Texas State Autism Conference

Andrea Cherry, Heidi Bassesst and I presented at the Texas State Autism Conference this last week in Corpus Christi. It was a lot of fun. I wasn't to nervous since the other two presenters had presented last year and both are very knowledgable. However, when we picked up our badges and I had to add he presenter sticker too it I must admit a little fear did creep in.

Some how I got lucky and got to stay on the 18th floor of our Hotel which was the excutive floor. I had to use my room key to get to the floor. Andrea and Heidi shared a room two floors down from me. At night they would come in and turn down my bedsheets, leave me ice water, and snacks on my desk. Talk about being pampered. They also turned on my tv to some nice quiet music. Scared me the first time I came in because I thought I had walked into someone elses room.

This is a view from my window. We were right on the beach. The blue light in the center top of the picture is the USS Lexington. It looked really pretty lite up at night although you really can't tell in this picture.

Here's my room. You can see the ship through the window.

This is the day view out my window/ on my balcony. The white building just under the bridge is were we presented. It's called the American Bank Center. It was a very nice facility.

Another view from the balcony.

The pictures didn't turn out to good, but this is our second presentation on Thrusday afternoon. the room was packed!!!!! We presented twice -two three hour presentations. Once in the morning and then another one in the afternoon. From left to right, Heidi, Jennifer, Andrea

Me answering questions. We only had one person that did not like what we presented.

The first session was on Target Generalization: Integrating ABA and TEACCH in the classroom

The afternoon session that day was Structured Centers to Maximize Learning & Generalization for Students with ASD.

The second presentation was basically explaining my classroom setup and how I teach play skills that generalize to the general ed. classroom. Must admit after standing the first three hours I was getting a little tired of standing. There were lots of good questions and several people asked if we could come to there districts or if they could come visit my classroom.

I think so far we are going to do trainings for Abiline ISD, San Antonio, Region 4 possibly Corpus. Friday we didn't present so I was able to go to a few sessions. Laughed my head off when I sat down in one and the lady next to me asked why I was there. She had been to our two presentations the day before and she said I already knew everything. She couldn't understand why I was sitting in the session. At break I was going to go back to the hotel and get some headach medicine. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the room b/c people kept coming up and asking me question. It made me feel really good.
No trip is ever complete without a few mess ups. I turned on my mic for the second presentations and hit some button that made a very loud noise. You know the ones that are almost as bad as fingernails on a chalk board. It took me a minute to figure out what had happened. When we were checking into the hotel I dropped my purse and everything fell out. Oh well good stories.
This is the few from the Conference center, just outside of the Ballroom that we were presenting in.
Saturday we did a make and take session on Academic and Vocational Jigs. We had to turn away some people because we didn't have enough materials for everyone. Our facilitator was a little nervous to tell people the session was close. Apparently the day before they closed a make and take session and a brawl broke out. One lady was very upset she couldn't get in. I'm surprised at how adults act sometimes.

Dr. Temple Grandin was the keynote speaker. She was really good. I was excited to finally hear her speak. She is a very famous person with ASD. They are actually making a movie about her life that comes out in Feb. I'm very excited. She talked about how she has learned how to sell her product since she doesn't have the best social skills. Check out her website.http://www.templegrandin.com/templehome.html

She's pretty amazing and a very good public speaker.

Autism Conference

I was at work today and my co-worker came in and started talking about the Autism Conference we are going to Dec. 3-5. Two other district Autism facilitators and I are presenting four sessions at the conference this year. I was excited simply because it will look good on a resume and I think the set up the district has for my class is very unique and effective. I'm wish more would go to this set up we have.

Anyways she mentioned that she saw my name in the program. I hadn't even thought about that. Nor for some reason did I realize that this was the Texas STATE Autism Conference. I know if I'm presenting you think I would realize what I was presenting at.

I had to get online and look at the program and there in small print was my name Five times!!!
I even got listed with all of the really cool, knowledgable Autism ladies that I always wish I could be more like.(still all their years of experience and knowledge.) It made me really excited. I feel slightly important at the moment. :)

The link to the program (not that you really care) is:
http://autism.esc2.net/Conference/documents/program.pdf

Gonna be a Bear!!!

Click on the picture and it will come up so you can read it! TOO FUNNY!

Happy Halloween

Our school carnival was on Friday as well. They always ask me to bake something for the cake walk. So I descided to try something new. The Aliens are made from a cupcake,marshmellow, donut hole and frosting. They were fun to make, but would have done better if they would have been eaten right way.

Then I made pumpkin cupcakes. The stem is a green licorce.

I must say I have the best Paraprofessional to work with! She's awesome! Kim to one for the team on Friday at our school carnival. Actually I should say she took several for the team.
She volunteered to have pies thrown in her face for 45min. Brave soul! (don't ask me what I'm doing in this pic.????)

This is right after I hit her with one. She is such a good sport and a hard worker.

Not only did I throw a pie in her face (actually a plate of some really good tasting whip cream), but her daughter smashed the whole plate in her face.

Here's her son shawn in action as well.

Another good shot. This actually stuck to her face long enough for me to hunt for my camera in my purse, pull it out and then take picture.

Kim is a brave soul and one of the best people I have ever worked with. She's very talented with the students and is always keeping me going. Thanks KIM!!!

Crazy Hat day

Friday was crazy hat day. I actually was wearing a hat that said boss on it. I thought that fit me pretty well personallity wise. HA Anyways one of my coworks came in and told me I had to wear a different had. Before she showed me what it was she made me promise I would wear it. This is what I got myself into. