Categories: Resources

The Worst TOC on the Planet – Planning Ahead for Bad Days

So many lectures

With School starting up next week, I thought I’d do a post about ADHD and School. How do you deal with the bad days that life is bound to throw at you?

I had the worst TOC on the planet (substitute teacher) last term instead of my regular teacher. I’ve had this woman before. Things just don’t go well for me when she’s there. Let’s just say words were exchanged. Tempers flared. I went home early.

And that was the plan.

One of the strategies that saves me a lot of hassle and being yelled at is having a Behaviour Plan that I’ve worked out with my parents and the school principal.

In grade 7 before I knew I had ADHD, I had lots of trouble with teachers and ended up at the principal’s office 24 times. This continued into high school with my teachers only strategy to deal with me when they were annoyed was to send me to the office. Seriously. Each time, I’d sit for what felt like hours, wasting time, waiting to get yelled at. (What a fun way to go through school.)

Now, there’s no more sitting and waiting in the office lobby. No time wasted. I can do what I need to do at home. No yelling. No hard feelings. And I can start the next day fresh.

If I have a really bad day — or a really great day and I feel it’s going to land me in the principal’s office… I go home. And that’s how I helped plan it in my Behaviour Plan.

So, don’t expect to be able to handle everything on your own — really no one is able to handle everything alone. It takes guts to start a conversation with your parents or school staff about how they can help you — but having a Behaviour Plan in place for days when I need it has been huge in my life.

(I’ll get a sample school Behaviour Plan up onto this site for you. You’ll get notified if you are subscribed to my email news in the sidebar of this page. )

Planning and strategies don’t just work for kids with ADHD, they work for all of us as we figure out how to get through life and try to reach our goals. However, because I have ADHD, I’ve had a lot of bad (and really good) stuff happen. It’s made me realize how much I need people in my life who support me, and strategies in my life for dealing with things that are bound to happen.

Interested in learning more about this Behaviour Plan idea? Or hearing more about being bullied at school? I have a radio interview coming up tonight — at 5:00PM Pacific Standard Time. It’s on an Internet Radio Station, so you can listen live from your computer.View the show’s page here. You can save it to your calendar with this link or get a show reminder so you don’t miss out. Also if you want to call in live and speak with the host, be sure to phone 646 652 4409. You will be placed into the caller queue where you will still be able to hear the show while you are on hold.

Some Questions, maybe you can tell me your story…
What are the worst things that could happen at school? How would you like to deal with them in a perfect world? What kind of plan would work for you & the adults in your life?
If you haven’t handed in your homework for a really long time, but you want to catch up, how can you do it?

Photo credit: Alexa Clark on Flickr

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Jeff Rasmussen

[content-block title="Meet Jeff Rasmussen" color="orange"] Age: 18 City: Langley, BC Diagnosed with ADHD in Grade 7 Biggest Dream: I want to change the world for younger kids like me who are punished daily for having ADHD. Fave Class: Mechanics "I've got the plans in my head for a motorized scooter with a gas-powered engine that I'm actually capable of building." ADHD Superpower: "If I'm determined to do something, literally nothing can stop me. Nothing. Not bribes, not bullets... nothing." Fave Food: Hashbrowns (the kind you buy frozen, in a bag) Career Goals: Telecommunications Guru Life-Changing Event: Winning the WDS Scholarship for Real Life School Achievement: Completing Math & Socials 10 in just 8 weeks this summer. "School's like 99% fluff. Summer school is that, minus the fluff." Biggest Struggle: Even though I take medication I still have trouble staying on task, doing boring homework, remembering not to swear when I am angry or staying still through assemblies. (That's where some of my strategies come in.) [/content-block] [content-block title="An Average Kid with ADHD" color="purple"] My ADHD has been really bad and given me every bad experience you can imagine for a kid. Before medication teachers took away my recess, my gym classes, they put me in the hall, I have been suspended from school, and I never did my work because even though my tests say I’m “gifted” I couldn’t do it. When I first learned I had ADHD I was so happy that I wasn’t bad or broken, it had a name and an explanation for what was going on. [/content-block]