Missed the Bus

We have two CBI (community based instruction) days a week. 

The day before, the students form groups and decide where they want to go. Then, based on that, the aides and I assign ourselves to chaperone a group. I again got placed with the group going the farthest away from school (to a shopping center that's like three miles from my house). 

Before we leave, the students make a travel plan. Using Google Maps on their phones, they figure out which city bus we need to catch. Because of where the shopping center is located, we had to take two buses.

As I am a novice bus rider, I let Eddy figure out what buses we were to take. Kind of. (The initial route Eddy picked went way out of the way to get there. But that route had a bus leaving way earlier than the route we chose to take.) 

Plan in place, we got to the bus stop way early. But the bus arrived when Google Maps said it would, and we were on our way. 

The shopping center is on a busy street. It has parking in the middle with the stores all around the edges, so it's a hike to get from one end to the other. And hike is what we did as we started with WalMart and ended with Barnes & Noble, which are on opposite sides from one another. 

(This is the shopping center with the closest Michael's to me, so I go there quite often. If I were to visit those stores on my own, I would have driven the distance. I mean, it's walkable, but through a parking lot, and it is quite a distance.) 

By the time we got to the bookstore, it was close to the time we had to leave if we wanted to catch the bus, according to the time Eddy had figured out. We had a little time, though.

About the time we should have left, Eddy needed to use the restroom. By the time I located him, it was past time we should have headed out. We had to cross a busy street to get to our bus stop, not to mention the distance it was from the store to the street. 

By the time we got to the street, we spied the bus. There was no way we were going to get to the bus stop before it. 

And the next bus wasn't due for an hour. 

Oops.

Luckily, the group I was with didn't have to get back to campus for anything that day. 

As long as we made the next bus, we'd get back before the end of the school day. (And we had to get back before the end of the school day as some students take the school bus to get home.) We'd be late, but not too late.

It took a bit to convince the students that sitting at the bus stop was not necessary. If we kept better track of time, we could get back in time to make the next bus. (I had them time how long it took us to get to the PetSmart, and then we calculated when we had to leave based on that.) 

We made it with time to spare, and we made it back to the school. It was about forty minutes later than I would have liked, but it was twenty minutes before they would have sent out search parties. (I had my phone, so I could have called the school or the school could have called me.) 

I'm not sure if this was a good lesson for them or not. I'll definitely be more careful about bus times after this.

Bus Stop

I was back at the adult transition center, and of course we ended up at the mall.

This was a different class than the one I'd covered previously. These students were a bit more high functioning than the other class.

Outside the mall, we waited at the bus stop. I noted the signs. There were four different bus lines that stopped in this one spot: one for the city we were in, two for neighboring larger cities, and one for the neighboring county. (If you know the area, that all four lines met here would make sense.)

I have a car. I don't normally take the bus. So, while I knew what color bus ours was, I had no idea which route we were on.

When a bus that was the right color stopped, I didn't know if it was ours. I asked the students as if I knew the answer and I was just testing them,"Is this our bus?"

Nope, it wasn't. Our bus showed up a short time later.

(There was also an instructional aide with us, so it wasn't like I was doing this solo. But she was a ways away, and I wanted to know if we needed to move just yet. The students didn't appear to care one way or the other.)

Missed the Bus

One of the great things about the kind of special ed class I covered for six days was that they got dismissed from school about ten minutes early. This is so they can get on the "special" buses and be out before the crush of the normal dismissal time.

Tuesday, my first day with the group, the instructional aide (IA) dismissed them at the appropriate time. Another IA walked them out. Mr. C returned shortly thereafter to inform us that Davion had not gotten on his bus. Instead, he ran away.

Apparently (according to Mr. C), there's a girl. And Davion wanted to walk home with her. Permission from Davion's mom was sought... and denied. So, Davion was supposed to ride the bus. Per his mom. But he didn't want to. At least, that's what Mr. C thought the issue was.

Administration was contacted about the incident that day. And again on Wednesday when Davion again ran away rather than getting on the bus.

Thursday, an assistant principal arrived to check on Davion. Did Davion then get on the bus with her watching? Nope. He ran right by her and again missed his bus.

So, Friday they sent out a counselor to talk to Davion before it was time for dismissal. Ms. K pulled him outside to discuss things. At one point I saw her on her phone, apparently trying to call Davion's mother again. (The last time, the mother had said not to call her anymore. And Davion had to ride the bus.) I don't think the mother picked up.

Did Davion ride the bus on Friday? I have no idea. On Monday, Davion was out due to a suspension.

Ah, bliss. Some students... They make the day nicer just by being absent. Davion isn't the worst student I've ever encountered, but he was definitely the problem child in this class. While there were other issues, Davion was the one who was deliberately defiant.

My last day, Tuesday the 7th, Davion returned. And he explained his suspension. (We were curious.) Ms. K suspended him for cussing, although he denied the charge. He said that he had said "mother trucker" and Ms. K misheard. Since a day prior he had called either me or the IA (his story changed) a b*tch, I wouldn't put an f-bomb past him.

But the bus? I have no idea if he finally rode it or not. I didn't get a chance to find out before leaving for a new assignment the next day. He's being watched...

The silly things students do battle over...