High School: Special-Ed and Peer-Tutors.

Today I subbed special-ed again. I get loads of opportunities to do this, so I am used to doing it. All of the kids today were cognitively challenged and love going to school. One of the benefits these kids get is the chance to work with a peer-tutor. Peer-tutors are kids who are normal, main-line high-school kids. Most peer-tutors are obviously the best kids in the school. Not necessarily the kids with the best grades or the popular kids. Peer-tutors are, for the most part, the most together kids in a school. Kids with plans and goals for the future.

Today, I went to lunch with the special-ed kids to make sure they ate all their food and didn’t get lost. I’ve done this before. Usually I do this in middle-schools and I am busy the entire time. High school kids are bit more chill and this goes for the cognitively disabled as well. It was very pleasant to see that many of the peer-tutors spent time with the special-ed kids even when they didn’t have to.

I mean, peer-tutoring happens during class time and these peer-tutors often would go out of their way to pull some of the disabled kids over to their tables and involve them with their clique of friends who are not disabled. Like I said, these kids were not the cool kids, the jocks or the nerds. They were just the regular kids who are the heart and soul of every school talking about whatever and doing whatever, but involving special needs kids who after high school will either live with their parents 24/7 until they or their parents die or will live in institutional centers and work at small jobs like Assembly (a day program attached to the Provo School District I sub at quite often) building boxes or extracting foam from packaging molds.

While these peer-tutors are just the regular kids, they are obviously the best kids, will to risk social standing and popularity to befriend those who normally exist within a tiny, little bubble who after high-school will never exit the bubble again.

Subbing English: Creative Writing.

I had a fun day subbing, today. I can sub and have a cold at the same time. Man, I hate my cough. I have been having such a hard time with it. Fortunately, most of the kids I sub are sick as well.

English was fun. It always is. We focused on writing strategies for the first third of the class. Many kids have a hard time writing. Many just don’t know what to write. Or so they say.

Step one: I had them simply sit still and think about the subject. The subject was “pets.” Easy enough. After sitting there, they started asking questions: “What if I don’t have pets?” “What if I don’t have a pet now, but I had one before? “What if I want a dragon/unicorn/dinosaur?” These were all great questions, so I suggested to them that they could write about any of those questions.

Step two: I had them make a short list, then write. Three or four simple ideas that have to do with pets. The kids had tons of ‘what if’ questions then. My answer was always “what if? Write about that or what ever you want.” They thought about this for a couple of seconds and then just started writing. Every kid in the class wrote for the full fifteen minutes. Most had more than one page of text. Some had up to three.

Step three: I had them talk about it. We then spent five minutes talking about what they wrote in small groups. The class exploded. Everyone was excited. Some pet stories were quite normal stories, but a few were about fanged toe-nails, barking tacos, seven legged snakes and other fantasy creatures. The fanged toe-nail pooped pepperonis. It was so much fun. Everyone broke into giggles through out the discussion.

Emotion is such an important part of learning and I am glad they reacted in such a positive way.

ps. I apologize to everyone wanting a comic. While I can teach with a headache and a cough, I can not draw that way. I hope to have something up tomorrow.

a.

During the Phone Call to the Front Office

Assembly: Grey Foam

I substitute taught the highest production team in Assembly today since their boss had her last day yesterday. Assembly is a day-program/transition department for cognitively-disabled adults for the Provo School District. The people I work with are called clients or trainees. This group is higher functioning than many and most of them love to work, but their disabilities interfere with their chances to find work except for here. They work on it though.

Today, we had work. For the last two weeks, there wasn’t any work and so everyone was excited. Grey foam is packaging material for an air-bag manufacturer here in town. Today’s foam was two inches thick with quarter-inch holes punched through. Each foam piece is four by three inches and has fifty holes cut through. Assembly has to pull each little bit of foam out of the holes. The job is quite simple and because it is simple, “foam” is the perfect work for Assembly.

There are two teams of higher functioning workers. The team I was working with is very efficient, but also very emotional. Think of mixed middle school drama and put that into the minds and bodies of adults who are in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.

Here are some of the things I did:

• Reminded someone to stop tattling to me about what happened at home that I heard from her three other times today and repeated several times yesterday.
• Remind someone to not grumble under her breath.
• Ask the grumbler and the repeater not to argue.
• Tell the grumbler to ignore someone on another team who is bugging her.
• Remind someone to stay awake.
• Tell someone to not wash his hands every five minutes because the foam is itchy.
• Negotiate a deal as to when someone can get a snack from her lunch bag.
• Ask hand washer to pull up his pants, he’s flashing everyone (severe plumber’s crack syndrome).

