If anything is constant, it would be change. So much has happened in the month of February. I can't believe the month is almost gone by. Recap: I had my first IEP meeting, I got a new student, caught up with my favorite terps one weekend, went to Winter Jam in Greensboro, we have 2 new EC teachers at my base school and as a result I have a new "classroom," had a Snow Day!, celebrated the 100th day of school, gave an in-service presentation, my nieces birthday was yesterday, my sister's birthday is Friday, Valentine's Day was last week, the Super Bowl was a couple weeks ago, went to my first tea room in downtown WF, went to a V-day dance, I've interpreted twice at Connections Church, went home to see my parents, had my car fixed, etc. It's really been a busy month.
Right now my schedule has undergone so many changes and interruptions that I'm trying to regain my footing and stability again. Being that I have a new room--I'm sharing a space with the OT and PT now--my routine is somewhat thrown all out of whack now. My new space--I can't really call it a room seeing as I'm never in there and I'm sharing it with 2 other people occasionally--is incredibly far for me to take my students for their one-on-one time and for reading time so I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of bringing them down there for instruction or making my home in other teachers' classrooms. I'm by no means ungrateful of my new space, most DHH teachers are itinerant and live out of their car, it's just taking some time readjusting and finding a new routine that works for me. I need to find an alternative to carrying around 20-30lb. bags because my back and neck can't take it anymore.
Also, I'm trying desperately to stay caught up with my middle school student. His teachers move through the curriculum super fast so by time I get there in the afternoon to spend my all too short 60 minutes with him, I feel like there's not enough time to teach him something new or I'm not entirely familiar with what his new subject matter is, but I have to reinforce what they've done in his class. I feel like my one-on-one time has become a tutoring time to recap on what he's already done that day. Obviously, I'm kind of reluctant about this, but as we review his paperwork hopefully things will become more clear as to how we should be serving him.
There's been so many changes at my base school. And I'm not normally a big fan of change so I'm definitely having to go with the flow on this one. Anyway, 2 new EC teachers were hired to cover the self-contained special needs class. We have one EC self-contained class so we split them in half (2 rooms; which is why I lost my room). The teachers are great. Easy to get along with. Eager and motivated. I can definitely see how the students will benefit from having teachers with a background in EC instructing the classes. It's just been a wonky past two days of adjustment for everyone. I suppose it will get easier as time goes on. Mostly since I've been displaced from my room, I'm having to keep materials close by and have items handy. It's been especially tricky for me.
The paperwork is probably the more stressful aspect of the job. I need to redo a part of my IEP from the beginning of this month. That's been a bit of a headache, but hopefully by Friday it will all be taken care of. Otherwise, I have another IEP coming up beginning of March and trying to figure out what needs to be done concerning my new student.
I gave an in-service presentation yesterday at the middle school regarding working with DHH students. I felt extremely good about it! I was so excited I had to text my "boss." I'm so excited for this new student and I think it really came across in the presentation. I just hope the rest of the teachers can steadily get on board with motivating and including him.
Oh, and I had my 3rd observation and that went exceptionally well I would say. Finally, the administrator came in on one of my better lessons.
At church we've been talking about the background of the Bible; what happened in the beginning. It's been really interesting. We talked about how Adam and Eve were naked and how they were innocent and didn't notice this until they ate from the tree of good and evil. So when they did notice God realized they were hiding and gave them protection through the cloth he made for them and later that innocence was restored through Jesus Christ dying for our sins. (Of course, these are my thoughts paraphrased). But I've been really enjoying the church. We've talked about as humans we're designed for an intimate relationship with: nature, God, and other people. We've talked about how Adam and Eve were innocent in the beginning because they walked with God and were secure. It was that way so long ago, but we're so far from that now, that we must have to work to not hide ourselves from God by becoming closer to Christ.
I wanted to ramble about life some. This is February. And it's not even over yet.
There's just so much to do. Just thinking about it makes me tired and not want to do any of it. I need to write/phone parents to touch base on student progress, make copies of basic signs for teachers, draft IEP goals, make data sheets (ugh...data will be the death of me), lesson plan (always), fill out a reference, deliver some thank you cards, organize the ridiculous stack of paper and materials I've accumulated since the start of the school year (Ugh, don't even want to go there), etc. I figured sitting on the couch blogging and watching TV was a good start to the afternoon.
Wish me luck. ;)
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