An Overlooked Detail

The very special ed class, Friday. 

The last time I subbed for Ms. H, the class was going on a field trip. This day, same. This time they were going to some event hosted by the LAUSD for their special ed classes. Something about a dance performance? 

Why was I needed? Some of the kiddos weren't going, so someone had to stay behind to supervise them. 

I had two students. And then a third joined us as her whole class was going as well as the teacher. (Why book two subs for two different teachers? I was sufficient to cover all the kiddos not going.) 

It was a fairly chill day. Alice was wheelchair bound and only spoke in grunts and cries. Nate arrived and put his head down on his desk and slept. Apparently, this was his usual. This was good as Alice does not like Nate. Nate has a tendency to (when awake) hover over Alice and bother her. (When Nate awoke near the end of the day, he hovered over me, and I had to make it very clear I did not want to be touched, and he still touched me.) 

Angela was from the other class. She took a seat and asked for paper so she could draw. 

I suggested a movie. Alice's one-to-one suggested Encanto. 

So, things were mellow. But then I noticed a problem. 

Ms. H's prep period was the last period of the day. Usually her students would join the other teachers' classes for the last period. But the other teachers were gone, too. What to do? 

I called Allie (the secretary I check in with). While I had looked forward to getting to leave early for the day, I was fine with staying and supervising the kiddos. But, I wasn't going to do it for free... 

Once I explained the situation to Allie, she readily agreed to credit me with the extra period. 

And so, once we finished Encanto, Angela suggested Lilo & Stitch (the original version). 

We were barely fifteen minutes into the last period when the field trippers returned. 

It had been a long bus ride. The kiddos had been outside. They'd been in the sun. They were wiped out. 

Which was fine. It wasn't like we were going to be doing work or anything. Movie and computer time. 

Some days, my job isn't much more than this. It balances out the more difficult days. 

Booking the Week

Monday morning, sometime after midnight, I finally caught an assignment for Monday. I had tried to grab a couple before this, but both informed me that another sub had taken the assignment when I clicked on the book button. So, I was just happy to be working. 

Monday is the late start day, so I was lazily on my phone as I had a whole half hour before I needed to leave when the sub desk called. Would I be willing to switch to the adult transition center? Well, sure. But that meant I had to leave... right then... and I wasn't dressed yet... 

I managed to make it, but just. 

The adult transition center is where the very special ed kiddos go after they age out of high school. I basically spent the 2021-22 school year there. So, while the students are different, I know the drill. (The teachers I covered at that time retired, hence why I ended up there, so there are new-to-me teachers there now.) 

Tuesday I didn't catch an assignment. Sigh. But Ms. J, from Monday, reached out to say she was going to be out again Wednesday, and I did I want to work? I managed to catch the assignment again. (Whew.) 

Turns out, Ms. J probably shouldn't have worked Tuesday. She's really sick. As is one of the instructional aides. As well as a couple students. What can I say? It's going around. 

Then, Wednesday night, Ms. J again asked if I could cover her again. I was totally willing, but I had an assignment for Thursday. Considering how I can try to book an assignment only to have another sub snatch it out from under me, I had concerns. Ms. J said she'd contact the school (who would then contact the sub desk who can just assign me). 

But Thursday...? Yeah, I ended up working the assignment I had previously booked. Hey, I was working that day. That's the important thing. 

This year it's been harder to book jobs. More subs, I think. Which means the schools have far fewer days where a teacher (or multiple teachers) don't have their very own subs. But it makes it harder for us subs to work every day. 

Easy Tipping

After winter break, I covered three days in a mod to severe special ed class. (Read: high school aged kiddos who read at an elementary school level.) For the last period of the day, they worked on "life skills". 

The students all had workbooks. Some were working on things like street signs and writing out their home address. I ended up sitting between two girls who were working on activities related to dining out. 

I was later told that Audrey was very anxious and needed lots of assurances. She started with a page that showed various steps in ordering food via phone app, and she had to put the steps in order. Which she did, fairly easily (once I confirmed that she was, in fact, doing it correctly). 

