And It’s Halloween Weekend.
We tried something new this week for Dylan.
Dylan had turned in all of his missing work, but his grades hadn’t changed online. This is because teachers have better things to do than grade all of his missing work in ten minutes, recording the grades online, and making sure Dylan gets what Dylan needs.
Dylan, on the other hand, having finally done what he was supposed to do, expected this of them – and for a second, so did I.
“If you really turned this in,” I asked, “why didn’t the zeros disappear online?”
I had handwritten notes from his teachers, stating exactly what he’d done – and everything was turned in.
So I emailed his case manager, both of us a bit panicked that we wouldn’t know if Dylan had all B’s in his classes or not. She called me.
“I will take a snapshot of his grades right now,” she said. “And I will tell him that he is not allowed to have any new zeros if he wants to work next weekend.”
“Next” weekend is this weekend. And it’s Halloween weekend. It’s the biggest event of the year for Dylan – six straight days of face paint and screaming.
“Okay,” I said to the case manager.
New zeros started popping up immediately. The next day there was one. Two days later, there were four. I stopped counting by Monday, and his deadline was Wednesday.
As always, Dylan said he was “getting it all done.”
Sure enough, he got it all done. Again this week, Dylan did everything in one day, bringing home a stack of notes from a slew of teachers.
And then he got sick.
The day he finished everything, he came home with chills and wanted to take a nap.
I told him to stay awake for three hours, and then he was allowed to sleep. So he stayed awake for three hours – and then he went upstairs, crawled under his covers, and slept until morning.
When he woke up Thursday morning, he desperately wanted to go to school. He said he felt better, and he tried to take a shower – but he just couldn’t do it. After all the “catching up” he did at school, and all the late nights he’s been working, and all the nights he’s stayed up “chatting” on his phone…
He just crashed. And now, even though he is allowed to work, he can’t. His body won’t cooperate.
I am praying for a speedy recovery – not only so he can work, but so he can catch up in school – again.
He’s just missed two days of assignments in every class, and the quarter ends next week.