Very Thoughful...

A week after school ended one of the parents in my class sent me an email.  She sent a link from from the blog titled From the Bowels of Motherhood.  The title of the article is "To the Caring Ones of the Little Ones with Special Needs."  It is a thank you letter to the self contained teacher who takes care of her son everyday at school.  It is well written and hits home on what a self contained teacher does daily.  There are many days I go home know no one really understands what goes on my classroom on a daily basis other than my staff and their parents.

 One of my favorite quotes from the article is:
 
  "I know you have to work harder than your fellow teachers who teach typical children to think        ahead for the day to try to see and prevent potential triggers and obstacles that might make our    children's days that much harder."

This hits home for me.  My class this year had students who were rigid when it came to their daily routine.  I constantly had to be 2 steps ahead of the schedule to help prevent meltdowns.  This was a challenge in and out of the classroom.  It was especially difficult on community outings.  One of my students is obsessed with DVD's.  If he sees the DVD section in the store he will run to the shelf, select a movie, and have a meltdown when you tell him he cannot purchase the movie.  His meltdowns or behavior never stopped us from going in the community. My staff and I had to be 2 steps ahead every time.  We had a few strategies we would use.  1.  My instructional assistant would walk between him and the DVD's.  2. We would avoid the DVD section at all costs.  3.  I would stand in front of the DVD section while my aide walked in between.  We only had one meltdown all year in the store due to DVD's, but we learned from the experience and made sure we were prepared every time we went on a community outing.

I encourage you to take a few minutes and read the article it is a good read.

Chris