Tired

Photo by Gretchen Haskett

     The winter is upon us, even if it's not actually winter yet. I am exhausted and barely functioning a lot of the time. Things are hard. The other day is was cold, I think the high temp reached a whopping 31 degrees. Today it was almost 60. Friday is going to be 20 I think. I wonder why we are always sick or exhausted? I don't really, I know why. 

     I have been having an issue with a student that really has me stumped. I can't really go into details about it because of privacy laws but it was really messing with my brain. I know that undesirable behaviors have a root cause; all behaviors have a root cause. And sometimes getting rid of the undesirable behavior is as simple as replacing it with an appropriate behavior. And for anyone who is getting ready to get up in arms about me saying "undesirable behavior" I do not mean stimming. I don't care if people stim. EVERYONE stims at some point or another (ever tapped a pen? Jiggled your leg? Twirled your hair? That's stimming). By undesirable I mean a behavior that gets in the way of someone's learning (or existing in the world) or is overly disruptive to others. Anyway, there is a very undesirable behavior which has permeated the entire day of this student. It is not in any one particular classroom/location or at any particular time of day. It is all day, and everywhere. Which means it does not have a simple root cause. Which makes it harder to figure out. But I may have cracked it. Or at least a way to work on it. 

       I was randomly doom scrolling on Facebook and happened to watch a short video from a woman who said 3 year olds literally do not understand the words "no" or "not" when you use them in a sentence. And I was like, what? But she demonstrated. She showed her young child an apple and a lime and said which one is not an apple. And the child pointed to the apple. The child knows what both the items are, but she does not understand the concept of a negative sentence yet. Now I do not work with 3 year olds but, from experience, I know that many of the kids I work with do not understand a negative sentence. So this child may not understand what I mean when I say "We don't ____________" They may be only hearing the "we" and the end of the sentence. It was a lightbulb moment. I still have to try this out, but I think I may be able to curb the behaviors that are negatively impacting this student and their learning. It's going to really take some thinking about, but I think this might be the key. 

     In other news, I have been working on a batch of hunt seat dolls for a bit now. I started last week and we are now almost to Wednesday and I still have not started dressing a single doll. I do finally have so many pieces prepped and ready that I may be able to finish a doll in about an hour. Which would be nice. So I am working, even though it is a super struggle, and everything is slow. Because I am tired. 

      We have 3 more days until the holiday break and I am very excited. I am excited to not have to get up at 5:30. I am excited to maybe get to stay up a bit later. I am excited by how many dance events I plan to go to over vacation. All of that excitement is also tinged by exhaustion. I really am very tired these days. Basically all the time. I need to dance more. That is about the only time I'm not tired. But it's almost Friday, which is dance night and the first night of vacation! I can't wait!

     The lovely photo above was sent to me by Gretchen Haskett after my Black Friday sale. And I have been too lazy to share it until now. Enjoy!