Painting Pumpkins

One of the projects for last week for the class at the adult transition center was to paint pumpkins. 

We had the Nightmare Before Christmas fan: 

The student that likes purple: 

And Natalie did a paint pour technique: 

But the issue was with this one: 

This was Doris' pumpkin. 

Doris is non-verbal. She uses signs and her iPad to communicate with us. And she remains outside as she does not wear a mask. (I am unsure if she's incapable or if she just won't leave it on.) 

The day before the pumpkin project, she had a meltdown (read: screaming and hitting and throwing things around) after not being allowed into a chair someone else had brought outside for their use. She's adult-sized, so these tantrums can be dangerous to staff and students. 

On pumpkin painting day, she was called over to put her thumb prints on the pumpkin. (I filled in the ghost faces later.) And... She did not like this. At all. 

She reluctantly complied, but once she was released from painting, she started throwing equipment around (treadmills, elliptical machines). 

It was almost lunch time (so the other classes would need to be in the area so the students could eat), and Doris wasn't calming down. We were afraid she was going to hurt someone. So, we had to send her home. 

What we can't figure out, though, is what set her off. I thought it was a cute project. 

All Accounted For

I was informed that it was the Great California ShakeOut day when I arrived at school on Thursday. I immediately flashed to last year's drill. At least this year I actually had an in-person class to conduct it with. 

As I had no wheelchair-bound students in this group, we were all able to get under the desks for the required minute. And then we evacuated to the parking lot, which wasn't too far from the classroom. (Being at a very small school helps.) 

For the first time, I didn't bother to bring out the class roster with me. We are required to take roll to make sure all our students are accounted for. As I had five students to keep track of, I figured I could easily do that in my head. 

We got to our area, and I ran through the class roster. All five students were there. 

That's when the school's secretary came up to me requesting the class roster. 

Um... Every other school does not specifically ask for a roster. At the larger schools, they have us hold up a green card to indicate we have all our kiddos. (Or a red card if we do not.) So, it didn't occur to me to bring it out. 

I mean, I could articulate that every student was there (and list them by name). And ultimately that was accepted. (They didn't tell me that I'd need to turn in a paper.) 

Just when I thought I'd get through a drill unscathed...

Computer Quest

The assignment was for a week at the adult transition center. I was just there after I finished off the long-term geography/economics assignment, but before that it had been a couple years. (They're on the same campus as the alternative education center, so it hadn't been that long since I'd been at the facility.) 

I'm pretty sure I had met all the students before. I know for sure I'd run into Natalie. 

Natalie has one goal in life: play on the computer. And everything she does is in aims of getting onto that computer. 

The class is set up so that the students get computer time after lunch. Before that they have other tasks. 

Natalie does task boxes. She reads Green Eggs and Ham (her favorite book). She has it memorized, but the instructional assistants (IAs) tell me that she can actually read. But she won't pick up any of the other books. 

While doing these things, she will get out of her seat and drift over to the computers. She'll look longingly at them. And she'll open her computer...

We have to instruct her sharply to go back to her seat. 

A similar thing happens at lunch. She's supposed to be outside, eating. She'll throw away her food and then drift into the classroom. 

I have taken to standing in the doorway to prevent her from entering. She'll attempt to go around. I'll block. And that works, for a time.

But, Natalie will then attempt to enter the other classrooms and use a computer in there. 

She even "borrows" the iPad of a fellow student (who isn't verbal so she uses her iPad to communicate). 

On Friday, another student brought that iPad to us, telling us Natalie had been taking pictures. The IA began deleting those pictures and videos. After about a dozen deletions, she walked away to finish deleting them away from the group. Natalie had taken a lot of pictures. 

It's an ongoing thing. At least, until after lunch. Then Natalie gets to use the computer for the rest of the day (about an hour). 

In the Comments

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

What if there was a way to blog comment via an app like Twitter (so we could easily reply, respond, and keep the conversation going)?

Two Down...

…and one to go.

And octopus #3 is already started. (As of this writing, I am up to the first tentacle.) 

Hopefully I'll have good progress to report next week.

I Love Math

Back in April when I was doing that long term eighth grade English class, I had a co-teacher. On Friday, I subbed for her. 

I did get a chance to work with Ms. R for the first class of the day. For the last class of the day, I worked with a seventh grade math teacher. The lesson for the day was multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers. 

Ms. M (and all the math teachers at the school, really) are great. I wish my math classes had been taught like this. It's very interactive and hands on. 

After having gone over the essentials and having given them some time to practice, Ms. M showed a little video to drive the lesson home. It's amazing what's on YouTube.

To the tune of "I Love Rock and Roll": 

Energy Boost

Special ed chemistry. They were to look up current news events in science and write a summary about an article they read. 

Warning: this post is NSFW. Proceed with caution. 

First period. As Thomas walked in, he announced his presence. "Who are you?" he asked me. When I explained, he replied, "Ms. Y didn't tell us she was having a sub today."

The rest of the class disagreed. Ms. Y had warned them of her absence. That's when Tom admitted that he hadn't been at school the previous day as he hadn't wanted to get out of bed. He wasn't feeling much better on this day as he had forgotten to take his meds. And he had an energy drink which he warned was going to make things much worse. 

Yup. 

While the rest of the class worked quietly, Tom loudly made comments about stuff that had nothing to do with anything. For the most part, the rest of the class did not respond. Apparently they are used to Tom's antics. 

Thomas started almost immediately. While I explained the assignment to the class (something they had done a few times before, so I didn't have to do too much explaining), Tom told the girl seated near him about his energy drink. 

It boosted his energy with caffeine, but he felt it needed something more. Semen. Specifically, his semen. (I wish I was making this up, but that's the word he used.) When I jumped in at that point, Tom pointed out how he felt his power should lend him energy, or something like that. And not only him, but he felt the energy drink should use that in their formulation for everyone. 

Later in the period, Tom explained that he liked to say rude things because he liked making people angry. He liked to get people to react to him. He also said he had no empathy, which I suppose is why making people angry was fun to him. 

If he was trying to get a reaction, he failed. Mostly, the rest of the class ignored him. (They heard him, but they did not react or even respond.) 

He made political statements. He talked about the Satanic church. He called people, especially his classmates, stupid. Many things he called out for being racist (none of which were, actually). 

Funnily enough, I didn't disagree with many of his statements. The only thing I had a real issue with was his calling for murders. Well, that and the tone of his outbursts. 

If I had had an aide with me that period, she would have removed him from the class early on. As it was, I kept a list of what he talked about, and I left it for his teacher. I imagine there was a meeting with administration after all of this. 

(Oh, he kept his mask on the entire period without my having to remind him to pull it back up. If he had really wanted to get a rise out of me, all he would have had to do is refuse to wear his mask.)