Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Preschool Again!

Wow, I can't believe this blog is even still alive....

Time for school and work to start again. It's fun to get back into the swing of things. The first week our preschoolers hadn't started yet so I was able to interpret each morning for our second grader. It was cool to be in the classroom that long and see if I will really like the profession I am learning to work in. (Yes, I do). Now that the preschool has started, I am a One-on-One aide for a new little girl. She is deafblind but can see and hear a little. She is so cute and sweet and says and signs very very few words. Like 4 maybe. I really enjoy working and learning with her. So far she really likes feeling the running water at the sink and she likes to lay on her tummy in the middle of Circle Time. Not very convenient... She likes clapping for the Days of the Week song and Wheels on the Bus movement - If I can keep her on my lap long enough. Every day will be a new experience figuring out what she likes to do and how to encourage her to learn and do. I have wonderful Vision support people who work with us. They give me such good ideas for tactile objects and helps for her learning. They brought into our class a cool machine that heats special paper and raises the print so our little student can feel it. And they brought a braille writer and taught me how to use it. I'm excited and am ready to start learning to read braille! With my eyes anyway... you know, memorize the dots for all the letters, but I want to work on the finger feeling part too! It seems SO hard! I have learned that they have what is called Contractions. Not like in English but that each letter standing alone stands for a specific word. for instance, B might stand for "but", and L stands for "like". So instead of typing the whole braille word just use the letter by itself. Anyway, this is a whole new dimension of my job and it very interesting and fun with my new little student!

I am taking Educational Interpreting at CCC this fall and am excited for it to start and get me smarter!