Blissful Butterfly

This has been a very busy few months for me.  Since taking over my autism classroom, I have attended countless meetings and trainings, worked hours on lesson plans and have been working on taking specialized graduate classes for the autism student.  With my semester winding down and the school year, I was hoping for a quiet, relaxing summer in which I could shop, go to the beach and check out some fun activities with the kids.  Just a chance to pause for breath, sleep in and luxuriate in the moment of having summers off.  Alas, that is not to be the case. I started getting an inkling about my summer when I was asked to teach summer school for 4 weeks.  Then came the official word from the state:  I have to take an assistive technology course and complete my ESOL endorsement.  This week, I met with my administration about plans for next school year (yay! I'm getting renewed)  and somehow found myself agreeing to take on doing a reading endorsement since I will be teaching reading

Since I posted a blog last, my life has taken a step closer to my dreams.  It is amazing how one day things seem so far away then suddenly, things begin to fall into place very quickly. I passed all of my teaching exams and now hold a license in ESE (Special Education, Language Arts and Business/Technology and this month, will add Elementary Education.  I won a state professional development grant from the Department of Education which equals up to $5000 toward my autism training.  I will be finishing my autism endorsement within the next 30-60 days and will add that to my list of licenses.  While I wanted to be finished with my training, I am starting an ESOL endorsement for teaching students whose primary language is not English.  This is a requirement from my district because more than 50% of our student population in this area is ESOL. In February, I accepted a new position as an autistic middle school teacher.  I replaced a teacher that passed away.  I have enjoyed the teachin