Last Day at Olympia Heights

I am BEYOND behind in blogging, so I figure it is time to get back on the bandwagon! The last few weeks of work were crazy trying to get everything in order before I left. Since I am not returning to Olympia Heights Elementary, or the district for that matter, I wanted to make sure all the paperwork was in order for the next therapist.

As I was beginning my end-of-year paperwork about a month and a half before school ended, I was counting the numbers of sessions missed due to my absence, meetings, etc. Each child could miss up to 5 sessions. I had a few sessions to make-up, but not many. Then it hit me that all 60 of my kids also needed 6 weeks of sessions as well since I didn't start until mid-October. I hadn't really been factoring those in because my attendance logs just started from my first day of work. When I brought this to the attention of the contacts at the Region, I ensured them that I felt confident that I would be able to do some of the make-ups, but that it was physically impossible to do them all.

They basically responded by saying that they were sure I would be able to make-up most the sessions, but that if I needed help just let them know. I thought, man, that's what I was doing!! Letting you know that it is not possible for me to make-up 12 sessions for each of my 60 kids on top of the normal therapy schedule.

Anyway, I made myself a chart and began combining groups like crazy. A lady from the Region came out to help me with my paperwork since I am a newby, and she also told me that she was sure that my 30 minutes sessions were more like 45 minutes because I walked the kids to and from the sessions. I told her that I counted that in the 30 minutes because I picked up groups back-to-back all day, and she then told me that maybe I was taking myself too seriously. I got the impression that she just figured I had already given the kids enough minutes, that I needed to just document it accordingly. I definitely didn't feel comfortable with this, so I just started seeing multiple groups together and I literally did therapy from 9 am to about 3 everyday, then stayed and did the documentation till about 5. But, I am happy to report that I completed all the required minutes for all the kids. I really didn't think it would happen, but the teachers were super accommodating to let me pull the kids whenever I could fit them into the schedule.

I know most of you don't care about this, but I wanted to document this for myself, and also include a few pictures of the kids I worked with. This group was the youngest group of TMH (Trainable Mentally Handicapped) kids I worked with. Loved these kids, even though they were out of control a lot of the time :)

My third-graders. The one with the glasses has severe ADHD and was medicated a few months before school got out. He used to love coming to speech, but after the meds, he never wanted to come. He became super dependent on his teacher and really didn't want to miss class. It was actually really sad. After therapy, they went to lunch, but he never wanted to go to lunch because he said he needed to do his work in class :( I told him that he could do it after lunch, but he was set on going back to class. One time when I picked him up, he asked me if he could get "fired from speech". In his mind, if I fired him from speech, he wouldn't have to come anymore. I kept him after one day to talk with him one-on-one and I asked him why he hated me (forgot to mention that he told me he hated me). He said, "Because you are not making me smart. Only my teacher can make me smart." Poor guy. I asked him how his teacher makes him smart and he said because she gives them tests. I told the teacher, and then when I would pick them up from speech, she would tell him, "Mrs. Meador is going to tell me how you did and I am going to put it in your grades." And it totally worked, hahaha. He thought if he got a grade in speech, I was making him smart :) Go figure.
We decorated sugar cookies on the last day and they thought it was the greatest thing ever. I was amazed at how many kids had never decorated a cookie before. And I was also amazed at how many of them wanted to take it home to their families. Cute kids!
And this is my all-time favorite group of little first grade boys :) Bad picture, but it was the only one I got because the last day was crazy. I am really going to miss all my kids, but it was a great experience and I definitely learned a lot :)

Next post will be about my trip to California for my little brother's homecoming!!