First Day

Tomorrow is my first day at my new job. I'm crossing my fingers that the transition is a smooth one.

Where Have I Been!?

Well, here, there, and everywhere.

I'm sure you all have been wondering about the job interview. It went great. I'll be starting June 1. So much for my hard-earned summer off :0) I'll be working at a very nice nursing home for the most part, and doing some out-patient pediatric and adult work as well. Both locations are five minutes from my house. I'm excited but very nervous. I hate change, and I hate feeling like I don't know what's going on; both are inevitable in a new position. June could be a rough month.

In other news, Joshua and I took a surprise road trip up to Wisconsin on Friday. Grandpa Ed had a serious health concern come up on Thursday night. Many adjustments will have to be made by Grandpa and the entire family, but I'm confident that there are still many happy memories to be made. We drove back Saturday evening, glad that we went, but still tired. I think Joshua's medical information was needed, and the family seemed to appreciate my input on speech and language issues.

We celebrated Mother's Day with a cookout at Aunt Kathy's on Sunday. I really do have a super mother! Love ya, Jon G.!

Changes Down the Road

Dunlap recently announced their plans to withdraw from SEAPCO (special ed coop) for the 2011-2012 school year. That means my position has essentially been eliminated. I can't apply for the new Dunlap-hired position because of my contract company's rules, and honestly wouldn't want to take the enormous pay cut by doing that anyway.

What does all this mean? Nothing for now. I have to just relax about it until about July when SEAPCO figures out if they would have a different position for me. And then if they do, do I want to make the commute. (Right now, I only drive 13 minutes to work.)

If things don't work out with that, I'm confident I can find something else. Speech-language pathologists are quite in demand. I'm just not crazy about the resume, application, interview, and new worker process. So, although there's nothing to be done about the situation right now, I do need to begin thinking positive thoughts about change. I hate change, and it takes me a long time to get used to new plans. I have seven months :0)

Until then, happy winter break! Oh school schedule, you're amazing!

Getting Closer

I made it up to 84% today. The stars aligned, and I was flying. Not really sure how to get the last one percent...

A Little Better

I made it up to 76% productivity today, and only one person was completely rude to me. I would say it was a decent day. My goal for tomorrow is 80%.

A Bit Overwhelmed

Today was my first day at the skilled nursing facility. I was nervous, but that's not unusual. I'm nervous about all first events in my life. I knew today I would be slow, just learning where things go and who people are, but I was so slow. My productivity goal is 85%; I was 59% today. It's not like the hospital where you can expect people to be in their rooms, so I spent a good portion of the day running around looking for patients in the dining rooms, by the nurses' desk, and at physical and occupational therapies. I also spent plenty of time making sure I was doing the paperwork correctly, a very important thing for Medicare reimbursement.

I know it will get better, and the first day is always the hardest, but goodness, it's not quite as fun as I thought it would be. I had two patients refuse to participate, really frustrating. How can you refuse!? What happened to good manners and a goal of working to go home? No such luck. I miss my students and playing go fish. I do have to say, though, that the staff is quite friendly and really very helpful. Thanks to Debbie and Tiffany for getting me through the day.

Three Cs Coming My Way

For the past seven years I've been working toward earning my certificate of clinical competency, or my Cs. On Friday, I finally completed my clinical fellowship year, and I was ready to mail off all the paperwork. Very soon I will have my permanent licenses in hand. Woohoo!Other fun news from the weekend...

Joshua and I went to Champaign to meet friends for Fat Fest, an afternoon filled with stops at 10 restaurants along Green Street on campus. The tradition was started in undergrad out of a desire to do something other than a bar crawl. Why not a food crawl? This was my second year attending, and much fun was had by all. I'll try to get a few pictures; I wasn't in the mood to haul around the giant camera all afternoon. I really need to get a purse camera. I think that's going to be added to the Best Buy points list.

And with that, my summer vacation has begun. What a lucky gal I am. I begin my PRN job at the nursing home on Friday; other than that, nothing but summer fun to look forward to for the next ten weeks.

More Job News

Today was my first casual Friday. I understand that jeans are really no more comfortable than khakis, but they just have a more comfortable feeling. I loved it all day.

So, I work at a rather affluent school. From what I can tell, it's great. I had planned to go to the public library tonight to get some magazines for language sessions; however, I checked out the school library today, and they have a giant selection. You name it, and they have it. Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Time, National Geographic, National Geographic for Kids, Popular Science, Girls Life, BMX, Snowboarding, and that's not even half of the them. How fantastic. My job is going along quite swimmingly.

Things I Learned Today

1. Every Friday is casual dress. Umm, that's fantastic.

2. I will be going on at least 2-3 field trips a month with my two classes.

3. Scheduling is pretty easy when you only have 11 students.

New Job

Today was my second day at my first real job. It's proving to be challenging to advocate for myself and my position. Dunlap's special education services are provided by SEAPCO (special education association of Peoria county). Because of this, people at the middle and high schools have no idea who I am. Another problem is that I'm hired by a contract company that contracts me to SEAPCO, so I'm not actually a part of SEAPCO either. So far in my orientation meetings, I've heard about two different unions, both of which I'm not a member. This is okay, but it's just one example of how I don't really fit in.

On the positive side, I have tons of autonomy in my job. I get to move between the middle and high schools on a schedule that I create, and I get to provide services that I determine to be the most appropriate for my students. Any extra time will be spent working with the cirriculum teachers to faciliate classroom communication and on community outings. I think it's going to be great.

Today I learned a lot, but there are still many things to figure out.

1. Getting keys for the two classrooms. Could be impossible at the high school. They're very unwilling.

2. Finding all IEP goals. They're really disorganized in the files.

3. Getting parking stickers.

4. Getting a name badge.

5. Finding the teacher's workroom at the high school and getting a copy code.

6. Getting Dunlap and SEAPCO email addresses. Maybe I'll actually know when things are happening.

7. Geting my laptop. SEAPCO is still reformatting it.

8. Receiving a response or contact of any sort from my CF mentor. This is a big problem. She hasn't returned a phone call or email yet.

9. Proving I'm not as worthless as last year's SLP. The could take all year. There are some really negative SLP vibes where I'm working. I think most of the people I'm working with are looking forward to a change, though. I hope so.

Tomorrow's the first day with students. Should be fun.