This week at school is the dreaded week of the state standardized test.  (I won't go into my disdain for standardized testing at this time to avoid a negative light to this post)  While one group of students were testing there were many others that had different accomodations and we not testing at the same time as everyone.  So, that is where I found myself at 8:30 AM, in a room full of energetic middle schoolers with no "real" teacher anywhere to be found.  In this instance, I have to admit that I didn't really know what to do.  The students were firing questions at me left and right -- What are we doing now? -- Can we get computers? -- Can I go to the bathroom? -- When do I take my test? .. you get the point.  I decided that since they didn't seem to know what was going on and I definitely didn't, I was just going to go with it.  So, in that instance, I decided that we were going to play a big game of HANGMAN!  Surprisingly, this idea actually worked!  Most of the students got really into the game!

Since this was a room full of students that had accomodations for their testing, that means that they were all identified and receiving special education services.  This school is a full inclusion setting, so these students are definitely not used to being with just each other.   As they realized that their "bff's" weren't in the room and they had to work with what they had, alliances started to form. 

And here is where the inspiration came from.  I was in the midst of a hangman game trying to guess " S C _ O O _   _ U S" and a few students I was playing with have dyslexia.  When the L was written backwards, and another student made fun of him about it, he yelled out, "You try playing this with dyslexia!"  Instead of continuing to make fun of him, the other students laughed with him.  They all laughed together and agreed that dyslexia sucks.  And you know what, dyslexia does suck, but eventually we all worked together to get the letters facing the right way and spelling out SCHOOL BUS.  Now, _ Y L O P H O N

    Do you know where the nearest fire alarm is to where you're sitting?  How about the smoke detector?  Emergency exit?  Motion sensor?  Six months ago, I never (ever) noticed any of these things.  Now, I am very aware of each of these, mainly because I spend each day working with a 12 year old boy with autism who knows more about each of these objects than any well-trained worker in the field. But just knowing about fire alarms isn't inspirational in itself.  It is the fact that he finds true joy in looking at fire alarms, finding fire alarms in buildings, drawing fire alarms, and even dressed up as a fire alarm for Halloween!  My world has begun to revolve around fire alarms.  I now know about the different brands that make them (is it Honeywell or Simplex?), the different categories of them, and especially how to draw one exactly how it looks in real life.  The intricacies of a fire alarm mirror the innerworkings of this remarkable boy's brain.  At times, it seems that he is battling against the forces in his head as he struggles to follow a writing prompt or do a tough math problem.  Yet at other times, he can stare at a control panel and be in pure bliss as he describes the complicated details that go into a security system.  

    Fire alarms inspire me by showing me that maybe it really is true that each person has their own niche in the world.  Whether it's fire alarms, quantum physics, or football stats -- they all matter.  Maybe it is in the obbsessions that autism brings out that true inspiration really lies?  Maybe we all have one thing that we are truly attached to, but it just takes the mysterious nature of autism to really bring it out?