Tonight I was on a panel of immersion educators discussing struggling learners and general immersion strategies. Then I had a breakout session afterward. I thought it went well, which is nice. I loved seeing colleagues that I miss and respect. One of my friends asked how things are going in high school. "I don't cry anymore," I responded. "You have to do what you love," says a friend, "Don't work where you aren't happy." I realized that I DO like high school now. I just have to get good at it.
I've gotten over the knowledge that my job isn't important to almost anyone. I can laugh about the fact that the principal gave the tiny room I asked for to someone else. I still feel like I could not show up for work for two weeks and only 3 people would notice. But, still--- it's going all right. My kids are pretty great and I finally have some friends that make every lunch period happy.
Now, all I have to do is keep refining this ginormous job of speech-language pathologist at the high school level. I know I need to teach strategies, but my kids don't seem to generalize them. So I try to help with content and assignments, but I don't see them enough to keep up with what they do in class. If I do push-in service (which I will do a lot of next year), I will be doing more literacy and less oral language... I have a lot of ideas, I just have to figure out what to do and when. I want to be awesome. I just have to figure out how.
Denise,
ReplyDeleteYou are already awesome. I think you have done an amazing job in making such a drastic change. High school is very different from elementary.
I feel your pain on the students' inability to generalize. Sometimes (not often)I found that if we worked out one situation and a similar one came up, if I pointed out the similarity, they could come up with the strategies that had worked previously.
You are so good at what you do. Keep that awesome light shining bright!