Things We're Thankful for...

I would have to say, I'm going to keep this story brief, because of how sad, but true this is for a little 8 year old girl.  She is one of my hardest kids in my class the past few years. (That's the beauty of special ed...we get the same children for many consecutive years) Last year,  she kept talking about how her mom and little sister were homeless and sleeping out of a car. She was able to explain in a lot of detail how they only eat every once in a while and how they can not take any more showers until they find a house. After reporting this to the district social worker, things seem to have gotten straightened out...or so I thought. This summer she and her little sister were taken from her parents and are now living with her grandma.
So with this background, you can understand the sweetness of this response. This thanksgiving we were talking about how it is the time of year that we give thanks for things we are grateful for. We made a list of a bunch of things that we as a class we can be thankful for. On this list we had things like....our family, our friends, our freedom. But when this little girl raised her hand and said, "I'm thankful for my bunkbed" I thought of how many kids would not have thought twice about being thankful for their bed.  It was so sweet and really touched my heart....especially this time of year. We all have so much to be thankful for.

A Text???

So I must admit that this next story comes from the 1st grade teacher across the hall and not from my little munchkins. But we had a laugh for quite sometime after school yesterday and just wanted to share it. She was doing a lesson in math on using a calculator. The kids were learning how to use different buttons and the different math signs. All of the sudden a little 6 year old gasp came from across the room and a little voice shouted, "Mrs. Ball, Mrs. Ball someone just text me!" She walked over to see how this could have been confused with numbers on the calculator and realized they they had just gotten a 'error' message and had done something wrong. What a different generation these kids are coming from. Wow!

I wish...

So just the other day I my kids were working in their math groups. One little girl had gotten up to blow her nose. She was kind of hidden back behind a bookshelf and by the coats and backpacks. Most of the time when kids don't come right back to their seats, they're usually playing with something, or getting into their backpacks. When I went to go check on this little one, I walked around the shelf. All I could see was her back towards me and her arms flapping rapidly up and down. When I over heard her whispering "Oh I wish I could fly! Oh I wish I could fly!" I just had to laugh. When I asked her what she was doing. She turned around and just smiled. Then asked "Mrs. Holden wouldn't it be fun if we had wings and could fly?" A little taken back I replied "Sure, let's get back to our math."  I have no idea where that little conversation came from...can I just say RANDOM!

Just Doing My Thing!!!

So this summer I had the privilege to teach ESY....Extended School Year...aka...Summer School. It's been a great experience and has opened my eyes to my profession. Most of the kids who attend ESY are the hardest of the hard. They have all sorts of behaviors and are really severe special ed kids. Which is quite a bit different than what I deal with during the school year. I was paired up with another teacher and we had 3 aides with a class of 10 kids. Yeah, I know what you're thinking a 2:1 ratio??? Wow how easy... well it was a very busy class and we needed every single hand in that room. Almost all of the kids were autistic, ages 5-7, half of them were non-verbal and 4-5 of them were still in diapers. A few of these kids really grew on me and were darling, one little boy was hilarious and so imaginative. He was fascinated by knights, castles, and dragons etc. and would pretend and have random conversations with himself about all these things. One day we were doing our bathroom schedule before we took them outside for recess. Well, he went to the bathroom two different times. Once in the hallway bathrooms and once in the classroom bathroom. Then we walked outside. Another adorable child, aka our little runner, decided to take off and I went chasing after him. When I brought him back to the playground I looked over to see this first kiddo with his pants around his ankles going to the bathroom for the 3rd time! I just had to laugh and tried to gain some exposure as I walked over to talk to him. He looked at me so innocent and told me he was "just doing my thing" I tried to explain to him that's why we go to the bathroom BEFORE we come outside....anyways, I don't know how much he really understood. But I will forever have this visual image of a cute little behind, with pants around his ankles, in the corner of the playground "doing his thing".

Girls aren't the only ones!

For those who say that girls are emotional...I beg to differ!
Come take a step into my classroom , well at least the past month or so. All of my kids, especially my boys have been incredibly emotional. I don't know why. Maybe we're all ready for some warmer weather and to get outside a bit. (I know I am!) And yet sometimes in the midst of my frustrations and I want to grab the little kiddos by the shoulders and yell, instead I just look over to my aides and just start to laugh (which I'll admit doesn't help the situation of a child who is kicking and screaming... but what else can you do)

• One little boy refused to do anything one day. His way of rebelling was to cover his eyes while saying the pledge.
  
