Ayn's Multiple World

Ok moving along - up to Sunday ;)

Good morning … this is me. I know, I know … what happened to at least Saturday? Well, some things get done and a whole lot are always backing up on us somewhere else.

We’re up to the stage that its about 8:30 am on a Sunday morning and the bottom line is no writing yet, and I can’t say how much will happen today. It’s different sharing a home with someone because other priorities sometimes take precedent.

Also, bosses make a difference. Yesterday I had to go to the parents’ meeting at work, and Sister asked me to do a presentation on CARF – Just a short one, but with translating everything to Spanish it sometimes takes longer. I had written down what I wanted to say – typed it up – so, that I gave a copy of it to one of the English/Spanish speaking mothers to do. She’s the back-up interpreter and there are people amongst the parent’s who helped her out, so it went ok.

There was one funny part about the translating. I make it a practice to listen as much to the Spanish as I would English to gauge where things are at, because every once in a while, I hear a word match somewhat like it is English, but a little different. And, I can tell by the infliction of her voice things. Yesterday she paused somewhat and said something and without really taking stock that I was sitting at the front, I responded to her Spanish by saying, “I know that word, you said that I was ‘complicated!’” She thought it was funny and so did the audience.

I felt pretty sheepish about that, but I thought this is nothing new, Sr. and my peers say the same thing. Anyway the thing went on and finally got over and we had a nice hand of applause and a few compliments so that was important. I felt it went pretty well. I just went over the positives they had said, and the negatives – except the other order.



Hmm we made another time jump. This was us then and this is us more now.



We fell asleep a little on the cat – Missy and she high-tailed it out on us. Cats. They like making dramatic exits. All showboats. She startled us though – kicked the parts around a bit. Don’t like that so much. Sweetie Pie asked us if we’d had our medicine cuz we were acting different … It’s 9:41 and we hadn’t yet.

So that’s probably a bit of a problem. We took it just now though so we’ll work with that. Let’s give it a half hour. Missy’s hinting she might like to come back, but we don’t want her up now if she’s going to act fussidy. I think it hurt our feelings.

I don’t know what we were talking about before … we were just drifting and the TV and Rich were in the background. Rich is gone now … he went in to bring some work to that one shop again. Dumb people … how come they can’t get the stuff before Sunday morning. That’s pretty bad to think that anyone should have to work 7 days a week. Rich was there yesterday too.

Rich got a couple other things happening this weekend. Last night around midnight he got a call from his son saying that his mother went to the hospital and he was going to check it out. Apparently she “collapsed” during one of those concerts she goes to almost every weekend. It’s hard to tell whether it is serious or not, but she did stay overnight. They had done an ECT and it showed that something might have happened about a year ago – stroke wise. I had though the same result when I went for the test to see if I could have the hernia operation. It said that sometime in my past – don’t remember if it pointed to about a year, I had had a stroke. Not to say then that that isn’t important, but it didn’t seem to present what happened to her last night. When Rich said stroke, he moved on and didn’t want to return to those thoughts to clarify that it wasn’t a stroke last night. I don’t think so though.

He said he was the calm one and I believe him, but they were talking already about calling all the kids home including the daughter out in New Mexico. It seems as if they are all thinking she won’t live, though my thought is it could be something simple like dehydration or drinking – I know she gets worked into frenzy with her friends during those concerts. Rich says she has high blood pressure, which makes sense more as to her over-excitedness. I also know she has tendencies to be self-destructive. There was something else strange going on … the concert was in Downer’s Grove and the family house is in Algonquin, but I guess I just don’t see the need of staying overnight in a hotel when it is only 36 miles or 45 minutes away. Rich said that’s just the way she does things. And, my mind is saying cha-ching, cha-ching. Thing is … if I was self-destructive and my mind was bent at the time that way, I might stage something involving hotels and concerts and having my best friends around. I don’t want to assume like that, but the point is … she could have lost conscious for that, or something serious, or maybe just not enough air.

