Thoughts one new Job (run # 2)

Ok, let's try to be happier this time. :p

Oiy, now I sound like I'm trying to cajole people into smiling for a camera. Mental note, never open with that statement again. Ick... way too perky. And I know several of you know my feelings on perkiness. :) It was banned from the dorm room and it is still banned from my apartment (or at least in a few spots, can't alienate all of my guests). Just way too cursedly cheerful. It's right up there with toddlers jumping on your bed at the butt-crack of dawn singing "Sun's up, time to get up!" By the way, I have confirmation on a statement of mine. It is now official, all toddlers will do this to the adults they can get to at that time.

Well, my last post told you about the first two days of my shortened week. I started on Tuesday thus I have two more days to relate. Thursday was quite busy. I found myself just about running to keep up with this little boy's schedual, not even knowing what was when. As of right now, I am his 1 to 1 aide. It makes things interesting at times, because he thinks I know the school as well as he does after a few jaunts. So, at times he will "test" me on where we're going. He managed to almost lose me on our way to the cafeteria. His teacher was amused, fortunately.

Thursday was also the day of the monthly staff brunch. Once a month, the staff get together and do a pot-luch brunch on the first Thursday of every month. They try to work with a theme for each one, this month's happened to be St. Patrick's day. To say the least, I was surprised and delighted. I have a rather enormous weakness for all things Celtic, doubly so if it is of Irish extraction. So, I was thrilled to see the photo album from one of the math teacher's trip to Ireland. Overjoyed to listen to some fine fiddle work and a bit of bagpipes, even if a few of my co-workers were not so thrilled by the bagpipes. And then I had my first bite of that apple cake. Oh my goodness, was it delicious.

Now, if you must know anything major about me, I am infamously picky about my cakes. As a girl, I would only eat the birthday cakes baked by my great-aunt Eileen. sometimes I would eat Mom's, but only if she used Eileen's recipie. Then, great-aunt Eileen passed on and I had apple-crisp for the majority of my birthday parties at my grandmother's house. So, I'd cut the cake baked for me and then nibble a bit of crumb with gobs of frosting before digging into the apple crisp. It has been counted as a minor miracle that we were able to find a wedding cake that I enjoyed.

I was in absolute rapture over that apple cake. It was moist, delicious and it turns out baked from scratch. I've come to realize that if the cake is home made I'm more inclined towards it. Those box mixed cakes are like so much sawdust to my palate. I'll be getting the recipie on Monday. To put it lightly, I'm looking forward to sharing it with my husband and the family. Thursday was also the day that this little boy really set to task. Apparently the cake was amazing to me and the boy's sudden sense of work ethic was amazing to my coworkers.

He was so determined to finish his English assignment that he forgot about lunch. That made Social Studies a little tricky, because he needed to eat. Arrangements were made for him to do his Social Studies assignment in the Resource room as he ate his lunch. Which he worked on until he became fustrated with it. At which time we set to work on catching him up on his Science class. As of right now, he is almost 3 weeks behind due to being suspended from school for a month.

All day Friday, I had the teachers that worked with him in the past and his current teachers coming up to me and saying "We don't know what you're doing but keep doing it." At lunch, I even had the principal walk up to me and say the same. Apparently this little boy had hated doing his work and fought with everyone over it. I've had my immediate supervisor watching how I work with this boy and she's been surprised by what I do. Let me give an example:

Coping with Visual problems while reading:
This little boy has trouble with reading things because he gets lost as he's reading. He has alot of difficulty visually, though it's not dyslexia. Usually, people will read his assignments to him. His reading is focused down to reading what he writes and a few sentances here and there through out the school day. I have been sitting down with him, giving him a choice to try to read his assignments himself. 90% of the time, he chooses to try.

When he get's fustrated, my first responce is not to redirect, like about 95% of my coworkers. Instead, I try to find a tool or a method to work around the problem. Thus, we use sheets of paper to block the other sentances when he gets confused. Or we break words down into their syllables to read them. Wouldn't you know it, this little boy is feeling more confident in his home work. He got his first 100% ever on a spelling test.

These aren't difficult things to do. I'm dumbstruck that these professionals don't do this on a regular basis. You're a teacher who has specalized in working with kids that have learning disabilities. These techniques I'm applying are some of the most simple and basic tools for working with learning disabilities that are visually related. Why in God's name are you not using them? Instead, they try to cajole, negotiate, or other wise talk their way out of a problem that can be solved by just doing things a little differently. It's ... brain bending at best.

Now that I've got the reading issue pretty well nailed, we've got the math one to take on. He as alot of difficulty with mathematics too. So... let's see if we can't find something else that works just as well. Perhaps if we're lucky, we can manage to boost his reading level up from that 3rd grade one by the end of the year. And get him feeling more confident in himself and his ability to learn. No.. I'm not looking forward to this, really.

As of today, I can honestly say that I love my job. Let's see if this happy feeling stays.