There is of course more, but this is part of it. Not everyone has problems like this. There are other extreme problems, but none of those exhibit when the team is working because they love working. Everything I listed happened while we were working.

Each of the six teams in Assembly have different problems. The group I was with does not have any one who drools. There are no wheel chair bound people. There are no people who say “no” to any request and run and hide in the bathroom. On the other days of this week I worked with those groups and I loved it as much as I loved working with this group.

When there is no work, we do activities, chores and classes. The trainees would rather work. They get paid to work, not to do the other stuff, so when we are working there is a lot of fun and between some of them light competition to see who can do the most.

Departures

I love substitute teaching. I love the variety and daily change of pace. Even when I’ve done long term assignments each day is different. One of the other nice aspects is being able to look at the politics of a work environment and celebrate not being a part of it. I like getting to know students and trainees and seeing their bad sides (and subs always see the worst part of students) knowing they are essentially good people–for the most part, I hate seeing the mean in some kids and I’ve hated seeing bullying. I also love getting to know the faculty at the different schools I work at.

Today was the last day for one of the Faculty in Assembly. She left half-way through the day and got the chance to say good-bye to all the trainees she worked with. Some of them were brought to tears and some are not sure what happened. She left for the reasons most people leave: greener-pastures, better pay and benefits and a change of pace. She wanted to continue in Assembly and work at the new job as well, but conflicting training schedules ruled that out. Things like this happen.

The difference in this experience and when a teacher leaves mid-term at a main-line school is the student rumor-mill. Like Assembly, faculty do not tell students why someone leave. It rightfully isn’t their business. At school, the student rumor-mill goes into over drive. The students try to figure out why something they don’t understand happened. Particularly with popular people like the faculty-member who left today. Sometimes dark-hints from less than ethical faculty will cause student-body ire to fall on administration or other faculty. In Assembly, the trainees cry and admit how much they will miss someone, but only occasionally is there a bru-ha-ha.

When I first started subbing at Assembly, I was replacing a faculty member who left under dubious conditions. The rest of the faculty was glad to see her go, but not many trainees. When I took over, I was answering questions about the now gone faculty-member and when was she coming back for two weeks. A couple even told me it was my fault (usually after I told them to do something). Still, acceptance settles in faster in Assembly than at a main-line school.

To me, the reason is simple: constant turnover. At the institutional care most of the Assembly trainees live in, there is a lot of turn-over. The work is hard. I couldn’t do it. I can’t deal with adults who need bathrooming help and I gag at the smell of poop. There is not a lot of long term continuity and so the trainees get used to people going in and out of their lives. The trainees know I am a sub and that I work with every population group. They are used to the idea that I will be working with them one day, at a middle-school another day and then magically, I am back with them or with a different group in the facility like Laundry or Brick.

While I am very glad the particular faculty-member left today (she did give notice and was quite professional) and agree with why she went, I find the consistency of the trainees lives lacking. Even here, some of the faculty have been in Assembly for years. One for thirty-two years, but it just isn’t the same. Living on a bed of sand is not good for anyone.

The Youth Vote

Ten Minute Drill: Fail — 18mins including PhotoShop. This comic strip was drawn with a Fine Point Sharpie & colored and edited in PhotoShop Elements.

I wanted to show why the youth vote is never out in force. I talk about elections while subbing sometimes (if it is in the lesson plan), but kids don’t really care. They are too busy with their own world. There are exceptions of course, but not many.

Related article: 9 Year-old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced by Politicians — Wired Magazine.

 

Argus 2012 Cover

I wanted to show you a little of what I’ve been working on at night with the kids over at Orem High School. This is the cover piece. The insides are complete, but the cover has yet to be done. We should have that done by EOB, Monday.

This has been six week project. The werd-nerd kids over at Orem High had no idea the work they were going to do in the beginning and now that we are almost done and with Prom tomorrow, nerves are frazzled. We decided to cut it short tonight.

Now I did not do the art work or the page design, that is all done by Orem High kids. The fonts and errata will be added in InDesign. The kids at Orem High are very talented. The journal includes poetry, prose, essay, art, 3d art and video of dance, drama, one act plays and advertisements.

This is my forth year working with Orem High on Argus. I teach the kids the publication process, InDesign and give them some design tips and pointers (but not much–this is their project). I love working on Argus. The kids grow so much and learn so much. They are always amazed at the tools they use in addition to InDesign and how hard it is to put together a very nice product. They are also blown away by how hard it is to reduce the submissions of 1200+ to only 200 pieces. Copyediting is also a surprise. The other surprise is when I teach them what good poetry, prose and art is. They learn more from the editorial process about the arts then they do in the classroom. This is what makes the project worth it.

