Ms. Clark, the lead teacher for today’s special ed. middle schoolers, is a pistol. Her playfulness with the class did not detract from her ability to be taken seriously. I don’t mean that the kids sat still and listened, though. They seemed to be “special ed.” based on the inability to sit still and follow directions. Some, though, clearly could not read well or do the work. As an aide, I mostly went over worksheet type activities so Ms. Clark could tackle the paperwork that comes with this class, and do some one-on-one work with students.

Today the first group of kids worked on choosing the correct article, “an” or “a”; read aloud, then answered questions about the three states of matter (solid, liquid, gas); and practiced subtraction. The students at the end of the day took a quiz on the periodic table. It reminded me that perhaps the most import thing we learn to do in school is listen and follow the directions. Nearly half of the students did not round to the nearest whole number for one part of the quiz, despite Ms. Clark’s having reviewed how to do it at least twice, and leaving an example on the overhead projector.

On the one hand, I get paid less as an instructional assistant; on the other hand, it's often easier, and meeting a cool person like Ms. Clark is a perk.

Capital City weather: back to cold, -- upper 40s? – and rainy. At the Byrd: Catch Me If You Can and the latest Star Trek.