Back to school!

 

I started my final year of school on August 11th.  The first week is the time when kids come in for individual testing with the teacher.  The actual first day with all of the kids there was August 22nd.  We were pretty stressed about a couple of autistic boys that are assigned to our class.  They were pretty all around the room/loud when they came for testing.  (You really feel for parents of these very challenging kids.) But one ended up transferring to another class and the other one will spend most of his time in the SPED room and come in sometimes with a full time aid to help him.  It will still be a challenge, but not as much as we thought.  We have two others that are super challenging, (they both probably have something going on, but don't have IEPs yet) but they are learning how to get along and follow the rules when they aren't shouting, "It's not fair" or having a melt down about something else.  Lynne is a master at finding anything and everything positive to praise them about, and it's helping them a lot.  

I don't take (never post on social media) pictures of the kids in the class, but these two little girls begged me to take a picture of their button creation.  We have new math centers this year where the kids get a box of things (rocks, shells, shapes, etc.) and can use them to create whatever they come up with.  These two made a fountain (the pink buttons in the middle) with water around it (the blue buttons) and the brown buttons are pennies to throw into it and etc.  So creative and cute.  They were having such a good time.  Some other kids just sit and can't think of anything to do and say they are bored.  Hopefully they'll get over that and start to find their creative powers.  

I can see that it's probably time for me to retire in some ways, but in others I know I will so miss the opportunity to help out with these littles.  Some of the first kids I worked with are now late teen/early twenties and I even got a wedding invitation from one the other day.  Some have been on missions and some were in our YSA ward when we served there.  It's been a long and everchanging adventure.  So much has changed since I first started working.  Last year was a great change - we went to all day kindergarten.  Over the years the curriculum and expectations for these kids have gone up so much that we were down to just pushing learning so hard/testing constantly and trying to teach a full day's curriculum in a half day, that going to a full day and having some time for some of the fun learning things was such a great blessing.  Last year we also had "the perfect" class with so many kids from families with older siblings we had taught all of and great, supportive parents, etc.  It was the perfect way to start in with the all-day scene. 

Lynne (Ms. Godfrey) is an amazing, always looking for ways to improve teacher.  She is a master at classroom management.  The kids love her even when she's making them follow the rules! She says this is her last year, so it's going to be my last year.  I've always worked with her and can't see myself working for anyone else.  Too old to learn a new gig I guess!  Happy last year to me!!!

This year we have Sara.  We had her cute, smart, fun brother last year.  Sara is even cuter, smarter and more fun.  She is so curious...and smart.  She's always asking why this and why that.  She's also a bit mischievous.  She has cut her hair twice this year, at home, so it's very short now with a cute little cut with what's left of it.  Besides being super smart, she's a little athlete.  She can do the most beautiful cartwheels ever and is even working on doing one's that land on one hand. She's pretty amazing in most every way.  She's pretty much my favorite even if she sometimes pushes the limits a bit.