Then we moved on to tipping. 

Explaining how to figure out the tip on a restaurant bill is a challenge even with general ed students. (Everyone hates percentages.) With these special ed students? But I dug in and was ready to work it step-by-step with her.

(And yes, there are shortcuts that are easier in the actual restaurant. And yes, most places now print how much a tip could be on the receipt. Or, it'll automatically add it if you're paying via kiosk. But when it's an actual lesson in an actual workbook, working the actual steps is expected.) 

But then Ms. S, one of the instructional assistants, pulled out her phone. There was an app for that. 

(If you click on the link, the screenshots show just how easy the thing is.)

Oh my. So, so, so much easier. 

Audrey understood what we were doing. Fiddling with the math was the challenge. But the app? She easily could input the total of the bill, slide the percentage to what it needed to be, and have the tip right there. 

This is what we talk about when we talk about accommodations. The student can understand what needs to be done. They just have issues working through the steps to get it done. Take away the fiddly bits, and they can exist in general spaces just fine. 

Audrey needed just a little guidance, and then she was calculating the tips all on her own. 

Phew. That could have been a way harder activity. 

(And if you need such an app, now you know it exists.) 

Describing the Gifts

Winter break vacation over, and I caught a special ed job. You know, in one of those classes. For three days. 

Actually, things went pretty smoothly. Most of the class had one-to-one aides, and the teacher had clear routines in place. 

Third period, Tuesday. The class had a standing lesson with the speech therapist. As it was the first day back after the break (they had a professional development day on Monday, so no students), the speech therapist did an activity about the break. 

She asked them what they got for Christmas, but they couldn't just tell her. They had to give two hints, and the others were to guess what it was. As an example, the speech therapist said, "I got something that I wear on my feet and it has three white lines on it." 

They easily identified the gift as Adidas sneakers. 

She demonstrated with a couple other of her gifts. Then she left them to figure out how to hint about what they got for Christmas. 

The activity went fairly well. Most of the students got right to work and were able to hint about their gifts. Mostly, I was asked how to spell things. 

Calvin, who likes to smudge his work after he completes it, was having a time writing anything down. His one-to-one aide was trying to assist. He asked Calvin what he got for Christmas. Calvin said he got a violin. 

A violin???

That seemed odd. But then the next day I learned he was in a strings music class, and suddenly a violin made more sense. 

They finished up the lesson with the speech therapist having them read out what they wrote and having the class guess what they got. 

You'd think a speech therapy class would be more about having them work on how they talk. At least, that's what I assumed when I first heard of it. But no. It's more of them discussing things. Whatever works, right? 

And now I have an interesting activity I can apply if I ever have need of it. (I love watching others work. I steal liberally from them.) 

Spitting Image

Friday had been a minimum day (end of the first quarter). Ms. S and I checked out at the same time, and we were outside, chatting. (Ms. S is another sub who I see around all the time and I've worked with her before.) 

We both had a last period prep, so school wasn't quite over. Students were standing outside waiting for rides. (Some students get out early.) We were comparing notes on various assignments. It turned out that the next week we'd be subbing for two co-teachers. 

As we were talking, a mother walked past us. She looked so familiar to me. She nodded as she passed, but we didn't say anything to her, just continuing our conversation. 

A few minutes later, the woman passed by again, going the other way. This time she had a student in tow. A girl I recognized as she had been in the class I covered that day. 

Ms. S: "No wonder she looked so familiar..." 

I didn't realize until that moment that Ms. S recognized her too. I commented that the girl had been in my class. 

Why did she look so familiar? Her daughter looks just like her. 

A Special Ed Day

I was back in Ms. H's moderate to severe special ed class. (When I was last there, I had some car trouble.) 

The first block. Ryder was punching in the air. I was far enough away that I didn't get hit, but I was close enough that one wrong move and I could. I gently mentioned maybe not punching the air. But Ms. S, one of the instructional aides, informed me that Ryder used to punch walls. Punching the air was way better. Agreed.

