The best and WORST day of my career!

Sooooooooooo I received my first autistic kid-o. (Well real autistic kid. I had one before that wasn’t diagnosed yet but we were working on it, and he was mild in comparison.) I had met my new one before and knew that he had very good behaviors, but some more moderate tantrums. I was more worried about if something were to happen to set him off that I would not be able to calm him down. Well first day of school went very well. He did great. Second day………by the end of the day he was running around the room acting out Popeye the Sailor man and I’m stand there crying going “I just don’t know what to do!!!!!” sob, sob, sob. Imagine this… almost 6ft kid acting pulling out the spinach, ripping open the can, gobbling it down, growing out the muscles, pounding his chest, and one point on his hands and knees acting like the dog. Looking back now it was amazing, but at the moment I didn’t see the beauty in it. I wasn’t prepared. I had got ideas or control from his previous teacher, but they didn’t work! So what did I do? Cried. My other kids had saucers for eye balls and were like “What in the world is going on!?” Now that I am telling this story it is actually very comical. Luckily I have great help that helped redirect him and gave me a break. (I hadn’t had one for two days; no planning for me because we are short on interpreters, but that is another story.)

So on to my best day ever…the next day my kid-o comes in (after calling dad to see how they calm him at home) and says he is sorry for not listening and was great for the whole of the day, not one outburst! Actually all of my students were perfect. We had the best day ever! We sat in our seats, we paid attention, Mrs. Bryant felt good- not tired, lessons went perfect, and we learned a lot! We just had a really good day. I have to say one of my favorites of my career. Everything just flowed. It was extraordinary. It was the reason why I do what I do.