Innocence

Kids really do say the funniest things but they are also the most innocent little creatures ever.  They have no clue the cruel realities of this world we as adults now face.  When I walk into work in the morning I feel like I'm entering a whole new world.  I feel as if the troubles of this world, this country, this state, and this city have been lifted off my shoulders and my only real worry is how to put a smile on my student's faces.  We never know what these kids are coming from.  We rarely get insight into their home lives and we are challenged every day to break through their walls and work around any insecurities and worries these children might be bringing to school with them without us knowing anything about it.

Over the past two years, I experienced the home lives of so many children.  The different ideas of what families consider a "comfortable living" astonishes me.  I saw houses with newly remodeled kitchens and hardwood floors and beautiful cathedral ceilings - houses that I would never in my life be able to afford - to houses that were literally as small as my apartment for 7 people to live in.  I was in houses where the words "drugs", "alcohol" and "violence" would never exist and I was in houses where they all existed, every night and sometimes every day.  It astonishes me even more how so many of these families (not all, but many) can live through the things I saw with big smiles on their faces.  Because in all reality, it's not about what you have, it's who your with that really matters.

So now I face a new challenge.  Now I have to go on with therapy and encourage parents to carryover what I'm doing in my therapy room into their homes.  With my background, I am a huge proponent of carryover.  Not only into the home but also into the classroom.  I think I've started off this year really pushing my believes of carryover and it's importance.  There's no way to generalize the skills they learn in my small therapy room without having the support of classmates, teachers and parents.  I've sent a small cheat sheet to each teacher on each student they have with speech and language services.  On the sheet I listed their speech goals, their speech therapy days and their IEP due dates.  I'm in the process of sending home homework folders with all of my students.  I am pushing into the classroom as much as I can and talking to teachers about what they can do to help better their student's speech and language skills.  Of course, I have parents who are on board and I have parents who could care less, but I will not give up on helping these children while they are at school and in my hands.  All I can do is my best and my best is what I am going to give them. These kids deserve it.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."  -Helen Keller

**Now I'll leave you with some of those innocent, funny and cute things that leave me smiling at the end of every work day:

"I have two dogs.  Their names are 'Wiser' and 'Bud'."  - Really? So glad these are dog's names and not children!

"Get focused here!  Get focused here!" - A first grader to a third grader after she sat him down at his desk and put out work for him to do, all while slapping her hand on the desk to get his attention.  


"God can fly.  He floats on clouds and he has wings." - A second grader when listing things that belong in a category of "things that can fly". 


"My favorite thing I have learned in school is how to stop bullying." - A fifth grader.  I wish I could tell you his whole story and why this one broke my heart but alas I can't... just knowing our Anti-bullying program is working puts the biggest smile on my face.