Ryder had a pretty constant monologue going. Sometimes I could follow his train of thought, sometimes I couldn't.

Ryder wanted to write "superhero" on his paper. Ms. S said he could write it on the back. Later in the day, he wrote it as his last name (although he knows his last name and could spell it when he was prompted to put it on his paper). 

There were worksheets (on the calendar, on telling time, etc). There were activities. Ryder was a little hard to direct, but he eventually got his stuff done.

At lunch, he disappeared into the bathroom and returned in a Batman costume. I had seen him in this costume on previous occasions, and as no one commented on it, I gathered it was a usual thing. Ms. S later told me Ryder gets to have lunch in the costume. Whatever works.

But by math class, Ryder was kind of done. There was a coloring worksheet that he was in a hurry to complete, but I could not get him to do it properly. I directed as best I could, but he wouldn't slow down enough to follow directions. But it was the afternoon of the Thursday before a four-day weekend, so we were all a bit burnt out.

After that, we got to do "fun Friday". (We had a science lesson in the lesson plans, but the IAs said Ms. H had texted them to shift us to a wind down for the weekend. That was fine by me.) Ryder got to hum along to whatever songs he was listening to on his computer. (They got out a Nintendo Switch and connected it to the big screen TV in the classroom. Several students enjoyed that.) 

It was a pretty standard day in that kind of classroom. I've definitely had worse. 

You want to see a bit of their math lesson? We started class with two videos. These were the same two videos I showed the last time I was in class. (They do a lot of repetition. It helps them learn certain concepts.) After the videos, they had other work. But the tunes are kind of catchy. 

Day in the Life of a Sub

Last Friday was a day...

As I drove to school, the sun was shining. And the rain was falling.

The rain wasn't supposed to be falling. The weather report had said we were done with rain (for a bit). 

Once I parked, I double checked the weather app on my phone (to determine which umbrella I'd bring from my car) to discover that the sub desk had called me. I called her back, and she let me know that my job for the day had been cancelled. 

But, they were going to switch my gig to another teacher whose scheduled sub had cancelled the evening before. As it was at the same school (two doors down from the teacher I was expecting to cover), it wasn't a major issue.

The teacher I was now covering was leaving on a field trip for a flag football tournament. These are the moderate to severe special ed classes, and the districts in the area have begun a "unified" thing where some special ed kiddos and some general ed kiddos play on various teams and compete against different schools. 

This, of course, meant that the classes would be light some students. I also gained a couple students (Zena...) due to them remaining behind while their teacher didn't get a sub. 

Once the dust settled, the first class went pretty smoothly. Then, instead of getting a prep period, I was asked to cover a class over in the new STEAM building. 

I found someone to open the door for me (they don't give me keys when I'm covering an extra period), and he had trouble finding the room. (I do not know my way around the STEAM building as it's new this year. I've subbed in there a few times, but every time I have to consult a map to figure out where I need to go. In a couple years, after I've been in the building several more times, I'll be an old pro.) 

What class was I covering? It was called BioAnimaker. Apparently, they're eventually going to learn how to make lifelike robots or something. The students explained that at the moment the class was more playing with 3D printers. (The new building has spaces for things that the school hasn't quite instituted yet. It's coming, though.) 

This is how I learn about some of these things. I cover the class.

After that class, it was time for art.

Ms. A co-teaches an art class with a general ed art teacher (who I've subbed for a couple times this school year). It's a mixed class--some of Ms. A's special ed kiddos along with Ms. G's general ed kiddos. (It's more of the unified stuff. They integrate the special ed kiddos into the general population, and they expose the general ed kiddos to students who are different.) 

As luck would have it, the art class was also in the STEAM building. I didn't have far to go at all.

After art was lunchtime. I got to sit and eat. I was enjoying the moment of not traipsing all over campus when... EARTHQUAKE. 

An instructional assistant was in the room with me (supervising her one-to-one student), but she didn't feel it. I immediately consulted my earthquake app to learn it was a 4.7 on the Richter scale. (I heard it was downgraded to a 4.6 later.) The epicenter was roughly 45 miles away. 

