back to work after half term
tuesday 31st october – Friday 3rd November:
Back to school / work. Hassans’ carer Debbie is back from holiday in florida, so I was put in the foundation class to work with francis, a little terror. I had a feeling all day of being useless and unknowing, which I hate. I haven’t been told the ins and outs of things but I am expected to know them, and I can imagine them rolling their eyes and huffing behind my back. It made me feel uncomfortable all day. Also, I think I have worked out why work can be so draining and tiring. I like to be productive, busy and challenged. But I find that working in this school can be hard because most of the time you wonder if anything is actually going in the kids heads, and we spend more time caring for them, changing them, taking them up and down disabled lifts etc… and getting around, than actually teaching them. In the founatino classes all they do is play with things, and we feed and toilet them. There is a gorgeous boy Frankie, who can’t walk by himself, but talks a bit and has these beautiful round eyes and inquisitive nature.
Wednesday: I started working with a girl called victoria, who is in a wheelchair and is blind, and looks a bit like hassan. I will be with her for all of November, so its nice to have a bit of stability and get to know a kid. She is twelve and is pretty smart I am told, and although she doesn’t talk, she is quite responsive. We are in a class with emilie, who has severe epilepsy, blind in one eye and is quite a handful for her carer jay. We also have a girl called ruqaiyah, in a wheelchair and says lots of little words, with carer karrie, and Fiona, who is in a wheelchair but is quite able, but very moody, with carer linda, who is lovely. Also there is amy kennedy who, people say, is 12 going on 35, because she has such mature mannerisms. She has a growth disorder, but can read some words up close and is very able and helpful. Its confusing having two amy’s in the class.
But what I like about it most is that we actually go to classes and learn things. With mags’ class, I felt so not on the ball, because she was hopeless and very condescending. You really notice the difference between those carers who talk to the kids like normal people, and those who talk about the kids to their carers right in front of them, or talk to the kids in a manner like they are babies.
I am actually now able to take an interest in how the kids are learning, and I am learning makaton signs (adapted sign language), some Braille, moon letters, textile learning etc… I have had some moments this week where I have felt so proud and interested in the kids learning. Like when we were in science and learning about the heart, we put the stethoscope in the kids ears and they listened to their carers heartbeats. Ruqaiyah said “oh….music,” and I thought that was so cool that she should associate it with music. Fiona was being moody and as soon as she heard the heartbeat she calmed down, because they associate it with the soothing heartbeat from in the womb.
Victoria can also play the piano. She sat and played along with the teacher, on a separate piano, and was brilliant. Only uses one finger, because she only uses one side of her body, but she got so excited. She has an excellent sense of rhythm and loves music. She giggles a lot too, sometimes for no real reason.
She is a very slow eater, taking about five mintues to chew nad swallow one mouthful if we’re lucky. But she tends to store the food and it falls out.
We have done French, maths in the multi-sensory room, been out in the woodlands learning about climate, bounced on trampolines etc… I love it when you get something through to them. Like when we were doing maths we were getting them to feel the lengths of different ropes and wool. Victoria could put them in order by feeling them with one hand. I also helped her sign in makaton “same and different,” and I said this is called…. And she sounded four syllables uh uh uh uh,” ie comparison. I felt very proud and it made me smile.
In saying that, residential can be bludgey or frustrating. Friday morning I got kirsty ready, the one who we were making animal noises with and when I said “what noise does your fave animal make,” and she said “chocolate pudding.” The one that’s obnsessed with bob marley and thinks Madagascar is a person. The one who is obsessed with the rhyme “listen to my tummy,” and refuses to wear her splints. This morning she tried to take them off three times, getting down on the floor and going nuts, lashing out at me, and then being perfectly rational the next. Some of the kids are so unpredictable. Like, this week, poor emilie was so tired because she never gets an undisturbed nights sleep without fitting. So we lay her down and in an hour she had over ten fits. But then she just gets up and carries on like nothing has happened.
On that Friday night I went to the bonfire night celebrating guy fawkes, who tried to blow up the houses of parliament. It was very English. i will have the memories of rushing down Melrose Avenue, terraced houses and pavement, with jonathan plodding along holding heathers hand to keep up, wearing his Wellingtons and chattering the whole way. We got into the park and thousands of people were watching the bonfire being lit, wearing hats scarves and gloves and looking freezing. The bonfire was lit and the manikin of guy fawkes was burned. It was the strangest sight, and seems like a funny thing to “remember remember the fifth of November.”
The fireworks display was awesome - for a small town display it went for half an hour and was better than the NYE Sydney ones. They re-enacted Sleeping Beauty with fireworks of all kinds. The underground zoomed by, the air was icy, and I loved it.
There have been fireworks going off all week, with Halloween aswell (I gave treats to two boys who came to the door, which has never happened to me before!!)
Relaxed on the weekend, tried catching up on sleep, helped around the house a lot, and rang family and elle. It was good talking to elle, who said that its like the amy she knows is suspended in time somewhere and the amy she is talking to now is a completely different person. We talked about how I find one of the most exciting things, is going home and finding how much things and I have changed. How different my capabilities and perceptions are.