• Another boy is always pretending he is asleep (he thinks this is a smart little trick to get out of doing stuff) He'll lay his head on his desk and close his eyes. Then just to make it a little more 'believable' he pretends to snore every now and then.
• Yet another little one.....again a boy.... I swear has a melt down after melt down after melt down. It doesn't matter who he's working with, what we're doing (even if it's a fun art project) or what time of the day it is. It's getting very old and not very funny (can you tell I'm losing my patience?)
• At lunch the other day I had my 3rd grade boy come running into my room crying because someone in the lunchroom looked at him wrong. Really? I can see a few of my girls doing this, but a boy?
• Then another one's mom forgot to pack something for lunch. Once again the tears.

I really could go on and share a few more examples, but I think you get the picture. I've never seen so many tears in such a short amount of time and all from the boys in my classroom. I don't quite know what to say or do about it. I've gone through a lot of tissue and tried to clam the issues at hand. It seems like this is an endless job.

A Very Observant Child

For being so low,  I'm surprised at how observant one of my little kiddos is. She is one of my hardest kids. She has a really high IQ, but is about 2 years behind academically. She is very emotional, ADHD and socially backwards in many different ways.  She is so impulsive and doesn't realized her actions (which makes consequences and discipline a nightmare). She will always have a place in my heart and my class is completely different when she is absent. It's almost weird. Anyways, she always brings a smile to my face during the day. Here are just a few snippets of the funny things she says.

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M: Mrs. Holden? Do you know what the dentist says?
Me: Does he tell you to keep your teeth healthy?
M: Of course he does! Don't you listen? Your teeth are yellow! You need to brush and floss your teeth to get all the bugs off...EVERYDAY!
Me: (Thanks for the tip!)
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***FYI one of the major things we've been working on is ways to show some you like them appropriately. She will latch on for a hug and squeeze so tight and never let go! Teachers, kids, strange people she doesn't know... it makes no difference.

M: Mrs. Holden- you're number one in my book....I love you!  (giving me the biggest hug ever)
Me: Thank you M---- that is so nice of you to tell me that! You are a sweet heart! (me trying to pry her arms off of me)
M: I wish I could take you home with me. You're my favorite teacher.  (still hugging)
Me: That would be fun wouldn't it!!! :) (still trying to get untangled from her long and strong hug) M--- remember to use your words to show someone you like them and not your actions....

M: But Mrs. Holden...I don't like you....I LOVE you! I can't just use words for that. I HAVE to show by hugging you. 'Love' is a lot more than 'Like'
Me: You're right, but we can't hug teachers like that. (a idea popped into my head, that i should have thought of a long time ago) Let's just give them a pinkie hug.

She thought that was cool and told me it was our new secret sign. I went along with the idea and now she'll run to me with open arms, like she's going to give me a huge hug and the stop and giggle and hold out her pinkie....we're making progress!
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 I sent M-- to the bathroom and she seemed to have been gone for a while. So, I poked my head out the door to see if I could see her coming back. I did not. I told my aides I was going to search for her. My classroom is down the hall and around the corner from the 1st grade bathroom. So who knows what distracted her along the way or where she wondered off to.  I didn't have to go far before I could hear my sweet little M--. She was singing at the top of her lungs and must have loved how her voice would carry and echo in those pink-tiled bathrooms.  I couldn't believe it really could be her. But sure enough, I soon as I stepped into the bathroom and she realized what she was doing. She got this really embarrassed look on her face and told me she hadn't even used the bathroom yet. Who knew how distracted you could get with a mirror, a song in your head and a bathroom that makes you sound like a star.

President Obama

So this month I got a few new students. It's been fun to get to know them. One of which I have to really watch and make sure she eats her lunch because of health reasons. Most of the time she brings back her lunchbox and I have her finish her lunch in the classroom, as I eat mine. We've had some interesting chats over lunch and today's little chat I'd have to say tops them all.

She started to tell me about how her family likes to watch President Obama on the T.V. (I'm thinking to myself .....her family likes our current president and must be on T.V. quite often for her to know who he is). But then she started talking about how sometimes he comes on T.V. on Saturdays and when that happens she doesn't have to go to church. She also mentioned how she loves to listen to President Obama, because they get to play bingo with smarties. I started to think and put it all together. It sounded a lot like general conference to me... and sure enough it was. When situations like this arise, I try to ask a few questions just to see what the little kiddos will say. It always makes me laugh. This is pretty much what I learned over lunch.

• In Primary they learn about President Obama and the other men.....(I'm guess they're also known as apostles)
• President Obama tell us to be nice and help other people
• She can't wait until General Conference comes again so she doesn't have to go to church.

I'm learning so much in my job! And don't worry....when I finished getting a laugh, I clarified that President Obama was president of our country and President Monson is president of our church.