Friday, June 28, 2013

Summer Days

Summer has begun....

     As usual you start the summer out with all sorts of plans and projects to accomplish, then you get to the end of June and start to panic because so few of these things have been done! 

I did though, have a wonderful time surprising my middle child, Krista with a visit from her little sister (this made her cry:)for her 30th birthday.  I came along to do some house cleaning for her while they all went out to a family day at her husband's place of work and then stayed to babysit while the girls went out for a little bit of retail therapy, poor me :).   Then later that afternoon, my husband joined us with an ice cream cake (a family favorite) and we all went out to Bone Fish Grill for a birthday dinner.  Holly spent the night with her sister and then came back to our house the next night to spend the evening and night with us.  A bonus for us!  We made watermelon martinis and ate Pepperidge Farms cookies out on the deck watching the fireflies and chatting. Ahh :).



Chris has been able to spend the whole week off with me.  We got a little pool time and have been to the movies at the Alamo to see "World War Z".  It was a much better movie than I was expecting!
Saturday I am going to a birthday party for one of my former students.  I had him from his last summer of preschool until the fourth grade.  Now he is turning 13.  I can't wait to see him and get one of his very famous (for those of us who know him) smiles and hugs :

So no, I haven't gotten a whole lot of stuff done around here, but all in all, summer has been pretty terrific so far.  Of course once I finally get my tooth situation straightened out, I am sure I will be much better.

Oh..... and on the weekend of the 13th, I am getting my new puppy :).




Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Kickstarter campaign worth looking at...

Just a quick post to bring attention to a kickstarter campaign for a product to help those of us who deal with drool on a regular basis.  These are shirts which take the place of bibs, which we know are not always appropriate.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kligman/shirts-to-drool-over-literally

As asked, I got this info from a great blog named, "Single dad, disabled daughter".

Lisa 

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Rewards that have Accrued

A couple of days ago I was perusing facebook and saw a photo posted by the Mom of one of my former students.  Evidently she held a get together with a bunch of other kids with special needs and their parents.  One of the Moms contacted me to let me know how big my former students have gotten.

I commented back to her and then there was some friendly back and forthing about why I had not been invited (:)), who I needed to visit, who had me first, yadda, yadda.

I enjoyed seeing the picture and being included in the dialogue.  I was talking about this with my husband and realized that as much as I love these children, one of the things I have not thought much about is how much I enjoy their parents. None of them are the same, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, some have family support, some don't.  Some of them I talked to almost every single day, some I rarely spoke to,except during IEP times.  I am not a very outgoing individual, but by teaching and caring about their children, I feel connected to their worlds. 

I teach for selfish reasons, I enjoy it.  Another professional I recently told me that I was too attached to my former students.  I disagree.  Even teaching preschool, I am responsible for my students four hours a day, five days a week.  I teach them many of the same things we all teach our children, communication, socialization, emotional and daily living skills.  How do you teach well without caring and when do you cut that off?

I wish I could post their picture, but that is not my right. Instead I will include a picture of my poor doggie, Oz.  He went to the vet expecting the best (he loves people and other dogs) and got 4 shots for his trouble :(.


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Teachers enjoy summer break as much, if not more than students!


I am so Summer is finally here :).  For once, I had my paperwork done early and so was able to check out on a Saturday morning.  Then I was able to go and pick up Jack  and take him home with me for what I hoped would be a two day visit.  Unfortunately, this has been the year of the "over sexed" plants and poor Jack felt miserable after playing outside and wanted to go home the next day :(. So we took him home after a quick stop at McDonald's.  Jack is such an enjoyable child and reminds me so much of his Mom (as I keep telling her when she bumps heads with him).

Yesterday we made a 3 hour trip to Richmond to choose my birthday present, a new corgi puppy!  He is only 3 weeks old right now, so I still have to wait over a month to get him.  That's ok, though since I would rather he learn good manners from his Mother and the other puppies than get an unsocialized puppy.  We did the same thing with our dog, Oz, he was 12 weeks old when we got him and I have never had a more well behaved dog.  It was a lovely ride to Richmond and I love taking car trips with Chris.

Friday, I have to have "minor" dental surgery.  Of course, when it's on you, dental surgery never seems minor :(.  It's supposed to be under conscious sedation and my dentist's periodontic surgeon is doing it, but all I care about is to have no pain!  We shall see.  Once that's done, I have to have the tooth capped. (Yay).  I have had a horrible year with my face and mouth this year.  I attribute it to the stress I was having at work.  I won't go through that again, 

To make me feel better, here is a picture of "Angus". 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Inclusion

                    I just read Dave Hingsberger's latest blog and it struck me once again why it is important for our children to be taught inclusively as much as possible.  Sure, there are times when we think, "Wow, if we were in a self contained school, everyone would know how to help, everyone and everything would be more accessible to ourselves and our kids.".  That's not the point though, our community, schools should and can be accessible (thanks to an amazing Mom at my school, our playground is accessible and inclusionary).  Our students need to be out and about in the classes, hallways, cafeteria and with their peers.
     I truly believe this can be done with everyone getting the education necessary for their growth and enrichment while not sacrificing the emotional and social aspects of being one community. It will definitely take a paradigm (I love that word:) shift, but it is both necessary and doable.
     It's hard, when you grow up, to realize that sometimes you are just wrong.  Believe me, I have experienced it myself more times than I would like. But sometimes, we're just wrong.

 http://davehingsburger.blogspot.com/

 By the way, this big boy in the picture comes to my classroom and plays with my students whenever he can.  He asks his mother and myself why some of the kids do things that he doesn't understand and we give him answers.  He accepts and moves on. His world view is much richer than mine was at  his age.
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