What do we know two days into the year?
- Monkey is going to really like his teacher, he already likes her well enough but given time he is going to love her. I can already see it in how he reacts to her. Yay!
- Monkey’s teacher “gets” him already and she is working so hard and actually listening to us when we talk about ways to improve his transitions.
- Monkey enjoys school, he’s having fun during the day, he’s working hard.
- The morning transition, despite the preparation is a potential disaster. Transitions are just hard in general and this is a really big one. He is not walking into class easily. It’s taking a lot of cajoling and deep pressure.
What do we need need to work really hard on again?
- The morning transition. I realized this AM that there is just too much talking and there are too many people involved.
Yesterday, Duhdee asked the teacher when during that process she wanted to be involved because yesterday morning she jumped in too soon. We’ve got that established. Now Duhdee and I need to work out between us what we’re going to say and do at each step. I want both of us to be able to do this but it will mean we both have to be following the same script (an actual, literal script I will write.)
I think the two biggest keys are getting there early (we were on time today and the check-in area was crowded) and M&Ms. Fortunately, both of those things are within our control, lol.
Oh, and guess who gets to start asking about an integrated first grade classroom already? The only way to have one for next fall is to get it in the budget. All budget items need to be in front of the administration by Christmas break because they begin their budget process in January. Awesome.
Yay for the great teacher. It really makes a big difference. Have you thought about an aide coming outside to get Monkey? Saul would not walk across the classroom door threshold with me or his mom, but supposedly walks in okay with the aide (and I assume he’s doing fine now getting off the bus with them). They go outside to great the bus so last year I tried leaving him off with them a few times.
Sorry you need to start work on next year so soon but good for you for being such a strong advocate. I though the Haggerty school was a model of inclusion? Perhaps you can use as leverage the new integrated program in Arlington, which is 1-5 (frustratingly no K yet) – team taught (special ed teacher/regular ed teacher) classes at each grade level. It’s brand new so I have no idea how good it is working but it seems like a good model that other local communities have. I kind of assumed Cambridge had classes like that. Good luck!
Some of what needs to happen in this morning transition is that we need to step back a bit, I think. Perhaps having an aide greet us in the front entry, where Monkey IS able to walk in might be an avenue to pursue. He will do things for them that he won’t do for us…so many things to think about.
The Haggerty School is a model of inclusion for grades 3-8. K-2 integrated classrooms are non-existant in the district per teacher report. The kindergarten classroom is a pilot program and may not be in the budget for next year either. Cambridge is really not good at inclusion but that’s one reason the School Board hired Dr. Young. There is a desire to improve special education in the district because Cambridge has such a disproportionate number of out of district placements…they’re trying to save money but I’ll take advantage regardeless of their motivation!