Tuesday, April 8, 2008

time out

Things are going pretty fast at school. The year has come to an end in no time. I'm going through the "oh my goodness I haven't accomplished a thing" kinda phase coz I'm looking at the unfilled part of the glass right now. Anyways, so my plan for the upcoming month is to practice the set of goals that were accomplished by the students in order to be able to write a complete assessment of where they will be standing by the end of the year. I am also planning to create a work portfolio for each student with samples of the work and lots of pictures of them!

G: el7imdilla. G is not going anywhere! She will stay in my class, but I'll have to arrange a special schedule for her in order for her to be able to socialize with students from other sections. I was hoping to accomplish more with regards to her IEP since I see her as a very bright gurl. But unfortunately, time was limited and I just understood what her case is about. Ofcourse I'm still worried about her since there is a possibility that she would get totally blind--in this case, she will be treated as a deaf-blind student which will make her very difficult to handle.

R: Compared to the rest of the students, R showed the least amount of progress due to her very long period of absence, her family's dishonesty, and because her case hasn't been clear to me whatsoever. I just found out that she is diagnosed with Agenesis of Corpus Callosum, which in brief refers to the absence of hundreds of millions of nerve tissues that connect the right and left hemispheres of the brain. I was shocked coz I have been studying about how to stimulate the interaction between the 2 hemispheres back in UNI. Now, I'm working with a student who doesn't even have it. Part of it was a relief since I was nearly going crazy about not knowing the reason behind her social withdrawal. ACC has so much to do with that which is the reason why she is not able to perceive facial expressions and social cues. Her next year's IEP would be totally different.

A: He has changed A LOT since the beginning of the year! I can't wait until the end so that I could read the very first post about him. There is NO SPITTING not in school..not at home. He used much of his 'stored' language which is very positive. He washes his hands, and put his shoes on all by himself. And he also matches colors! I'm so proud of him. He turned out to be an achievement instead of a failure.

H: My baby has also changed so much. She is very social, always smiling, loves being around her teachers and friends. She somehow knows the basic colors (red, blue, yellow, green). Her language improved! I'm just confused about her mental state. I've always believed in her, and I truely believe that she is in a normal mental condition but has been affected by environmental factors that has lowered it. However, others can't see that. I'm not sure if I'm only being sensitive about it which makes me not able to be as objective as others.