Teacher's Cup

It's been a really long time since I've had a chance to write anything.   Somehow I knew it would come to this.  26 days of school left.  In a way, I can't believe I've survived the entire year and that it has come and gone already.  In another way, I can't wait for it to finally be finished!

Let's rewind a few months - It seems like a long time ago, but at the beginning of March, I got sucked into competing in the annual Teacher's Cup.  I had no idea what I was in for but I loved every minute of it.... from the dance practices after school to the cowboy hats and mustaches to the relay races and  skinned knee and right down to the last song we danced to at the end of the night to celebrate our "Spirit Award".   No, we didn't win, but boy did we have fun not winning.   

Here are the few pictures Chris got before my camera died!  Enjoy!

 

  Here's a picture of the entrance.  I have the whole video but I'll have to figure out how to upload it later. (above)


 Here is the first race I participated in - a partnered scooter relay race! (right)


Our team spirit shining through!  I love the Wilson kiddos and my amazing boyfriend for coming and supporting our team! :) (below)

 

The event is sponsored by the WA Foundation.  They provide us with funds to do so much for our schools and this event is one of the fundraising events.  They provide the t-shirts, awards and the MC and we provide the entertainment for the night.   It was a great time all around and I'm glad I got to be a part of it, skinned knee and all! 

'Tis the Season

It has been months since I've written.  Let's just say my life is as busy as this crazy holiday season.  There have been so many times where I've wanted to write about the crazy occurrences of the day but I was either too tired or too busy to take a moment to jot things down.  A lot has happened in the past two months.

Let's start from the end of October.  The middle school speech therapist and I attended a conference at the Children's Institute about I-pads.  While we were there, she introduced me to the supervisor for their speech and language program because she works at one of the branches two nights a week for some part time hours.  Within a week and a half, I scheduled an interview and took a second job with the Children's Institute at their Wexford Satellite.  I know you probably think I'm crazy but for some reason, even though I'm making more money at this job than I was at my last job, the money seems to be going a lot quicker than before and these student loans are eating up my extra spending money!  So I took a big leap and jumped into yet another new job for two nights a week.  So far I love it even if it does add a little bit of stress to my life... what's life without stress anyway?  (I don't think I'll ever know!)

So, with the new season coming upon us I decided to indulge in a little classroom redecorating!  Yes, I changed my bulletin boards!  Oh and it was a much more pleasant experience than the first trial!  The actual construction of them was easy once I finally figured out the "slogans" I wanted to write on them.  My mentor let me borrow some of her lettering that she has stored up over the years so that helped a lot.  The first one says "We're as unique as snowflakes".  It's obviously not speech related, but I like it and I wanted the kids to be able to contribute something to it.  So with that said, the students are all in the process of making paper snowflakes to put on the bulletin board.  It's crazy how many of my students don't know how to make a paper snowflake!! What are these parents doing with their kids - this is a critical skill that you should teach your children as soon as they master using scissors!  Anyway, 55 snowflakes will surely not fit on the bulletin board, so once it gets full, I think I'm going to start hanging them with fishing line from the ceiling.  We'll see how that goes!   The one above my dry erase board was changed, too.  It now says:  "It's "snow" secret we're great at speech".  There are five snowflakes around it that have the words: speech, language, fluency, pragmatics and voice on them.  I'm loving the new look of the room; it helps to have a little bit of a change in there!  If I could change them every week, I probably would!

 

It's time for me to call it a night.  There's plenty more to write, but it only makes sense that along with working with these wonderful kiddos, I also catch their ..."wonderful"... germs.  So I'll leave you with a few more pictures to look at :)

A student arrived to her speech session early and as we were waiting for the other kids to come I let her draw on my dry erase board.  I wasn't watching what she was writing but when I got up, this is what was on the board.  It's so nice to know that the kids enjoy coming into my room and don't see it as hard work!

This added to my already huge ego for the day.  Another student had written this on her speech homework folder.  Sure the spelling isn't great, but again, it's so great to know that I'm making a difference in their lives.  

