7.31.2009

Sleepless in Pittsburgh

Well, not totally sleepless. But I did wake up very early this morning to the comforting sound of a steady rain. (Rain is a lot more comforting now that we have new gutters.) But I was famished, so I had to get up and eat breakfast, even though it was still dark outside. There's no more homework to do, and today is the last day of my current job. We're going to head to the beach for a few days, and do some much-needed relaxing. Graduate school hasn't been hard as much as it has been time-consuming, and I'm looking forward to taking few classes next year. I only have two left, and then I can officially declare myself a Reading Specialist.

Speaking of reading, as part of one of my courses, I've been tutoring a fourth grade student with Down Syndrome this summer, and it has been amazing. I don't have a lot of experience teaching kids with cognitive disabilities, and it is really, really hard to teach a kid phonics when they have difficulty speaking. But it's incredible what high expectations can do. Yesterday, she read a story we had written together to the rest of the kids in the program. Sure, it was only a few lines, and we never did get to short e or short u, so the word selection was a bit limited, but she did it! It was leaps and bounds from what she could do on the first day of class five weeks ago. Warm fuzzies all around.

3 comments:

MelissaB said...

Can't help but get a little misty-eyed reading this, Katy:)

Anonymous said...

Wow,
I can only imagine how great both of you must have felt. Thanks for sharing that special experience with us.
Love,
Uncle Joe

Anonymous said...

Katy - You have and will continue to accomplish great things. You make us proud!
Aunt DC