hey... i actually taught her something!

I have a strange child doing strange things in my classroom.

Of course, there's never any shortage of strange behavior in my part of the world. From kids playing dead, to telling my future, to random meowing, I've wondered more than once if I'm on Candid Camera.

But my colleague and I are just baffled by "Sherry's" behavior (she's one of my first graders with hearing loss.)

We first noticed it during the daily bathroom debacle. Do you know how long it takes for 23 first graders to line up after lunch and use the bathroom? Nine minutes. That's a lot of time. (It's also a lot of saying: "Hurry up in there! Don't crawl under the stalls! Use soap when you wash your hands! Do NOT roll that toilet paper across the floor!").

It maybe wouldn't take as long if Sherry understood about the order of things. Every day, she walks into the bathroom and:

1. washes her hands
2. goes pee
3. washes her hands again

Confused? So were we. She does the same kind of thing right after she sneezes:

1. uses hand sanitizer
2. blows her nose in a tissue
3. uses more hand sanitizer

Whaaaat.....?

So the other day, I had the opportunity to take her to the bathroom all by herself. Before she went in, I got down at her eye level and showed her two fingers.

"Sherry. Number one: go pee. Number two: wash your hands."

She smiled and nodded, eyes darting around... looking at everything except my two fingers.

"Sherry! What's number one?"

"Go pee."

"What's number two?"

"Wash hands."

I watched her walk into the stall and .... actually follow my directions! I was kind of surprised. I was bracing myself for another debacle, already planning to make some kind of two-step picture schedule!

Yay for small victories!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gotta love those dead kids :)
~JO

Renee said...

When I'm at work I wash my hands before & after I go to the bathroom. It's so germy there & I can't stand it!

SharleneT said...

It's the small victories that add up to the overall feeling of having done a good job... congratulations! Now, there's only the rest of the year to face...

Kenzie said...

Congratulations! Baby steps turn into leaps!

Aleksandra Nearing said...

LOL my daughter does this - washes her hands before and after pee-ing. Oh well, I'll just buy more soap :)

Happy weekend!
Aleksandra

Ginger Snaps said...

Aw, that's sweet! Maybe she's obsessive compulsive about being clean!

Bethany said...

You must go through a lot of hand sanitizer. I hope you have all the kids bring two or three gallons on the first day.

Anonymous said...

I thought for sure you were writing, Number one: go number one.....well, you understand where I thought this was going. This is what happens when I read your post BEFORE coffee!!
So sorry to have missed talking to you! Have a wonderful week! Love, Mom

Charlotte said...

I always wonder where they get their weird ideas from. Maybe she is making up for all the kids who seem to forget about the hand washing!

Anonymous said...

Most nurses recommend washing hands before and after using the restroom, actually, for girls. :-)

Newer Posts Older Posts Home