I am doing my May Project at Ackerman School in the Special School District. Students that go to     Ackerman vary in their amount of independence and the amount of assistance that they need on a day-to-day basis. Some of the students have developmental disabilities, while others have physical disabilities. I have been working in one classroom for my work, which is a classroom that includes students on the Autism-spectrum. There is a lead teacher, Ms. Ellen, who is my sponsor, and four permanent assistant teachers in the class. The reason that I chose this classroom in particular is because my youngest brother, Kellen, is in the class. Including Kellen there are seven students in the class who are so loving and I have enjoyed every moment working with them. Each of the students has unique needs, which presents unique challenges each and every day. Some of the students have more issues with academics, while some have more behavioral issues.
          On the very first day working at Ackerman, we went on a bowling field trip. The students were pretty well behaved for the most part. For the first game of bowling, a lot of the kids were interested and engaged. I was responsible for bowling and keeping up with Kellen. He, along with a few of the other students like to run on impulse, so precautions had to be taken. Whenever it was Kellen's turn to bowl, I would help him bowl while one of the teachers would stand on the side of the line to prevent against a possible attempt to make a run towards the pins. After the first game was over, the kids weren't really interested anymore, and preferred to sit and eat rather than bowl. The owner of the bowling alley was a pretty creepy guy. Actually he was nice, but the creepy thing about him was his fingernails. They were long as a mug and looked like some fake clip-on nails or something. At around 11:30 a.m I had to leave from the bowling alley to head towards school because I still had my AP Biology class.There was another girl who was also volunteering in the same class as me, who is a senior at St. Joe's. Since some of the kids don't deal well with transition, she told me that after they got back to school, everyone was screaming and upset. I only was in class for the mornings up until May 12th because I had to leave Ackerman at 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and at 10:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
          The next day was a Thursday, and it was the first day I experienced a day in the classroom. Although I only stayed in the classroom for two hours that morning, this is how a typical day in Room 9 at Ackerman works. At 8:45 each morning the kids get off the buses and are greeted by teachers and brought into the classroom. They all hang up their backpacks in their cubbies and put their jackets in there as well. Then, a few at a time, the teachers take them to the bathroom before they get started on their work. Two of the students, E. and Ka. (I will abbreviate names besides my brother), come back to the room and get working on a puzzle set out for each of them to do. After they each finish their puzzle, they move on to their seat work. Whenever E. finises his puzzle, he says, "good job" in his high pitched voice. Ka. sometimes takes longer than E. to finish his puzzle because along with being on the Autism spectrum, he is very OCD, and needs to do his puzzle a certain way and have everything in a specific order. Everyone else in the class, Am., S., G., Az., and Kellen, jump right into their seat work after using the bathroom. Seat work usually includes coloring in the letter of the day on one of their sheets of paper, and matching pictures or letters on the second sheet. We always have to pay close attention to Am. while she is doing seat work because she loves the peel the paper off the crayons and subsequently break them in half. On that first Thursday I made the mistake of giving her a full, new crayon, and in less than two minutes the thing was stripped of its paper and snapped in half.
          After seat work, all the students bring their chairs to the breakfast table to eat breakfast. Each student is also assigned a talking device that looks like an indestructible iPad that you can carry on your neck. Instead of having apps, though, the talker has pages and pages of icons that the students can press and the talker will say one word or a few words, depending upon which icon was selected and pressed. All of the students are supposed to make the talker say, "I want to eat," or "I want to drink" depending upon the situation. If the student actually says some of the words themselves, then that is even better. Once everyone is eating, it is usually quiet, save a random squeal that comes out of nowhere on occasion. But one morning, while everyone else was eating nicely, Az. was not getting what she wanted, and was very frustrated that she could not express herself in the way that she wanted to. And so, she proceeded to punch Ms. Liz, one of the assistant teachers, in the throat. Az. was immediately escorted to her time-out corner, with a red, padded mat stood up and one of the teachers sitting beside her to help calm her down and explain to her that what she did was wrong. Az. usually frequents the time-out corner multiple times a day, which is dubbed the "Red Roof Inn" because of the red mat that is put up around it. She usually gets put in there for hitting, kicking, or spitting on someone. If Az. gets riled up, it sometimes may take multiple teachers to be able to escort her to time-out. Getting back to breakfast, the kids usually either eat toast or cereal. Most of the kids that eat cereal eat theirs dry and drink juice with it. E. is the only student who asks for, and eats his cereal with milk.
