Today was: Quite Good

I don't really have much time to write, I'm doing a Solo Day tomorrow because Miles has a seminar to go to [there will be a sub in the room with me - the sub that is always there] and I'm still trying to get everything planned for that. Brian saw me meticulously planning the day out in Word and was worried that I would have to do that EVERYDAY when I've got my own classroom. No, I won't have a 3 page [single spaced, 12 point font] outline of the day organized by half-hour blocks all the time, but, for right now, it helps me get my thoughts in order. Truthfully, I thought about not planning so thoroughly this time [I know that I don't REALLY need to anymore], just to see if I could go "without a net", but, I thought it best to be safe instead of sorry.

Miles asked me if I was excited about tomorrow. I said, "No, I wouldn't say that I'm excited, but, I'm pleased with myself because I'm not nervous at all." Really, for some reason, I'm not nervous. I'm not going to stress out about it - I'm just going to go in there and do it.

This morning, the Speech and Language therapist at school brought in a "book" that she made for the girl with autism. It's SO cool. Basically, it's a little spiral bound notebook with some phrases like "I feel" at the top of a page and then drawings of people smiling, crying, etc. There is a page of just letters, a page of numbers, a page with the words "I want to" at the top and pictures of various activities at the bottom, etc. In short, it's something that she can communicate to us with since she is non-verbal. I told the therapist that I wanted one. I'm seriously hoping that she makes one for me.

There was a 20 minute period of the day where things were really crazy. At 10am, we were scheduled to bring our class out into the lunchroom to have a dentist do a quick check of their teeth. It became my job to get a class roster and start taking kids out, 5 at a time, to let the guy look in their mouths. As I ran back to get the second of group of kids, the classroom door opened and 8 adults in suits and dresses, led by the school principal, walked in - it was a walk-through by some "higher-ups" in the District. There I am, yelling out kids' names, herding them to the door, a bunch of strangers are walking around inspecting what the kids were working on [it was Workshop time where the kids work independently on various literacy activities], and kids are screaming out, "Eric! How do I do this?!" Trust me, it was hilarious chaos. Ah, timing. Miles, who was conducting a guided reading group at the time, later called me "a star" for my performance.

I've got to finish planning and then turn on one of the 10 TV shows that I have recorded but haven't had the time to watch.