Mama Tiger

I couldn't even blog yesterday afternoon, I was so upset.

When I went to pick up R. from school early yesterday (to go to the dentist where he behaved AMAZINGLY well!), I found him in the principal's office wearing his headphones and typing text from a book into his adaptive computer. The principal then accosted me about why R. was refusing to do his work in the classroom and said, "well, if he refuses to do his work, then why is he here?" I'm looking at him contentedly typing into his computer on her floor and thinking, "if he's so utterly defiant, then why is he doing his work so happily right now?" Anyway, things went downhill after that. She kept pushing me to explain exactly what R. could and could not do and why, I kept telling her to read his file to get those answers and that I had to take him to his dentist appointment and why don't we schedule a meeting to talk about these things? I felt completely ambushed. She acted like this was just the last straw, when I had been so happy earlier that his behavior had evened out and he was not hitting, etc. any other kids this week.

The good news is that through my frustration yesterday, I did what I do best which is to call everyone I can think of...which led to me talking to a behavioral consultant today at our local Children's Hospital who deals with kids on the spectrum. D. and I are meeting with her in a few weeks, and she has already promised to serve as support for his classroom teacher and resource teacher. Plus, she already has some good ideas to keep him on task in the classroom.

Also, his teacher emailed me this morning to say that he was doing so much better today, and that they had figured out that he could dictate his writing to her (or another kid) and then have R. type their writing into his computer. How creative! And a much better solution than rushing to judgement and questioning the child's placement in a public school. Mama Tiger was out in full force today and yesterday...you don't want to mess with her!

**shout out to my friend, Sheri, for the Mama Tiger reference.