Zanne

I know.

When Maddie kept calling Caleb a redneck, I was thinking she better better shut her mouth considering she's a (now) pregnant teenage bride who dropped out of school to marry someone she's related to. The only way to make that more redneck would be to slap an NRA sticker on her ass as she walked down the aisle. Then I realized she wasn't 19 like I thought, not that 20-21 is all that much better in this scenario.

No mention of December Bride, yet? It's the usual story of two lonely hearts pretending to be engaged for the holidays and falling in love. The reason it caught my attention was that my parents' house was in it at the end! They live on a street that goes all out decorating with lights every Christmas and this movie used some B-roll footage that featured their house. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be the main guy's house when decorated or not, but my parents were very pleased considering how hard they work to decorate every Christmas. If you see it, look for the giant snowman and Santa and that's them!

It depends upon the situation, the era, etc. My district is currently undergoing a rebranding and instead of Special Education, it is now Special Services. They're pushing the person first identifiers, such as "a student with autism" rather than an "autistic student" and so on. There is no way to please everyone with one all-encompassing, acceptable phrase. Just as with gender identifiers, the best way to get what you want is to tell people when they start talking about it.

Have you been watching Humans? Sentient robots seeking equality is what it's all about! If you haven't, season 2 is going to start early next year. They're still working on the "not property" part. One of the stars is Colin Morgan, if you have any Merlin love.

Way back in season [probably two since Azazel was involved and therefore still alive], Azazel tried to reboot his special children line. Remember baby Rosie? The Boys tried to kill Azazel with the Colt, I think, and failed, but that plot thread with the special children 2.0 was left dangling. How old is the BMoLW's kid? ETA: What arhtee said. Damn quote button limitations!

This may seem random, but I'm rewatching this to give it another chance and noticed something odd. Is NewBrad wearing dance pants beneath his underwear? Because in that lab scene his groin is front and center and it's like a Ken doll. I wasn't purposefully looking, I promise! But it was (or wasn't) right there and I wondered if they had made him wear the dance pants to smooth him out so as not to offend the 8-10 PM prime-time audience with too much bulge in the tighty whities. I'm not trying to body shame, but it made me wonder how far the production went to sanitize this performance since, as many of you have said, it felt far less sexual, titillating, slightly menacing, and fun than the original did.

So much yes to this, particularly after watching the second episode. It is really bothering me that they are leaving time wrong in a way I can't handwave. I would have preferred your version, though I realize that would take out the "surprise" of the changes.

I thought she might have meant he was thin-skinned, perhaps a bit too soft for the rough and ready "west" world the hosts are living in. He was a pampered, softhearted city boy in the wrong part of town.

Plus, the ex could be like Perth in that they weren't dating, but Rachel really, really wanted to be. Remember, Megan broke up with Tyler Perry through the television screen when she saw he had a baby with his girlfriend on TMZ. The reality of the dating could be in question.

My favorite was Rachel's brother. "It's a gay wedding. How is it not time for showtunes?" I also wish we'd seen more of the fun Elena. She seemed to be having a really good time in all of these cut clips!

I thought maybe all hosts had blanks and only guests got real bullets, but someone above suggested that maybe it's something in the hosts' programming that reacts to the "bullet" to formulate a wound. I wish Show would give more detail on that just because I want to know the logistics for when I build my own robotic dinosaur gun-slinging theme park of the future!

That was one question I had. How do park guests tell the other guests from the hosts? I didn't see anything that set the hosts apart. I actually wondered if dandy-hat-guest-with-wife had shot another wanna-be-bank-robber-guest accidentally before realizing bad guy was a host. That seems like it would happen from time to time if the guests can shoot and rape anyone on whim, and the hosts bleed red just as guests would.

Totally random observation, but I'm a teacher and there's a student in one of the classes I support that looks exactly like Chris. It's weird. Fortunately, the student doesn't appear to be psychotic. I'm very disappointed the group lost Strand in this finale. I would rather have lost Travis or Madison if Show had to weed down the number of adults.

Or a child who has special needs may not need the parent quite as much as they did when they were in elementary school. I'm dealing with that issue with a parent in my classroom right now. I understand it's hard for parents to let go, but it can be so frustrating to watch when you [the teacher] are working toward making the student as independent as possible and the parent still treats them like they can't do anything on their own. What I do like about this is that Maya is trying to let JJ go and let him do things without her. True, he has an aide, but that gives JJ more autonomy than having Mom following him around would. I'm hoping to see more of that.

This was 11+ years ago when I was an instructional assistant, but training for an aide mostly happened on the job, unless you were a health aide and had received previous certification as a nurse or other type of medical professional. Another qualification was relatively new at the time, but they required aides/instructional assistants to have an AA or BA so they could support students academically in their classes. Older instructional assistants who were already employed could take a test to excuse them from the AA/BA requirement. You used to need to get the CPR/First Aid training on your own dime, but the district began to provide it later. Even when I was a substitute aide, I was toileting and feeding the kids. It was seeing how well I handled it that got me employed full-time by the school. I was trained as backup support for health purposes, too, should the health aide be unavailable for some reason, and learned how to swap out an oxygen tank, just in case. District provided CPI training is also required, to restrain a child in a non-harmful manner when the child is posing a danger to himself or others. Since the show is unclear on exactly who is responsible for paying/hiring Kenneth, I'm not sure what qualifications might be required. People hired from outside companies sometimes specialize in behavioral issues and such that District employees may not have the training for. However, a District aide would not be spending the night or having dinner at a student's house. Their job starts and is over at a set time. The District would not be responsible for what is needed at home, only what is needed at school (or to get to and from school). For example, JJ's physical therapy must be paid for by the parents/regional center/etc. since it happens after school. Otherwise it would happen during the school day by a school employee who is required to extend services to JJ a certain amount of minutes per week, according to the IEP he doesn't seem to have at this school. There are, of course, the occasional exceptions to the school day service rule, but those are discussed at an IEP.