My best suggestion really can’t count, but it if did I would say let’s not plan for the worse, until they figure a little more out. If indeed they said this might be a life and death situation … but, see that’s the point. They just want to do some more tests. The youngest son said to his father that he would take care of calling his siblings, but then I know the siblings they are going to want to call their father – more likely for money to come home. That’s the funny thing about having an Italian wife. She’s been fighting with the older two and not saying anything to them, but now they want to rush home before she dies. I just don’t get it. Hmm, that’s another funny thought … Downers Grove is only 10 miles, or 20 minutes from our location in Brookfield … If I were going to do some theatrics … I might want to do it around my ex. Ok, ok … now we’re back into just not believing she’s very trustworthy when she may have some serious problem … just have to wait. They are at a stage of divorce where even if she were to die and they disclosed it was because of corns, Rich would get blamed for her death. Let’s say heaven forbid and not have those thoughts.

The way I see it … the person we’re most concerned about is Rich. He is taking it tough too. He is saying already *Sigh* it is just more pressure added to me. We stated that we didn’t think she would like to see him, but is that the way he felt about it too? Without saying anything much directly we know that he’s taking over a position for the family about making sure everyone’s in place and we know he’ll become the main communicator, but it’s a big deal his son willing to call his siblings – especially, because whatever thin information he has, he has the best of it. Just lacking in his father’s perspective … whose to say if that’s good or not.

Rich is older and wiser, but has a tendency to say he doesn’t worry, I think he does, but he won’t call a situation negative if he doesn’t hear that directly. He tends to make light of things. I don’t know … there’s a whole lot of room for complication in those thoughts.

Hmm, that’s interesting … we just figured it out by looking at the map … I bet she’s at that hospital we were at for depression when Dad and Sandy died 4 years ago.

It’s actually straight down Ogden … wouldn’t that be strange if she ended up in the hospital for mental instability too? Weirder things have happened. I’m sure by the time that Sweetie comes home there will be new information. Chances are that he’ll call the kids while he’s in the car. It’s 10:20 now and I think he was giving the youngest a chance to wake-up about 11. Yup, yup checked out the area better chance than not that’s where she is. I didn’t have a real clear recognition before where I was, but that’s the place.

Hmm, we ended up with another cat in our lap … how did that happen. Whoops insulted the cat … he moved.



Remember this super star? Spose we could move on … I think he’s complaining about all the dirty dishes. Cats … they do that you know.

Shoot we ran out of coffee, but we moved the cup in his way … he’s laying down more comfortably now. Can’t live with em … can’t live without.

Ok, something new how are we … what have we been doing … where have we gone … and more interestingly … why?

Did want to say something right off the top – in that Dr. Marvin is back this week.

We saw him at our regular time on Thursday. Somebody was pretty frustrated that he had gone. I feel bad for him because he always gets blamed for patient abuse or something like that. Basically – You don’t love us anymore if you go away. That’s pretty much how all that plays out. Someone was talking about death again, but I don’t think its overly serious, because when he asked afterward how its going with Rich someone very excitedly talked about going on vacation in a couple of weeks.

You know the deal river – lake – fireplace – big windows – and Jacuzzi! Yeah … if we were going to be messing up … let’s PLEASE have it AFTER we enjoy the hell out of life! Jeese … this is the time I think parts of us ARE really crazy. Ha! Maybe we could end up in the same psych ward and then we could fight over our love in a big CAT FIGHT! WOOHOOO!!! Hehehe well it was a thought.

