been six songs. We were wrong. There were nine, with a reprise of the first song at the end. I explained what a reprise was to Jennifer.)

When the first song came on, Jonas got up to dance along. And it was clear he had been watching the songs all week as he was pretty close to the choreography of the dancers. (He's no dancer by a long shot, but for his ability level, his dancing was a match to what was on screen.) I even got him to put on his glasses (something he resists) so he could see the movie better. 

Because we have other things that we have to do as well, I had to pause the movie a couple times. (We have lunch duty on Fridays. And we had to break for lunch.) Each time, Penelope asked for her computer to watch videos to keep herself entertained. When it was time to start the movie again, she closed her computer. (She'll watch her own thing many times, so that she closed her computer herself tells me that she was into the movie.) 

All in all, it was a nice afternoon on a Friday. I may be leaning too heavily on movie days, but when you read this, we'll have three more days of school. We're almost there.

Paper Airplanes and the Substitute Teacher

First thing in the morning, we do a "calendar" thing. It starts with changing the date on the board, but it encompasses the weather and current events. (I try to draw the whole thing out so it takes us about an hour and a half.) 

We have two sources for current events. The first is software that contains lessons for special ed classes such as this. They have a breaking news feature with stories that are written simply so they can understand. 

The second source we use is CNN 10. (I have talked about CNN 10 before.) 

On Wednesday, the software had a story on the world paper airplane championship. On Thursday, CNN 10 did a story on it.

Sometimes that happens. We get the written and then we get the video. I make sure to point out that we already heard about something when we get the story a second time.

This time, I asked them a question. Had they ever made paper airplanes before? 

They had not.

Oh, we had to, then.

I found paper. I showed them. They couldn't quite grasp how the thing folded, so I went to each of them and bent the paper to where it needed to touch. Then I had them smooth out the fold. 

They weren't great looking planes, but they were paper airplanes.

Then we went outside to throw them. 

Mine... didn't fly very well. Jonas' really sailed through the air, flying far. Jennifer's did lovely loops. 

Which is just a lesson in folded well doesn't mean that the thing flies very well. 

Jonas really enjoyed the lesson. He colored his plane and brought it out for snack and lunch. 

I'm glad I was able to add a bit to their education.

Staff Party

On Wednesday, one of the other teachers arranged a picnic for the school. 

When the picnic was announced, I discussed with all the aides. We determined that while a couple of the students would enjoy the day (Jennifer, Jonas, Yohana), the rest would be difficult to get out to the park. It would be too much trouble for insufficient reward. 

So, we decided to split up the class for the day. 

One of the aides could take the students who could go to the park. The rest of us would remain behind with the students who couldn't go. And I had to remain behind because we needed a certificated person with the students who remained behind. 

The school has a small kitchen. We use it for cooking lessons for the students. But lately the staff will use it to make lunch. And on that Wednesday, the aides decided to take advantage of the empty kitchen. 

We had salmon. We had dessert. We had just a few students who kind of had free time in the way of students who don't get to go on the "field trip" have. 

We kind of had a party for ourselves. 

It was a nice, peaceful afternoon. 

Then the rest of the students got back. They seemed to have had a fun time. Jonas returned with a Styrofoam airplane. They had played games, eaten hot dogs, and had a good time hanging out with the rest of the school. 

I was glad they got to go. 

Buttoned Up

There is software that the school uses for lessons for the students. It's geared towards their level, understanding-wise and age-wise. That is, the words and sentences are very simple, but the topics are geared towards adults learning to navigate the world.

This month's topic is laundry.

They actually do laundry. We have a washer and dryer on campus, and they'll assist in washing towels and such. 

On this particular Tuesday, the story we read had to do with not throwing away clothes that can be fixed. The character in the story was taught that she could treat stained clothes, have pants hemmed, and replace a button on a blouse. 

When we got to that point, I asked the students if they knew how to sew on a button. They did not. 

And now I had a lesson for them. 

Vera is a seasoned sewer, so I asked her if she had the materials to sew on a button. She did, and she brought them the next day. 

I was not expecting them to become expert button-sewers. I have done a couple crafty-type things with them, and they have a hard time. But the point of the story was that sewing on a button was doable, so I wanted them to at least have a go at doing it. 

And they managed it. It took a while. I don't think they'd be able to repeat it without help. (If I was the permanent teacher, button sewing would be part of the curriculum every time the laundry unit rolled around.) 

In the second image, we had to cut the thread as Jennifer had gone around the fabric rather than over and under it. Definitely a good first attempt.

