Tag: Thomas Jefferson Elementary school

IEP 2021

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It’s time for William’s IEP (Individualized Education Program); it has been 1 year since William moved to Mr. Castaneda class at Thomas Jefferson elementary school.   I still remember how shocked I was when Mrs. Newman proposed that William should be transferred to this school because he was doing so good in class).   How time flies!  William is gonna turn 8 years old next month and is in 2nd grade.

With the Covid-19 pandemic is still going on, the IEP this time hosted by Mr. C was thru the zoom meeting just like last year (which was hosted by Mrs. Newman at Lincoln elementary school).  This time we have Mr. Catenada (Special Ed teacher), Ms. Linday (OT), Ms. Karen (speech), Mrs. Karen (General Education 2nd grade), Mr. Eric Merrit (vice principal)  andThomas (ABA supervisor from TasKids).

Yesterday Mr. C and Ms. Lindsay (Occupational Therapist) called to briefly tell me how William’s doing.  Mr. C made my day by telling me that William is doing so good with math so he’s gonna send William to a general education class, 2nd grade with Ms. Maureen for 1 hour math session; and Ms. Crystal will go with William to support him.    He also said William is good at reading too, but he wants him to try Math in normal class setting first to see how he’s doing there.   It’s such a great news to me; and I’m so proud of William.

Ms. Lindsay (OT) said that William is making so much progress on holding the pencil, he prefers to write in upper case but she noticed that if she gave him the adapted paper with visual cues, he’d write correctly with lowercase letters.  So she thinks William no longer needs OT every weeks any more; she proposed once a month for this coming year.

Ms. Karen (speech) said that William still has issue with the L letter, especially if it stands in the middle; he says it correctly if L is at the beginning of the words; so she’ll continue to work with him on that.

One other thing Mr. C mentioned that in the class he’d sit still for 30 minutes without standing up and wandering around the house like he did when we had online class.  I was so surprised to hear that cuz William I know can never stay still for few minutes, unless he’s watching iPad.

The meeting concluded in half an hour later, then I drove William to school.  We got the tardy yellow slip for being late with the “Excused” mark from the school office.  It’s Costume Day at school but he refused to wear any costume; we brought some candies for him to share with his classmates.

Trunk or Treat

Posted on by MICHELLE N

William’s school Thomas Jefferson Elementary School organized the Trunk or Treat event at the school parking lot on Thursday from 5:30 PM-7:00 PM, so we took William there.  He did not want to go.

It was small but nice to see everyone was having fun.  William did not want to wear any costume, even a mask!  And he did not even want to hold the candy bag and ask for candies,  so I had to do that for him.  One surprise is that we met his teacher Mr. C standing next to his decorated truck to give out candy and also saw his scarecrow on the fence.  Have gave William some skittles.

The music was nice but William thought it was loud so he covered his ears when walking around.  We did not stay long because William did not seem to enjoy it.

We ordered pizza on the way home.   While waiting for the pizza in the car, William hung up the lights and glow in the dark sticks on any hooks he could find in the car, seems like he wants to decorate the car with lights, so I told him, how about next year we’ll decorate our car and give out candies?  He did not response but I think he’d like that.  Let’s see if we can do it next year!  Sounds fun!

Another Day At School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday, it’s cool in the morning but will be really later today.  The weather is so weird: it was raining and cold on Monday and 3 days later it’s hot!

While waiting for Ms. Crystal and Ms. Dora, William could not stand still, he kept walking back and forth.

His eyes are still red because he always scratch his eyes. It’s been 2 weeks already! 🙁

 

Starting Covid-19 Weekly Testing At School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday 9/27/2021, starting today students going to Santa Ana district schools will have to take Covid-19 test at school weekly; they asked us, the parents, to sign the consent form last week.  William is not an exception.

We got a text from school this morning about the test; and just now I got another text from school giving instruction how to check the test result.  Nowadays all communication from school are mostly text messages which I find it very convenient.

Yesterday I primed William about the Covid-19 test, that this will be an Oran Swab test, not the Nasal Swab test like we did at Walgreens for our Hawaii trip.  He seemed to be ok with it.

Another Day At School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday 7:45 am. We arrived to school a bit early as usual.  William rolled down the window and watched people passing by. He still liked the idea of playing flute and asking for money.  He did not really ask people for money, he only told me, I want people to give me a million dollars. So by playing flute really loud he hopes that people will pay attention to him but he did not say anything else so no one knows his intention is for money:)

 

Friday, Yay!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It’s Friday, which means weekend, which means I can rest more: my tooth has been hurt so much that I can barely eat, and it’s giving me a strong headache.  William said, “Mom, You have to go to the dentist!” – Thanks my boy, he’s a sweet cute boy (when he’s not upset).

Ms. Dora was back today, “I had doctor appointment yesterday” – She explained when I said we missed her yesterday.

Ms. Dora in white T-shirt and red backpack holding William’s hand.