Hmm, been pettin the cat absent-mindedly. We’re ok … As to what’s been happening in other news … Rich news? He’s been busy this week seeing people. He had thought his weekend was going to be like very busy between cards, fishing, and opening football game, but unfortunately for him things all fell through. His next fishing partner decided to cancel his and Rich’s trip, because he wanted to go out with another guy, and then that guy canceled out on him, so he re-invited Rich, who know refused to go. And then his back up fishing partner – his main stay made plans to go out with someone named Rodecky – unsure of spelling and was complaining about interrupting fishing to come back for Rich so Rich said enough of that and his other best two friends Doug and Jack … well they were supposed to watch together the Bear’s game, but one bowed out so the other canceled the entire event. Soooo to make a long male soap opera short … I get Rich who says aren’t you lucky … to which, said other Sweetie what’s this … scraping the bottom of the barrel … you don’t want to be with me … you just got stuck with me.

I know I know … some empathetic you know what. Well as those thing go … they don’t usually last long … Sweetie an I went to the meeting and then by the time we were both back, we had dinner and like a long time ago … Ahhh took showers and went to bed … hehehe you remember with each other??! He brought back ribs and I decorated the table. Hehehe I put a couple rubber crab fishy lures on his plate so he could have a sense of some fishing company. Just on the sides! He decided not to eat them though. Ah well … you know male prerogative.

We’re still hurting on the leg … but tomorrow is the leg dr. and we’re pretty sure he’ll say … we’ve got to do some “tests.” That’s what they always say so you get your hopes up that they are going to take care of you, you go the extra mile in getting there IN PAIN … and then they say we’ll make another appointment for you years after your tests are through. Uh huh … right. You wanna take a bet … that’s what’s going to happen. Plus, I have to wait and go at the end of the day after I do another staffing. This is just turning out to be no fun. I’m at the point of near tears crossing the floor or going up/down stairs. We’re hoping mostly at this point, it is nothing permanent, but if it were so, I’d say that we need to give up this lease and get something on the first floor or with an elevator. I’m feeling more despondent as time goes on, because most problems that are physical show some sign of getting better, and now it is about 3 months of this one … getting worse.

But, it’s not like we didn’t try … there was after a long wait the appointment with the stupid nurse practitioner faking it that she was a doctor, then my doctor, now this doctor … WHO IS GOING TO TELL ME TO GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! Oh, we said that already. Most positions are uncomfortable … this is just basically terrible. AND, it better not be spoiling my vacation.

Ok, beside that … where are we. We had a long tough week this week, but with some enjoyment as far as work enjoyment goes. We were told by Sister on Tuesday – Monday being off – that we were going to need taking a group. One of the staff is off having back surgery and the other is on vacation. Our back-up staff is backing up … though I think the priority for our new substitute art person should be substituting. Instead, we tood the first four hours (3.5 because .5 was for lunch), and the other Q – older one took the afternoon. She had only two hours, which is like less time because 2 of the 3 days I took half of her double group to do the circles program, and we all know the last 30-45 minutes she’s just sending people home. Shee …

We are going to need taking the two groups – group I and leadership one more day – on Tuesday, and then on Monday and Wednesday, we have staffings. Man … we are also going to be continuing those days with 4 sessions of circles program, staff training and Thinking Group. I think honestly they are going to get sick of me! AND, it’s like no time being at the desk or office. Leaves me feeling tired and cranky. This last week was the week that the new fall schedule was taking place. It was also the week of the monthly staff meeting and administrative meetings. There was no room to breathe. The extra work with the group that fell on me and not my Q peer was that I had to write up the summaries of the clients week. Because I am who I am … we filled out or are filling the entire sheet with information. I can never seem to let things go half way. We’ve been working with the majority of 18 people so there’s lots of paperwork and planning that’s gone with it.

Fortunately two of those people come only 2-3 days a week and about 4-5 people work some amount of hours during the week … Friday is the day we had the most because none of the workers work on that day. There was one positive thing that happened and that was basically, Sr. decided this week to have the new Q do permanently Group 1 and for present the leadership group every Monday. I thought that was a very good idea. The thing was that she’d get the bigger case load, but we knew that was too simple and that she’d get something else in addition. For her level teaching is a good thing to do. She needs more exposure time to the clients. As it is … she puts off work and does a lot of talking and Internet – I would say proportionately, more of that then actual work. She needs something to help her put her priorities straight. I cannot say I have not had my days, but sheese … it was at least 4 years into the job before I started taking some time for ourselves. She’s not been her 3 months! I think she would like to stay, but she is going to need to stay because it is good work, not because she can shluff off.

