Back to School 2012

Off to a great school year!  Great teachers, great schools.  Only negative is for mom/dad, it takes 45 minutes to get all three kids to all three different schools.  We are really hoping next year they are all at Clay!!!

• Jordyn 5th – Clay School - Ms. Kerich
• Lexi 3rd – Lincoln School – Mr. Hofer
• Peyton Kinder – Washington School – Mrs. Goodbar
• Lyric 2nd – Lincoln School – Mrs. Stone
• Paxton Kinder – Washington – Mrs. Bergstrom

   

 

After school celebratory ice cream at Baby Cakes!

Clay School – The BIG Change!

(pictured: Mr. Mannlein giving my girls fresh grown plums from his school garden)

In 2009, I did my student teaching in 6th grade at a nearby little charter school, Clay Elementary.  It’s a small country school with one class per grade, k-8th.  I loved the feeling there.  It was such a family.  Each child mattered.  And the principal (who is also the superintendant) would even stay after school to tutor children who needed it.  Everyone pulled together in a way I hadn’t seen in a school before.  Being a small school there is much more ability to do this.

This is a school that people put their children on the waiting list the day they are born.  Literally.  I never felt the need to do that because I’m supportive and fine with regular public schools (Clay is public, but functions much like a private).  But after my student teaching experience, I decided to put my kids on the waiting list sort of on a whim.

 

Well, yesterday we got the call “Hi Jamie, we have an opening for Jordyn in 5th grade this year.  We can’t get the other girls in right now, but the next openings will be theirs”.  My head spun a little bit. 

 

 

I had such a HUGE flood and range of thoughts.  But, on a VERY basic level bottom line, it came to this:

Pros:

High morals enforced

Dress code enforced

Jr high spent in this safe environment

 

Cons:

Leaving her friends since preschool

School is 10 minutes out of town rather than across the street

 

I brought it up to her and initially her reaction was “no way”!  I put 0% pressure on her because, frankly, I wasn’t totally sure what our decision should be.  I knew logically what I thought, but my emotions were interfering a little.  We talked a lot about it.  She called Grandma to bounce it off her.  And we went to the campus and had a tour from the (amazing) Principal, Mr. Mannlein.  One of the nicest people I’ve ever met. 

 

Jordyn ultimately made the decision that she wants to make the switch!  She feels sad to leave her friends, but happy at the thought of spending Jr. High there.  She understands the safe feeling at Clay and there are so many small perks (like they start the day out on the playground doing flag salute as an entire school, singing happy birthday to whomever may be having one, and having announcements…like a camp!).  I told her that, often, the best decisions are the hardest and that her sadness at leaving her friends doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the wrong decision.  We prayed about it and she asked for a feeling of peace about her decision (which I told her sometimes comes later).  I feel so impressed with the mature way she has handled this HUGE decision.

It’s hard, as a parent, to FEEL that you are part of a decision that alters your child’s entire future. This will change so many things for her, and I think they will primarily be positive.

 

For now, I will try not to stress about the fact that the other spots at Clay, for the other girls, typically happen mid-school year…when families move away. Which means I’d have to be prepared to possibly move my other girls to a different school mid-year.  Which sounds hard.  Especially when we have close relationships with their teachers.  But I’ll cross that bridge if I get there.

End of an Era – O&M Group

I’ve meant to update about this for months, and am finally getting around to it.  May marked the end of two long years during which I drove to San Francisco weekly.  It would probably make me a little sick to add up how much gas that is, in addition to my tuition.  But I can also say that it was worth every second.  It was such an amazing experience on so many levels.  I was forever changed by my professors- I have such love and admiration for them.  Not only for what they do as a profession with the visually impaired people, but for the way in which they taught us.  So much dedication and passion.

 

I also learned so much from my diverse group.  There were only 9 of us and we became pretty close.  None of us are remotely similar, but that’s what made it so fun.  There was such a fun dynamic and synergy in our group.  That made it much easier to enjoy going to school each week.

 

 

 

 

 

On our last day, we all felt so many emotions.  SO relieved and excited, and also so sad!  Wendy kept our “graduation ceremony” secret until the end of the day.  We all stood in an arc, with our canes, and hummed the traditional graduation song daaaa-da-da-daa-daaaa-daaaa.  Each of us walked through the arc and at the end, we got a big hug from Wendy along with a packet and CD of pics she had taken for us.  So sweet!

Then we all went to Chevy’s for the traditional after-graduation dinner.  Wendy said she was extra excited to participate in this with our group because we had such a positive energy.  She said there have been groups in the past (just a few in her 25 years) where she didn’t even initiate the final gathering because it just wasn’t good.  We literally stayed at Chevy’s from 5-10:30pm and still didn’t want to leave!~

Here are the “last men standing” (Joyce, Erica, Me, Teacher Yana, Teacher Wendy and Teacher Sandy Staples)

 

After all that excitement…I’m not really close to done.  Since May, I’ve been chipping away at my internship.  I have 440 hours to do for my internship.  I think I only have 70 done!  I’m currently working with adults through the Department of Rehab.  And in the fall, I will also work with Clovis Unified.  I will get more like 30 hours a week done in the fall, so I’m really hoping to wrap it all up by January??

I’m also still going up to San Fran monthly, until November.  And then I’m done going up there!  It’s a seminar class where we have lots of readings, online discussions, and creating our own portfolios.  It’s actually really helpful during our internships, to have a place to bring questions or concerns.  The only negative is that i get to pay nearly $4000 for the internship seminar class, AND my 9 units of internship.  Paying to work!  Can’t wait till I actually get paid…someday?

I currently usually see clients on Friday and Saturday mornings.  It’s soooo hot here, so often we start at 7:00 am or earlier.  It can be draining to see a few clients in a row.  By noon, I often have 6 hours of work done.  Walking on streets, studying intersections or taking city buses for specific lessons.I love the people I’ve met so far.  I’ve worked primarily with Ray (pictured, 58), Krystle (26), Nathan (45) and Vanessa (32).  There are a few more that are harder to meet up with, but are on my caseload.

 

Sometimes I feel elated and happy helping them.  Other times I feel weighed down and confused.  I think that probably comes with the territory!  These are not easy situations!  Having no-vision creates so many challenges that require out of the box thinking and attitudes.