Why I Do What I Do...

...For days like these.

Charlotte here, guys. And it really was just a glorious, glorious day. Unlike the one had by poor Rosy. :( I had an elementary school Special Education class at a seriously awesome school. The class was small, the kids were adorable, the para was AMAZING - I literally wasn't ready for the day to end.

One thing I love about this class is that the teacher and para really seem to let the kids' interests shine through in their lesson plans. One of the kids is really interested in dinosaurs, one loves outer space, one loves sharks... and they actively encourage these interests, which is just so wonderful.

We had all sorts of adventures together. We read a book about spiders, and it was a GORGEOUS day, so we took a walk outside and tried to look for spiders. We found plenty of other bugs, but no spiders - although we did find one inside the school, naturally. We sang songs, we had "social time" (during which we played two rounds of Uno) - which may sound fluffy, but is actually great for the kids' cognitive and social development (i.e. recognizing patterns, taking turns, being both a gracious loser and a gracious winner).

I only had one child throw a minor tantrum the whole day, which is actually pretty amazing. He had accidentally smacked another child in the eye (it really was an accident, but he hit her pretty hard nonetheless) and I told him that he should apologize to the other child. Something along the lines of: ("I'm sorry that I accidentally hit you - I didn't see you there.") He insisted that since he hadn't MEANT to do it, he didn't need to say sorry.

Now there is just NO point in getting into a battle of wills with a 9-year-old. You'll lose every time. So I just shrugged, said I was sorry to hear him say that, and added a check mark to his daily behavior card. At which point he got up out of his seat, walked over to the window, ripped up the behavior card and threw it out the window. He then stormed back to his seat, put his head down on his desk, and refused to do any work whatsoever during that class period.

But I gave him time to cool off, and by the end of the day he was his normal chipper self. Other than that, the day was essentially awesomeness. I'd go back in a heartbeat, and the para said that "with your permission, I'd like to tell the teacher that you clicked very well with the kids and that we'd love to have you back." That's just so nice to hear! Oh, well. I'm sure tomorrow we'll be back to our regularly scheduled insanity to make up for today's welcome respite. :)