Friday, February 25, 2011

Such a cute week

Although every week is, really. So many funny and entertaining things happened. Shall I make a brief list?
- I hugged a cute little girl in my class who promptly started purring like a cat and rubbing against my arm.
- The sweet little boy with the voice like an angel had his mommy substitute for his aide and kept giving her kisses in art class and saying "I love you mommy!" His mommy would respond in equal measure. :-)
- A shy little autistic boy beat me in chess! We had a $5 bet going on and he was sooo excited to win $5 of fake, school money. He kept telling his classmates, "Look, I'm beating Ms. Christy!"
- I suggested a 7th grade boy make his copper key chain Emperor Palpatine. He agreed but then lost focus halfway through and started making a zombie.
- A "cool" 8th grade boy thanked me for helping him with his math homework. This is BIG if you know 8th grade boys...
- A cute, chubby autistic boy burst into tears in class and his classmate cheered him up with this sentiment: "If it makes you feel any better, my parents are robots!"
- I saw a student carrying his baby sister on his shoulders.
- Saw so many amazing pieces of art in the 6th grade art class. Some of them have such talent. Just a perk of working at an arts-focused school. ;-)
- Got two truly glowing recommendations from my colleagues for a scholarship I applied for. I couldn't thank them enough.
- While waiting for a precious 6th grade girl from my class outside of the bathroom (unbeknownst to her) I heard her singing at the top of her voice.
- A student gave me the nickname Ms.Christy@yahoo.com. *note: this is not my e-mail address!
- One of my students earned the "Leading the Way" award. A very high honor bestowed to an outstanding student every month.
- The students were tested on their math and reading this week and many of them improved by more than 200 points since last year! Truly awesome!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

'Ello

So, remember the little boy I talked about in my last post? Well, here's a news flash: he's blind. I just found out this week. Duh! Of course he only responds to sensory input, he can't see who the heck I am. I tried to interact with him again the other day, but he was sitting at his desk with his chin resting on his hands, fast asleep. Yes, he sleeps sitting up! He is such an interesting little guy. The other day he was at an assembly where I heard him giggling the entire time. It makes me glad to see him so happy. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen him crying or upset. Wouldn't that be so amazing if you could never feel sadness or anger? Maybe he's luckier than most of us. Maybe he's happier than any typical person because simpler things make him happy. I know I'm going off on a tangent but this is an important point, and something I often think about.
I used to get really sad when I saw kids who had special needs. The more severe they were, the more I felt sorry for them. I didn't think I would ever be able to work with kids like that because I'd be crying all the time. However, as soon as I started working with students who have special needs, I realized that most of them appeared very happy. I began to think, "Why should I feel sorry for kids who seems perfectly happy?" They live in a completely separate world from us, so to speak. Their expectations and happiness are much different than a typical persons'. Being able to talk and walk, have a career, marry, have kids are not things a lot of mentally disabled people comprehend. If they don't comprehend something, then how can they miss it? What they can comprehend is love. I have never met a child with special needs who I didn't think could interpret love. Even those who were completely paralyzed and non-verbal I still believed could sense when someone cared about them. I could be wrong, but I strongly hope I'm right.
Perhaps I should talk about the actual class I work in more often! More on that next time. :-)