It's something we would have spent a lot more time on if I was seeking mastery. But a lot of what we do with them is for introduction and so they know it's possible. So, by that standard, it was a success. 

Sneakerella Showing

First thing after the students arrive for the day, we do "calendar". I have turned this into almost an hour and a half of activities/lessons that include a bit of "current events". 

The software that the school uses has a breaking news feature. The language is simplified so they can follow along, and there are simple questions that go with each story so I can check for understanding.

The news stories are broken into news, sports, and entertainment. Last Thursday, under entertainment, there was a story about a new movie on Disney + called Sneakerella. 

We did the story. We did the questions. I led them to figuring out the movie was premiering the next day. And then I clicked on the link to the trailer. 

It's a live-action gender-flipped contemporary version of Cinderella. 

Keyla gave us access to Disney +. The next day was going to be a Friday. And I had an idea.

I asked the students: who wanted to see Sneakerella? Jonas was in. The rest of the class kind of indicated that they wouldn't mind. Jennifer was dubious. 

Jennifer doesn't really like new movies. She wanted to be sure that it would be school-appropriate. (A Disney + movie advertised on our news feed? A retelling of Cinderella?) I assured her it would be fine. She reluctantly gave her assent. 

So, on Friday, after our morning snack/break time, I put the movie on. 

It was cute. I'm a sucker for Cinderella stories, so it was in my wheelhouse. It was a musical, so Jonas was happy. 

Jennifer? She enjoyed it once she got into it.

Jennifer doesn't really take to new movies easily. She was reluctant to see Turning Red when it premiered, but she picked it when we did a different movie Friday. 

She asked a lot of questions and needed various plot points explained. (This is a special ed class, after all.) But once she realized that it was a "safe" movie, she was willing to sit back and enjoy.

So, I guess to a certain extent, I am helping Jennifer learn when we play movies. It opens her up to new things. And that's good.

I'm posting about this on a Wednesday as Wednesday is my "summer schedule" day to recommend TV shows and movies. And I do recommend it, with the caveat that it's good for what it is. If you enjoy Cinderella as a genre, give it a go. Here's the trailer: 

Culmination Conundrum

The students at the adult transition center are ages 18 to 22. At age 22, they "age out". 

As the end of the school year approaches, we get ready for their "graduation" which at this school is called culmination. There's a ceremony for those who will not be returning next school year. 

I don't generally get to participate in these sorts of things. I'm usually just there to fill in. But I will be covering this class until the last day of school, so that means I'll be on campus on the day of culmination. 

And one of the students in the class is finishing up this year. 

Last week I was informed that it would be my job to "say a few words" about Elena at culmination.

Crap. 

Usually I can dodge these types of events, but not in this case. So, now I have to figure out what words I want to say. And I have absolutely no idea.

I mean, I'm a writer. I can come up with something, right? 

Deep sigh.

Elena is... Well, she's not what one would call sweet. She's not allowed to use a fork at lunchtime because she will stab people who pass by her. She will get out of her seat to go and hit another student, kind of out of nowhere. (We have no idea why she attacked Jennifer or Yohana, because neither of them bother Elena. Ever.) 

When Elena has decided she's done doing her work for the day, she'll go and get her computer without permission, and I have to be sneaky to get it back from her. (She does get computer time, but later in the day.) 

She has a one-to-one aide, Vera, who keeps a close eye on her. Vera is strict. Most of Elena's acting out happens when Vera is on her lunch. Elena will try things when Vera is there, but Vera puts a stop to it quickly. 

I suppose I should ask Vera what to say. But I have a feeling she'll have some of the same concerns as me. 

I mean, I could say Elena is headstrong. Determined. She knows what she wants and she'll do what she can to get it. But is that the sort of thing I want to say at the sort of ceremony we'll be having? 

Wish me luck. I have no idea how I'm going to manage this. Is it too early to anticipate being "sick" that day? (Although, the ceremony is virtual, so they might make me attend anyway.) 

Deciphered

Natalie has certain behaviors. I've gone into detail about how she's always about getting on her computer, but there are other things that she does that we have to watch out for. 

She likes to bang a specific rhythm on the tables. (I could write it out in musical notation for you, if anyone is interested. Yes, it is that specific. Yes, it's always the same rhythm.) She likes to play in the water. She likes to chant, "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" (As in Jerry Springer.) 

And she likes to make an announcement that none of us can understand.