The earthquake was about ten minutes before the end of lunch. I had three students in the next class. And then I had two when one of them got called into speech. (A speech therapist has half hour classes with some of the kiddos from time to time.) 

Then the field trippers returned. (They got first place in the tournament.) Some remained in class while others went off to different classes. And Ms. A returned, although she was in and out finishing up things from her day off campus.

After all that, I needed the weekend. Although, some days are like this. I go all over the place and do various things. It helps that a lot of this was stuff I was accustomed to, so I just rolled with it. That's the gig.

Locked In

Wednesday. I had accepted a gig covering a moderate to severe special ed class, so I was prepared for a certain kind of day. It's not that I have to mentally prepare myself or anything as I've covered those classes enough times in the past that I'm not worried. But I do go in with certain expectations.

I arrived at the school. I parked. I attempted to get out of my car...

I have an older car. It has a manual lock. I flipped the lock open, and it snapped. My door remained locked and I couldn't unlock it. I couldn't open the door.

I managed to climb out via the passenger side. But now I was in a panic. What was I going to do now?

I attempted to focus on the job. I was at school. I could work. 

For the first block (second period) we had "unified cheer". The school has been doing more inclusive things with this population, like having intramural basketball tournaments and such. They can't do all the intricate tricks and gymnastics that the general population cheer squad does, but they can do the basic cheers. So, they practiced those.

The class is mostly special ed, but it has a few general ed students, and they helped the kiddos along. It's a PE class for all of them.

I was the co-teacher in this situation, so the main PE teacher ran the class while I "assisted". (Read: hovered at the perimeter of the class while inwardly panicking about my car.) 

Yeah, I wasn't much of an assistant.

It turned out that I had a prep period after this. After one of the instructional aides suggested Auto Club, I attempted to call and get a person to see if they had someone that could help. But, alas, it's all automated now. But, during the block of my prep period, I managed to meet with a tow truck driver only to discover that I could unlock the driver side door from the outside with my key, so I could get in and out.

Well, that's something. 

Apparently, I need an auto body shop to make that particular repair. Which is something I need to do now.

But, until I find that, I can get in and out of the car and drive it around. So, I was able to get home. And to work the next day.

And I had some time to calm down so I could be of some use to periods six and eight. 

(The classes went pretty well. We had the usual behaviors, but nothing too terrible. I've had some days with some doozies of behavior, so it was a pretty decent day.)

Perp Walk

On Tuesday of last week, I was back in Ms. R's moderate to severe special ed class. (I was last there two weeks ago.) 

The last time I was there, Zena had a meltdown that had her tearing one of the bulletin boards off the wall, and she battled her one-to-one aide about doing work (until it was almost lunchtime, when she was suddenly very cooperative so she could go eat outside). 

On this day, Zena refused to do any work. And to entertain herself, she kept reaching for her one-to-one aide's hair so she could pull it.

(I got pictures of her in action so the one-to-one aide could update Zena's mom on her behavior for the day.) 

Having a sub in the room (even though all the instructional assistants are there and things run pretty normally) throws the students off. The behaviors increase. Sometimes.

Zena was due to leave school early that day as she had a doctor's appointment. But getting Zena to leave can be an issue. (They told me about one day where Zena refused to budge for something like eight hours. They could not get her into her mother's car to go home.)

But one of the IAs had tried a trick with Zena that seemed to work. So they were going to try it again.

They "arrested" Zena.

They told her to stand, put her hands behind her back, and they held her like she was being handcuffed. Zena actually seemed to enjoy this. Then they perp walked her out of the room (getting someone to grab her backpack). 

Zena loves attention. Negative or positive, it doesn't matter. I guess this gave her the attention she craved.

She was taken from class and delivered to her mother. I presume she made it to her doctor's appointment without incident.

It was a strange technique. But, whatever works, right? I wonder how long that'll work, though. These sorts of tricks only work for a short time.

