Almost Had a Heart Attack

[lydamorehouse]

When Google Alerts gave me this title "Garrison Keillor and Lyda Morehouse Talk Liberty and Romance." Turns out we're listed seperately, not on the same ticket.

In other news, Mason was home sick yesterday. He complained of a tummy ache at the start of school and then went to the nurse's office when they started a movie (he HATES watching TV as part of school), and, since he had a slight fever, they sent him home. He did have a little diarreha, but I think the fever is actually from a cold he's been slowly trying not to catch.

But it occurs to me that I never reported here about our big talk with Mason's teacher. The good news is that, no surprise, his teacher is a reasonable adult. She was very open to listening to our concerns and had made a couple of changes in the classroom, namely giving Mason (our little perfectonist) the opportunity to copy the words of the daily message onto a blank sheet of paper rather than tracing dotted lines. Plus, since he's so worried about other people's behavior, she had him sit by himself in front of the message board (other kids do this sometimes too, so it wasn't singling him out). He had no problem getting his work done this way. I think that solution solved one of the problems that Mason was having. As for the rest... Neither Shawn nor I were terribly convinced that she understood our objection to class time outs, particularly as it was clear she felt there hadn't been very many. What we managed to assertain is that Mason reacts so strongly to the THREAT of a class time out, sometimes it may be that there have been fewer actual incidents than what he reports.

Still, we felt like she now understood how even the threats stress him out, and, we were also(I hope) very reasonable about the fact that there do have to be ways to maintain order, particularly with twenty-seven kids.

Plus, as Shawn and I talked about afterwards, now we feel like the ice has been broken and we can go and talk to her about these sorts of concerns as need be. So, though it wasn't a sweeping victory, it felt like a good start.

My bruise has gotten a little darker, but it still isn't the AWESOME shiner I'd been hoping for. Still, I did notice a few people giving me a concerned look at the gym, so I suppose it must be noticable ENOUGH. Still, not the desired effect. I want people to look at me and think, "Whoa, don't mess with her," instead of "poor thing!" I guess I need to work on the whole muscle thing.... Captain America by 45!

Speaking of Cap, I gave up on Secret Invasion some time ago. Of course, having Dreamhaven move helped me break my addiction considerably. The only title I still follow is Cap, and then only when I remember to stop into Big Brain before class on Wednesday nights. Which reminds me... must go get ready for class.

Ciao!

Comments

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

Good luck with Mason and school. Quite often, I see kids getting in trouble because they object to other kids screwing around. Once, we even switched a kid I was working with into another class hour to get away from a handful of brats. She really needed a different teacher though because that particular teacher was new and didn't have the discipline thing down yet. I'm betting you're right about the threats of time outs being what you are hearing about. Perhaps you can set up something that changes the "time outs" to breaks, where Mason is in charge. If the kids are bothering him too much or he feels like he's getting upset or squirrely, he can take a break in the hall or a resource room. Perhaps the teacher can have a non-verbal signal that means "do you need a break?" I've seen this work for some kids. Other kids won't take the breaks even if they need them. Sounds like you are on the right track though!