9:30 AM
"Alright ladies, let's get started." Ms. Shah announces and Regina and I jump into action. The desks are set up in two rows with the two girls in wheelchairs at a table upfront. I stand up and go to Clay first.
"Hey bud, go sit." I tell him and he just stares at me for a second. I take a step forward and sign for him to stand up and he slowly pulls himself out of the swing and goes up to his desk in the middle. Rebecca is already sitting at her desk as usual, head down, as Regina gets her AAC out of her backpack and sets it down among all of Rebecca's toys. She tends to prefer everything organized, but she doesn't rearrange the device, she would rather it didn't exist on her desk, but she doesn't respond to it at all. I walk over to Aaron and tap his foot.
"Come on bud, it's time for the morning meeting." He just looks at me but goes back to putting his puzzle together. I walk away for a moment.
"Jose, go sit." I tell him and he gets up.
"Sit, sit." He says as he goes to his desk. He starts rocking back and forth and staring at his hand as I walk over to Neal who is still sitting in the swing.
"Go sit." I tell him and he looks at me before pointing toward the door.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" He vocalises with urgency.
"Do you want to turn off the lights?" I ask him and he stands up.
"Ights." It can't even be classified as a whisper, more like a breath with a bit of pressure behind it to make a sound.
"Okay, go ahead and then go sit." I tell him and he goes and turns off the lights before going to his desk. The lamps are already on in the corner near the bathroom and by Ms. Shah's desk, and the blinds are pulled up on the one window we have. I walk up and position Lauren so that she can see the board. I pull up my chair as Regina walks up to Aaron.
"Aaron, you can finish your puzzle later. Get a good job now or you won't get your iPad." She says and he jumps up off the floor pillow and runs to his desk where his iPad is waiting, open to TouchChat. I sit in the front corner between the girls at the front table and Clay and Jose's desks, right next to Neal who immediately stood from his seat, took his headphones off and rocked on his feet.
"Takum, tak, takum!" He yells.
"Neal, sit." Ms. Shah says. I stand up and gently put my hand on his shoulder guiding him to sit back down. This would be the first of many in this short 30 minute period.
"Let's see, since it's kind of gloomy today, let's listen to Singin' in the Rain." Ms. Shah says as she pulls up YouTube on the SmartBoard and looks up the good morning song. Jose is rocking in his chair happily as the song plays.
"Good morning!" He yells as soon as it's over.
"Good morning. How are you?" I ask him as I turn around to Clay's desk.
"I'm fine. Good morning, Rebecca." He says. Regina taps on Rebecca's shoulder before moving her to sit up.
"Put your head up, Rebecca. Say good morning." Regina says and the only sound for a few seconds is the clicking of buttons.
"Good morning." She says. I pull up next to Clay.
"Hey bud, can you say good morning?" I ask him and hold out my hand. I don't know why, but he holds onto my hand as he pushes the buttons on his device. He doesn't need my help, we've been practicing it enough that he's got it.
"Good morning." He says. Neal and Aaron say good morning also with very little prompting.
"Okay, how is everyone?" Ms. Shah asks. "Can everyone make full sentences?" She says and I pull up next to Neal.
"Hey bud, how are you feeling?" I ask, and he immediately goes to his descriptions.
"Can you make the full sentence? Start with 'I'. Here let's go home. Click 'I', right here," I motion to the screen and he clicks it as the device speaks, "okay, can you find the word 'feel'?" I ask him and he looks at me while twirling his finger around the screen.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha." He vocalises and I look at his device to find the word.
"Look, find the word 'feel'" I tell him again as I point almost directly at it. He hits the button and the device speaks, "good, now, how do you feel?" I ask him and he looks at his device for a moment before clicking 'happy'.
"Okay, can you make it say the whole sentence?" I ask and he taps the bar at the top of the screen.
"I feel happy." He says.
"Good job! Everyone feels happy today." Ms. Shah says as she flips to the next slide. It has WH questions on it and she takes a moment to find the other slideshow.
"Okay, who wants to answer this question? Aaron, you want to answer a question? Stand up and go to the board." Ms. Shah says. Aaron stands up and heads up to the board.
"Where do chickens and cows live? A farm or the circus? What do you think Aaron?" She asks, and he points to the farm.
"Good job! Chickens and cows live on a farm!" She says and he quickly sits back down.
"Rebecca, you get to answer a question. Stand up and go to the board." She says. Rebecca stands up, looking disoriented for a moment before walking up to the front.
"Where do we watch movies? The theatre or the grocery store?" Ms. Shah asks. Rebecca just points randomly without looking, she's not in the mood today.
"Rebecca, look at the pictures and try again." Ms. Shah tells her. She looks at the board and instantly picks theatre.
"Good job! That's right, we see movies at the theatre!" Ms. Shah says as Rebecca rushes back to her seat. This goes on for about 10 minutes before she decides that everyone has had enough.
"Alright, who wants to do my date?" She asks as she hooks up the touch screen device.
"Date, date. Jose!" Jose yells as she finishes the set up.
"Okay, Jose, go ahead." She tells him and he runs up to the board. He hits the play button and as he waits for the new window to open with the calendar he rocks a bit.
"Mmmmmmm" He groans a bit as he stares at his hand for a moment. As soon as the window is up and the play button is there he starts the calendar.
"Yippee! Today is Wednesday, September 14th, 2022." The program says. It takes Jose just a bit to put all of the pieces together. He drags them across the screen.
"Great job!" The program says as it brings up stickers and other different kinds of decorations for the calendar. Once Jose is finished he goes back and sits at his desk.
"What does the weather look like today?" Ms. Shah asks. Jose looks out the window for a moment.
"Cloudy." He says and I scoot back to Clay to help him find 'cloudy' on his device.
"Good job! Why don't we listen to a song about the weather?" Ms. Shah says as she goes back to YouTube. She finds the song and starts playing it. Neal gets up out of his desk because he found something more interesting in the video queue, he tries to click on it but it doesn't work.
"Ha, ha, ha." He says pointing at the video he wants.
"No, sit back down, we're doing morning meeting." She says and he whines but sits anyway. Since we have about 10 minutes left Ms. Shah has also decided to listen to everyone's favorite seasons song. It starts playing and Lauren immediately sits upright in her chair and starts clapping along.
"Here we go, oh, oh, the seasons of the year." The song plays and Lauren sings along as best she can. Once the song is over we're back to the PowerPoint for one last song before PE.
"Alright, everybody stand up, let's get warmed up for PE." Ms. Shah says. I stand up and motion for Jose and Neal to do the same. I pull on Clay's arm to get him up but eventually he's standing and we start the 12 Months of the Year song by Jack Hartmann. Everybody's doing their own version of the dance in the video and Lauren is singing along.
YOU ARE READING
Special but Not So Different
General FictionDisclaimer: This is a slightly fictionalized story of what it's like to exist in a special education classroom. Names have been changed to protect students and teachers. Behaviors may seem exaggerated, but all of them are real and as extreme as they...
