A Day in (My) Life...

Negative Thinking:
Awful Kid continued his awfulness all afternoon yesterday. When I confiscated the "note" that he was writing on paper with two of his little buddies, and reminded the 3 of them (not just Z) to keep on task, he proceeded to give me a hands flicked into the air gesture that said "What the Heck do you think you're doing!?" After I left the pod and sat down again, he kept turning around to glance at me to see if I was still watching. (Has he not figured out yet that I take notes of every thing that he is doing!?) When Z showed his buddies how to blow papers across their desk, and then all 3 of them were playing stab-the-wad-of-paper, rather than listening to the instructions that were being given on a huge research project they are about to start. At this point, Z was initiating all of the distractions and I wanted the other 2 kids (who don't have a fulltime babysitter) to get their work done. Several more reminders of paying attention to the teacher went unheeded. So I then moved from my seat to sit at the pod with them. Again I reminded in an even, calm tone of voice that they all needed to be paying attention, that this was not the time to be playing games. I would be sitting with them to help them remember. Z then started screaming at me, You don't have to SIT next to me! I wasn't doing anything I wasn't suppsoed to be doing! I don't want you to sit with us! Rarrarrarrarar!!! I turned my face away from him, so that I could listen to the teacher's instructing, and pretty much tuned him out entirely- though the screaming went on for quite awhile longer, and loudly. He then began throwing his papers across the pod, flinged his pencil towards another group, and had a classic temper tantrum that I would expect from a 3- year old. But I never raised my voice at him, or asked him to do a task that was beyond his ability. My role in this aide position is to redirect him and to keep him on task for learning. Which I did. But I did very firmly tell Z, "You will not talk to me in that tone of voice. Do you hear me?" It didn't do the least little bit of good, because he continued to yell and holler. He banged his pencil against the desk while Mr S was talking, drummed his hands loudly on his desk, shouted out that another group "SUCKS!" because they were assigned the US region that he wanted. He interrupted people/teacher constantly. He also roamed the classroom during the time that he was supposed to be working on his project. He pestered other kids, and fortunately they were able to ignore it. When he finally did re-join his group, he then was ordering them where to put their pictures on their slides for the Power-Point they were creating. He was dictating the entire thing, where to put their map on the slide, where the flags were to go, what it should say. It was sickening. Mostly it is just the combined experiences, the hundreds of pages of documentation that I have, and all the mini snapshots like this one put in one. These combined make for the whole picture, that I can't even begin to portray in writing. There is just TOO MUCH. But he truly is awful.

I mention it again, that this kid is almost 14 years old!! UGH!! He is so unbelievably immature. The kids in High School are going to EAT HIM ALIVE. Given yesterday's experience, I'm sure I'll be called in to have to deal with his mother (AGAIN) on Monday. The cycle is disfunctional, there is NO support from school administration, and I have no hope of anything ever changing. UGH. Lots of capitalization = lots of frustration.

Hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this.......

Positive Thinking:
We have a new, real Aide hired for Z beginning on Monday. I will still have to spend several days in the next few weeks training Bruce, so it hasn't entirely ended. But I am glad that there will be another body to do this job. Mine is giving out on it. Bruce has Aide'd before, and I have worked with him before as a district substitute. He's a really good guy. An older guy, he is very grandpa-like. I don't know yet how he will be able to handle Z, but perhaps it will work better with a male rather than female.

I *DO* have a meeting with the Teacher's Union on Monday afternoon. I have been looking fowards to this for so long now. The thought that they might be able to intervene on my behalf, and on behalf of the several other kids who aren't getting an education, being around this kid-- this is the only thing that I am able to use to offer myself comfort.

Had a really fun time at dinner last night. It being Friday yesterday, I met with Heidi and Jackie (and her husband & kids) plus a few other teachers at a restaraunt/bar called Olde Sedona. The sun was setting, it was shady and cooling off on the outside patio, and it was a lovely environment. It was great to have a drink in my hand and just savor every sip while talking with good people. I had a really good time. I woke up at 4am today, very clearly hearing Z's ugly voice still screaming in my ear, on constant replay over and over and over. I wasn't able to go back to sleep. So I read, and I write.... Today, I'm showering, then heading to Phoenix for the weekend. My favorite cousin is having a baby shower, and I really want to swim in my grandma's pool. I also intend to purchase good athletic shoes. Three days of doing Curves in a row, as well as the last few weeks of going, have shown me that the wrong shoes really make one's legs really hurt. So I need shoes, too. Yay for getting away from the crazy people in Sedona for a few days!!

Time to get movin'!