Hello again, it’s been a while, but I’m back. Today I want to share what’s been going on with the student that I mentioned in the podcast. This is the student who has been diagnosed with Autism, but is demonstrating behaviors that are becoming more and more violent. She was recently suspended for hitting a teacher, but this week she was back in our classes. Today I had my first experience with her outbursts.
To go back a bit, we finally had some district help with the situation. Trying to get help from downtown, as you will find, is not always an easy task, but once the incidences starting becoming more violent, the distict started moving. What they did was hire an outside agency called CARD – Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.
They sent us a trained aide who will stay with the student throughout the day, following her to all her classes. Today, as I mentioned, the student had an episode in my class.
The student doesn’t like having the aide around, and she began kicking and slapping at the aide in the hall. The aide was prepared for this, and just kept her distance so not to get hit.
This went on all period.
It made me a little sad, because there is nothing I could do to help the student. Up until now, she had been fine in my class, and I was under the egotistical idea that it was because of my fantastic abilities as a teacher. Today, nothing I could say had any effect.
I always want to save every student, but one lesson that every teacher has to learn eventually is that you can’t. We try. We try as hard as we can, but there has to come a time when we have to let one go.
This school is not the right place for this student. There are other schools, schools especially designed to help students like this. Unfortunately, the parent in this case doesn’t want to admit there is a problem. I don’t know what will happen next. I only want what’s best for the student.
Today’s Tip For New Teachers – Wait For It – If you’re working on a class activity, and you know that they won’t finish it in class, don’t tell the students it’s homework until the very last minute. If you tell them that the assignment will be homework, guess what is going to happen? Yup, the students will put everything away and start socializing. Wait for it.
That’s all for today,
Here’s to lots of Success in the Classroom!
Sam
