I'm Back

I am full-time in my classroom again. My intern has moved on and after some medical issues I finally had a full week of school last week.

Toby is on ADHD medicine and is doing soooooo much better. He has moved up 2 levels in his reading, improved his sight word score and is more focused in class. He still is extremely silly and off-task a lot, but nothing like it was in the beginning of the year. He has a more controlled chaos now. He is currently being evaluated by our special ed team, but I doubt he will qualify because the assessments are all one-on-one. It is the distraction of the classroom environment that is so difficult for him. Thankfully our special ed teacher allows him to come to his study group after school to have a more quiet environment to work.

Shawn had a really hard week last week. He had meltdowns over EVERYTHING.especially having to do things he doesn't want to do. He tells me he doesn't like writing and I explained that we have to do things we don't like sometimes and that he will need this skill the rest of his life. I am extremely impressed how quickly he pulls himself out of his tantrums. He does seem to want to do things his way more than he used to. He started sitting at his desk when we are sitting on the carpet and I have been letting him do that because he sits right up front and he seems to focus better that way. When he is not upset he seems very happy, but he did tell me when he was mad that he hates school. I asked him why and he that is when he said he does not like writing. Which, is completely understandable given his handwriting concerns.

He told another kid today that he had to sit at his desk because he has sensory issues and that his sensory issues are worse than another kid in the class. I went over and talked to him about still having to learn to work in the world and that he can't use that as an excuse. He gave me a huge smile. He knew exactly what he was doing. : ) I do allow him to sit at his desk when we are all crowded on the carpet, I just don't want him to use that as an excuse for other things. When we are suppose to be writing, he wants to read. When we are suppose to read in our book boxes, he wants to read from the shelf. I was letting him read during the morning writing journal, but he seems to be pushing more and more to not have to do what the rest of the class is doing.  I of course will let him do things differently when I think it is important for him to function in the class, but not just because he doesn't want to do it.

Michelle is off-task ALL the time. She has been working really hard on a writing piece for weeks, but then she keeps losing parts of it and has to do it over. She finally finished it today. It takes her forever to get from one place to the next and she takes many detours to friends desks. Then when she does get to her desk, she spends a lot of time talking. It seems worse than it used to be.

Failing & Senstaional Kids

I feel like I am failing these kids. I get caught up in the daily schedule and my plans for the SPD kids go right out the window. Chaos has a way of doing that. It's the normal organized classroom chaos, but it makes life busy.  I have been forgetting to put in the shake breaks and heavy work. I have it very specifically entered into my daily plans, but I haven't been organized enough to get those out and printed. Too much going on. Now, my intern will be taking over, so it will be a couple of weeks before I post again.

I did read Sensational Kids by Lucy Jane Miller. It is a fabulous book. Normally I have a really difficult time reading a book, even when it is a novel, but I can't put this book down. I keep hoping there is going to be something in there that will help me get it right. It's hard when you have 3 different kids with different needs. Next, I will need to read The Out-Of-Sync Child.

Here's one thing I learned from the Sensational Kids book so far. I'll start with my favorite example of explaining what some kids might be going through. She talked about why heavy work is important. It sends a calming feeling to the same area in the brain that may be overstimulated. She likened it to when we eat something really cold and it makes our teeth hurt. If we press on our gums and teeth, it takes that pain away. Boy did that make sense to me. I know I can't explain it well, so read the book.