Ending the Year 13

1. There are 19 school days left. 

2. I'm not generally a counter-down, but I am in this one class until the last day of school, so I set up a countdown. For me. And the other staff. And the students. 

3. Usually, I'm a bit ambivalent towards summer. No work = no paycheck. But this year I'm really looking forward to the downtime. It's been a long year. 

4. And yet... I signed up for summer school. The list was sitting there when I dropped in to the district office. I looked at it. I thought about it. And then I put my name down. I mean, what are the chances that I'll actually get called? (Don't answer that.) 

5. I feel fairly confident that the rest of this school year should go smoothly. Well, as smoothly as my current long-term assignment goes. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to take over this class. And now we're in a sort of rhythm, so barring unforeseen crazy, we should be able to ride out the rest of the year.

6. Jayden has integrated into the class fairly seamlessly. The nurse who's his one-to-one has fit in with the class nicely. She and Keyla became instant best friends, which works out. And the whole lunch thing never came to pass, so all that previous drama was for naught. 

7. I got tired of having to change Penelope's videos every three minutes, so I created a YouTube playlist for her. Unfortunately, it only has nine songs on it. She loves every song (going by her squeals of glee when a new song starts), but it's only nine songs. They're all by One Direction. I would like to add some more songs that Penelope might like. Any ideas? (We've tried introducing her to other boy bands, but I really don't know that many. Help.)

8. I have been printing out coloring pages like crazy. Did you know you can find coloring pages online? I found Jonas' favorite band. There's Star Wars (for Star Wars day yesterday). And I found all sorts of flowers for spring. This is more a filler activity for when we're between other things we do, but they really like the coloring pages. So, they stay.

9. The next thing I want to try is to teach Natalie how to play video games. Since she's obsessed with being on the computer, it might be a way I can sneak in some learning. All she does is watch videos, but she keeps trying to make videos. Games might be a good middle ground. Anyone know any good games for developmentally disabled young adults? 

10. Doris' "accidents" have begun lessening, but she's still having to change her clothes a couple times a day. You might be surprised at how much restroom time takes up our day. I'm not really trained to be of help at this, so it falls on the instructional aides' shoulders. 

11. The summer program for the adult transition center is two weeks and two days (instead of the full month for the other schools). Since the teacher retired, "my" class might not have a teacher for the program. I keep getting asked if I'm doing the summer for them. I keep saying no. As far as I know, I'm maxed out on days I can cover this class as of the last day of school. 

12. So, my signing up for summer school might not be the best idea. Because I could totally get called that first morning to cover the full two weeks and two days. It's happened before. 

13. But it's not like I have summer plans. Just resting. It's been a long year. It's been a weird year. (My end of year stats are going to be unlike previous years, even more than the past two years have been.) And I really kind of need some down time.

This has been a Thursday 13. It's a list of 13 things. Check out the link and join in.