by Sarah | Oct 26, 2011 | All About Learning, All About Molly, Autism, Crap, IEP, WTF?
[flickr id=”5885702438″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]School started two months ago. After the gains made last year, and the IEP already in place, we started this year with more hope than last year.
At meet-the-teacher night Archie and I both started to get uneasy.
When we waited after the session to speak to the teacher. We asked about her behavior, to which she replied that it was still too early in the year to say anything. That she doesn’t really pay heaps of attention to behavior – in her class it’s about learning.
That was the first red flag.
Then I mentioned the IEP and her teacher last year, and the response was…
“Well, I don’t look at the past. What happened last year is last year. I give the children a clean slate.”
Alarm bells sounded, dinging loud in our ears. The IEP HAS to be looked at. It’s there for a reason!!!
Still, we sat back. We gave it a chance. We had our IEP meeting for the new year. We thought everything was established and set in it. Everything was put into place. In black and white. The plan was set.
And then it came time for Parent-Teacher conferences.
During the meeting first of the year test scores were discussed. How low Riley’s results were and what they meant. And then it happened. The teacher said:
“It may have had something to do with how she handles tests. But tests are a part of life, we can’t change that and we can’t change how they are given. She just has to learn how to adjust.”
Both Archie & I were stunned into almost total silence. We wrapped up the meeting and got in the car and both said, “What the hell was THAT?”
We have an IEP that states tests are to be given in accordance with her needs. Tests CAN and WILL be changed.
We have decided to switch teachers. There are more reasons than just those two statements, but those alone are enough.
A teacher that doesn’t refer to or care about IEP’s are not what is needed. At all.
by Sarah | Aug 23, 2011 | Crap, Random, WTF?
[flickr id=”6070441022″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]I couldn’t wait for the summer to end. For the kids to be back in school.
Now that they are…I’m SWAMPED.
What was I thinking?
Meet the teacher nights, school sports, family stuff.
Not to mention the pod people came and I’ve actually become a productive person. My house is seeing the benefits of my cleaning (as is my marriage since it makes hubby happy to have a clean[er] house). My writing has started again. My photography is even seeing a friendly little nudge. Not to mention the baking I’m still doing regularly (see pictured cupcake & the regular loaves of white bread that I make weekly).
But all of this means…
SWAMPED.
And crashing at 10 or 11 PM instead of 2AM.
There are just not enough hours in the day.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get myself in some regularly scheduled programming sometime soon. I’m having trouble keeping track of myself…
by Sarah | Jul 30, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly, Autism, WTF?
[flickr id=”5885702740″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]She poked her in the eye.
I know you’ve all heard the story in snippets on twitter, but oy.
Yesterday morning a LOUD scream echoed out from the girls room. The one that said “True pain” not “drama queen” like Angel’s usual screams.
When I ran in she said that Riley had poked her in the eye. I thought, at first, it was a typical brief poking, no real damage and she’d be fine. Calmed down the situation and it seemed okay…but then it wasn’t.
Angel kept crying in pain every thirty minutes or so, moving up to ear splitting screams. So I took her to the pediatrician.
A large scratch (like a cm wide, 1/2 cm thick) right over her pupil.
It was intentional.
The poking, if not the depth of the result.
Angel spent the night in bed w/ me, Archie slept on the couch. I got to hear the heart melting words “Mama can I snuggle with you?” in my Angel’s darling cute little voice.
Today things are better…Angel isn’t shrieking in pain every 20-30 minutes…the ointment they gave her appears to be helping…and she’s rocking the eye patch. The girls are getting along again, even though Angel is telling her sister not to hurt her on a more frequent basis.
I don’t know where we go from here, but I know we need help. Riley needs help. I’m certain she needs more than the school can provide, but the school is where we’ll start, while I schedule an appointment w/ the developmental pediatrician and wait until we can get in (likely to be a few months).
by Sarah | Jul 28, 2011 | All About Molly, Autism, Special Needs, WTF?
[flickr id=”5984317283″ thumbnail=”medium” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]
Since halfway through Kindergarten Riley has been an avid reader. Fervent. Excited. Searching. Learning. Teaching.
She taught her sister to read.
She devoured so many books.
Books are one of her distinct and clear joys.
So last night it was a shock.
A horror.
Dismay.
Hearing a noise from the girls room, I went into their room.
Riley was lying in bed calm as can be…
Ripping apart her books.
Five of them.
Destroyed.
All the pages strewn across the floor.
When we asked her why she said that she was happy.
She was happy.
So she ripped up her books.
Then it was pure horror when she realized she was not going to be able to read them ever again.
To top that off she’s beating up her sister again.
Fiercely.
There are scratches all over my Angel’s back, shoulders and HEAD.
We are concerned.
Because she ripped books.
But its a flag.
And we are concerned.