We complained to sister about this again on our way out the door. We also talked to her about the new Q not having done anything toward the new group, or having thought it was a very big deal. I think Sr. heard though there was not much she could do at this point. Rich says that if the girl is going to fall on her arse … well he doesn’t really talk like that, but basically if she is going to … it will be soon, because she is not going to be able to hide from work or sister by being up front.

Sister will be able to watch for herself. Maybe the girl is going to turn out being a natural. We kept volunteering our help and she kept saying no no it’s ok, I can do it myself. And, it was like ok. We told her to at least look at the planning book to see what she should be doing to at least get some idea of which areas she will need to teach, and we told her that she should have penned in at least some kind of project or another. She refused to take it seriously though. I just can’t say my dismay enough. I told her there are enough behavioral problems that come up that you want to focus right away their attention on the “coursework.” But, she’s so into la-la land and thinking being a college graduate is so big a deal there is nothing to learn. If she were looking ahead to master’s or doctorate work, she’d realize she just got through Stage 1. She has not got a lot of personal experience in the field. She’s probably worked the better part of 1 ½ years, but most of that work has been with seniors, and from what I’ve figured out … she was on the graveyard shift so she dealt only with the ones that woke up. It IS different teaching our group. I haven’t liked the condescending way she’s talked to the clients or the parents or the other staff. Or for myself ME when she tells me shes not worrying about teaching.

I tried to teach her at least about the one client you have to watch out for because of his stealing … she’s like … it won’t be a problem. That’s the attitude she had with her first staff meeting this week on her own. BUT, she never managed to connect all parties with the right time and they had to do the meeting without the mother and father. She’s like – no big deal I’ll just meet with them later. I would think that’s a horrible way to start. She doesn’t think she has problems but they are coming out of her ear. No, I’m glad Sr. gave her at least one day of teaching. It might help give her perspective. I know that the clients aren’t going to take laying down if she doesn’t put herself fully into it. The clients were complaining about Margarita and her not caring when they complain to her … they complained of her in Leadership group too, which was this group in part. It doesn’t take too long for that sort of stuff to get around. We teach at the center that they should complain to their DSP, if that doesn’t work go to their QMRP, and if that doesn’t work, go to Sr. I think the one’s that need help understand this sort of pecking order, and I have no doubts they will let Sr. know what they think.
I felt very good at one point during the end of the week when Sr. said to us that all went well this week and that the clients seemed to be having a pretty good time with us. Hehehe I think part of that was the last Circles group I was doing. I don’t know what happened, but both the leadership group and group III had sessions and we had them both hysterically laughing.

I don’t know … Like we said we had four sessions of the Circles program. We had Group I on Wednesday, Group II on Thursday, Leadership and Group III on Friday (Group III is usually on Tuesdays, but we had an odd time for the Administration meeting). Basically, the material was the same, we were just working with different people. Sr. decided, I think I told you, not to have the teachers stay. That was a real nice thing. 45 minutes each session worked out too, but we had a small problem at first getting the tables cleaned on time. Sr. took care of that and it got better. We had previous to the meeting worked out about 16 3 x 5 cards with things that we’d set up to happen. Parts were understanding that when you are in the purple circle – center of the bulls-eye like pattern, that it represents themselves. They learned the sign for themselves was a self-hug, and a few other things. In basic they learned that the Circles program was about relationships and they had to learn relationships meant being with others. We had them complete the maps that were started the last time because some of the people have changed. And, then we said we would color the blue circle next time. They each helped one another with that. They had through it a chance to do the small amount of coloring, but also handled a scissors and tape that sister let me buy at the dollar store … good deal to have all these supplies that are my very own.

