HWT Webinar

I've enjoyed using the Handwriting Without Tears products this year at school. In case you aren't aware, they are offering a few free webinars that may be helpful to your practice. I have signed up to attend the Response to Intervention one since that is a concept I am still learning about and would like to see develop more in our district. It is being given by 2 OTs, and while it does not specifically say so, there's no reason that it shouldn't count for continuing education on some level, just check through your state guidelines when submitting. I like to pass on good CE resources, and especially those that are free and appear to have some thought put into them, since unfortunately "you get what you pay for" in many free courses. Hopefully this one will be well done, there's no reason it shouldn't be given the overall quality of the company, IMO.

After a few wondrous days of ease in December, I made the transition to a new caseload. I say "made," but clearly I am still only "making" a transition.

Jumping up from pre-K to teaching cursive writing and higher level praxis skills has been fun, but definitely an adjustment. I would like to have a time machine to go back and tell Miss Wilson that I would someday be helping others learn cursive handwriting- she might faint from the shock! I used a dodgeball on Friday for praxis skills, teaching novel dribbling drills I haven't done since high school. I also reinforced that if you want to really impress a young child, you should give them a behind the back pass. Kids eat that up. :)

I had a kid who was having a bad day, really slumped in his desk and didn't want to come to therapy on his first day with me.
I introduced myself in the hallway, saying, "Hi (kiddo), my name is Miss Cheryl."
He repeated "Miss Cheryl?" and then followed with "I don't like that name."
I took a breath, and a page out of Karen's book, and said, "you can either call me Miss Cheryl or Miss Awesome, but we're going to therapy now."
Later in the session, after our fun time, he said, "I love you Miss Awesome."
:-D kids can be very fun.

I need an activity using calendars... my grandma gave me about a dozen calendars and I need to find something to do with them. I definitely am going to take a few to the schools where I have students very intent on having their normal therapist back so that they can mark down the days to her return. When I say, "she had a baby and needs to be at home for awhile" the answer is almost invariably, "she'll be back tomorrow?" (unless it's to ask me an inappropriate question about the baby process- talk about a nightmare!)

I'm really enjoying my school system job, and despite the meetings and scheduling snafus, it's really not overly stressful. The school schedule itself can be a little challenging, we have several Mondays off this week and a lot of time off in April as well that makes it hard to make up visits. My personal schedule will get more complicated soon with the legislative session starting up again and time drawing nearer for conference (109 days! eek!)