Examples of my days

So, there is going to be a bit of complaining coming up.  I know, I know!!  It's a new job, in a new School, in a new District, in a new State within a new Culture.  However, all of that aside, there are some great moments that are coming out of my experience.  With all of that being said, let me just say that I still do not have an aide, and the two boys in my care for most of the day......literally!

When I say a run for my money, I mean THEY RUN!  I have no one to help me out, and when they take off, I have to chase and force them back into the classroom.  This bothers me a lot, actually, because I've never been one to touch a student.  They do not give me a choice, so I have to grab the arm of one and literally pick up the other.

This past week, the boy with Down Syndrome really fought with me.  He clocked me a couple of times and I was stunned.  What was I supposed to do with him?? There's no way for me to actually follow through with any consequences because I have no support! Then, I got to spend time the following day telling him to put his clothes back on and stop wagging his privates at people.  

Today, he reminded me of the differences between boys and girls with these drawings.

 The boy is adorable, but he takes a lot of energy.  Now, in my own defense, I have been hearing that no one really worked with him for the last 4 years. What the hell is that?!  How can the school have people working in Special Education who don't actually work with the children??  Oh, that would be because they were on The Rez.  Apparently, there were low expectations.  

So here I am, working my ass off trying to get things situated and get the kids learning.  Silly me for not knowing that I was fighting the uphill battle because no one had done their jobs prior to me.  To say that I have been frustrated would be an understatement.

Getting back to this student - I asked him what he was drawing on the tutu, and he grabbed my boob and then pointed to the drawing.  Ahhhhhh.  He drew boobs.  Nice.  Then I made the mistake of asking what was on the man, so he pointed to his own crotch and then dangled his hands below to motion large privates.  Excellent!!  All I could do was giggle a little and then remind him that while accurate, it wasn't appropriate.

Seriously, how is this young boy going to make it next year when he leaves The Rez and heads into the Town for school?  The Crow Agency is only K -5, and this boy is going to be expected to follow school rules and have acceptable behavior.  His disability isn't going to allow him such the free ride as he has been used to. 

By the end of each day, I am usually exhausted.  To be so consistent with these boys takes everything out of me.  Again, did I mention that I still do not have an aide??  That means I have to borrow other teacher's aides when I need to go to the bathroom or help with another student who throws full temper tantrums upstairs.  I have three other students that I'm supposed to be working with, but I do not have the ability to pull them in to help since I can't leave the other two, and there's no way to occupy their time while I work one on one with another student.  

OK, so all of that bitching and griping aside, I was able to get this boy to write his name (most of the letters were legible), and  he's starting to behave in his regular class and in the hallways.  

My other student who is Autistic has been another challenge for me.  He cannot read which I find irritating.  He can memorize words, but he cannot put them together.  He can answer questions related to the reading, but he cannot speculate or hold a conversation about the reading. My greatest accomplishment with him in two weeks was getting him to write his "own" sentence meaning that he wrote a sentence that he wanted to write which was also a complete thought.  I simply asked him to write a sentence about something he likes.  He kept asking me what to write about, but I only repeated the direction.  Finally, after 46 minutes, he wrote, "I like cheese pizza."  He had to ask how to spell the words, but I also refused to help him with that since he knows all of the words from his reading books.  I had him pull the book out, find the words and copy them down - which he did.  

This young boy had never been taught that the words he was reading needed to also be spelled and comprehended.  So, I have been working on that as well as behavior, and having him add past 10.  If it requires more fingers than ten, he can't count.  

All in all, I have had huge success on the job, but it falls short of where I believe I should have been after two weeks because I simply cannot do everything by myself.  

On a brighter note, the girls are LOVING school!!  They love their classes and the kids they are going to school with.  They are having a great time walking to and from school as well as being able to walk to the library and to friends' houses.  Ken enjoys being here as well.  We have the lawn mower now, and he is able to get outside and do work as well as get the work done on the house.

Poor Ken is home all day taking care of all the things that need to be done here.  He is working his tail off just as much as I am.  After 5 weeks, we finally got living room furniture, which is AWESOME!!

I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to sit somewhere comfortably rather than at the dining table all of the time.  We have one more item still on its way for the living room - the bar! I think it will compliment things very nicely.