Tag Archives: ADHD

Disobeying

Peter’s mom came to pick him up early today (at noon).  He has had a lot of days where he leaves early, or simply doesn’t make it to school.

So I quickly make some homework for him.  Before he loads up to go, he asks if the Book Fair is open.  He remembers that our class is scheduled to go at 2:00 this afternoon.  “Sorry, Peter, it’s open, but not for our class.”

He looks a little sad.  I should have reminded him he can go tomorrow at lunch if he brings money, or after school tomorrow if he doesn’t have any money.

Out the door he goes.  A few minutes later I get a call from a friend of mine whose class is in the book fair.  “Is Peter aloud to get a book now, or is he going home?”  She knows Peter.  She’s heard my stories.  Good call, Mrs. R.  I tell her to send him back to my class right away.

Peter, what are you thinking?

I’ve had students who are super ADHD.  Trust me, I have.  (Remember Johnny from two years ago???)  But even that kid new right from wrong, and even though he could not keep still or pay attention, he still new better than to do the wrong thing.  He had SOME self control.  I can’t blame all of Peter’s actions on his ADHD and other issues.  He just wants to do what he wants.

He better learn.

I’ve put Peter on different paper.  He can’t use regular college ruled paper.  He’s way too messy.  So I put him on 2nd or 3rd grade paper.  Wider lines to write in, and a dotted line in the middle to help with lower case.  But I’m trying to stress with him to place appropriate space between each word, so that whomever reads his work can actually read it.

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P (Peter)

Okay, we’re calling him Peter.  The new guy.

Peter was actually at school today, though I was interested to see how long he would stay.  Yesterday he left fairly  early.  He claimed he had chest pains.  (I found out later that his brother has been sick 5 days now with chest pain. I’ll let you decide for yourself if Peter really had them, or if he just wanted to be home with his brother.)

It’s impossible to get Peter to produce any work.  I put three language arts problems on the board for the class to do.  One of them was to write one word to finish an analogy.  Another problem was to split the word “copper” into syllables.  The other was to write what the subject and predicate was in the sentence, “The tree fell.”  All simple, right.  Peter just couldn’t focus enough to write an answer. He was looking all over the class, looking in his desk.  Anything but writing an answer.  I had to tell him at least 3 times to write something down.

I swear, I had to redirect him every 5 minutes when he was in my room.

And you can believe he didn’t have his homework done.

We had a special safety assembly after lunch, in the library.  All the 4th grade classes walked right up there.  It was a big deal.  I get my class sat down on the floor, take a seat in a chair, and look around to notice that – surprise – Peter isn’t there.  I get up to tell the VP, thinking maybe he went to the office for some reason (he’s done that before).  We step out of the library to find him, coming from the steps.  The VP asks him where he’s been.  He tells us he has been in the bathroom.

Recess had ended almost 20 minutes before that, and I remind him so.  He just stares at me.  I remind him that when the bell rings at the end of recess, that is the time to GET IN LINE, not go to the bathroom.

That kid is so frustrating.  I keep telling myself that maybe I failed to inform him of that.  But you know, all my other new students have picked up on that without my obvious reminders.

Then in the computer lab, he keeps falling out of his chair.  The kids tell me he keeps playing with his chair.  So after the second warning, I have him exit the math program he’s in, and have him come sit close to me, but on the floor.  He sits down, and what happens?  He starts laying down.  I tell him to sit up.  Then he starts to sit in a chair.  I remind him to sit on the floor.  Then he starts to play WITH THE CHAIR.  I tell him to fold his hands and place them in his lap.  He can’t even do that.

As we are walking out to the parking lot at the end of school, I tell him I need to talk with his mom.  So we sit and wait, and she pulls up.  As he gets in the back seat, I talk to mom through the front window, telling her of my frustrations with Peter.  Mom informs me that he wasn’t on his meds today.  What is up with that?  Okay, the boy CANNOT learn when he is like this!  He really needs to be oh his meds, the poor kid!

We’re in one of the lanes to pick up, so his mom tells him to shut the door.  But he doesn’t.  So as I’m talking, she peppers him with, “Peter, shut the door.”  BUT HE NEVER DOES.  So she keeps telling him to.  After a while, I ask him to as well.  But he doesn’t.

After I’ve said what I wanted, I with them a happy weekend and walk away.  As i do, I can hear mom say, “No it isn’t, Peter.”  I know she’s talking about the door being closed.  So I turn around, and sure enough, it’s still open, just a crack.  The front window is still open, so I shout, “Shut the door, Peter.”

He doesn’t.

Then the car begins to pull away, so I yell louder, “Shut the door, Peter!”