I see a huge cutout of Santa on my way to work every morning.  Earlier in the season, he was holding a sign that said "Happy Thanksgiving".   Now he holds a sign that really speaks out to me... "Jesus is the reason for the season".  It's so subtle but at the same time, so true.  As you grow older it makes you realize where you really need to put your efforts.  Sure, Santa and Reindeer and all that jazz are great but the real reason why we're celebrating this season is one we can only really feel in our hearts.  Have a very great holiday season and don't forget to go out and spread a little bit of your happiness to those who aren't as fortunate as we all are.  'Tis the Season.     

Leaves are Falling

 I guess it's time I give you a little view of all the work I've been doing to get my speech room up and ready!  The kids have made their leaves and they have been strategically placed all around to fill up my tree.   There are some other pictures I added just to give you a few of the things I've been working on.  Enjoy!
 

 

Jeans

Oh how I've longed for this day!! "Jeans day" used to be an everyday occurrence for me at my old job. The ability to wear my "casual" clothes to school was awesome, but I have to say that the reason we were allowed to wear jeans was much more meaningful and worth it than any other day throughout the year: Lee National Denim Day for Breast Cancer Awareness. 

September and October are months that hit me pretty hard.  Breast Cancer Awareness has been important to me since the day my cousin Mary was diagnosed with it back in 2006.  I remember exactly where I was when I was told she was diagnosed with this horrible illness.  I was surrounded by the children and the parents of the children whom I taught sign language to and I remember being slightly mad at my mom for telling me in front of all these people.  I felt lost and confused and scared and I didn't know what to do.  I know my mom told us with everyone around because she wanted them all to know so they could pray for her and for her family.  Mary made it through and was in remission until 2008. 

It was Tuesday, September 23, 2008 when I got the phone call from my mom to tell me it was time to come home to say my goodbyes.  I was completely heartbroken and scared.  Mary's cancer had come back a few months prior and it had spread to her lungs and her health went downhill quickly.  Mary was brought home to the house with her family and hospice came in to make sure she was comfortable.  Meghan and I drove home Thursday after we finished our externships.  Friday afternoon, we headed over to Mary and Jeff's.  Mary was lying so peacefully on a recliner and I remember sitting there for what seemed like hours holding her hand and telling her how much I love her.  I was scared and lost and confused and all I could do was pray.  I prayed for a miracle; I prayed for peace for her husband and her daughters, her mother and her brother;  I prayed for God to ease the pain we as a family were about to endure.

The next morning, September 27, 2008, Mary took her final breaths in this life and entered into God's kingdom.  But the days following Mary's death are all a blur to me now.  We rushed to find suitable clothing to wear to the viewings and funeral and we made collages to commemorate Mary's life, all while we waited for God to ease our pain.  As we gathered to remember Mary, pink ribbons adorned the clothing of every family member and friend, tears flowed as if they were waterfalls and we leaned on each other to get through one of the most difficult times we as a family had to undergo. 


My relationship with Mary will never change.   Mary was always a friend to me;  She was always there to give me advice when I needed it;  And she was always there to knock some sense into me during the times where I wasn't thinking so clearly.  I still stop to see her as often as I can.  There are times when I still talk to her as if she is here with me.  There are times when I have so much I want to tell her and I wish she was here to listen to me.  

As much as these months make me think about Mary and how much I miss my beloved cousin, it's not just these months that Mary is remembered.  As this month of making strides toward curing breast cancer comes and goes, we must remember that it's not just the month of October that families are facing the the uncertainties of this illness.  We must remember to "Share Beauty and Spread Hope" throughout every month of the year. 

So thank you Lee Denim Day for giving me the opportunity to share the story of my family and to remember someone who will always be important and special to me. 

In loving memory of Mary Virginia McAdams

9.8.55 - 9.27.08

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.

Bwack and Lellow, Bwack and Lellow

It was Black and Gold day at Wilson Elementary today.  And the Steelers garb was out in full force.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I truly don't follow football very closely.  For me, football season only exists from mid-August to mid-September (AKA preseason and maybe one or two regular season games) when my true love, preseason Penguins HOCKEY, starts!  I'm already stoked to be going to the preseason game with Chris on Thursday!  Life is great right now... and it's only going to get better with hockey season starting!

