Oh man. Parent teacher conferences and IEP meetings.

😳

There were two specific instances at Jonah’s student led conference that I almost lost it.

The first time was when his teacher wanted to demonstrate what they had been working on.

She gave him a whiteboard and started composing a story problem.

“Jonah had 3 toys. Mama gave him 4 more…”

I watched as Jonah started writing down the numbers as his teacher was talking.

“How many toys does Jonah have altogether?”

“Jonah, is it ‘plus’ or ‘minus?’”

“Plus!” Jonah replied enthusiastically and put a “+” in between the numbers

“How do we know?” His teacher continued…

“Because we get more!” Jonah replied.

I watched as Jonah drew out 4 counting lines underneath the “4.”

He started counting from three and made it to seven. He was using a technique called “counting on” where you start counting from the first number instead of zero.

I was floored. Everything went all blurry.

Jonah went on to show me how he could subtract in a story problem as well.

I can’t believe how far he has come. I know how much work went into that because I tried to do it with him for over a YEAR during the pandemic. We made almost NO progress.

But now he is a math whiz!

He is reading and sounding out words. And his behavior has been BEYOND phenomenal.

His teacher said, he is the class “ring leader.” EVERYONE wants to be like Jonah.

He sets the example. Anything he does, his friends want to do as well. If he starts being “goofy,” his friends start imitating his “goofiness.”

But the other thing that “got me” was this.

During class, apparently one of the other students ‘accidentally’ hit Jonah’s teacher. Jonah saw and immediately came to HER defense!

“‘ALL DONE’ HIT MS. [TEACHER]!! NO HIT MS. [TEACHER]!!”

😲😲😲

Seriously, guys.

Jonah won’t even do that for ME!!

This is the same teacher whose class Jonah REFUSED to get ready for almost every morning before the pandemic.

He wouldn’t get dressed. He wouldn’t walk to his classroom. I had to carry him from the car into the building every day.

This is such a HUGE turnaround.

The biggest compliment I can give Jonah’s teacher is the way he reacts to her. He now LOVES going to school because of her.

She has been such a blessing in his life. In OUR lives.

I almost want to try to retain him just so he can have another year with her.

😭

She said she is working on her masters degree and looking to work specifically in the autism field.

I told her to put us first on her waiting list, however long that may be.

Original Facebook Post.