How time flies

As I was perusing my friends' blogs I happened to see that my best friend had recently added a new post. It was short and to the point and took me back to high school. My best friend is married to her high school sweetheart. They have four wonderful children and he is currently serving tour of duty #2 in Iraq. She wrote that he had left for bootcamp 18 years ago yesterday, the same day we buried a good friend of ours. I had actually forgotten the anniversary this year. My mind has been a little occupied. I generally remember it because she died on my dad's birthday. I can't believe Nicole has been gone for 18 years now. Gone longer than she was alive. She was just 15 when she died. I had only known her a year, but in that time we got to be really good friends. Our lockers were right next to each other and we had first period spanish together where she sat in front of me. My one rebelious act in high school involved Nicole. she had been absent from school and Senorita Borkovich was hounding her for an excuse from her parents. She didn't have one so I did what any friend would do in that situation. I forged one for her. Everyone loved Nicki. She was very sweet. It came as a shock to us all when we heard the news. Another good friend of ours had been in the car with her and fortunately she survived. I was very shy during that time in my life and untrustworthy of people I didn't know. I had a difficult time in junior high and was afraid things were going to much the same for me in high school. I was cruelly picked on for what I believed to be my weight and my brains. When I met Nicole, I wasn't sure at first. I always felt that people had ulterior motives for being nice to me. It is something I still struggle with to this day. That's another blog. But I soon discovered that Nicole wasn't that way at all. She truelly was a genuine person. At the end of our freshman year she told us that she would be going to the public high school in the fall since her parents couldn't afford tuition. Sophomore year started and it was strange not to see Nicole at her locker next to me. Labor day Weekend came and went. We all arrived to school on Tuesday morning to be met with the shocking news that Nicole had been in a car accident and hadn't made it. Nicole had only been at the public high school for 4 days, but she left a mark on her classmates. Our entire class was released to go to the funeral as well as about a third of her class from Ross High School. I know how old I am and how long I have been out of school but sometimes it feels just like yesterday that I was roaming the halls of SJCC with my friends making sure we got to class on time. Now I walk the halls of CWHS making sure others are getting to class on time. I also look back and think of how things have changed. 1. we didn't have cell phones. 2. our school was not climate controlled. 3. Granted CWHS is bigger than SJCC, we didn't have 6 minutes in between classes. We had 3. 4. We were not allowed to carry book bags. We had to carry our books and if your classes were too far away from your locker you carried all that you would need. I then think of all the things Nicole never got to see. At least she didn't have to experience September 11th.
As I end this blog I say this, Nicole you were a wonderful friend to me when I needed it. You have been missed greatly. Knowing you are in heaven watching down on us eases my mind a little. May you rest in eternal peace.

Kids really do say the darndest things

I just love my job. Yes, I am being serious. I have the best group of students in the world. Since my population is 17 and older I have changed things a little bit as far as instruction goes. I am doing theme units based on social studies and science standards and incorporating language arts, reading and math into it. One program I use that I absolutely love is called News-2-You. It is a weekly newspaper geared towards students with disabillities. It has a different theme each week and has various reading levels to use. It comes with worksheets, a recipe, and communication boards to be used with your non-verbal students so that you do not have to constantly program their augmentative devices. Generally I will stretch out the theme for the week. This week however, we did most of it today what with Monday being a holiday and yesterday was an inservice day. I like building on the theme as we go along. This weeks article was about trains. I printed up packets for each of the students. We read the article aloud and worked on the worksheets that went along with it. As we were working on the packet we discovered that two of the pages were similar and one was to be done if you lived in Canada and the other the United States. We had the kids fill out both and we ended up developing a mini lesson on the differences and similarities of both countries. I love when things flow like this. I also showed a video from United Streaming on trains. One student asked how coal and wood made steam to run an engine. So, tomorrow we will be watching a video that talks about this. The other theme we have been working on is one titled "Beneath the waves". We are learning about animal life that lives under water. Each day we watch a video on a new animal, we discuss it and then I have a picture of it for them to color. the kids then cut out the animal and we put it up on the bulletin board we are making. As the afternoon was winding down, the kids were getting a little slap happy as was the staff. I have 6 students total, 4 boys and 2 girls. Although in the afternoon you would think they were all boys. They all think it is funny when they burp and believe me my girls can burp with the best of them. I am sitting with Brittany helping her cut her pictures out when she let out a burp and started giggling. I looked at her and said my standard, "what do you say?" She excused herself of course. A little bit later one of the boys started burping and Brittany pipes up with, "You need to excuse yourself. That is just disgusting." I did a double take and was like excuse me? Like you have room to talk. You just did the same thing a few minutes ago. Aren't you the pot calling the kettle black. Her response? She started to giggle again and went about finishing her work.
Every day that I spend with these kids just amazes me more and more. Some times I am so surprised with what they are able to do and remember. And the things they say just makes me laugh. I could have the worst night ever and dread going to work but as soon as those kids walk through the door, my whole mood changes.