Angry Honeybunches

Honeybunches' teacher wrote a long note in his Communication Book today.  It said:

"I think today was the day he realized that Mr. N was really not coming back. He started out okay at morning meeting but then refused to come over and join the group.  We worked threw that but he did lose sharing his animal. He was okay during snack, Math and most of Reading. After we took our spelling test he became very silly. When we ignored that he upped the anti. He began making silly noises and really disruptive.  He was given a choice to stop or lose Pokemon. He replied that he didn't care.  Ultimately he ended up being escorted by Mrs. P (Class aide who is restraint trained) and myself to the time out space. At first he wanted nothing to do with telling me what was wrong.  Eventually he admitted he was sad that Mr. N is not here. I told him that was okay.  We went for a walk and when he came back to the class he was okay. He had a rough afternoon.  He became very disruptive in class again.  Only this time I moved the children out of the room.  I stayed with him in the classroom.  I had a hard time getting him to express how he was feeling. So I started drawing circles with different facts on them. This at least got him to pay attention to me.  Once I got his attention I asked him to tell me if he was angry.  He said yes but didn't know why. I asked if he was mad at me.  He said no.  I asked if he was mad at Mrs T.  He said No.  I asked if he was mad at Mrs P.  He said no.  Then I asked if he was mad at Mr. N.  He said no.  He could not tell me he was angry. He just kept stabbing his paper with his pencil.  He got himself in the finger.  We washed it and put a band aid on his cut.  While he was stabbing the paper he told me that the paper was telling him to stab it.  That was actually when I asked him if he was angry.  He also said the people were dead while he was stabbing the paper.  Once he admitted he was angry he began to de-escalate.  He did lose free time and we talked about that too.  We also talked about bringing back the circle chart.  He thought that might help him next week.  I will work on that this weekend. Despite everything that has happened.  I think overall he had a great week.  It breaks my heart when I think about how he must feel without Mr. N. by his side, but I am sure he will build a good relationship with Mrs. T.  She has been great with him...."

It sounds like he might have been going through emotions and testing today.  This morning he was fine.  Yesterday afternoon he was a bit irritable, but didn't have any major issues.

I heard from the SPED director today.  He contacted somebody from an alternative school in our area to schedule restraint training for Honeybunches' 1:1 aide.  His teacher is interested in taking it too. The SPED director also apologized for the way things happened with Mr. N.

We have his IEP Meeting scheduled for the 24th of this month where I plan on going over how he is transitioning to the new aide, any concerns regarding that, possible placements for next year (5th grade supposed to be a different school), transportation for next year (The 5th grade school is close enough so he is supposed to walk because we live .9 miles and 1 mile gets a bus), and updates on progress from his teacher and providers at school.