Blessing in Disguise!

I was just given a name and a schedule of a student that was added to my caseload (we call students we work with (with special needs), our caseload).

So, I went ahead and looked for the new student. He was in the Math class, he was seated at the far side of the room, his hood was up, and head bent down.

I asked the teacher if I can pull him out for testing, she said yes, and told me that when she first met him, she knew he has needs.

I approached him and asked him to come with me.

That was the start of my services with him. 

He was 15 years old then, a freshman, a transferee. We learned later after receiving his Sped documents, weeks after, that he was actually given educational services, his whole life, in a segregated setting! Since we didn't know, he has been placed in a non-segregated setting the whole time (in inclusion class)!

At that time he was reading at a Kindergarten level when I tested him. 

He was enjoying his new environment and the pull-out method worked for him too, so the team decided to keep him in his current setting. He was elated about the decision! 

He was actually very willing to learn and I had fun working with him. I didn't only focus on his academics but I tried to make sure I was also following up on his daily living skills, like putting on deodorant, making sure his fingernails were cut short, his shirt tucked at all times (school policy) and that he controls his saliva when he speaks.

After 6 months, I tested him again, and who would have thought, he was able to increase his reading comprehension skills by 3 years!

It was happy times for us. 

Happy times because it was a mistake to place him in an inclusion class in the first place, but that mistake was actually a blessing-in-disguise because he was given an opportunity to live a normal life and it has served him well.

Yes, he graduated high school already and the last time I checked, there was no more saliva drooling when he speaks!

He will continue to be one of my best memories in my teaching career.

I pray he is well and may God send his angels now to keep him safe and help him live a life he dreams of.

NAMASTE.