Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I like to make bad choices

Today was a rough day. Mahesh was constantly defiant. At the lunch table, he was hitting other kids and touching their food. I told him that if he made one more bad choice, he was leaving lunch, he immediatly smiled and touched the kid next to him's food. I threw his lunch away and took him back to the special ed room. I had no idea what to do with him, so I asked the special ed teacher and she said give him his social story book, I said "he knows the right way to act, this book is no good" she said, "just show him the pictures of good choices" So I let him look at the "right way to eat lunch" story. Then I gave him a task to complete. I know that he enjoys writing and reading and strongly dislikes drawing, so his job was to draw the correct lunchroom behavior using no words or numbers. (he likes to lable children in his drawings with their age and bus number). It took him about 45 minutes to comply. Once he made his drawing, I asked him "why do you made bad choices when you know the right thing to do?"
He told me "I like to make bad choices."
Then I said "tell me why you like to make bad choices."
He said "Because I get to read my book"
I said "You are not going to read this book again. I know you like reading and it can be a reward for you. If you are feeling bored in lunch, you can ask me for a reading break. If you are feeling bored or like you need to read, let me know and you can work for a reading break anytime during the day."
By the time we were done this conversation, it was time for me to go to math with different students, so I didn't get a chance to work out the reading breaks with him.
The girl (I will call her Jane) that I help with math, fell asleep during instruction. I took her out into the hall way and made her hold me hands and jump 20 times, I helped her go higher every time. This woke her up. Jane always calls me Mrs. Squawky, I try to be firm and tell her to use my right name, but I am always laughing on the inside.

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