Today Mr. C held William and another boy hands while walking them out to the gate when the class was over.  Usually Ms. Dora walks William out.  He told me that today the school serve pizza and William ate everything! That is great!

Ms. Dora stopped me while we were about to leave the school and told me that William was very compliant today, he was waiting patiently for his turn.  I’m so proud of you son.  And I’m very appreciate the fact that Ms. Dora always tries to give me a brief report of how William is doing at school.  I think it’s better to take William to school than let him ride the bus, because if he rides the bus then we would not have a chance to talk to his teachers.  I always ask him what did he do at school but he keeps saying “I’m not gonna tell you”, so the only way to know what’s going on is thru his teachers.

I Want You To Pay Me 1 Million!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Lately William keeps saying, pay me 1 million dollars!  And he came up with the idea of asking people to pay him $1 million while waiting in the car every morning when I drop him off at school.  One day he used the flute to make some music (noise!) when he saw some body walking by.  These are the parents that taking their kids to school.  Today he hung up the little coin bag on the flute and handed it out!  I told him $1 mill dollars is a very big amount of money, no one will have that much, even if they have they’d not give out that much.  But I don’t think he understands that 🙂

9/8/2021: Second day in a row that he did that: hang the little bag in the flute and wait for someone to walk by then he’d point the flute to them without saying anything.  Sometime he blew on the flute so loud that people turned around and looked at us!

Running Nose

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Friday around 9:30 AM William’s school gave me a call asking me to pick him up because he had running nose.  It turned out the nurse for this session is not the same nurse in the summer so she did not know that William has allergies.   But since I was there so I picked him up anyway.  It’s the Covid-19 pandemic, I understand that everyone is so sensitive with Covid-19 symptoms like running nose, cough, fever, etc.

William asked “Did you go to the office?” – I said Yes, then he started to throw tantrums.   He pulled me toward the parking lot while I was talking to the nurse.  I told him to wait but he was so angry that he ran to the car; I had to say sorry to the nurse to run after him.  Once in the car he kept continue to cry and kick.  I asked him what was wrong.  He said, “I don’t want you to go to the office without me!” – “But I have to go to the office to tell them that I’m here to pickup you” – I said and tried to calm him down.   But that did not work, he was upset on the way home.

Anyway, next Monday is Labor holiday so counting today that he was off early, that’s total of 4 days off school for him.

 

Second Day of Back to School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Today when dropping William off at school, I had a chance to talk to Ms. Dora, 1 of his teachers.  She said he’s doing fine, and that he’s so fast at playing Tag.  I said, “Thank you for being so patience especially with kids with special needs!”

– I love kids! – She said.   Then she asked if William wanted to go with her to pickup his classmates at the bus.  Before they left, William said, “Mom, stay right there!”.   He still wanted me to wait for him to get into his classroom before leaving.

1:45 PM, I came to school to pick him up, it was so crowded and hard to find a parking spot so I parked on the next residential street.  I waited for about 5 minutes then I saw William’s face peeking thru the metal gate looking for me.  His teacher Mr. C saw me and pointed so that William could see me.   He ran out of the gate toward me; he did not look happy.  On the way to the car, he said “I will not go to school anymore!”.  I asked him why but he did not say anything.  I could tell that he was not calm.  What worries me is that he cannot explain or willing to share what bothers him.

Mr. C said that he did not eat anything at all; it’s very nice of him that he’s worried William will be hungry because it’s long hours at school (8:00 AM – 2:00 PM).  He said he gave William snacks but that is not lunch.  So I told him I’d pack William lunch.  Not sure what I should pack though because William only wants to eat pizza and mac & cheese.    Today I put 3 Melano cookies in his backpack and it’s all gone.  He must be hungry.

Once we got home, I made him 1 slice of pizza; he finished it really fast!

First Day Back To School – 2nd Grade

Posted on by MICHELLE N

After 14 days of self quarantine per the school nursed advised, today is William’s first day back to school. He woke up early around 6:30 AM and then woke me up.   He had milk and butter bread for breakfast, and by 7:30 AM we drove to school.   As usual, I’d let him sit in the car with the window rolled down when we arrive at school early.  He enjoyed looking out the window, and some times put his head outside and even stands up.

5 minutes before 8:00 AM we walked from the car to school, his teachers and his classmates were walking toward the gate, they call William name and asked him to get in line, but he was just running around.

Earlier, he said, “Do not leave until I get into my classroom!”

–  OK, that I can do!  – I replied.   Last night he wanted me to stay in the car until his class is over at 2:00 PM. I told him I cannot because I have to go to work.  I’m glad that this morning he made that compromise.

Covid-19 Safety procedures:

  • They sent us a text in the morning to remind us to let our children stay home if they have symptoms like fever, cough, etc.
  • At school, everyone has to wear mask and keep 6 ft distance.
  • There’s a staff standing by the gate, she sprays the hand sanitizer to the students’ hand before letting them go inside.