The next part was in having each say or have said about them something about why they are so wonderful. I had them choose cards representing themselves, and then I asked them to put the card in the center of the purple up on the large map – about 6 x 5 foot. I had started that by asking them to smile for a picture, but we didn’t have to worry much there, because they saw the camera and smiled naturally. I really think I got almost everyone, even those two that only come on some days.

Then the next part was with our magic box. I told them that I collected a picture of the most important person in the whole world, and then I invited each to take a look. I had put together a box a little bigger than a shoe box with colored magazine pictures of women smiling, and I made a little trap door for them to open to take a look. Inside the box was dark except the light showing behind them, and they faced inside the box a mirror showing a reflection of them. The reactions were beautiful. Sister watched one round and I think she had the warm fuzzy feelings too, watching the reactions on everyone’s face. We were definitely where it was at those times.

I think she like it. The last part of the meeting was that we had brought in a bag of toiletry items and we had them tell us what was in the bag, and then we passed the bag around and let each of them take something out of the bag. Then we let it be up to them to describe what there item was one at a time and tell us something about it. It worked out really well, because I had put in just enough items for the biggest group. We had a little extra fun with it by smelling many of them like the soap, shampoo, deodorant, and mouthwash. We also gave an extra session on opening and using the sanitary wipe and how to hold a piece and use a piece of the dental floss. I was surprised by how many hadn’t used it.

So in all, it was a very good session. I hope we can do as well with the next, although I’m thinking I wished I’d remembered to bring the book home so I could plan for it. Group III is going to need another time, because they are going to get shorted out by me teaching Group I and leadership next Tuesday. We’ll have to see there … It is a lot easier making up the time rather than having people get a week behind, unless I’m going to miss several sessions because of absence. I could do the group on Tuesday at noon, I don’t know … we’ll have to see where sister sits.

Last week she wanted to hold things on target, but she allowed that one substitution, because they were short a teacher at that time anyway.

Hmm as to any other surprises during that time? If I were to think I would say that the difference between the groups was actually very small. Naturally the cognition at the Leadership/Group I level is different than group III. But they each seemed to appreciate at their own level the fun that I’d have with them. There was just a little information given, but it was hit at 3 to 4 different levels, so I know that they understood at the end that the purple circle meant them and that no one else was in that circle beside them. That’s the main point of this part. It is important to build up these ideas, because later we will talk about all levels of other people and being able to say “NO” to what we used to call stranger danger, or even at these new progressed times, you can say “NO” to a family member if they invaded your private space. We talked about for example having bedroom doors that closed and how you could invite in only the people that you wanted at the times you wanted them.

I really really think its going to be a very good program. And, it’s a good program for them to have. I look forward into progressing. I liked that there were enough suggestions on things we could do to make it interesting for everyone. Just somethings are different … for example in Group III, we would help cut and tape and color, and the higher groups we could afford a teensy bit more conversation, thought they really really really liked the hands-on. That’s going to be a big theme of mine all year round.

Now as to group I and Leadership that was also a very big thing this week. There were like we said meetings on Tuesdays, and then I led them the rest the week. I tried to stick with the schedule that the DSP had made up. There were a few changes, like she had people doing copying word in the morning, but we didn’t like that so much. We got sister’s permission to get some playing cards. That turned out to be a very good project. Hmm, everything is being “very” to us … Must be being exuberant hehehe. We got 8 decks of cards and did not use all of them, but I liked having the extras in case we needed them … I think eventually, we will.

In different sets of teams and together as a group, we went through the process of learning the game, and we did each day. We spent an hour the first day and then a half hour each on Thursday and Friday. Thursday I was working with behavioral issues and the second day we sat with them for a news program. Those then each became the first half hour and the cards were the second half hour. I was sooo sooo pleased that by the end of 3 days, they EACH had a very good sense not only of the game, but several had a chance to lead their own group, and almost everyone could think through high and low. They were team learning. One of the games, my troublesome individual picked up the cards and started to shuffle for me and flip the cards. I thought that way a very nice thing to have happened … that he took his own initiative made it just that much better.