Not Brown

Thursday I took a gig in a special ed class that was labeled as "moderate to severe" in the substitute teacher booking app. I knew what that meant, as I have covered those classes in the past. Many times. 

Fifth period. The instructional assistant (IA) asked me to help DeMarcus with his packet work. (The IAs know the kiddos. I don't. I follow the IAs' lead.) I was warned I might need to write things out in highlighter for DeMarcus to trace as he didn't write well.

It turned out I didn't need the highlighter. The first page had DeMarcus choosing which of two items was more expensive. All he had to do was circle. Then he had to count boxes. He could write his numbers.

The third sheet he was to do was a coloring thing. There were various items on it, like cereal, chicken, grapes, and butter. He was to color fruits and vegetables green, dairy yellow, meat red, and grains brown. 

Okay, easy enough.

We got the colors. I prompted him with the thing. "Are grapes a fruit or vegetable or are they a grain?" (When I gave him four choices, he said yes to all of them.) Then he'd color the thing.

It went pretty well until we got to the cereal. He figured out it was a grain. I told him to color it brown. 

The look on his face...

He did not want to color it brown. (I knew what he was going to compare the color to. He did not say it, but his face told me what he would have said if he was going to say it.) 

Well, we had a box of crayons. What would it hurt to color it something else? 

So, I gave DeMarcus the choice. What color would he rather use than brown? He chose blue. 

Works for me.

I left a comment in the note to the teacher that we substituted colors (so she wouldn't think that DeMarcus was just randomly using blue). Because, seriously, it wasn't worth getting into the argument.

A Makeshift Birthday Card

In every workplace there is that one person who takes on the emotional labor of keeping track of everyone's birthdays. They remind those around them of the upcoming, and they make sure that those birthdays get some sort of recognition. 

Friday. The second day of school. 

As we got things situated on Thursday, the aide commented that she had never worked on her birthday before. (Our school year is starting a whole lot earlier than it used to.) She wrote her birthday on the calendar. It was the next day. 

Ms. D had been one of the aides in Ms. S's class last year. (This is the class I covered from November to the end of January.) And Ms. D was the one who kept track of the students' birthdays and such. 

It totally slipped my mind that it was her birthday the next day, so I didn't remember to go out and at least get her a card. But I did remember when she arrived, so the class sang "Happy Birthday" to her. 

As soon as she went out of class to do something, I grabbed some construction paper and created a card for her. I had the students sign it. 

Then, quietly, I got the other aide to distribute the card to the rest of the school. 

I wasn't that sneaky about it, but Ms. D seemed surprised when I presented the card to her at the end of the day. 

Because the person who remembers everyone else's birthday deserves to have her birthday remembered. Even if it was kind of makeshift. Sigh. 

I informed Mr. G of the event. I hope he brings in a cake or something for her.

The Soft Opening

The first day of school kind of feels like the grand opening of a restaurant or other business. Everyone is there. Everyone is on their best behavior. You've got crowds and new things and all the focus is on the beginning. 

The past couple years, I've felt like a brand new employee (with no prior training) on the first day of school. I've moaned about falling into "vacant" classes, that is, a class with no teacher assigned. And while I know that's mostly how one works on the first day of school, I wasn't really looking forward to having to do that yet again.

And then a gig at the adult transition center popped up for the first two days of school. For Mr. G. Who I know didn't retire. 

While I had never subbed for Mr. G before, I spent 117 days at the adult transition center last school year. I've met the students. While I might not know Mr. G's exact schedule, I do have a rough idea of what he usually does. 

So, instead of jumping right into the school year, I'm kind of easing into it, like having a soft opening before the official grand opening. 

Things were a bit of a mess, as the room hadn't been prepped and Mr. G's usual aides weren't there. (One was out and the other got moved to a different class.) But I had Pizza, Leanna, and Brittany. And I'd been around the other three students before. (We were supposed to have incoming new students, but they didn't show up.) 

Not a bad way to start the new school year. And this group was way easier than Ms. L's group. (Although I did get to see many of them as well. I just saw them before and after school.) 

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.