Busy Bee

This week has been exhausting. Aside from seeing as many of my kiddos as I can in a day, I was out a total of 2 days for trainings and meetings. On Tuesday, I was out all day for a County training (and had a snazzy, yummy candied walnut 3-berry salad at the Nordstrom Cafe) and then I had two IEPs and a District meeting on Wednesday. On Thursday, I attended another District meeting; come to find out, it was training on a program that I had previously received 3.5 hours of training for through the County.

One thing (maybe the only thing) that I don't like about working for the County but acting as if I work for the District is that there is a lot of confusion on policies, and I end up going to trainings...on the same things.

Yesterday was my VTW's first day with me, so she observed me trudge through my pulling-teeth-sessions. I'm not too confident she'll learn kosher therapy techniques from me. I find myself cashing in on "teachable moments" every few minutes while throwing in a potpourri of cognitive therapy, just b/c my poor potatoes need so much language stimulation. Luckily, she was MIA for my disastrous 320 session. It was so bad that two aides and the teacher kept intervening to help me get the student to sit with me. Not to mention, the head honcho 320 teacher specialist was there to observe...so I got lots of constructive criticism (translation: lots of homework for me this weekend). Needless to say, I felt like the worst therapist.

On the other hand, the feelings I've had between yesterday and today are similar to this one time in my grad program when Former Dept Chair cracked down on me hard about how I am capable of doing better and he expects nothing less (not that I was slacking off; I tried my darnedest to get an A in his class and couldn't). So, after a total of 14 hours of sleep (I took a nap this afternoon), I am feeling revived and mentally ready to tackle my workload in preparation for next week.

Despite having a disastrous day with the 320s, I still enjoy working with them. The thing is, it's like they are so forgiving. They have their off-days, just like any of us (only, we can communicate that to others effectively). But when the sun rises the next day (or on Monday), we all start anew and put the past events behind.

P.S. I am having a blast shopping for sensory toys for my other 320 kiddo that I am starting PECS with.