She repeats all of these behaviors, multiple times a day. The "Jerry!" thing will only happen if someone starts her. But the others appear at random intervals all day. 

One of the aides pointed out that Natalie likes to watch a local TV station. It's the TV station that broadcasts The Jerry Springer Show. 

So, after about two weeks, we were able to figure out that the second half of Natalie's announcement is, "Channel Five". Okay, then. 

But what she said before it...? 

Natalie has a very cartoony voice. She's hard to understand. After dealing with her for a couple months now, I can make out various things she says all the time. And we ask her a lot of yes and no questions to determine what she wants. But what was she saying in that announcement? 

It's one of those things that from time to time I think I'll dive into. It would entail finding video of channel five and their station identification stuff. (My streaming service does not have channel five. Otherwise, this mystery would have been solved months ago.) But it was something that I would do later.

Until last Wednesday. 

We were sitting outside at snack. Natalie made the announcement. 

Then Flash said, "Ontario's channel five." 

My jaw dropped. Ontario. 

Ontario. 

OMG! He figured it out. 

I thanked Flash. A couple times. Because, yeah, it was driving me a little crazy to not know what Natalie was saying. And now I know. 

Ontario's channel five. 

Mystery solved. 

(Ontario is a city out in the Inland Empire of California. The Inland Empire consists of the counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. It's about an hour drive from where I am. And I don't care how hard they push it, I will not call it "the IE" just like I don't refer to Orange County as "the OC". Nope. It's a stupid name.) 

A Mother's Day Project

Mother's Day was Sunday. Last week, with Mother's Day approaching, I realized the class had to do some project for their mothers. 

So, I went online and searched for art projects that kids could do. These students are chronologically adults, but mentally they are very much still kids. 

I found one that I thought was very cute and totally doable for them. It was a butterfly that they used their handprints on to form the wings. I printed out the poem. We had paint in class. And on Tuesday we took the time to get them to do the handprints. 

They picked the colors they wanted. And they put their handprints on the page. 

(Two of the students didn't participate. Doris told us no, and considering how things went the last time we asked her to paint something, we let it go at that. And Natalie wouldn't leave her computer. Natalie is in foster care anyway, so she wouldn't have had a mother to give it to.) 

We let these dry overnight. Then the students were able to color and personalize these a bit more.

It was a good thing we did them early in the week. Jayden didn't come to school on Friday. (And I had enough warning to let him take it home Thursday.) 

Then, on Friday, I had them pack these into their backpacks in the morning. And then Jonas was picked up from school early. So his went home with him, too. 

I hope their moms liked our little project. It's too bad we'll be out of school for Father's Day as I'm sure we could have found something fun to do for their fathers as well.

Dance Party

It was about an hour before the end of the day. Vera (instructional assistant) suggested we put on some music. I opened up the floor for requests. 

I'm not a fan of choosing music. I know what I like, but for the most part, I find no one else really enjoys my choices. And I'm generally quite content to sit in a silent room. So, when in a group, I let others pick what we're listening to. 

We started with a couple recent top 40 hits. We got Jayden up, although he was only reluctantly dancing. Vera danced with her student, and a couple students from other classes joined us. We even pulled Penelope into the fun, which is a bit different as she's wheelchair bound. (Jennifer and Jonas weren't interested, and ignored us.)

And, of course, we got Yohana in on the action.

I don't think I've mentioned Yohana before. She's pretty quiet. She follows where we lead. She goes where we tell her. And she's so quiet we sometimes forget she's there.

But, when left to her own devices, she'll dance. There doesn't have to be music. As she ambles around when we're on breaks, she'll dance to her own internal music. 

Various aides know what she likes, though, so we put on some music for her. And for the rest of them, actually. Songs that everyone seemed to like. 

New-to-me music, but old favorites for many of them.

Ending the Year 13

1. There are 19 school days left. 

2. I'm not generally a counter-down, but I am in this one class until the last day of school, so I set up a countdown. For me. And the other staff. And the students. 

3. Usually, I'm a bit ambivalent towards summer. No work = no paycheck. But this year I'm really looking forward to the downtime. It's been a long year. 

4. And yet... I signed up for summer school. The list was sitting there when I dropped in to the district office. I looked at it. I thought about it. And then I put my name down. I mean, what are the chances that I'll actually get called? (Don't answer that.) 

5. I feel fairly confident that the rest of this school year should go smoothly. Well, as smoothly as my current long-term assignment goes. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to take over this class. And now we're in a sort of rhythm, so barring unforeseen crazy, we should be able to ride out the rest of the year.