He doesn’t close it.

Then he OPENS THE DOOR and says goodbye to me.  UNBELIEVABLE!  So I shout as loud, and as mean as I can, “Shut the door, Peter!!”

He finally does.

I’m so glad the VP was standing to witness the whole thing.

I swear I had to redirect him every 5 minutes today.

Have I mentioned it’s going to be a long year?

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Another New Guy

Well, it’s been a while, but I got another new student (I had lost 1 boy, but gained a girl, so that had me at 32 for a while).  We’ll call him P.  He came with a lot of baggage, so we had a heads up about him, and the day before he came, we had a meeting with his mom, his old schools psychologist and RSP teacher, our psychologist and RSP teacher, and our principal.

He’s got a LOT of things going on with him, besides his health issues (can you say ADHD? [and more]).  The poor guy.

But actually getting him in class was somethin’.  Hopefully he WASN’T on his meds for his first day, because if he was…uh oh!  Apparently, when mom was asked by the principal if he was on his meds, mom said, “I think.” – I THINK????  Look mom, let’s make sure the guy takes his meds EVERY DAY!

Now you know I have experience with ADHD, and boys who have it and aren’t medicated.  This boy seemed to fit the bill.  In between long sessions in the bathroom (I was told he was goofing off, throwing water with a couple of 5th graders) he was a tad squirrelly (can you smell my sarcasm?).

Odd things I noticed about him:  scratches/sores on his arms, sucking his shirt sleeves (to the point that they were noticably wet), and talking to almost everyone at his table throughout the day (impressive, for a new guy [new guys are generally quiet and trying to follow the rules]).

But that was yesterday – he came after recess (I don’t know why they didn’t have mom fill out the paperwork after the meeting the day before).  Today he was here all day.  And no trips to the bathroom.  Although, I did get him faking he was soundly asleep.

He is classic ADHD.  He can’t find his paper because it fell on the floor when he turned around to talk to the guy behind him.  Then when he finally realizes it is on the floor, he knocks his pencil off his desk while he bends over to pick up his paper.  Then he finally gets his pencil, but then he didn’t hear what page to turn to.  Take that about 5 times, and that was his/my day.

I feel bad, because this guy is going to consume my year.  He’s going to take a lot of my attention.  He does go out for 30 minutes twice a week for language arts, and 45 minutes twice a week for math.  That will help.  His former RSP teacher implied he needed the time because he’s still putting capital letters in the middle of sentences.  I’m not sure about that, but I think he might need the time so that he can gain focus in a small group.

Oh yes.  RSP aide asked why all the scratches on his arm.  He replied it was because of the bugs in his clothes.  Nice.

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Medication

Billy is one of the 2 or three white kids I have in class.  Its doesn’t really matter, just letting you know.  He is also on medication.  Billy isn’t really his name, but we’ll call him Billy.  On Billy’s first day of school this year, his grandfather met me before I brought the class in and let me know that Billy is diagnosed ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder).  Then Billy’s grandfather tells me that Billy is not on medication.  They ran out.  He won’t have medication for a couple weeks.  That was bad.

It turned out Billy could not learn without his medication.  Literally.  Billy was all over the place.  It would have almost been funny if it had not been so frustrating.  I have never seen anything like it.  Let’s just say it was a tough two weeks.

Once Billy got back on meds, he wasn’t too bad.  He was still a bit more difficult than the average student, but nothing like he was off his meds.  Every once in a while, Billy is off his meds for some reason or another.  He might as well not even come.  Seriously.

Billy came to school today on half his medication.  I’ll spare you the explanation.  But he let me know he only took one of the two pills he was supposed to be on.  Let me just say, it was obvious something was up with Billy.  His whole look was off.  I told the psychiatrist about it, and she said she could.  His whole disheveled look gave it away.

It was a tough day.  Before school started he had already choked a boy and earned a discipline notice.  Before recess, he had already gone to the bathroom and sprayed water all over another student and all over the floor.  So Bill gets to spend both recesses in the office for the rest of the week.

Bill spent some time out of my classroom today, because of his behavior.  At times, he just couldn’t focus enough to get work done.  So at that point I had him have a seat in another classroom.  Other tricks are to have him carry heavy things to other classrooms.  Apparently that helps him be more self-aware, physically.

It’s funny, because Billy knows exactly what’s going on.  He knows why he can’t focus today.  He is a very sharp boy.  But he is dependent on his medication.  School is a waist of time for him unless he is medicated.  It’s very sad.  Hopefully he can stay on his meds and be successful at school, and at home.  But you should see him off!

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