Woogi World

My dear little friend "Jonah" and I have gotten to know each other quite well this past year and I've become his little advocate at this school. He can be quite a handful sometimes, but I seem to have a good rapport with him and he actually works pretty well for me. He has Asperger's Syndrome. Actually there are a few of them at the school that I work with but this one is worth mentioning. What is Asperger's Syndrome? It is an autism spectrum disorder that differs from autism in that the child will be more verbal, and retain more cognitive development than the average autistic child. A good book to read about Asperger's is Look Me In the Eye by John Elder Robison, 2nd ed. So back to my story....

The kiddo I work with really struggles with social skills and doesn't have many friends. However, he is one of the brightest kids I know...I guess that doesn't take much being a resource teacher, but honestly, he can be smarter than me at times. He comes down to my room a few times a day, because he struggles working in big groups. At the same time, I relieve the other teachers so they don't go completely insane.

Well, a week or so ago he had earned some free time because he finished all of his work. I let him get on the computer, because all of my other kids were at an assembly. Poor "Jonah" struggles with those as well...way to many people and too much noise. So I let him hang out in my classroom until it was over. He asked if he could go to his favorite website "WOOGI WORLD" I must be out of the loop. I didn't know what this place was and I asked him to tell me about it and show it to me before I'd let him just go and play. Well, I've never seen him so excited. After a brief explanation it seemed harmless and I let him play he was really quiet for a while then he exclaimed...

"Mrs. Holden I just made you into a Woogi. I've invited you to my Woogi World and now you're a citizen in my place. Can I look at you so I can make your Woogi look just like you?"

Then everyday after that "Jonah" wanted to play on Woogi World after he finished his work. He keeps me updated each day on how many Woogi dollars I've earned and all the virtual things I can buy with them.

I've learned, that it just goes to show that if you take a few minutes to show some interest into what a child is excited about...it can mean a lot to them and go a long way.

Lock Down Drill

Tomorrow we're having a whole bunch of different "drills" and because my kids are a little slower, I thought I'd prepare them a bit by going over the procedures of what to do in each scenario. The Fire and Earthquake drill wasn't too hard to practice. However, when I started to explain what to do in a Lock Down Drill and why we'd have a Lock Down Drill. They started getting a little worried. They asked all sorts of questions about who could come into the school, and why they'd want to come in the school. I tried to put it simple without scaring them and really tried to emphasize how we do these things to keep us safe. I had one little boy raise his hand and ask...

"Mrs. Holden, my dad just got out of prison and he's not supposed to see me and my little sister. So if he came here to get me would, Mr... (our principal) put the school in Lock Down to keep us safe? I'm scared that he'd come after me!"

My heart just broke into pieces. These kiddos have to deal with so much I never even thought about at their age. I can't believe it sometimes. They are such good kids, but sometimes come from not such good backgrounds.

Brain Doctor

This week I went to go get one of my little second graders. As we were walking back to my classroom, I asked his where he was yesterday. I was mostly likely expecting the usual answer when kids are absent "I was sick" But instead I got an earful. He told me that he went to a "Brain Doctor". It took me a minute to really understand what he was saying. I asked him if he had been having headaches thinking this may be the reason. He told me no. By this time we were back to my class, we got started on things. I didn't think much about because, I have kids that tell me all sorts of things that aren't true. But then later, he started talking about this brain doctor again. He said that he was doing okay and wasn't seeing black spots anymore. After he said that, I realized that this was no made up story. I couldn't believe all the things he was telling me about this doctor. I need to call his mom and find out the entire story.