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Etainne's Another Stunning Day!

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Adventures in Special Ed.

The first thing you should know is that I have not had a lot of experience with special ed.
I have spent the last couple of weeks in a longer term assignment as a substitute. It is in a high school and the kids are huge and very un-able. They are sever/profound disabled kids. some are smart but have limited mobility, others operate at a 3 year old level. they all have anger and frustration issues, come
from the state school and some are in occupational training half days.
There are seven or eight kids in the class. Some of them float in and out because they have no permanent classroom assignment.
Their paras (aides) and regular teacher like them to be separated. The paras are
convinced that these kids cannot DO anything. The school special ed
person wants them all to do life skills and writing and math.
I can come up with ideas to fill the time, but I am not spec. ed.
trained. I lived with a child with Cerebral palsy for a few years, and I
have seen mental retardation, spina bifida, Down's syndrome,Turett's and other conditions when I was working toward a genetics degree. I know that none of these kids are at the same developmental level, so the group idea is difficult.
All of them have lots to overcome.

So, basically, at any given moment, one of these kids could become angry
and really destroy something. Self-control is pretty much out the
window, here. They are on meds, but I can sure tell when they wear off. The regular teacher is out because he hurt his back restraining one of them.

For the first two days, I learned the routine and how the kids react to various kinds of stimuli. One was a young man of 18 who has one of the autisms He sleeps in the morning and literally jumps all afternoon. He is over six feet tall and only communicates using one word utterances. Today, he talked to me and held my hand. It was great! he followed instructions and even made a joke. He also ran away to see if i could catch him. he raided the refrigerator in the teachers lounge before i found him.Man, he was quick! I got him back to class( downstairs) by promising to share my coke with him. Yes, I did. I don't break my promises. The aides are afraid of him. he can bite and resists being handled by them. i found that if he is invited to join in then he is much more responsive. We even got to go outside! I have been told that he will never behave for them to be able to do this. the whole class is sequestered because of fear. I refused to let that be the case. These kids need to learn to live in the world, so let's be in the world! dammit! we have a hospital across the street, there are lots of real world things to learn about- traffic signs and such. They need this kind of teaching. It's right in the front yard!
In the last few days:
I got them back into the routine of doing papers and art and math everyday while i was there. i made the aids do their jobs. I wrote copious notes about behaviors and aptitudes so that other aids and substitutes can help them. We were starting to get a routine that worked for all of us. Progress was happening. One of the other kids actually taught me a thing or two about the computer and how to get music into a file. I got the special ed coordinator on campus to give me some guidance for the lesson plans. We had no lesson plans the first week. I was told that the teacher wouldn't be back for a long time, so i was willing to take charge and run with it.

But it is not to be. The regular teacher has decided to come back tomorrow. I didn't even get to say good bye to them. They think I will be there in the morning. I feel so bad for everyone involved.
Sever/Profound isn't my first choice, but These kids would make you try.

Posted: 8:43 PM, Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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