Saturday, October 01, 2005
Back
The last few weeks have been very busy and I have been fighting vertigo so no blogs. I will try again.
The severe needs class has been part of the busyness. We started the year with 17 kids, diagnosis ranging from autism, cerebral palsy, emotional problems, etc. A kid too difficult to handle in any of the other district schools is likely to end up in our program.
Seventeen middle school kids with severe problems is a large class, plus we started the year short two paraprofessionals. As soon as the second came back we gained a new student, E., who requires strict supervision. Probably E. does not have any organic problem, she suffers from SLS, or Shitty Life Syndrome. Abusive father, victimized mother, homeless, etc., it is a very prevalent syndrome. As a result she has learned to be manipulative, a chronic liar, occasionally violent in a spectacular fashion.
I have two main duties. One is working with a 6th grader with severe attention problems. I sit in class with her and keep things in focus. Otherwise she will literally bounce out her chair and disrupt the whole class. She is making good progress.
