A Little Extra Help.

I started my job last week. I am teaching an extended school year class for preschool special ed.
I even have the badge to prove it. And, I am loving it.

When I started out, I would have never thought that I would be interested in special ed. I took the classes that I had to, no more. And while I have had my application for graduate school since two days after graduation, I haven't turned it in. I thought I would do Library Science.

I was wrong. wrong. wrong.

There are sixteen students in my class, with me, another teacher and an aid. I would lightly call myself a teacher. I am really learning. The other teacher is a thirty-plus year special ed teacher. And I love her. She is wise and this job, this life, is not only what she does - it is how she lives.

So I am excited about grad school. I look at the children in the class as students who just need extra help.

Eli, Tripp and Emma have met a few of my students. For Eli, it was easy for him to understand the differences. But for Emma and Tripp? It is not so easy. Today, at the pool, one of my boys from school came up to see me. How do I explain all of this to Emma and Tripp?

So Emma says, "Mom, is that one of your kids from Special Ed?"
I didn't quite like the way it sounded. So, I told her, "He is one of my students. He just needs a little extra help." So Tripp asks, "What is wrong with him?" And I told him, "Sometimes, he has trouble understanding what we are teaching. Has Ms. Jennifer ever taught you something and you didn't "get" it, so she told you a few more times?" And Tripp says, "Yes - so he does the same thing?" And that was that. They got it.

I hope that what I am doing will teach Emma and Tripp and Eli to be compassionate to others. I hope that they see others who need "extra help" a little differently. I hope that they take the time to give extra help. Because in some way, we all need it.