I cannot believe what a wonderful week this was!

We had a little problem solving to do at this week’s meeting – we cannot understand why one of the new twins (the girl) is so easily upset.  Even worse, once she has had one tantrum, she never truly returns to her original state of calm, and instead becomes more and more vulnerable with each following tantrum.  We do know that if we stay near her, we are able to quell the tantrums as soon as we see them beginning, thus preventing the next five or six tantrums as well and enabling us to do more constructive work with her.  We devised a system in which we take turns monitoring her progress – and my turn went WONDERFULLY! I was able to observe several trends in her speech and behavior, and she did not have a single tantrum!  It was incredibly gratifying – and to put the cherry on top, Ms. Olsen stopped by Felise’s desk (where I write my reports) after class and told me that I had done a great job.

            The child with separation anxiety is doing far, far better now.  She barely whimpers when she enters class, and the rest of the time she bounces and smiles and sings at the top of her lungs.  We did have to employ teamwork at one point, when she had an “accident” – I am not qualified to work directly with the children in this situation, but while one of us cleaned the child up, another person had to speak to the child’s mother, who had come back into the classroom (we still don’t want to risk another onslaught of separation anxiety), and one of us had to clean up the mess.  I suppose this counts as gracious professionalism as well, since I was the one who was closest to the accident site at the time, and I ended up cleaning up the mess.  I didn’t mind very much (and thank goodness, the accident occurred over a rubber mat!) but I definitely would have preferred making more observations on the other children.

            EEEEEEE!

            While I’m at it, I should mention that one of the more socially anxious, generally silent children is becoming quite a chatterbox!  She is using full sentences and giving direct and AUDIBLE answers!  Excuse me while I go dance the conga.

            Time management went up this week as well – I was given a the task of assembling welcome packets for the front desk.  This involves copying hundreds of papers, cutting fifty or so flyers, making hundreds of packets, and sorting them into different folders for delivery.  Thankfully, I was allowed to use the common space in the supply room and was thus able to line the packets up, once they were assembled and stapled, so that I could sort them into their respective folders faster than usual.

            My short-term goal for next week is to learn all I can about the twin girl who has be puzzling us so much lately – my long-term goals of making a permanent difference in these children’s lives in what little ways I can has not changed.