Last Sunday, the night before the first day of school I went to bed thinking lots of things, but one of them was "is my throat starting to hurt?"
Sure enough, the next day I woke up with a cold. I thought this past year when I had a cold during TAKS testing that would be the worst possible timing for getting sick. But I was wrong, the first week is the worst timing. There is never a time you have to do as much talking as you do the first week.
So when my voice completely went away on Wednesday, I had to let go of some of the OCD behavior I never realized I had. I think it worked out for the best actually. I allowed the students to read to the lab rules and let volunteers interpret what they meant. I realized I should give them more credit than I do. They did better than I could in some aspects, and in less time (lets face it, I can ramble on in talking).
Of course, I had things this week that I realized I hadn't covered. Like what to do in a fire drill (I think by sixth grade they probably are pro's at this anyways). But all-in-all the shortened rules are probably something I will try to keep. No need to overload the kids, they won't remember them if you do anyways!
To pile on more excitement for the week, we have a new principal that decided to replace our okay (could use SOME improvement) duty schedule with a confusing, I-need-over-time-because-of-how-much-I-am-on-duty-now and lets-make-everyone-mad-about-duty, new duty schedule. This schedule consists of me standing in the sun waving the car pool cars on. I miss my Air Conditioned duty of monitoring students in the cafeteria from last year.
By the way, heat is not good for a cold.
Every day for the first three days I would come home and go straight to sleep, wake up for dinner and a bath, then go straight back to sleep. My plan was to sleep the cold away. I think the heat counter-acted this plan.
But then my roommate, Jessica, stepped in with her hippie medicine (yet again, she's always got something for everything). This time it was Elderberry. It has a medicine dropper and you put a few teaspoons in the back of your throat (so you don't have to taste the awful taste). I can't be for sure, but I turned a corner on that cold after that! I am definitely going to try that the next time I have a cold. I immediately saw results, and it just kept getting better! Supposedly it is something you should start using at the very moment you first feel you are getting sick. But I really think it was what did the trick for me!
Before this week began we had a staffing with the teachers of a certain student we were getting. He is a student with autism. Autistic children have a special place in my heart, love them! But during the staffing they were talking about how the elementary school at the end of the year had to call the police on him. They were also talking about the many little things that set this boy off. It is always scary when you hear these kinds of things about children you have never met. The elementary school had also written that it was very critical that we make the first day run as smoothly as possible for this student. I knew I had this student in my first period science class and in my last period study hall. I knew we would be the best of buds (so to speak). So when they asked who would like to be his homeroom teacher, therefore the one that ensures success the first day, I nervously, but without hesitation volunteered myself.
I had my entire first day planned out as to how I would approach everything to him. And it worked beautifully! No problems! I think the elementary teachers over did their preparations they gave us. There is something that always happens to student before they get to our school because they are always better adjusted than people tell us they are going to be, thankfully!
But now the boy with autism cracks me up. He showed me a picture of a campsite he had drawn, but was not done, and he asked me what he needed to add. I said it could use some grass (as well as a couple of other things) and he responded with, "I don't know how to draw grass, but I do know how to draw dirt, so I will draw dirt." Okay, I thought using the green crown would have done the trick, but apparently just doing that is not up to his par. Then when he gave the picture to me I noticed that he had glued a little piece of paper to the back to cover up the hole punch hole. I asked what that was about and he simply explained, "The sun couldn't have a hole in it, so I put a piece of paper so it could be a complete sun."
Got it, will keep that in mind for my future art projects.
Today he handed me a drawing that had some very cryptic writing all over it. He is in resource language arts, so writing is not his strong point. But I seriously couldn't make out a single word on the paper and before I could ask questions about it he said, "so can you come?"
Eek. To what?
Then he explained as if I was completely out of line that it was an invitation to his birthday party this weekend. He said he wrote directions on there too. But I asked about them and he just told me it was the name of his neighborhood and to then look for his mom's silver minivan with the dent in the back.
I had to crack up, that is an autistic child's directions if I've ever heard them.
But no, I will not be going to his birthday party. Partially because I never do that sort-of thing, but mostly because driving around an entire neighborhood on a Saturday looking for a silver car with dent in it just doesn't seem like my idea of a good time.
However, I did help him invite this other girl in our class to his party. She is a sweet girl that is also very low and in special education. I sat them together, and they are two peas in a pod. I explained that I would be out of town and not able to make it to his party. But I suggested that he invited that girl because it looks like they are friends. He agreed and suggested I just make a copy of the invitation he gave me. I shuttered at the thought of her mother looking at that invitation. So I urged him to have his mom help out with the invitation, we'll see how that works out (I have no idea, maybe mom doesn't want this girl to come, though I doubt it).
Anyways, the school year started off a little rough but not because of the students (which is the important thing). But it is on the up-an-up now!
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