Tuesday,
June 05, 2012
I get up, get to school, the usual. I’m enjoying tea more and more and have it in
the morning before the bell rings, at morning tea, and sometimes at lunch. I used to never drink tea before I came
here. All the boys came to school today
which is great. We spent the morning in
the multi sensory room. The room has all
sorts of things. All the lights are off
in the room and there is a disco ball, lava lamps, fiber optic lights, random
touch and feel things, a pen with balls that kids can sit in, and bean
bags. The kids actually stayed quiet and
watched the movie on polar bears that we had playing. Such cute animals they are.
After morning tea, three of the kids went down to Bondi pavilion to eat
their lunch. One teacher stayed back with
the two boys and then the other teacher and than a man who comes in and
volunteers an hour in my class every Tuesday and Wednesday. We had a lot of fun outside and then we
ordered hot chips. Now no one can make
fun of me but I had a light bulb go off today.
We ate by a restaurant that advertising their fish and chips. I realized the whole chips part of it and why
we call it that back home. I thought it
just always had that name, not that French fries are called chips somewhere
else. I felt pretty silly but it made me
laugh that it just now came to me. I walked
there and back with one of the boys, he’s about 6 foot and I’ve realized how
sensory he is. He held my hand almost
the whole time and he absolutely loved to run his fingers over the calluses on
the inside of my hand, plus my hands feel pretty dry because of them. He’s a smart boy because he hates loud noises
and when we are walking he recognizes that a motorcycle and buses make loud
noises so he quickly goes to cover his ears when he sees one. He also makes all kinds of noises with his
mouth, I like to repeat the sounds he makes and then it makes him laugh and
smile all the time.
In the afternoon session we tried to get the kids to do more academic
things. I worked with the most
functional kid in my class during this part.
I got pretty frustrated working with him, and I knew it was my fault but
I couldn’t help myself. He has sheets
that spell out his name, address, and phone number with matching Velcro parts. So we would pull off all the letters and
numbers and say them and then find the matching letter or number. He does those well because he does them so
many times. The only problem he has is
he won’t stop repeating. I will say yes
good job, but he just keeps repeating.
However, we moved on to where there was a picture of a fruit and then
the name of the fruit that would Velcro on.
I got so frustrated and looking back on it I know I shouldn’t have. I would ask him what fruit it was and the
only two he has memorized are apple or banana so he would just guess that for
every picture. But I tried breaking down
the words into syllables and it would upset me cause I would say the first
syllable like water and then follow with melon.
But he wouldn’t listen to me complete the word and would start repeating
right away and not hear the second half.
So then I would break it up into two separate words but it’s as soon as I
start with the first phoneme he jumps right in repeating. I know it has nothing to do with him, I just
would like for him to have some kind of progress. I know I’m not a teacher either so I don’t
have any previous history to know of any ways exactly to teach things like this
either or how to handle these situations.
On some words though he did do well repeating the name of the
fruit. He does a good job watching my
lips trying to mimic how they move. He’s
such a good kid and is always helpful in the classroom.
The taxis came early because of a big storm coming so we gathered up the
kids quickly. My end of the day didn’t
go so well at school. One of the boys
right before he has a seizure he grabs on to anything around him, and that
today meant my hair. His one hand got my
pony tail which didn’t hurt, it was his other hand that had hair right at the
front of my scalp. His grip is so strong
though, it took 3 people to uncurl his hand around my hair. I had to write up an accident report after
school for it. Then as I was waiting in
a chair next to another kid I was holding onto him because he was being silly
and jumpy. He unfortunately got out of
my grasp and I had to sit up and run after him, yet when I was sitting down I had
my legs crossed and when I uncrossed them to sit up and run after him the
zipper on the back of my boots ripped my jeans in the front. They were the only jeans I brought to Sydney and
were my favorite pair. I was so sad ha.
My evening wasn’t too fun. I spent the majority of it studying for this
wine quiz I have tomorrow. My attention span isn’t what it’s normal like when I’m
in class every day. Staring at a
computer screen takes much more effort. I’ve had my jack Johnson albums on
repeat all evening, I think it complements the rainy weather well.
The Gap
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