Maybe his range is widening because his bitees are like cellphone towers. They extend his coverage to wider areas with everyone he bites and leaves behind. That would be interesting!

Don't Murphy's bitees have some sort of sixth sense of where he is? Cassandra seemed to always find him. The daughter probably led the family there.

That was a terrible scribe. He broke every rule in the scribe book. I've only done it twice for SATs in the past, but all you were supposed to do was bubble what you were told to bubble. The classroom writing requirements were handled by the student's 1:1 aide. Yet, another reason to have an IEP! Transition planning is so important! But in all of the six or more schools that JJ had attended in the recent past, according to show? 6/6 is pretty high odds to all be gigantic liars set out to ruin JJ's life. I've worked in two districts and they've all been exceptional at getting what the students need, and working with outside groups to get it, if necessary. Maybe it comes from working at places that do their damn job, but the mom's abrupt dismissal of "Special Ed" was annoying to me.

Just because JJ has limited mobility and problems with expressive speech absolutely does not mean he would have been placed in a separate, self-contained classroom. Students with speech issues and with mobility issues are placed in General Education classes if that's where they are functioning. There is a boatload of testing that needs to be done before a district can dare take a child out of a General Education setting and if that testing shows the child has no academic issues then they cannot place him in a separate setting just because he's in a wheelchair. That's bullshit. Yes, he should have an IEP to guarantee certain rights, such as having a paraprofessional, but that doesn't immediately maroon him where he doesn't belong. If the student required a paraprofessional with special skills, then the district might agree at the IEP meeting to pay for such services from an outside company. Usually, however, the position would be flown and the district would hire someone. I've been in Special Services (yep, that's what they call it now) for at least 15 years and in my early days I served as a scribe for a young lady who was paralyzed. The point of an IEP is to make it possible for students to get what they need in order to access the curriculum, not to punish them. It was the Mom's reaction of "Yay, no more Special Ed!" that frustrated me because that IEP would, in effect, be paying for the paraprofessional, for assistive devices that might help JJ in class, or whatever else he might need, and all without removing him from the General Education classroom.

I thought they were penises. Exceptionally unattractive, thin, and weirdly shaped penises, but penises nonetheless. It took me a few minutes to figure out they were pig tails.

I don't know about that. During my relatively recent house hunt, my realtor told me the previous sale had fallen through because the buyers' psychic had told them them house was haunted. Trust me, the only way that house could have had more popcorn in the decor was if they had glued the actual Orville Redenbacher to the ceiling. Heck, maybe he was the one haunting the house.

I loved that Christina's parents took the situation seriously and didn't just laugh about it and think it's cute. They were straightforward in addressing the issue with their daughter, realized they weren't reaching her at that moment, but knew they had to keep addressing it at a later point because the behavior was wrong. I love those parents! I also loved Rachel schooling Christina in how she should be treating her boyfriend. In this particular case, Rachel appeared so socially aware. She knew what Christina was doing was wrong, why it was wrong, and told Christina so. I don't think Brandon is on the marriage/baby train with Megan. I don't think he's even considered buying a ticket for that train, yet. He just likes to hang out with Megan right now.

Don't get me wrong. The opposite is also true, where a parent has underestimated their child because they happen to have special needs. These parents don't make their kids do homework and if you call them about misbehaviors in class, they'll be like, "Eh, what do you expect?" when you, as the teacher, know that they can do better. In the classroom you can push and push for them to learn more difficult things, but there's no support at home. The point is, it takes balance. You have to see where the most important needs are and do your best to meet those needs. In some cases, that's life skills over sitting in a math/English/science/history/whatever class that they just don't understand, no matter the adaptations/modifications. I would hope the parents' final goal is for their child to be able to successfully take care of themselves, even with some outside help. I've got a student who, while mom is pushing for harder work her child cannot do, would literally not be able to survive being lost for a few hours. Why? Because mom actively fights letting her do anything on her own, even going to the bathroom. It honestly scares me how unprepared that child is for life outside of school walls.

When it comes down to it, being able to solve a multi-step equation with variables will not help these particular students become independent. I'm in a district where core curriculum is pushed unless the students are in a functional class. I've watched students struggle to get concepts for years and by this I mean I've had students who still can't do basic math skills, even with the use of a calculator, but the parents want the student to be learning as close to the core curriculum as they can get. Great. I'll do that, adapt and modify the curriculum to their level, and do what I need to do. But can these students wash their own hair? No. Can they do their own laundry? No. Make a simple meal, even a sandwich? No. Go into a store by themselves and buy a candy bar? No. There reaches a point, particularly as students get older, where life skills should take precedence over standards. Surprisingly, it seems that a lot - and I mean A LOT - of parents are leaving life skills entirely to the classroom. Things like time and money that could be worked on at home are ignored by many parents and also have to be fit into the curriculum where it can. That doesn't help with the laundry, hygiene, or food prep, but it's frustrating as a teacher to see how little some parents are preparing their children for actual life. Note that I am not talking about every single student with special needs. There are differences between students with special needs just as there out in the general population. But if they've reached a certain point and they still can't add/subtract (even with tools to help) consistently, life skills should be taking center stage. And it must be taken into account how long these life skills will take to teach and to learn. Even Rachel's mom said that teaching Rachel to do laundry was really hard and it probably took a long time. This is why it shouldn't wait until the child is ready to move out, like Meghan wants to, because it can take a long time to cement those skills into place.