Argus 2012

For the last three week. I’ve been going over to Orem High School and helping a friend out with a literary journal. I do this every year. For six weeks of every spring I basically work a second forty hour job as a volunteer teaching high school kids how to publish.

I was at Orem High until 11pm, and so I did not have anything to post. In fact, I just came home and went straight to bed.

Every year there is something different going on that one would not experience in the professional world or even in college I expect. This year, we are dealing with the messy aftermath of a high school breakup. The boy was very hurt and has tried to sabotage the journal because of heartbreak yada yada yada.

I’ve worked out a deal with him. We do want him to work on the staff, because he is a skilled artist and is very committed, but I have to work with him on his own so he won’t do anything silly.

This is taking a lot of time and energy. The problem is that he was dating the editor-in-cheif and she, in her way, is trying to sabotage him as well. If this were in a company or a publishing house, I’m sure one of them would have been fired or at least shuffled off someplace else until the project was completed.

Anyway, all the pre work was finally completed and now we can start entering everything directly into InDesign. That will be next week and only completed by a few people. Hopefully nothing else will happen over the weekend that will lengthen the process out further.

Substitute Teaching: Assembly (CUE 1.12 & 13)

Today was the opposite of yesterday. Yesterday was the worst. Doldrums.

I disagree with Dante on what hell would be. Hell is boring. Nothing going on. Nothing going on to the point of torment. Sitting around doing nothing to the point where Dante’s fires would be welcome. Where the fire is heaven in comparison. Concrete walls, nearly comfortable chairs, almost sufficient lighting and well fitting clothing, but nothing to do, no one to talk to, nothing to see except the concrete walls  and nothing to hear: hell.

Yesterday, there was nothing to do. We watched the Price is Right. We played bingo. We talked about current events. We talked about Barbie. We ate lunch. We had snack. I took reports. I made sure people did their chores. Routine routine routine. Boredom. Pure hell.

Everyone knew it. I knew it. The trainees knew it. A, who on Monday went bonkers, decided to do it again just so he could keep routine as constant as possible. AE on my team was working on her indoor voice so well, I was thinking about letting her be as loud as she wanted.

Today was the opposite of yesterday. Today was heaven in comparison. As everyone was leaving yesterday, pallet after pallet of boxes to be assembled were being stuffed into the loading area. Finally something different. No doldrums for five minutes or so.

Today we assembled boxes all day long and everyone was happy. These guys love to work. AE was my box runner. Box runners pick-up empties and drop off completed boxes. She ran boxes the entire time and laughed and giggled the whole time. Hundreds of boxes. TC didn’t grumble and CC didn’t try to manipulate anyone. ML was even respectful. Heaven. The heaters were on all day and we felt we were on fire, but sweating all day in a building with poor ventilation assembling boxes is heaven compared to the doldrums.

Tomorrow will be heaven, too. Woot.

Substitute Teaching: Assembly (CUE 1.11)

Well, drama again at work, but not that bad. There was nothing for anyone to do, so we had to make stuff up. We watched the Price is Right and then we did current events. Everyone was able to keep their cool most of the day, but eventually there was a meltdown.

A, who is on another team, has Tourette’s syndrome and is autistic as well. He is harmless for the most part. His twitches manifest with hops and blinking. He does not sit still very well. He generally an okay guy to be around and I get along with most of the time. Today, he was being bugged by his neighbor. She was telling him what to do and was telling him to stop hopping and twitching. He of course has no control over this behavior where C does not have to constantly hassle him. She was unhappy for some unknown reason and would not stop bugging A. During bingo, A had finally had enough and threw his chips at C and the punched her really hard. 

The supervisor’s chased him out of the building and worked to deescalate him. An hour later, I was talking to my crew and they brought A over to our table and sat him next to me. Eventually, he started to escalate again. In order to not get him upset, I started excusing people from the table. Finally everyone was away from the table and A started swinging his hands around. Gesticulating wildly, he started swearing. I slowly put everything I had on the table in my bag, the entire time speaking slowly to him. Eventually I got up and walked away right when he started going nuts again. He pounded on the table, swearing the entire time. Right then his ride showed up. He jumped up and exclaimed how he hated everyone and would never come back.

Other than A getting extra excited, today was a nice easy day. I hope there is work tomorrow. That always puts everyone at ease.