A couple of days of my Project 365

9-24-08 Today was a very stressful and taxing day. One of the highlights of the day was working with the kids at one of my schools. A difficulty with handwriting that is common with kids is reversing letters that look similar. For example, "g" and "q" or "b" and "d." I was working with two kids to create a story or a funny image that would help them to remember which way the letters were supposed to face. This is a picture of one of the student's work. The art on the left is a depiction of the word "bad." The two letters are facing each other about to fight and the "a" in the middle is the referee stopping them from fighting. We used the saying "it's bad to fight" as the inspiration for the image. The "q" is on the right side of the art. We had a hard time coming up with something for "q" and finally settled on making it into a queen and pretending that the line curving back would be the queen's dress flowing behind her. Even though it wasn't as creative, the kids thought it was pretty funny to put a crown and feet onto the letter "q." Next week I will test to see if the fun, silly, memory techniques worked.
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9-25-08 "In motion" That phrase describes well my day. I started the day by driving almost an hour to Herriman to help out with my first UAAACT evaluation. I then drove to Riverton and bounced around the school there talking to teachers and aides to coordinate services for the kids. From there I rushed to another school several miles away to observe a student in his class and then rushed back the school in Riverton to see one of my students before he went home. I then rushed to Sandy to see several of my students whom I had not yet seen this year and it was imperative that I get their program going. By around 3:00 PM, I was finished seeing all of the kids that I could see because the last bell was ringing at all of the schools I serve. By this time I finally had a moment to grab some lunch and then back to the office. I set my lunch on my desk and then went to check my mailbox. While checking my mailbox I noticed that one of my colleges (whom I had needed to talk to for several weeks) was in the office so I sat and talked with her for some time. By the time I got back to my desk, my lunch was cold and soggy. I left work soon after and ran several errands en route to home. But before I could make it home I ended up at Julie's house with Melissa and her kids doing piano lessons. It was a nice chance to relax a little bit and enjoy some of the great friends in my life. I took this picture while at Julie's house. David was doing some laps as a mid lesson focus exercise.