Summer School

My first year of work in my "new life" officially ended last Thursday. The last week of work was very chaotic but energizing and exciting. The kiddos were soOOoOoo excited, especially those that were graduating!

On Wednesday morning, the day of graduation, several of my 8th graders either came by or popped in real quick to give a shout-out. The best was when Foot Fetish Boy, who has avoided me all year since I had a talk with him about that, came into my room (tried to peek at my feet) and excitedly said, "Hi Ms. L--! Guess what! I'm graduating!" I was so happy for him and all of my 8th graders! I wished as many as I could, well thoughts for the future. :)

On Thursday, BF kinda guilt-tripped me into going to work. I seriously thought Wednesday was my last day, until my co-worker buddy (who calls me "kiddo") asked if I'd be in my office on Thursday. That's when I remembered that I filled out my calendar realignment incorrectly, and I should be at work. I wasn't going to go, but BF and I thought it was best that I didn't get fired.

Thursday was total ghost town at work! The Principal and Asst. Principal were at work (their cars were in the lot), but I saw a total of 5 teachers who stayed for maybe an hour. I was there for my whole 8 - 3, dude.

The weekend flew by as I tried to mini-detox and get personal stuff done. My car received maintenance on Saturday, and BF and I had The Hat while we waited in the 107 degree heat!

Yesterday (Monday), I started working summer school, seeing two classes of high school kiddos with autism ranging from mild to severe. Yesterday, I spent the whole day in one class and accompanied them to the public library. One kid, M, totally cracks me up. He is the highest functioning and is so social. He appears so passionate about everything; like he "loves" everything that we talked about. Any movie he picked up, he claimed was his favorite (and he also loves rap music, Lil Wayne, and T-Pain). And Holy snikeys! Anything that I said, he'd ask, "Why" or "why not." M is like everyone's homie. He says "what's up" to all of his classmates, even those that are nonverbal. LOL (and then he'd tell me, so-and-so "doesn't talk.")

Today, I was working in the other class. I sat next to this kid, J, who seemed pretty quiet and shy. I asked his aide if I could work with him after math. She looked at me kind of funny, sent him on a break, and then told me that this kid can get easily agitated so yes I can work with him, but don't push him too hard, and give him frequent breaks. She introduced us and we sat outside for speech. At one point, M walked passed us and said, "What's up [J]!" Since J didn't respond, I said, "Hey, M just said hello to you. You can say hello back." He continued to look down and not say anything (although we had been carrying on a conversation prior). Later on, J came traipsing in again, and when he walked past J's desk, he said to him, "What's up dawg!" and J responded, "Yo, M!" I was cracking up to myself about that!

The best was later on when J and two other boys were getting ready for their community outing. I had already asked the teacher if I could join them. I had no idea that these 3 "big boys" actually go out all by themselves! I was amazed and feared for them, but apparently, they're not newbies to this routine. The teacher suggested I drive, but I said I'd walk with them. Then I turned to shy J and asked, "Is it okay if I join you guys for Smart and Final?" He said quietly, "Sure, that's okay." When it was time to leave, I told the same aide, "Oh, I'm going with them." She looked at me funny again and hesitated before crouching down to whisper to me about how J can react aggressively or whatever to strangers so she wasn't sure if I should go or not. But then she turned to J and asked him, "is it okay if she goes with you?" and again he said, "Yes, that's okay." So when they lined up to leave, the two boys were practically out the door when J turned to me and said, "let's go, dude!"

We were all busting up! I had a nice (albeit hot) 50-minute round-trip walk with J, doing speech-therapy-on-the-go, asking him novel questions and working on his turn-taking skills. Dude, I had no idea Smart & Final was practically a mile away, but it was so awesome to see how these kids (through serious training and backward training) were so independent, crossing streets only when "the man" was up (and making sure each other didn't cross when they saw "the hand"), locating food items, exchanging money, and helping each other out.

It's been an interesting, fun beginning of summer school with the big little kiddos. :)