Thursday Oct 29, 2020.
We had the annual IEP meeting few days ago thru the Google Meet with Mrs. Newman Heather, Mrs. Principle, his speech and OT teachers from Abraham Lincoln elementary school, and Mr. Castaneda from Thomas Jefferson school because William would turn 7th year old soon. At first I did not know why Mr. C was there but soon I found out the reason; and that came to me as a surprise.
I think it was about a month ago when the Mrs. Newman asked if I had any input/suggestions/comments about this whole thing of distance learning because of the Corona virus; I said that William might be bored because the routine is the same every day. All I was hoping that Mrs. Newman can run the class a bit different each day so that it’s less boring. Back then when he went to school in person, I have no idea what was going on in the physical classroom. Now that William is at home learning thru the Google Meet; and I’m there with him every day, I know exactly what’s going on. He most of the time tried to get off the chair and play with his toy: I always had to re-direct him back to the chair,
“I don’t want to sing!
I don’t want to select a song!
I don’t want to talk about feeling!” – It was almost everyday that William refused to participate.
That’s why I made that comment to his teacher. Mrs. Newman then said if I was thinking about moving him to a different class. I felt bad because I thought she took it the wrong way; I did not mean to hurt her feelings at all.
Then after that Mrs. Newman did not mention anything about the new class; and I also forgot about that conversation.
Back to the IEP meeting, just like last year IEP meeting, Mrs. Newman went thru William’s goals and said that he mastered all his goals; and she set the new goals for him. Then all of sudden she introduced Mr. Castaneda! Mrs. Newman started with William’s reading level is at the 2nd grade; he can count to 100 with no problem while his classmates can only count up to 30; he can do addition and subtraction math with single digit fine. And then she recommended to transfer William to a less severe school, Jefferson elementary school. That was when I realized why Mr. C was invited to the meeting, because he was gonna be William’s new teacher! Mrs. Newman asked if I agree to transfer William. I hesitated for a bit because I was worried that William might not like the change, that he would not fit in with the new class; but I also knew that if William stays in this class, he will not learn anything new because his level is higher than his classmates.
Mr. Castaneda started to talk about his class, that this class is for moderate autism; the class size is small also but the difference is that it focuses more on the grade curriculum. I’ve been always wondering what would they teach in the normal class; and if William can go to the normal class so that he can learn the same thing that the 1st graders are learning so that he will not be behind on his academic level, but at the same time I’m worried that William cannot survive in a 25 or more children classroom: I did not know that there’s class for Autism kids that focus on the curriculum! Mr. Castaneda’s class is what I’ve been looking for for William all along; so I agreed!
Which also meant that was the end of Mrs. Newman’s classes for William! Tears came to my eyes! I said “Thank You” to Mrs. Newman and everyone else, knowing that I would not see them again. William was expected to be in his new class the next week which meant he had 1 last day with Mrs. Newman and his classmates on Friday.
Later at night, I told William about his new class, he said “OK”. He took it so well that I was kinda surprised. I was not sure if he really understood what it meant.
Friday came, toward the end of the class, Mrs. Newman played a song to say good bye to William. She’s so thoughtful; Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy too. We love them all! I’m sad to say good bye to them. They’re very dedicated teachers who are willing to go out of their way for their students; I still can’t thank Ms. Birdie enough to pick up the Chrome book for William at school and dropped it off at our house.
Monday Nov 2, 2020
William was supposed to start the new class today (school still conducts classes via online due to Covid-19 pandemic) but we still had no information about the class. Mr. Castaneda promised to send us info over the weekend but he did not. It was 7:00 AM in the morning, I texted Mrs. Newman about my concern. She got back to me right away saying that she’d contact Mr. C for me.
Later Mr. C called me and said that it’s best for William to start on Tuesday because he did not have the class materials yet; and that I we could come to the school to pick up his material around noon. I said Yes. So at noon, Tim drove William and me to the Jefferson school; it’s about 15 minutes away from our house. I met Mr. C in person at the gate, he looks more friendly in person than from the online video meeting :). He gave me the class materials and an enrollment form to transfer William to this new school.
Tuesday Nov 3, 2020
It was William’s first day with the new class. Mr. C introduced William with the class, there was only 3 more kids about his age; and I don’t think they really paid much attention about William’s presence. They all seemed very talkative. Mr. C has 3 teacher aid but they’re very passive: all the time Mr. C was talking while the teacher aids just sat there and listening, unlike Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy.
The class starts at 8:30 AM. Mr. C played some Good Morning songs from You Tube, then followed with the Social Story which was about using the Polite words. This first session ended at 9:00 AM. Then at 10:00 AM it was math, and reading and some grammar about Noun; the class ended at 11:30 AM.
William survived the first day of class with no problem. Now that I know what’s Mr. C is teaching in the class, I’m relieved because I know William can handle it: reading is about his level; he might have a hard time with words math because it’s the first time for him. But I know William is a very smart boy, with a little bit of help, I’m sure he can understand words math soon.
So that’s how William got transferred to a new school to be at his academic level.
As a Mom, I could not be happier :).