I had taken out the face cards and Jokers because I wanted them to get the numbers down. Each had their own variety of shuffling and that trick is just going to take them a while to get down. When we did teams, there were like 3-4 groups and those went well and it allowed me to go visiting each. People that won got an ovation. I used that platform as a stepping stone to one of my others where we went into hi and low or most and least. That was pretty cool too, but first we want to figure out what we remember as to the order of things. Every day after the first hour was 15-30 minutes of chapel or church so that gave us a little more planning time. I know that the teachers are supposed to go into church, but we’ve always been allowed to skip it, because between sister, sometimes a priest and all the other staff, I was not really needed. I certainly couldn’t replace the staff on vacation who does the organ.

The next set of classes that happen are from about 9:15-9:30 all the way until 10:15 when they get their first break, and then break lasted about 15 minutes and then the next group goes for about an hour, which is lunch time. During the break either someone brings in a tape/CD or more often there is an exercise video played that the group likes using. There is some loose talk too. I took it as an opportunity to eat my fruit. There was one time I looked at one of the girls who had sat way back … I asked her if she wanted to talk and she said, “I can’t talk to myself,” and I said then why don’t you join us up here – speaking of myself and 3 others. She didn’t appear to have come up with that idea on her own and was pleasantly surprised by group participation. *Sigh*

So that leaves the six sessions left unaccounted for. I don’t know if I can remember all of them, but we’ll try. The first one was a session where we helped them through a personality behavioral test. I think the questions were like “do you like helping others?” They were fairly simple and straight forward. But, it took us an hour to answer questions, 7, 8, 9 & 10. We weren’t going at real breakneck speed. Each question was asked as many times as it needed to be heard. We started our week long journey of having them respond together instead of distracting everyone else. We had to make sure the desks stayed clear and again there was always chance of behavioral distraction.

I think there is really though only one person that had trouble all week, and he
wasn’t real bad. The first confrontation was the worse. He is the one that you have to watch all the time for stealing and he has to be monitored wherever he is, even if it means leaving the group to see him putting away his coat and lunchbox. I had given him about 5 minutes while we were both in the room and I wasn’t paying as close attention and he’d built up on his desk a gazillion things. It was like shoot, that can’t be good, how will I know if he takes anything if I have to watch him with all that. So, with great amount of prompting we saw that he cleared off the desk from everything, but 3 items and his pencil/pen box. It was tough because he was upset every time he was prodded forward. He wanted then to go hide and stomp around the bathroom, but we held calm and tough and just kept repeating, you have to put things away. Instead of leaving him at that point, we sat on the other side of him in the aisle space. The room is pretty big … it’s our workshop and there are ten full size high butcher block tables each two resting up against each other so that you need to sit on the outside of the tables. He was at the middle set and there were people on either side so sitting with him gave him the structure he needed without over-emphasizing anything personal. The chair on the right of me was apparently not in use by anyone, but a couple of people would vie for that position if no one else was there. I thought that was fine, because if they needed a little extra help, I was available.

This individual though that I’m talking about was the one that took over the cards for me and that really was nice. Later that morning he said well it wasn’t me he was having problems with but the other staff. I said good, because I didn’t think he and us had problems either. But, it does make me wonder how its going between the others, because the last thing the DSP who was leaving said was that he was a big problem. I think he just needs some good structure and a friendly face. That turned out to be a test and we passed the test and there was no other big problem the rest of the week. We just stayed close.

