So it’s been a busy week. We’ve been using the microscope in classrooms right now, and with certain students it has been quite useful as an alternative to using microscopes. We’ve got a lot going on between preparing for the potential publication of up to five books. From these preparations, we’ll choose two to focus on and publish next summer.
Because of the nature of this week, we’re going to re-run a blog post from November 1, 2012. In May of 2014, ParaEducate suffered a huge blog melt down, many posts were lost. And as we’ve worked on recovering them, we’ve pulled them out as appropriate.
You see, this week, Renay also had a ceremony this week at school for Veterans’ Day. Among the honorees were: the school custodian (Navy), a teacher and his family (Army), and the parents of another teacher (United States Marine Corps). Those who have served and their families, we thank you for your service and sacrifice.
I can often tell that my day is going to be crazy without sticking my head out of the window as I get dressed. But the one thing that makes my heart stop in the middle of the day is the intercom beep for the entire school followed by, “I’m sorry for the interruption this is the Principal (or Vice-Principal).” The natural spring that coils through out my entire body, do I need to help gather the students because we have just experienced a tragedy or do I need to gather them and lock them in the classroom for what could easily be hours.
This past week, we were honored to hear that the principal allowed the students to go outside to see Endeavor fly over the state of California en route to Los Angeles by way of San Francisco.
So just about the entire school, went outside, including students who might not otherwise appreciate the moment. The principal had enforced that this was a historic moment and was not just an ‘escape’ from academics.
For these moments, a small pile of fidgets usually helps and we were also fortunate enough to be outside to let students who see the unstructured time as anxiety inducing.
But we did see the shuttle for one last time. The teachers spoke near students about their connection to the space race. Some of the older teachers had been small children when Armstrong walked on the moon. Most of us had a connection to the Challenger explosion, and then again when we mentioned Columbia, though the students at the time had been 5/6 years old.
But I’m also reminded of [6] years ago, when this same principal allowed the entire school to watch the inauguration of our President. I was supporting a student that day who was watching the inauguration and he understood the importance of that moment. However, he was so excited by everyone else being awed by the event he couldn’t stay in class and he asked me for a break. We had tried the main classroom with a trampoline in the back, but he was jumping with such fervor, we had to move the trampoline to the next classroom over. At one point, having a conversation with him, I told him he needed to think about what happened today and if his cousins or any future family member asked him, what he would remember about this day. He told me, “I’m not really sure.”
I walked him through his experiences that day, where he was, and why the day was important, in the hopes he could later share his day with his family and friends. At the end of our conversation, we returned to the question of what he would say to his family about watching the inauguration, he turned to me and asked, “Can I leave out the trampoline?”
ParaEducate will be taking a week off in two weeks for the US Thanksgiving holiday. Do you have any comments about this week’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, here, and here. ParaEducate is company interested in providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published weekly during the academic school year on Thursdays, unless a holiday. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
