So impressed by middle school!
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| Tue, 08-23-2005 - 8:49am |
We had middle school orientation for Christopher (12, AS, 7th grade) last night. I was kind of worried, because he'll have six teachers and I didn't really warm up to the resource teacher when she was at our transition IEP this past April.
Well, I've decided that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her!!!! Before the orientation, I had made up information packets to give to each of the teachers and the principal to explain about Christopher and about AS. When we met his first teacher, I gave her the packet with an explanation that "Chris has a condition called Asperger's Syndrome. This packet has some information that will help you understand him better." She smiled and said, "Oh yes, we learned about that at our staff meeting this morning." Huh? I was confused, but pleased.
This scenario was repeated in every class we visited. There was only one teacher that DH and I did not get good vibes about, the social studies teacher. Finally, we got to his final class--learning center (study hall). There was the resource teacher, eager to greet us. She explained that she had done an in-service that morning with all the teachers, using a video I had lent her last spring (ASK ME about Asperger's). That has NEVER happened before (an in-service with all the teachers--unless I came in and talked to them).
She showed us the alcove in the counseling office that she has set up as Christopher's "safe place." He has permission to go there whenever he is stressed and needs to chill out. She said she is going to show the video to the school's security staff, so that they will know about Chris and that he has permission to be in the halls if he needs to be.
I asked about his learning center class, in particular, did it replace something else that "should" have been in his schedule. She gave us a conspiratorial wink and said, "Don't tell, but I replaced his P.E. class with this. Technically, P.E. is required, but in my book, his IEP overrules that requirement." To which Christopher cheered. P.E. has always been hard for him--he's slow and clumsy, doesn't get the rules, and often comes home all worked up because the kids yelled at him for messing up or losing the game for them because he doesn't play well. Well, that's one thing we won't have to deal with.
Finally, she asked if we had met all the teachers, including "Mr. Moreno, his social studies teacher." We said, "no, Mr. Moritz is his social studies teacher." She looked alarmed, then told us that she had changed Christopher's placement that morning, because she did not feel that Mr. Moritz was the right teacher for him. (This was the only teacher we had bad vibes about.) So she took us down to meet the new social studies teacher, and we immediately fell in love with him.
We're already thrilled with middle school, and it doesn't even start until tomorrow. I think it's going to be a great year!!!!
Elizabeth

Elizabeth,
That sounds so wonderful!! I'm glad things are starting out great this year!!
Michelle
wow! that sounds ideal! hope he has a great first day! and rest of the year as well! can we borrow your resource teacher??? (or maybe clone her?)
Betsy