Anyway going back to the survey on personality and behavior … The DSP had started it
and recommended it to us. There were 20 questions total … she did the first 6 and we did the next 4. Before she handed it over to us we asked her to correct her stuff so that everyone finished on the same six questions. Many of the people went overboard with their X’s placed on option a. b. c. or d. and we took that as a sign the teacher wasn’t monitoring close enough. We worked hard at saying only one X per line and having people stay on the same place. We monitored between each question … I guess more tightly at the first … and then we figured out who was getting it and had them sit next to people who weren’t. That was a good idea. We went over things like do you do that a lot or a little? Do you feel that very strongly, or just so-so. Things like that. I think the group does well with that sort of thing, you just need to keep them working on pace. I told them several times during the week, it was like being a centipede and that the people in the room were each one of the legs. We needed to work together. That was another strong theme. We’ll go back and do at least five more questions on Tuesday, I’d like to see it mostly done (without pushing them) by the time the DSP returns on Wednesday.

Later on when back in my office I took the time to score the personality/behavior survey. I then left a note with the teacher to tell her the people and where they had scored. So for those 4 questions who was high/low and which questions were the hardest and easiest. Part of the process of being a DSP or DSP substitute is to be writing down a chronography on what each were doing … I did more entries than most DSPs. I filled the sheet in 3 days, where not all them fill the sheet in 2 weeks.

I think anything else is just sloppy. There are a lot of missed opportunities out there.

The next thing we did was to give them two frames. One was going to be for their childhood picture and one was going to be for their adult picture. I was asking them how they changed. I gave them two personal examples, such as when I was young there were no personal computers either desk top, or laptop. We used typewriters.

But, now as an adult, I use computers everyday and often. They did very well with this assignment. Before I let them draw I went around the room and asked each individually what they thought. I reaffirmed their ideas as being good and then they drew. One person couldn’t perceive how to draw a bed, so I drew one up on the board. They all laugh at my drawings so we had a couple of peers draw for her on the board. They thought those drawings much more reasonable. That particular woman thought the difference in age was that as a child she was scared to sleep, and now it seems she sleeps often and certainly too much … like during program time. There were incidents of falling and getting hurt as a child and then there were a few that said things like now they wear gold chains and shave. I like that kinda stuff.

Anything introspective is good with me. After they had drawn their pictures, we shared them with one another.

The next group the next day after cards and chapel was on bullying … this was a hot spot topic according to the DSP. We had prepared for the week by talking to her Tuesday after everyone had left. She didn’t tell me who, but we could guess who was having a problem. There are two in particular that I’m aware of who go after each other and it was those two who were most outspoken in working through their troubles. Then of course my problem-person … we didn’t say anything directly to him, but we were still sitting next to him and we would look at him directly when he paused to look up realizing what was being said could apply to him. I’m pretty sure its obvious that if he’s throwing out a lot of angry messages that that too is a form of bullying. For a lot of the others, they are at different degrees with it, and if they are not directly responsible, they are getting it thrown on them and become victims of bullying or observers of it.

I was glad I did my homework with this. I had looked around the internet and typed out the best in a page and a half as I’d found. I broke it up into 3 parts, where we talked about the bully, the victim, and then the concerned adults. The bully part expressed many reasons why bullies act the way they do … this was lead into perfectly because one of the classroom bullies asked why do people be mean at the start of the group. We talked through that and for the most part they listened though there were some immediate responses. They all looked interested. During the victim talk the two who usually are at it with each other talked more and they were each able to give their sides. We explained that each of them took turns being either the bully or the victim. They both felt hurt and defensive with each other.

So the communication was excellent. We gave different people too a chance to act out their problems with me. We always get the bold ones out here. And, they love it when asked to have a volunteer bully Ms. Ann. One of the examples was from Bill Cosby who said … if someone says something to you … you just say, “So?” It worked very well in a couple of role plays and gave the group something simple to remember. We were saving our materials to the DSP, so she can practice again the processes. I thought it was an excellent sheet and I’ll probably give it to the staff during a staff training session.