Back to school / work. Hassans’ carer Debbie is back from holiday in florida, so I was put in the foundation class to work with francis, a little terror. I had a feeling all day of being useless and unknowing, which I hate. I haven’t been told the ins and outs of things but I am expected to know them, and I can imagine them rolling their eyes and huffing behind my back. It made me feel uncomfortable all day. Also, I think I have worked out why work can be so draining and tiring. I like to be productive, busy and challenged. But I find that working in this school can be hard because most of the time you wonder if anything is actually going in the kids heads, and we spend more time caring for them, changing them, taking them up and down disabled lifts etc… and getting around, than actually teaching them. In the founatino classes all they do is play with things, and we feed and toilet them. There is a gorgeous boy Frankie, who can’t walk by himself, but talks a bit and has these beautiful round eyes and inquisitive nature.
Wednesday: I started working with a girl called victoria, who is in a wheelchair and is blind, and looks a bit like hassan. I will be with her for all of November, so its nice to have a bit of stability and get to know a kid. She is twelve and is pretty smart I am told, and although she doesn’t talk, she is quite responsive. We are in a class with emilie, who has severe epilepsy, blind in one eye and is quite a handful for her carer jay. We also have a girl called ruqaiyah, in a wheelchair and says lots of little words, with carer karrie, and Fiona, who is in a wheelchair but is quite able, but very moody, with carer linda, who is lovely. Also there is amy kennedy who, people say, is 12 going on 35, because she has such mature mannerisms. She has a growth disorder, but can read some words up close and is very able and helpful. Its confusing having two amy’s in the class.
But what I like about it most is that we actually go to classes and learn things. With mags’ class, I felt so not on the ball, because she was hopeless and very condescending. You really notice the difference between those carers who talk to the kids like normal people, and those who talk about the kids to their carers right in front of them, or talk to the kids in a manner like they are babies.
I am actually now able to take an interest in how the kids are learning, and I am learning makaton signs (adapted sign language), some Braille, moon letters, textile learning etc… I have had some moments this week where I have felt so proud and interested in the kids learning. Like when we were in science and learning about the heart, we put the stethoscope in the kids ears and they listened to their carers heartbeats. Ruqaiyah said “oh….music,” and I thought that was so cool that she should associate it with music. Fiona was being moody and as soon as she heard the heartbeat she calmed down, because they associate it with the soothing heartbeat from in the womb.
Victoria can also play the piano. She sat and played along with the teacher, on a separate piano, and was brilliant. Only uses one finger, because she only uses one side of her body, but she got so excited. She has an excellent sense of rhythm and loves music. She giggles a lot too, sometimes for no real reason.
She is a very slow eater, taking about five mintues to chew nad swallow one mouthful if we’re lucky. But she tends to store the food and it falls out.
We have done French, maths in the multi-sensory room, been out in the woodlands learning about climate, bounced on trampolines etc… I love it when you get something through to them. Like when we were doing maths we were getting them to feel the lengths of different ropes and wool. Victoria could put them in order by feeling them with one hand. I also helped her sign in makaton “same and different,” and I said this is called…. And she sounded four syllables uh uh uh uh,” ie comparison. I felt very proud and it made me smile.
In saying that, residential can be bludgey or frustrating. Friday morning I got kirsty ready, the one who we were making animal noises with and when I said “what noise does your fave animal make,” and she said “chocolate pudding.” The one that’s obnsessed with bob marley and thinks Madagascar is a person. The one who is obsessed with the rhyme “listen to my tummy,” and refuses to wear her splints. This morning she tried to take them off three times, getting down on the floor and going nuts, lashing out at me, and then being perfectly rational the next. Some of the kids are so unpredictable. Like, this week, poor emilie was so tired because she never gets an undisturbed nights sleep without fitting. So we lay her down and in an hour she had over ten fits. But then she just gets up and carries on like nothing has happened.
On that Friday night I went to the bonfire night celebrating guy fawkes, who tried to blow up the houses of parliament. It was very English. i will have the memories of rushing down Melrose Avenue, terraced houses and pavement, with jonathan plodding along holding heathers hand to keep up, wearing his Wellingtons and chattering the whole way. We got into the park and thousands of people were watching the bonfire being lit, wearing hats scarves and gloves and looking freezing. The bonfire was lit and the manikin of guy fawkes was burned. It was the strangest sight, and seems like a funny thing to “remember remember the fifth of November.”
The fireworks display was awesome - for a small town display it went for half an hour and was better than the NYE Sydney ones. They re-enacted Sleeping Beauty with fireworks of all kinds. The underground zoomed by, the air was icy, and I loved it.
There have been fireworks going off all week, with Halloween aswell (I gave treats to two boys who came to the door, which has never happened to me before!!)
Relaxed on the weekend, tried catching up on sleep, helped around the house a lot, and rang family and elle. It was good talking to elle, who said that its like the amy she knows is suspended in time somewhere and the amy she is talking to now is a completely different person. We talked about how I find one of the most exciting things, is going home and finding how much things and I have changed. How different my capabilities and perceptions are.
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