6. Jayden has integrated into the class fairly seamlessly. The nurse who's his one-to-one has fit in with the class nicely. She and Keyla became instant best friends, which works out. And the whole lunch thing never came to pass, so all that previous drama was for naught. 

7. I got tired of having to change Penelope's videos every three minutes, so I created a YouTube playlist for her. Unfortunately, it only has nine songs on it. She loves every song (going by her squeals of glee when a new song starts), but it's only nine songs. They're all by One Direction. I would like to add some more songs that Penelope might like. Any ideas? (We've tried introducing her to other boy bands, but I really don't know that many. Help.)

8. I have been printing out coloring pages like crazy. Did you know you can find coloring pages online? I found Jonas' favorite band. There's Star Wars (for Star Wars day yesterday). And I found all sorts of flowers for spring. This is more a filler activity for when we're between other things we do, but they really like the coloring pages. So, they stay.

9. The next thing I want to try is to teach Natalie how to play video games. Since she's obsessed with being on the computer, it might be a way I can sneak in some learning. All she does is watch videos, but she keeps trying to make videos. Games might be a good middle ground. Anyone know any good games for developmentally disabled young adults? 

10. Doris' "accidents" have begun lessening, but she's still having to change her clothes a couple times a day. You might be surprised at how much restroom time takes up our day. I'm not really trained to be of help at this, so it falls on the instructional aides' shoulders. 

11. The summer program for the adult transition center is two weeks and two days (instead of the full month for the other schools). Since the teacher retired, "my" class might not have a teacher for the program. I keep getting asked if I'm doing the summer for them. I keep saying no. As far as I know, I'm maxed out on days I can cover this class as of the last day of school. 

12. So, my signing up for summer school might not be the best idea. Because I could totally get called that first morning to cover the full two weeks and two days. It's happened before. 

13. But it's not like I have summer plans. Just resting. It's been a long year. It's been a weird year. (My end of year stats are going to be unlike previous years, even more than the past two years have been.) And I really kind of need some down time.

This has been a Thursday 13. It's a list of 13 things. Check out the link and join in.

Going Home

It was Tuesday. Morning snack time. I brought Doris her food. (Her family provides a croissant and a slice of spam.) 

Doris eventually ate. She was given some water. She had gone back to her usual spot. And then, out of nowhere, Doris was angry. 

She grunted. Slammed her fists onto the picnic tables. Hit herself in the face. 

Keyla herded her into the classroom. Doris hit her. On the way to the classroom, Doris shoved another seated student, knocking him to the ground. 

I called the office. Doris needed to go home.

It was the end of snack. The rest of the students kind of got herded to the classroom next door. (This is the room I was in while covering Ms. S's class. When I left, they disbanded the class, so the room is vacant.) We could hear Doris pounding on the wall.

Then, Keyla found me. The office called. Penelope's father had arrived, and she was going home.

Penelope? 

Wait. Did I give the office the wrong name? 

I mean, Penelope is never an issue. If I had said Penelope was throwing a tantrum, the office would have questioned me, right? 

I told the other aide. She wondered, too. But Penelope had been called for, so Penelope they would get. The aide wheeled Penelope to the office. 

It turned out that Penelope had a doctor's appointment. No one had told us she was going home early. 

It wasn't that we needed that information, per se. But at least I hadn't used the wrong name when calling the office.

It was probably twenty minutes later when Doris' father came to retrieve her.

YouTube Music

It was Thursday. We were watching CNN 10. They did a story on the sun's eleven year solar cycle (as we're reaching a busy time, solar-wise). 

And suddenly I thought of a song. 

I'm sure you know that you can find just about any song on YouTube. The students like to play their favorite songs when they have free computer time. I've discussed this before. 

As the story played out for the students to watch, I started humming this song to myself. And I realized that I just had to play it for them. I just had to. 

After we finished the day's video, we discussed what we saw. Mostly that's me asking, "What did they talk about?" and the students repeating something like, "The sun". 

(I'd welcome longer conversations, and with the news lately, I do go a bit more in depth on things. But they don't really understand nuances, so things stay fairly surface, and we can't really get into deep discussions.) 

So, this time, instead of talking too much about the sun, I pulled up the song and played it for them. 

I enjoyed it more than they did. But I enjoyed it a whole lot. (Jennifer was not amused.)

X-ed Out

When Natalie gets computer time, she goes from video to video on YouTube. She has not figured out how to exit. She just opens new tabs. 

