SPECIAL Education

A few days ago, while working on a math problem, one of my kiddos looked up at me and said, "Who invented numbers?" I told him I didn't know. He then asked, "How did they know how to make them look right? You know, a one looks like just one of something, and a two kind of looks like it's two things. How did they do that?" I wanted to hug him!

This week, while reading an article about IFO's (Identified Flying Objects) my students ran across the term "lenticular clouds" and chose it as a vocabulary word. While completing a Frayer model wherein they had to explain what the object was NOT, they wrote "It's not a UFO." I wanted to cheer!

Two days ago, I wrote an IEP for a student who is qualified (to my intense horror) as "Mentally Retarded." I then got to tell her mother that I was advancing her to the higher-level reading class because she was making such great growth. I wanted to burst with pride.

Last week, I called a parent to give her a good report about her son's behaviour in my class. She laughed a little, then in a very thick voice said, "I used to hold my breath when I saw it was the school calling, thinking 'what did he do this time?' Thank you so much." I wanted to cry.

Yesterday, a student of mine received a certificate for getting a "Pride" card. (This is a way to reward random acts of kindness and positive behaviour in our school.) While holding the orange certificate over her head for all to see, she proudly announced, "It's my first one!!" I had to smile.

A few weeks ago, a very shy, socially immature young man came into class. Unprepared as usual, he fished around in my "Borrow Me" box until he found a pencil. The pencil he lifted out was violently pink, with sparkly hearts all over it. He looked at the pencil for a moment, then looked at me and said "Well, if that isn't the manliest pencil I ever saw!" With that he heaved a resigned sigh and went to his desk. I laughed so hard I almost couldn't breathe. (He brought his own pencil the next day.)

Today, the bell rang at the end of a period, and one of my students looked up and said "It's time to go already?" I told him it was okay, he would be back tomorrow. I will be, too.

This is why.