Foreigner in a Strange Land

Week 3 of student teaching. I miss my behavior kids. No restraints. No yelling. No cursing. No runners. What is this horrible place? What is a girl who is used to dodging punches and being called every name in the book supposed to do? It just doesn’t feel right. These kids listen. I don’t even have to count to three. I am a foreigner in a strange land.
Alright some parts of a life skills class are nice. I don’t come home exhausted from having to do a seated restraint on a kid because the safe room that was supposed to be built in the summer was never built and now it is November. Definitely don’t miss those days where you hate yourself for having to put your hands on a kid. Or coming home with bite marks and bruises.
But being in a life skills classroom is different. I feel like I moved to a different country. I like the culture. The staff is awesome. The kids are amazing. I just don’t speak the language or completely understand their culture.
I feel like a tourist who has studied up on a country and then when you arrive at the country you feel completely unprepared. Granted, most of my training in low-incidence disabilities has been beneficial. But I am working with individuals, not statistics. Each individual person is different and deserves to be treated like an individual and not a list of characteristics from a textbook on disabilities.
I always felt the best way to learn the language was to immerse yourself in the culture. When I took Spanish in high school and college I became increasingly frustrated. The Spanish I learned wasn’t what was going to help me out on the streets in Mexico. I needed to be in a position where I had to be completely immersed in the culture and could only speak the language.
The problem with life skills is that I feel like I am in a U.N. meeting with no translators! I am trying to communicate with various individuals who all speak different languages. Some are non-verbal. Some use itouches to tell you their basic needs. Some speak ASL. Some show you pictures. All of them don’t understand body language at some level. Do they make an English to disability dictionary to help me translate? Of course, if I could understand those students they are probably feeling the same way.