But a lot of me is sad to see this school year end. James is an awesome little boy and I have not met anyone who does not end up completely loving this boy once they get to know him. But the problem is that it takes time, a lot of time, to make that special connection. I can always tell when the connection has been made, you can see the light in the persons eyes when they talk about James and the special smile that they have just for him. So now that he has this connection with his teachers it is time to switch and start all over again. I dread the looks of "I have never dealt with this kind of behavior before and am at a complete loss of what to do" or the questions to try and explain what he is thinking or doing. It helps to know that they will get there eventually, but it is hard watching everyone struggle until they do. Here are some of the people who have touched our lives this year.
Mrs. Leatherwood: I cannot say enough good things about his classroom teacher. She is the sweetest, most loving, patient teacher I have ever met. And she was perfect for James. I know at first she really struggled with how to best help James, to teach him the rules and understand his communication. I remember there were so many questions at first, how to deal with different behaviors, and a lot of times I just didn't know how to help because we hadn't found things that really worked either. But she didn't give up. She spent so much time researching, talking to other professionals and taking classes to learn how to best teach James. At his IEP meeting in April she said "James has made me a better teacher all around." Love that she didn't write him off or give up on him. At graduation she gave me a hug and said "Thank you for sharing James with me this year. I am a better person because of him. He has been such a blessing to me." And I just thought, "me too, he makes me a better person too."
Ms. Eve: Ms. Eve is the classroom EA. I am sure she has spent the bulk of her time helping James. She has helped him to go to specials (Music, PE and Library) and when he just was unable to do it anymore she stayed with him in the classroom helping him with different activities. James has drawn a lot of pictures for her this year, and she shows them to me whenever I am in the classroom.
Ms. Lacey: This is James' speech therapist. We could tell from the first parent teacher conference that she was going to be good for James. She spoke the most positively about him and all the things she wanted to do with him. She was excited for every bit of progress he made and loved to share them with me whenever I ran into her at the school. She came up with some amazing ways to work with him a lot of which we have implemented at home because they are perfect for the way James thinks and learns. She ate lunch with him every day to help him learn conversation skills, and got him to actually sit and eat.
Mrs. Montoya: This was James' special ed teacher. I believe that she really did love James and truly wanted what was best for him. Unfortunately their personalities did not blend very well and James really did not enjoy going to her class. One day he came home from school with a social story called "James' has fun learning in Mrs. Montoy's room" They often used social stories to correct inappropriate behaviors. I guess one time when she came to get him he pointed at her and yelled "No! You go to Montoya's room!" However I think she got some good results from him. When she left about a month before school got out, he really started to struggle more. So even though he protested going to her class so much she really did have an impact on his education and behavior.
Ms. Jessica: Ms. Jessica is the liaison from the district. About a month after school started they realized they had about 4 kindergardeners that needed a lot of extra help. So they created a special social skills class for them. Ms. Jessica was the teacher. She taught him appropriate behaviors like keeping his hands to himself, not throwing sand on the playground, they ate lunch together and played at recess. I think the class was a success, but unfortunately it ended after Christmas.
Mr. Vetterly: This is the school principal. We really did not get off to a great start. After the first few weeks James was in his office for hitting. I could tell right away that he did not really understand James at all. The next run in we had was after James was suspended for hitting Mrs. Montoya. This ended in a big meeting were Doug finally just told him, "I don't feel that you even care about my kid." After that we were able to make much more progress toward figuring out exactly what was best for James and He was able to soften his attitude toward him and realize that James takes a lot longer to learn appropriate behavior and he made some extra effort to get to know James and make sure he was doing well in school.
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