At BYU I almost got my degree in special ed and then later decided a general elementary education degree would be more flexible. I'm still glad I chose that and had the wonderful, and if not always wonderful, memorable experiences I had teaching in general ed for 3 years. I loved teaching those kids, and I loved who I worked with. Although it was hard to leave, I was kind of excited for a little change when I came down to Texas... I love mixin it up. I'm the type of person who refuses to eat a sandwich or any same thing everyday for lunch. Well, things have been mixed. Substituting was going well, but it just wasn't keeping me busy enough. I wanted to be working more than twice a week. So, one of the classes that I had been in before needed a sub for a full week before Christmas, so of course I said Yes! It's nice to have jobs planned out. At the end of the week, they told me that the aide I was substituting for had been injured and was not expected to come back for at least a month. So I filled the position, and I'm in it for as many months as they need me.
It's quite a change going from being the teacher in a large class of 11 and 12 year olds to being an aide in a class of only 4 kindergarteners with autism. It's only been a few weeks, but I already love those kids. And I'm not the type of person who just loves all kids. I should, but I don't. I sure can fake it though! But I don't fake it with these kids. They make me smile a lot everyday. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating when they don't sit up or when they don't answer questions or when they throw a fit, but it's just so dang cute when they repeat funny things they've heard or when they do answer questions and when they behave for a Dorito. Some of my favorite things so far have been A.C. singing "For the Longest Time" word for word in the mirror with a fake microphone and big star glasses, F.S. saying "Miss Christie" with a smile when I got him out of the car in the morning, M. laughing really hard when we played the I'm-gonna-get-you game, F.S.'s Oh-no-I-gotta-go-#2-now face (which really was an Oops-we're-too-late face), A.C. repeating "Nokia, AT&T, Miss Christie's phone" over and over and then taking lots of pictures of himself with it, and M. constantly keeping her distance from her pursuer A.C. who loves to smother her, watching the Kinder class do their calendar songs in the morning-especially the month Macarena, and A.C. calling me "Christina Pomper" since that's how he read my name on my name tag the first week. Oh man, I really get a kick out of these kids. Working on their goals 1 on 1 at the table is sometimes difficult, but it's really rewarding when they get it. They're such smart little kiddos. The other great thing about the job is that there isn't any planning after school. Being an aide isn't so bad after all. It's steady, and I'm happy. Plus, it's busy season for James right now and he's gone a lot, so this keeps me busy. Poor James. It won't last forever though, and I'm just grateful that we both have jobs.