At the end of a day, her browser looks like this: 

Just in case you were wondering if you have too many tabs open... 

So, every day, I go through and exit all of the tabs for her. Because she doesn't go back to them ever. 

Computer time is what Natalie wants, so computer time can be weaponized when she isn't listening. 

Last Thursday, Natalie snuck into the classroom during snack time. (Well, ambled in while we were busy.) When I followed to bring her back outside, I found her again on Penelope's iPad, attempting to get to YouTube. Or something. 

(Penelope's iPad is always open to her communication app. She can toggle through and indicate what she needs. Penelope can speak, but she doesn't say much, and it's hard to understand her due to her cerebral palsy.) 

The last time Natalie did that I took away computer time. This time, I gave the same consequence. 

Alas, it was more a punishment for me.

I gave Natalie a task. (They have "task boxes". The one I gave her had her sorting different colored Legos into little compartments.) She refused to do it. I told her if she completed the task, I would allow her back on her computer. She still refused to do it.

Her refusal wasn't verbal. She sat at her desk for a while. Then she got up and ambled around the room. She came up to the teacher's desk. So, I put away my computer. (At this point I had hidden Natalie's computer away as well as Penelope's iPad.) 

I put Natalie back at her desk. She sat for a while. Then she got up and ambled towards the front again. 

They had delivered the food for lunch. Natalie went to investigate. 

I moved her back to her seat. 

Natalie got up to go outside. Since Domingo stays outside, Earl blocked her way. They talked for a bit. (Earl did most of the talking.) Then Earl urged her inside. 

Then Natalie got up and ambled towards the front... 

This repeated for an hour and a half. 

Finally (once I finished the task I was working on), I sat with her for the last ten or so minutes before lunchtime. 

Natalie is exhausting when she loses computer time. But she can't be using other students' devices. I just hope one of these days she figures out that the shiny electronic device that isn't hers is not hers to touch. 

I don't hold out much hope of this happening.

Winding Down the Year

Last week was the first week back from spring break. And we're all feeling the end of the school year's approach. 

I don't normally do a countdown. I'm too busy going from assignment to assignment to pay attention. But this year, I actually sat down and counted. 30 days. 

So, on Wednesday, I found a spot on the board and wrote "days left". 

At the beginning of the day, two of the students take care of changing the dates on the board. We have a little calendar with velcro numbers. Jennifer puts up the number for the current day. And then the date is written out by Jonas. 

Jonas has trouble writing up the date. We point out where Jennifer placed the correct day. We'll tell him to add one to the previous day. But it's always a bit of a struggle for him. 

Because I'm lazy Because Jonas needs the practice, I've decided that the countdown is now part of his responsibilities. I assigned it to him on Friday. 

I explained that he would need to change the number down one. I asked him what one less than nine was. (He could leave the tens-place two up. That's a whole other discussion on how hard it is to get him to grasp that concept.) But he got to eight pretty quickly. Success. 

We'll see how Jonas does with the countdown. (Obviously, he doesn't do this alone.) It'll be good practice for him.

(When you read this post, our countdown should read 25 more days left of school. Woo-hoo!)

Scorching Hot & Soaking Wet

The day before spring break (which was two Fridays ago) was forecasted to be hot. 90-something degree hot. On the day, we actually got up to 101F (38C). 

On the Wednesday, instructional assistant Keyla informed me that she wanted to do "water play" that day. See, we called it "water play" in the note that went home to the parents (so the students would have towels and extra clothes to change into) rather than telling the parents we planned to have a water balloon fight. 

When the time came (it was well into the 90s before noon), the aides filled a couple buckets of water, filled up some balloons, and pulled out the water shooter/squirter thingies. 

Earl turned on the hose and sprayed Keyla with it. Keyla took the water shooter and got him back. Alas, in that exchange, I was collateral damage. 

Jennifer and Jonas went after each other and the other students outside. Keyla showed Doris how the water balloons worked, and Doris proceeded to douse herself with them for the duration. (She kept breaking them on herself.) 

One of the other classes was out on a break. They watched the fun. Many of them got hit by random splashes, although they didn't seem to mind much. 

Not everyone really wanted in on the action. We coaxed Natalie out, but she stayed out of the way until she was able to convince someone to let her back into the classroom and onto her computer. Sigh. 

Penelope and a couple of our other lower functioning students were given bowls and buckets of water with toys to play in. 

They were probably at it a half hour. They were soaked when the balloons had finally been exhausted. 

We finished up the day in the classroom with pizza and a movie.