Cleavage

One of my students comes to school in her PE clothes and then afterward changes into her 'school clothes.' Today she ran to change and came busting into the classroom saying: "I found my cleavage!" I turned around and she was wearing a shirt that was lower cut. Needless to say, the shirt was adjusted. This is really funny because this student is socially on a 3 or 4 year old level and totally didn't get what the big deal was.

Mamma Mia

When I got married midyear, I knew that changing my name would be a challenge for some of my students. So at my reception, one of my paras* snapped a picture of JD and I. She printed it and posted up on the board and all through my honeymoon, she reminded them daily of my name change. Then came Christmas break. I assumed that by the end, my students would all have forgotten about the change of names and all of my para's hard work would be undone.

I was sitting at my desk the first day back from break and in walked E. E is a student on the autism spectrum and has difficulty with language. She took one look at me and said "Santini! Italian! Mamma Mia!" and danced across the room. So adorable!!


* Para stands for paraprofessional/paraeducator. These are the wonderful people who help in the classroom as aides. I wouldn't be able to function without them!

Z and the Proposal

I had a student in Utah who has Down Syndrome. And boy did it not stop him! Talk about a social butterfly! He had so many friends that it often became a problem. At the time, I was single and went by Miss Sangster. Well Z was quite a flirt with "the ladies" and he would say. One day at the beginning of his first year in my class, I was walking with him down the hall of the school. He stopped, got down on one knee, grabbed my hand and said "Miss Sangster, will you marry me?" I didn't know WHAT to do. They never taught me how to deal with student proposals in my special ed certification program! Wanting to laugh, but worried an administrator would turn the corner (or ANYONE, actually), I told him that he had to wait until he was 25 and then come talk to me.

This is the same student who, in the MIDDLE of my lesson, burst out: "Miss Sangster- you HOT!"

Flowers for Santini

Just a couple of days ago, I was reading with one of my students. She is a student with autism and limited verbal skills. In fact, she communicates by quoting movies. Once she didn't want to do math and said "I don't want math- it makes me GASSY!" This is a modified quote from the recent Chipmunks movie- "I don't want a burrito, it makes me gassy!"

As we were reading, we got to a part in the book where the characters were looking at flowers. She stopped, jumped up, and said "Oh, dear. Oh, dear!" She ran over to her Camp Rock lunch box, shoved her hand in, and handed me 2 crumpled flowers with the petals falling off. "For Santini!" she exclaimed and then sat back down to her reading.

Being A Special Ed Teacher

I was thinking today about all of the crazy experiences I've had as a special ed teacher. I am afraid I've already forgotten some of them. I could totally write a book- ask my mother. So since posting is so much more enjoyable for me than writing in my journal, I thought I'd start writing posts about some of the things that has made teaching special ed a wild, entertaining, and 'unboring' job ever- while also maintaining respect for the students I worked with.

Let's hope that writing down my memories will spark further memories and that it will make up for my lack of journaling over the last several years.