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 

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 :(.

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". 

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.

a

One week, two days... but who's counting?

I have to say this was not one of my favorite school years and I am so looking forward to summer vacation.  But this picture really makes me happy!  Hopefully I will be able to spend more time with these two amazing little guys and it will put me into a better mood.

The End of the Year Rush!!!!

    Well here it comes, a little over 4 weeks until the last day of school.  Whew! (she dramatically wipes her forehead) :)  Two more IEP's, end of the year paperwork and cleaning up the classroom.  I am always happier once all of the paperwork is done.  Then I really feel like I can relax.
      Chris just got home from a week away in Texas for training while I stayed at home and broke another tooth :(.  Unfortunately this is the one with the root canal that I just finished paying for, fortunately, it looks like it can be saved :).  I hate anything painful in my mouth and have pretty much managed to avoid it, except for the removal of my wisdom teeth, but after 55 years of clenching from stress, some of them have finally had enough.  The silly thing is that I was just getting ready to be fitted for a mouth guard, but now I will have to put it off until the new crown is finished. Fun times.!!
     Weather around here has been very strange.  First it's cold, then it's hot and it continues to rain and rain.  And the pollen has been horrific. I feel as though I have had the world's longest cold.
      Today is Mother's Day.  I have phone calls from all 3 of my grown up children, even the one wandering the US, managed to find a phone to call me on :).  I am lucky to have them.  Maybe this summer I can actually get around to scanning some more of their pictures to my computer (yeah, yeah) and maybe we will finally get around to painting our bedroom.  Who knows, I have a whole long summer to look forward to, definitely one of the perks to being a teacher.

Me with my oldest and middle child.

Spring is Here, sorta...

Well, the weather around here doesn't exactly know what it is doing yet.  One day it a glorious 75 and last night there was a freeze warning and my husband very sweetly covered me head to toe in an extra blanket while I was trying to sleep in.  Thank heavens for him :)

I just came back last week from a wonderful conference in Atlanta, Georgia entitled, "The Young Child with Special Needs".  I love a good conference with knowledgeable and interesting speakers and this one had it in spades.  There were were developmental pediatricians, speech pathologists, nurses who specialize in particular areas of special needs and nutritionists.  There were questions and answer sessions.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and since my husband came with me we were able to spend the evenings going to various restaurants and just spending time in Atlanta.  It was a nice break.  My husband, Chris, decided to once again walk on the wild side and went zip lining.  I'm rather glad I was at the conference when that happened.  I was just as happy to see the film footage and not see it in person.

                                                                           (dinner at "The Spence")

                          

                                               

Now it's back to the real world where there are last minute IEP's to write, transition meetings to attend and the ups and downs that transpire in teaching the children I am happy to be teaching.  Of my 7 students, 5 will be transitioning on to various types of kindergarten classes, only two will stay in preschool another year.  I will miss the others, but it's time for them to be taught by other teachers who will see them as kindergarteners and not young preschoolers.

On the home front, our grandchildren are growing and thriving, thanks to their parents.  The youngest is a happy, chortling child with very expressive eyebrows and the eldest is pretending he is a pirate and causing an uproar in his preschool class by saying, "stinky diaper" and making all the children have to put their heads down on the table because of the ensuing giggles :)