u/sirchloe500

what would you say?

i’ve been trying to convey in therapy how plural people are everywhere in the world, we just don’t always make ourselves known. if you& could send one message to everyone around (anonymous or not, up to you) and you knew they would just listen and think about it without judgement, what would you say??

NOT limited to one thing per system! would love to hear from different system members on this.

mine would be: i’ve been plural my whole life, the whole time you’ve known me, and i don’t plan on trying to change that any time soon!

hi everyone! hope you are all doing well as summer approaches.

TLDR: i’m moving from para to teacher, would it be preferable to have my former para student in my classroom or in another teachers class?

here’s my situation: i started working at a Sunday school last year as a one-on-one aide to a third grade student with autism (medium/high support needs), we’ll call him Jake. this is the first year the school has been able to give Jake an aide, before that he would leave early and since the whole class was younger he could fit in more but now the difference between him and the class is more clear. this was also my first year working as a one-on-one. we’ve had a great year and made a lot of progress!

the program director reached out to me and asked if I’d be willing to teach a fourth grade class this coming September, rather than return as Jake’s aide. i wasn’t sure at first but we had a meeting and i decided it seemed like something i would be interested in! i asked what the plan was for Jake next year since i’ve gotten used to working with him and advocating for him. she let me know that our classrooms teaching assistant, who usually stays in the class but works with Jake when i’m out sick, would be his new aide. they always seem to work well together so i told her i thought that was a great idea.

now here’s what i want advice on: there will be three fourth grade classes, including mine. Jake will be moving to fourth grade, and the program director told me she isn’t sure whether it’s better to have Jake in my class or in another teacher’s class.

Jake tends to need a lot of breaks from the class (there’s a lounge area outside the classroom with blocks and coloring supplies that we would usually go to) since he has trouble with pretty much any amount of noise from the other kids and also with staying quiet during instruction. so he’s used to knowing that if he asks me for a “break” i’ll leave the room with him. there was one time i had to substitute for the class next door because of staff shortage, and he got pretty upset that a different teacher was taking him for a break and not me.

however the program director (who has known him longer) thought if he were in my class, he might be more compelled to stay in the classroom for longer.

what do you think and have you had experience with something like this before? thanks so much!