The next group was a science session. The DSP recommended that we do something with habitats. She had a workbook, so we took out and copied something that had ten pictures of different habitats and it had the matching animal that lived in each at the bottom. It included things like nests, hives, under rocks, in tall grass, in water, etc. We discussed all of that and they gave examples of seeing some of them, and then as a group we matched up each animal to its habitat. Then I passed out newspapers and tape. The newspaper was about the only resource I could find in the room at the time. I said that we were each going to make the habitat of their choice. And, then I gave them a couple examples. I balled up a couple pieces in a circle and taped it together so it would hold then I held that up and said it was a bee hive. Hehehe they bought that so I went boldy on and made up another. I made a fish by balling up another piece and taping it so it had a tail. I colored in a couple of eyes. I looked at the paper and thought the water could be a flat sheet, so then I rolled up a connector between the fish and water, folded both top and bottom flaps for the tape to hold it and then I held it up and said this is a fish under water. Oh man … I’m so strange. Anyway by then they were biting at the bit to get started.

It was a wonderful session where everyone was fully engaged. Some had more trouble than others. I suggested that they had a choice of working on their own or with a team. We had one team making birds for a nest, another who had drawn a snake under a rock, or a couple other made holes in trees for the squirrel, etc. They each had a chance to bring it up front as the finished to exhibit, an then I collected all to be used for another teacher hands-on session. They were all enlivened by the process. I wasn’t sure how they would do with the tape, but they were excellent. I had picked up ten rolls at the store so they could each have their own … I know its terrible sitting around waiting for supplies or staff to do the work. That was a very good idea. So too with the scissors. Can’t have enough supplies. Also, we used during the week the stash of colored pencils we have hiding under the lectern in the multi-purpose room. YOO HOOO.

The next group the third day was a first introduction to the new US Gov Food pyramid. Yup, yup folks it’s changed. This is what the new one looks like. You can find all this cool stuff at mypyramid.gov



(Click on the picture - the full-size shot looks great!)

Pretty cool hmm? The first part was that we did tips. They had given on another sheet 7 tips about eating and 7 tips about exercising. I told the group to take out their notebook and pen/pencil and that we were going to take notes. I wanted them to pay attention, plus it was a good idea to see where they were at with writing – especially since I had the full group. So we went step by step through the above.

I came up with one or two keywords from each and those are the ones I had them write down. First of course, was to put down their name, date, title, and numbers listed down the left column. This is no little deal. Very soon we had the ones who could do it and the ones who couldn’t do it and they were repositioned to be helping one another out. We went letter by letter, and then repeated, and then worked on it some more, but eventually we got through it and our time was up. They worked hard the first hour so the second hour I had been trying to relax a bit and get some fun into it. So, we ha them trace from the picture above the food pyramid and color in the right colors. This took also some doing, but in the end everyone had one.

Later I took all the pictures and I cut the white paper unused out and I cut out their names, and we mounted two or three to a purple construction paper page and when the DSP gets back, maybe she will post them on their walls. They looked SOOOO beautiful. One girl had enough talent to draw quite a few fruit, though none of the others had done this. Some had the girl running up the stairs – to remind us to be doing our exercises and it was just amazing the differences in final result. There were two people who were able to capture the 3 dimensional part of the stairs, and the one drew it so meticulously I was sure I couldn’t do it better. Just really nice.

So in all that was pretty much of the hands on stuff we were doing. Rich is home now making our sandwiches. It is 1:30 pm. I think we’ll take a break and then maybe talk a little more of things in general? I need to put some kind of summary on the week. We’ll brb.

Pshwoo … it’s now about 2:20. Sweetie’s down putting a load of clothes in the wash and I’m recovering from being up for a few putting away clean towels. Whoops he’s up again … I think we’re going to hide because he’ll probably have more work … like he unloaded the dishwasher … so then we felt like we had to load it. I seem to know better when I’m going to need look out for him. Like now … he might decide to vacuum before the game.

posted by Ann Marie @ 9/11/2007 07:53:00 PM Comments: 0