Moments :)

I was kind of crabby today, but ended up having a pretty good day. Let's start at the beginning of the week.

Monday & Tuesday I had a small migraine that still lingered onto this morning. I was less than pleased, seeing as how I wanted to start studying for my upcoming midterm. It's hard to do when you are in pain, and it made me feel sick. We did go out for dinner on Tuesday, at La Gondola. All-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner for about $4. It was pretty good, but I felt so sick I could hardly eat.

Today, I had intended to get up and run this morning, but since my head still hurt, I opted to sleep for another hour. I'm not sure that it helped, and I ended up getting up to start reviewing notes for my midterm. I attended an IEP meeting at a local school (not the school where I do my fieldwork) and that was interesting. I've been having a hard time getting ahold of my local school psychologist, so the program director offered me the opportunity to visit another school. It was a little awkward, and I think I'd definitely prefer to attend a meeting where I at least had met the child...or teacher...or psychologist.

Then, I had my supervision meeting. Those usually go well, although I tend to feel like my supervisor is doubting me. No, I'm not taking on more than I can handle. I've been running my life very successfully for the past 22 years. I understand, however, that he's just looking out for me.

I had a really good experience at Headstart today. I think the kids were better behaved than usual, especially some of them in particular.They were all pretty excited to see me, and I tried to play with a bunch of different kids rather than just a few. There are a few who just love to play with me, though, and it's hard to say no. There were a few things today that went really well. 1) I gave the Second Step lesson to the kids. They had a hard time focusing in the end, but overall they did a great job sitting still and answering my questions. It was great to say "So-and-so is doing such a great job, he/she has just earned a heart for all of us."(The idea being that if they behave well and earn all 5 hearts, they get some reward at the end [be it a high-five, stickers, etc]). 2) One of the kids who is normally a bit of a crybaby behaved so well today. I made a point of mentioning it several times. Near the end of the day, they were all standing in line to leave, and this student was standing so nicely and quietly, while the others were messing around, quarreling, trying to run outside, etc. I said to all of them, "Look how [student] is standing SO nicely. He's quiet and keeping his hands to himself. It makes me so happy when people stand in line like that!" and he had the BIGGEST smile on his face when he said "Thank you, Miss Lexie!" And then, one of the other students who normally has a hard time listening to directions said, "I'm going to stand like [student]!" which made that student feel even better (plus then there were more students behaving. Sometimes those simple things are so nice. Sometimes all a child needs is a little praise to feel so great about him or herself.

And, that was my day. I came home and ran 4 miles. Yay me. Then I filled out a log, sent some e-mails, half-heartedly studied for B-Mod, and watched the Brewers lose...again. Off to bed I go--I'll be teaching Second Step in a kindergarten classroom tomorrow, and visiting an early learning classroom at my field placement. I also have class, a meeting, and I'll be observing an intervention group in the afternoon. Busy, busy day!