          After breakfast, the students bring their chairs back to the main table to do calendar work. One of the teachers leads calendar time, it doesn't matter who. Each student first gets a laminated paper with the days of the week on one side and the months of the year on the other side. We all go through the days and months together, to the tune of a song. Next, we all count by ones up to 31, then by fives up to 100, and finally by tens up to 100. Every day that I sit next to Am. during calendar time, she always grabs my hand and makes me point to the days, months, and numbers instead of doing them herself. Once everyone hands their sheets back in, it is time to go to P.E. Each of the students has to make their talker say, "Go to P.E." which makes sure they know where they are headed, and to help with the transition. All the students carry their talkers around their necks and once they get to P.E., they set them down against the wall underneath their specific number. Every student does this right pretty much every time and then immediately begins to either walk or run around the gym doing laps. Kellen does really well with P.E. He usually runs and walks laps around the gym on his own, but covers his ears with his fingers to block out all the noise in the gym. P.E. time isn't Am.'s favorite time of the day because she may walk a lap or two, but when she is done, she is done. You will be holding her hand while she is walking, then all of a sudden she drops to the floor and crosses her legs, refusing to budge. This would be a major problem, but luckily she is extremely light and easy to pick up. But the bad thing is that when you lift her off the ground she keeps her legs folded, so that if you let go of her she will crash right back to the ground without any way to brace herself. Since we're not supposed to carry the kids around, we sometimes have to wait her out until she decides to get up and walk again. When upbeat music comes on, the kids all know that it is time for everyone to run. S. usually grabs my hand and makes me run with her when the music comes on and seemingly doesn't ever get tired. G. doesn't run at first, but once you tickle him, he takes off sprinting away from you, but keeps looking back to make sure that you don't get too close. When the music goes off, the kids all line back up against the wall under their numbers and the P.E. teacher leads them in various stretches. They do sit-ups, butterfly stretches, touch their toes, etc. After stretching, P.E. is over and we all walk to either art or music class.
          The students all really enjoy art and music class. In art, they all contribute to creating a large piece that is to be hung up and laminated on the walls in the front hall of the building or outside the art classroom. The students either paint the picture in class, or if the painting is done, outline the piece with markers to make the colors stand out more. In music, the music teacher has Pandora playing in the background, while he demonstrates to the students the beat he wants them to play on the drums or another instrument. After his demonstration, he passes the instrument to each of the students and they begin to play the instrument. Most of the time they do not replicate his beat, but they do their own thing which is totally acceptable.
          After art and/or music, we all return to class for small group time.  I usually lead a small group with some of the students where I set out a series of pictures, hand them some cards with corresponding words on them, and have the kids match the words to the pictures. On other days I have done some math work with Ka., as well as playing with shaving cream for sensory purposes with Kellen and the other kids. Small group time usually lasts about a half hour, then it's time for lunch. Some days we eat in the cafeteria, but lately we have been eating in the classroom. Since they are all usually pretty hungry, a hush usually falls over the room while they are eating.
         After lunch we go to recess, where I usually end up pushing Am. and Kellen while they swing for part of the time, and playing basketball with E. and some kids from another class for part of the time. Next up in the day is computer time back in the classroom when the kids play learning games on the computer. Am., S., and Ka. love the computers and could stay on them all day if they had the opportunity to. When computer time is over, we go back to group work for a while, then we take a walk around the school campus at 2:30. We come back inside, recuperate, and then we eat snack at 3:00. These kids love to eat so whenever food is involved, they are well behaved for the most part. After snack, the teachers take the students to the bathroom for the final time in the day, and at 3:30 the buses arrive and the kids all go home.
          Even though the days are long, and some of the screaming, hitting, kicking, and spitting gets on all of our nerves, I have learned so much by working in the class. I have gained an increased understanding of the disease that ails my brother, and I have gained more patience with him. I have learned more about how he learns and how to deal more effectively with some of the undesirable behaviors he exhibits. While helping out in Room 9 at Ackerman certainly was not the easiest thing I could have done for my May Project, but I'm very glad I decided to do it.