Spectrum's ART-ism Awareness Celebration

Last night was our Autism Gala. It turned our fantastic! Classes got together and performed for our parents. Our parents/grandparents donated items for our silent auction. We raised so much money! I'm so happy about this. We are trying to raise money for a Spectrum High School (like $5 million). So last night was a success.

My kids were so great! Our performance turned out better than any of our practices (miracles always seems to happen for these performances). The kids were quiet, patient, and they all had "bendy brains" when we had to wait outside for about 10 minutes (that means they didn't get mad when they didn't get their own way).

Funny Kids

"This is my dad. He is smarter than my mom, but she is a better driver." 9 year old boy who loves giraffes and baseball.

"You know what, you should facebook." "I already facebook, do you?" "No, but my mom does." 7 year old boy who is better with directions than I am (he can tell me how to get to his house using I-15 and Legacy from Spectrum).

I'm thinking about adding a quote thing to my blog with the hillarious things my kids say. What do you think?

Autism Awareness

April is Autism Awareness month. On April 23rd we will be having a celebration at Spectrum! Our school is putting on a silent auction for various items and the kids will be performing short plays! I'm super excited!

I decided to make this quilt for our silent auction. Our mascot is a giraffe and I painted the hands of the kids in my class. I had a lot of fun making this quilt! Hopefully some parent will want to buy it! Our Room-Mother gave me the giraffe fabric and gave me the idea to use the "butt" pockets. I think it turned out WAY CUTE!

Teacher Speak

Spectrum has it's own language. Here are some funny translations.


"You are in my precinct" - don't touch me

"You are such a GREAT storyteller" - you are full of it

"You are so silly" - you are being a dork

"Use your filter" - if you call me fat one more time...

"I need a listening body" - be quiet and look at me

"Look and decide" - I'm not going to talk to you when you scream in my face while I'm talking to someone else


I'll add more when I think of more.

GIR-AFF-E

This week has been hard at work, so I decided to blog about the thing I like about my job... Lets see if this reverse psychology works.

The kids make me laugh everyday, even if they are being a poop.

I am learning some great skills that will help me when I become a mother.

I am learning how to be patient.

I LOVE Christina (the teacher I help). We work great together.

I get to work one-on-one with the kids which allows me to have more of a relationship with each of them.

I can teach my kids silly things, like "Bones" and they get a kick out of it.

I am amazed everyday at the things my kids do.

I can call my kids "my kids" even though I did not give birth to any of them.

I get to create worksheets, tests, and other things on the computer.

I have learned how to be in a supervisor position. I loved being the Summer Camp Coordinator last year, and I'm excited I get to do it again this year.

I love a lot of my co-workers.

I love my boss.

Learning about Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology intrigue me.

I've learned more about myself since I've been working at Spectrum than by doing anything else.

A Day in the Life of a Paraprofessional

I love my job. I love my kids and I love the teacher I work with. I am entertained everyday.

We have a school-wide behavior plan. If the kids are having a good day, we call it a "green day." If they're being a little naughty, it's called a "yellow day." If they have having a completely rotten day, its a "red day."

Yesterday, 5 boys in my class were on red. They were talking and talking and WOULD NOT stop no matter what we said or did. In our class, when you are on red you don't have any priveledges (ie. adult takes you to the bathroom, you don't get drink priveledges during class, etc.) The boys didn't care.

So, I got to teach those 5 boys how to clean a bathroom. It was hillarious. The best part was cleaning the girls' bathroom. The boys' bathrooms are so much yuckier than the girls', but just gong into the girl's bathroom was a problem. haha Eight year old boys are funny.

They did a good job cleaning. And they all had a better day today. No toilet cleaning.

SL Trib

I have the greatest job in the whole world (at least for me). I love it. I work at Spectrum Academy, a charter school for kids with High-Functioning Autism. 

So, last Thursday some guy from the trib came to our school. He took a bunch of pictures, asked very few questions, and that was that. Well, guess who got into the newspaper... a picture of me doing vocabulary drills with one of my kids!   http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10813783 I'm in pic 2. The article isn't specifically about Spectrum, but about charter schools in Utah. (which, we just got approved to start making way for a "Spectrum" high school! yay!

Here's my 15 seconds of fame.

My Kids

I work at Spectrum Academy, a charter school for children with autism. I love my kids. Here is a hilarious story that happened today.

My dear friend (aka the boy who is a tough one to teach), lets call him Mike, decided he wanted a blue folder for his social studies project. Well, he wasn't making good choices and he had to wait until the kids who where making good choices picked theirs. Mike let us know he wanted the only blue folder. In fact, he screamed it in my ear.

My other friend, lets call him Adam, was having a great day! He was following directions and he was being a nice friend! He was great! So, we let him choose which folder he wanted. He chose the blue folder.

Mike was VERY angry. He hurt a student and was yelling "The blue folder is mine!" I sat him on a chair to get him away from the group, and he said, "I hate you." I said, "That's fine. It doesn't hurt my feelings." He kicked me and said, "Does kicking you hurt your feelings?"

Mike and I walked, holding hands, to the Principal's office. The whole time he said, "The blue folder is mine! I'm going to get it back."

While I was with Mike at the Principal's office, Christina talked to Adam. She said, "Did you know you made him mad?" Adam said, " Well, he was making me mad acting like that." Christina said, "Do you feel a little bit good for making him mad?" Adam's face went red. Christina said, "You're not in trouble."

I think it's hilarious! Adam did a great job giving Mike classroom justice. Getting punched wouldn't have hurt him as much as taking that blue folder!