addiction

>>I am quickly becoming addicted to blogging and sharing my stories. Everyday i am mentally thinking about what new things I want to share and talk about. I love it.

>>Today we came back to school after 2 1/2 weeks off. I was pleasantly surprised. My students were excited to be back and they were well behaved (something I did not expect). They quickly got back into the routine. They were still excited to earn tickets. They knew to be in their seats when the bell rang. They were excited to share their stories but also ready to work. But, the best best best part was their retention. Special Ed is a difficult thing to teach because I feel like we do the same thing everyday. My kids will work on subtraction with borrowing for 3 years, and still barely get it. So, everyday is sometimes a struggle for them to remember just what we did yesterday. But, coming back after 2 1/2 weeks students remembered!! They were showing me things I didnt even know they could do. They were counting by 10's and 5's and counting money, and sounding out words! It amazed me. I was so impressed and happy that I literally was speechless numerous times today. My students amaze me. They make me love my job. Being back at works makes me happy and thats how i know I love my job.

>>I have two girls in my class. 14 boys, and 2 girls (with a new boy starting tomorrow). My girls are amazing because they are unlike every other student in my class. (all my students are so unique but the girls are the most) I want to be able to talk about my students but for confidentiality reasons I have changed their names. My two girls Christina and Grace. They are so orignal. Christina is my highest student. She is a 7th grader and basically could do any type of 7th grade work she is asked to do. But, she wears diapers and wets herself. We are unsure about why. She lies, steals and is a manipulator. Grace is the lowest student in my class. She doesnt read. Has difficulties remember even letters and number names. She can do basic addition with prompting and speaks in one or two word sentences.

Today - Grace was reading words with me. She will not remember them tomorrow, but she gets excited to read words off of cards and them repeat them to the other adults in the room. We were doing this, and she sort of tripped but caught herself on the desk (she has low motor skills as well) She pointed to her wrist and said Ow. So i asked her if she'd like to get ice. She said yes and went to the nurse. I called down to the nurse ( who didnt pick up the phone) so i walked down to the nurse because I knew that Grace would not be able to tell the nurse what she needed especially if she was busy. Little did I know that when I went down there the nurse was absent but Grace had gone to the secretary and told her "Ice" while pointing to her wrist and had gotten her ice. I was speechless. This girl who cry's when she's late to school. doesnt say more than one word to us who she has known for 6 months went up to a stranger and told her an uncommon word for her.

>>This is why I am a teacher.. :)