Fingers crossed

Well...we started 7th grade.

You may recall my gut-wrenching decision to pull Jaysen out of mainstream education, and to place him in a self-contained EI classroom. And believe me, it was gut-wrenching. There were many tears. And wine. There was lots of wine.

The verdict-
BEST.DECISION.EVER.

I never thought I'd say that, but he is absolutely in the best environment for him at this time.
Not only is my kid doing real classwork- he's in a super supportive environment to boot.

Case in point: There is an obnoxious kid in the class (I can totally call him obnoxious a) because he is and b) because he picks on and bullies Jaysen). So this obnoxious kid...decides he's going to keep targeting Jaysen. Nothing remarkable here, just your everyday typical bullying that Jaysen had been exposed to.
Here's what makes it different. The teacher (I'll get to his wonderfulness in a bit), has created a sense of community in the classroom. So when this kid got up to bully Jaysen, as he does frequently, the 3 kids whose desks are around Jaysen, saw this kid coming towards him. They all got up, and stood behind Jaysen, who was still seated at his desk.

Then...
One of the kids stopped the bully and was telling him to stop and turn around, and go back to his seat.

While...
The other two kids flanked Jaysen, and reassured him to just ignore the kid, and that Mr. Smith would be there soon to tell them what to do. When they had instruction from Mr. Smith, they would follow his instruction because he'll know what to do.

Wow.

Did you catch all of that awesomeness???
I know it's a lot. Allow me to bullet point.

* My child is learning. He's never had an educational environment that's been supportive of him in any way, let alone academically.

* My child's classroom is not only educational, it's a community. They look out for each other.

* My child has peers looking out for him. They not only look out for him, they encourage and mentor him!

So full of awesome, I can't even contain it.

I'll get to the awesome teacher in an upcoming post. I just had to reestablish myself in the blog world before my fans (namely, my father) leave me.

If you are still here, from back when I actually blogged for real...thank you and I love you!


*These are not actual asterisks, I am just that computer illiterate and can't master actual bulletpoints.

Not everything about winter is blah...

I am loved...

How do you know you are loved on your birthday?
By awesome birthday surprises like this!



 

No birthday is complete until your toilet is covered in toast.

 

 

They love me in strategically placed toast.

Totally made my day.

 

I love you guys!

And just because you may be wondering...

Compliments of Jaysen.

Thanks, buddy. ;)

 

Um....yeah

*Sigh*
It must be my curse in life, to not be able to laugh at hilariously funny shyt.

Case in point: 
Jaysen got in trouble in school.  Again.

When I went to school to pick him up, I asked him why he had to apologize to his teacher (who just happens to be very bright eyed, young, cute, peppy, etc.). 

He said he called her a name.

I asked him what he called her.

He hesitated, and finally said,
"Mom.......I called her........a sausage."

*blink blink*

I couldn't do anything but stare at him with this crazy look on my face, trying to suck my lower lip into my mouth, chewin' on it like the last supper, so I didn't bust out laughing. 
What made it worse, is he saw my face, and kept telling me "mom, it's not funny", while he's trying to keep a straight face too.

Oy.



Possibly related:

Decisions.

Head spinning....make it stop....

I have to make a decision.
I have to make a decision, and come to some terms I don't know that I'm ready to come to terms with just yet.

It's looking like next year, Jaysen will be moving into the self-contained, EI (emotionally impaired) classroom.

Ugh.
Okay, that wasn't too bad...

Here's what's going on.
The Autism Consultant explained it that Jaysen's educational predicament is unique because he has one foot in each program. He doesn't fit in total SpEd, but doesn't fit in GenEd either. Currently, Jaysen is struggling with mainstreaming. His behavior is impeding his classroom time, and that in turn is impeding his learning time.

Bottom line is despite everyone saying he is academically capable, Jaysen is having difficulty in the large, fast-paced, GenEd setting.  We can say he's not getting the right supports, but honestly, he's in 6th grade. How long am I going to fight for different supports, only to have yet another year wasted away? He works really well in small group or 1:1. He does awesome, in fact. He learns best when the instructions or assignment can be "chunked" and presented in a different way. GenEd isn't structured to do that.

The self-contained class I visited at the middle school was pretty promising. I really liked the teacher, and he seemed to be focused on the student's education. The teacher, being EI certified, is used to dealing with explosive behaviors, and won't necessarily take them personally, but might be able to help Jaysen work through and process them.

What sealed the deal for me though, was the promise that even in the self-contained classroom, Jaysen will still progress forward in the GenEd curriculum, and maintain on a diploma-bound track.
This is HUGELY important to me/us right now.
Jaysen wants to go to college. He wants to be a kindergarten teacher.
In reality- do I know that he will or won't go to college? No, nobody knows that at this point. He's in 6th grade. But my point to the Team was, in 6th grade, it's far too early to close that door for good. They agreed, and assured me he would, at this point, remain diploma-bound.

In a nutshell:
(negatives)
Jaysen will not be mainstreamed. He will be removed from GenEd and placed in SpEd full time.
He would have little to no contact with the GenEd population.
He would be in in a classroom with kids that generally have moderate-severe behavior problems (red flag to possible increase Jaysen's aggression)
If he and the teacher don't "click", too bad, it's the only teacher he'll have for the next 2 years.

(positives)
Super small class size. This year, there are 2 students.
He will remain on diploma-bound grade level curriculum.
The teacher would be able to present information in different ways, so Jaysen better understands what's expected.
He could work at his own pace, and teaching would be more individualized (Y'know, like the I in IEP?).

When I discussed this with Jaysen, he seemed apprehensive about going to a new school at first. I asked him his thoughts about the bigger GenEd classroom this year, vs the smaller Resource Room, where he had basically been all year last year as his main room. He did say he liked the smaller RR better.

I'm a stressed out fracking mess, because once the motion is accepted, I am basically signing off on him saying "General Education does not work for my son".
And I am coming to terms that, y'know, it just doesn't. And that's okay.
It is okay, right?
Yes, it is okay.

Send booze.
Okay?

B-day!

Happy 6th Birthday Ry!

 

You are amazing, and we love you so very much!

Happy birthday to my baby.

~xoxoxoxo~

P.S. You are still a dork.

 

Got math?

I'm sensing a theme here.
You all know my math skills suck.  I could try to sugar coat it, but really...they just suck.
And I'm okay with that, because I am able to conjugate verbs, spell, and grammarize (yes, grammarize) circles around most people. That being said...

I work for the CFO of my company.
He's actually pretty awesome, but he's a "numbers" guy. I swear there are times we have full conversations and neither one of us understands the other.
He also likes to tease me about my lack of mathematical skill, and purposely asks me questions he knows I don't know the answer to because he finds some kind of sadistic joy in it, I imagine.

Anyway....
In helping Jaysen in his math homework last night, I realize yet again, that my kid rocks.

Example: Jaysen is working on converting fractions, to decimals, to percentages.

 He explains how he has to divide 70 by 100 to get the decimal.

 

And then...

 

 

 

 Me: Awesome job! Now how did you make the decimal a percent?

Jaysen: I butthundred it.

Me: You...what?
Jaysen: I butt-hundred it.
Me: Butt-hundred it?
Jaysen: Yes, you have to butt-hundred it!
Me: Hahahaha! What in the world is butt-hundred?
Jaysen: Look...

 



And there you go.
My boss will be so proud of me.