Fifteen Days - Can We Make It?

Okay. It is crunch time now. Fifteen days between us and winter break. Let me tell you, folks, working with children this time of year is not for the faint-hearted! There is just not enough time, energy, or words to explain what happens in schools between Thanksgiving and winter holidays. If you have never worked in a school during this time, then kindly just nod your head in sympathy when a school teacher or therapist expresses their levels of exhaustion and/or overwhelm.

My week started with a horrible day - all of my clients were disgruntled and snarly. The week has progressed into more kind conversations and emotional expressions, but the noise level in the class next door is very loud - which is very unusual! We are having constant shifts in classroom composition both with students and with staff members, and we no longer communicate these changes with all school staff members. I have not had the expected staff members in most of my sessions this week. That changes how I do things, especially when staff members are new to me.

Our major task for this week was to select songs for our annual Holiday Sing. One of our staff members asked how I was going to tell what songs my non-speaking clients wanted. In the middle of my implementation. I offered general holiday icons - Santa, Tree, Snow, etc. Most of the students picked snow, so I played several songs where snow was the main topic, and then I watched their reactions. During White Christmas (by the Drifters, my favorite version, by the way), they danced, they shook their instruments, they made eye contact with me, they reached out. That's the one! (I was selfishly glad that they liked that one the same way I like it!)

We are almost finished with that task. I have two more groups to talk to about the Holiday Sing. Then, all that is needed for that interaction is a new songsheet.

I am tired today. I have to get finished with this post because it is a shower/gasoline day - not at the same time - but this makes my morning a bit later than usual. That's okay. I will make it to work on time rather than early. I ended up at work 30 minutes early yesterday. Blech!

Anyway, time to head into day fifteen. I can do this! I will turn on my music and focus on rearranging my storage area to get things to be more accessible for the maintenance department who have to climb over my stuff to get to the access for the HVAC system. I also want to set up the drum set again in the office space. I took it apart for the talent show, and it has been stacked in a corner since then since I had major abdominal surgery on June 30th. It is time to get it up and functional again.

See you soon.