Happy Friday, friends! May 1st! Isn’t it wild?
The end of this week seems to signal a strange in-between stage, on so many levels.
With regard to the pandemic, a hodge-podge reopening of “normal life” is beginning. Across Europe and within the United States, differing opinions on how much and when are circulating like wildfire with all of the health officials cautioning too much too soon. Places still in lockdown seem to be watching those who are reopening with bated breath, both eager and anxious to see how the population fares. Some are resorting to protests. For me, there’s so much validity on both sides. Yes, we need to protect the health of the whole. But yes, people have to work. I remind myself how lucky my husband and I are to have been granted administrative leave and be able to work from home. And so, we’re in limbo. Especially in my home state and, even more so, in my local area, where the virus never got too bad. Things seem normal from here, so it’s hard not to act like it. But still, the underlying fear of “what if” remains.
With regard to the school year, I’m sitting squarely in the middle of IEP season. Only a very small handful of my meetings have been held so far and scheduling them has been disastrously slow. All the while, my inbox has seen an influx of emails this week sharing end of year procedures which, remarkably, seem to be starting next week. The idea of “closing out” the year while having a solid three more weeks of, arguably, some of my hardest work ahead, is a little discombobulating! In the midst of all this, we’re also getting information about our caseloads for next year, which just adds to the very jumbled notion of the present that I’m living through.
In other news, I made the declaration to my husband that I don’t think I really like teletherapy. This is good to know, since I almost left my school-based job a couple of years ago to do teletherapy full-time. Being on the computer all the time is already a tad annoying, but there are other aspects of communicating via a screen that I’m struggling to get on board with, especially when it comes to articulation therapy. Judging production of an /s/ over Zoom with a 4-year-old who has a lisp is difficult (for me at least). It’s even more difficult when rambunctious little brothers are jealously lingering in the background, which I realize would not be the case in a typical teletherapy session but… I do think I prefer to be face-to-face. That being said, I do really love indidivual sessions. I’ve already sat down with my caseload for next school year and started trying to work out a schedule that allows me to do individual sessions or groups of two. An ambitious goal, to be sure. But wouldn’t it be lovely?
What’s New This Week:
On the blog I’ve got The Fruit of the Spirit | LOVE and The Linguistic Foundations of Reading.
Also of note, after a few weeks of playing around with the idea, I’ve decided to separate my speech-specific blog posts and my Bible study/lifestyle blog posts between my 2 websites. Currently, www.ahappylearner.com is being housed on my personal website (www.christinsanders.com). In future, they will be separate entities, but for now, speech posts can be found under the A Happy Learner tab of my personal blog, and Bible study and lifestyle posts can be found under the Writing tab. I’ll likely still share both with you here and on Instagram, in case you’re interested, but I wanted A Happy Learner (once it’s up and running) to be an easy to navigate resource for clinicians.
In the store, I’ve added Quick Activities for Social Skills: A Unit for Older Students for $3.00
In A Happy Learner Book Club, we’re tackling chapters 3 + 4 of I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
On Instagram, in addition to the goings-on of the blog and book club, I’ve talked about National Gardening Week.
Reading, Watching, Listening, Doing
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Lifegiving Home by Sally and Sarah Clarkson
Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
Taskmaster Series 5 on YouTube
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on Hulu
Dr. John Campbell’s COVID-19 Updates on YouTube
Yoga for When You Need a Shake Up by Caroline Williams Yoga on YouTube
Updating my wardrobe with loads of long, flowy dresses for summer
Exploring the world of fountain pens with my first purchase arriving today (complete with a bottle of ink - how quaint!).