Day of Silence Follow-up

Day of Silence--How it went

This year, the day of silence happened to coincide with a field trip--which made for a rather interesting experience.

I warned the kids the day before that I wasn't going to be talking on Friday, but beyond that I didn't prep them much. I made some cue cards (kind of like the PECs cards I use with *Bob, with a combination of words and icons, to cover some of my more common and necessary utterances (Yes, No, Can't Talk, Okay, etc). Since Bob is non-verbal, I thought it would be a fun solidarity experience.

The student's reactions were interesting, but one totally unanticipated consequence is that the most talkative student in the classroom decided to join me, and spent the whole day more or less "speaking" in gestures only. I think he thought it was some kind of really fun game, so he totally got into it. Nobody else took it that far, but it did encourage less talking overall, which is always nice.

For the most part, I was able to not talk for most of the day. I had to do a "time out" a couple of times, but really it wasn't too hard. Body language and gesturing took care of a lot of my communication needs, and the cue cards were helpful. Ultimately it was kind of fun for me to take a day off from talking, and I'm inclined to try it again next year.

Day of Silence

After debating it for the last couple of weeks, I decided I'm going to participate in the Day of Silence this year (at work). I may do it at home too... I'm participating in GLSEN's 15th annual Day of Silence in order to reflect on the prevalence of name-calling, bullying and harassment that still occurs every single day in school. Although I will continue to talk for necessary instructional and behavior management purposes, I will otherwise be remaining silent throughout the rest of the school day--which will be interesting because I normally talk to my students quite a bit.

For those who aren't familiar, The Day of Silence is an annual event designed to illustrate the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT. Anti-LGBT bullying is a pervasive problem that creates unsafe learning environments for all students.

As an educator who cares, I believe in a world where all students deserve to feel safe and welcome at school regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

3 1/2 months

Cedar is approximately three and a half months old this week.

He seems to have adjusted okay to daycare. I'm hearing reassuring things on his daily reports, and his behavior in the evening suggests that he's fine. Since I'm very tired after work, and he's very tired after a stimulating day, we spend most of the evening just lounging around, eating and relaxing.

He's huge and growing fast. I saw a 9-month old baby the other day, and he's at least as big as that baby was. He's got a long torso, huge feet, and basically wears 6-month clothes. I don't know how much he weighs, but he's almost outgrown his carseat, and is about to move into size 3 diapers. Yikes! He's a big boy.

His head control pretty good, but he isn't sitting up or turning over yet. I think he'll be still be awhile. He just had another growth spurt last week. During the day, he's awake a lot more, and he likes to look around when you hold him. He's still not terribly interested in objects at all, he's still more of a "people person". I'll give him stuff to hold, but usually he lets go. He prefers to smile and look at us.

He still snores, and has been doing lots of pre-talk. He also likes to giggle and laugh when he's in a good mood. He still is a huge fan of sucking noisily on his hand and fingers, I think he's beginning to teethe...

He still startles when you sneeze, or cough. He's pretty wiggly and squirmy when he's awake. When he's tired, he still wants you to pick him up so he can "pass out".

Most of the time he is still pretty quiet and non-fussy, but lately he's had kind of a teething/growth spurt so he was a bit fussier last week. Now he's kinda back to his old charming self.

After sleeping through the night, he's back to his previous pattern of waking up around 2 am. He had been skipping his night feeding, but since he started daycare, he wants it again. Fortunately I usually don't have to do much of anything, so it's not that big of a deal.

He still has reflux, and I'm a bit worried because I thought he might be outgrowing that by now.

He's still a super-cuddly baby and still likes being held. Since I don't get much time with him during the day, I also sleep with him at night.

He has started laughing in addition to giggling. When he's upset, he gets this look and does the red-faced howl. Then he stops to see if that got your attention, then if not, does it again. He generally only cries like that when he's really hungry. He merely fusses (uh uh uh uh) when he's wet, and when he's tired.

He loves daddy's silly talk. He thinks that's the best thing ever.

That's my boy...