So, today, I continued with the "marker game" and like yesterday I would take a turn as well.  I always picked the same color markers, Black and Yellow.  Again, anyone who knows me, knows that Black and Yellow are my two favorite colors, and not just because they are the true colors of Pittsburgh.  However, I do honestly think I bleed black and gold.  I’m with a group of first graders today and I pick up my two colors and decide that I will go first in order to show the kiddos what I want them to do.  So, I tell them that black and yellow are my favorite colors and that I am a huge hockey fan.  And the next thing I know, the little “shy” first grader that was sitting across from me starts belting out Whiz Khalifa’s Black and Yellow.  Except, keep in mind that these kids are here for one reason, and one reason only… they have a speech delay!  So, this little boy sang a new version of Whiz’s song…  “Bwack and Lellow, Bwack and Lellow”.   If I had a tape recorder, it would have been repeated and recorded for me to listen to before every Steeler and Penguin game!  The best part was that this little boy sang it with so much confidence and no care in the world… I mean he belted it with two of his classmates in the room and didn’t even think twice about what they would think of him.  Granted, he only knew those three words to the song.  However, they are really the only important words for him to know, right?

Let’s Go Pens!            Go Steelers!

Captain Wagner, Speech, Ms. Wagner

I loved today!  After three weeks full of organizing and reorganizing, scheduling and rescheduling, I finally got to start seeing my students.

Each group started out the session by picking their choice of colored paper (either red, orange, green, or yellow).  Once they picked the paper, I had them trace their hands (or I traced their hands for them).

We put the hands to the side and I brought out my container of markers or crayons, depending on the age group.  I instructed them to pick one, two, or three markers, but no less than one and no more than three (I have to pause for a second to say a BIG thank you to my sister who gave me this idea on my way to work this morning, except I changed it from blocks to markers/crayons... so Thanks, Megs!!!).  On my dry erase board, I wrote a list of topics they could chose from to talk about.  The number of markers they had in their hands dictated the number of things they had to tell me about themselves.  This was a great way to get the students talking and to get them to interact and ask each other questions.

After we heard from each student, we went back to working on the "leaves" for my tree.  They wrote their names on their "hand" and then we talked about what they worked on in speech the previous year.  Most of the students know what they worked on but if they didn't, we talked about what we would be working on in the next year.  I wrote each student's goals on the "fingers" and then had them color/decorate their "leaf" any way they wanted.  While they did that, I explained my classroom rules to them and talked to them about the homework folders they would be getting (we'll talk about those some other time).  We cut out their hands at the end and started hanging them up on my tree!  Once I get them all up (by the end of next week), I'll take a picture for everyone to see!

This brings me to the title of this entry.  On my dry erase board, I also had written my name:  Ms. Wagner.  Plain and clear.  It's not a hard name; at least not for my students who can actually produce the /r/ sound (which isn't that many actually!).   Some of the students know my name, some of them have no clue.  Others just make up their own.  One of the students that I have in from the life skills class has been calling me a "speech" since he met me two weeks ago.  He's a little boy who has down syndrome and I think it is the cutest thing, ever.  He will see me in the halls and say "Hi, Speech".  I love it.  And then there's the fourth grader who I finished my day with today.  I asked him if he remembered my name (because I had spent some time with him before) and he says "yeah, it's Ms. Wagner, but I'm going to call you Captain Wagner!"  We proceeded with the rest of the session and I was called "Captain Wagner" each and every time he referred to me.  Would it be out of line to have all my students refer to me as either "Captain Wagner" or "Speech"?  

Now let me pause to say I was a little concerned how I would fair with the 4th and 5th graders.  I wasn't too concerned with K-3 because I've had a lot of experience with younger kids and my nephew is in 3rd grade so that helps me to relate to those students.  I am pretty sure the 4th and 5th graders are going to be my favorite to work with!  I almost forgot what it's like to have students who actually know what they are working on, remember to come to speech on their own, and I can have conversations with!   

Anyway, Day 1 went pretty smoothly if I can say so myself.  With each and every day I love my job, and my life, a little more.  God has truly blessed me with some amazing things these past two months.  He has shown me that faith and trust in Him and belief in myself was the only way that I was going to achieve my dreams.  When I finally let go and let God handle things, it was like the path was outlined in gold and there was no way I could possibly be misguided.  Faith, Trust, Belief.  Three lessons I have learned and three words I will never take for granted.

Believe in yourself and in what you can do.
Believe in the goals that you strive to pursue.
Believe in the friends who believe in you, too...
Forever and always,
BELIEVE.