Once I had completed my home visits, my days became so routine that I was on the edge of boredom some days but of course anyone else that came into our room would believe it was anything but boring. By the middle of February, Darryl had not only completed his goal of making a circle, but was able to make a vertical line next to it. Trying to teach him to slightly connect the line to the circle in order to make the letter “a” was definitely a challenge. I was never sure whether I should teach him it was the first letter of the alphabet or the second letter in his name. Either way, at the rate we were going I figured it would take him about five years to learn to write the letters of his first name and about 25 years to write the letters of the alphabet. Looking at this academic picture determined in my mind that social goals were much more practical. Since Darryl was already 16 and could only receive public education until he was 21, I realized the social goals were the ones that would really benefit Darryl for the rest of his life.
Colleen had the daunting task of teaching me how to write IEP documents. This was the paperwork required by bureaucracy documenting the educational plan for each child with special needs. Goals had to be written that were individualized for each particular student. Each goal had to be measurable and attainable within the one year period of time. Each student had an IEP meeting during the school year which was attended by parents, therapists, administration, teachers, and any advocates the parents chose to invite. With nine students left, I averaged one IEP per month. The paperwork for this meeting was all handwritten (compared to computer programs now used) and would take me an average of 30-40 hours to complete. I think it took me much longer because I didn’t have any teacher training and was unfamiliar with “typical” goals.
As an untrained teacher, I was assigned an emergency certificate which required me to take six credits of education classes in a planned program each year. As I began to tackle this requirement, I began to have discussions with Rowena (the lady from our church who hired me). I definitely loved teaching, but should my planned program be to teach special education or regular education? She gave me the best career advice I have ever received and recommended I do both. Thus began my adult career as a student.
I was very pleasantly surprised when the administration asked me to stay for the entire school year and surprised again when they asked me to return the NEXT year. I was shocked when they first put me on salary, paying me $22,000 a year. I felt like the richest person in the world, especially since I was doing something I loved. But then I also found out a portion of my school loans were to be cancelled since I was working with a needy population. I saw all of these signs as confirmation from God that I was headed in the right direction with my life.
As we neared the end of the school year, I felt we needed to do something really BIG to celebrate. Joan and I threw around different ideas, but I was proud to present the winning idea…
“Let’s have a sleepover! ALL the kids, you, and me at my church!”
Joan initially laughed at the idea, but I had decided…if I could get the necessary permissions, it was going to happen!
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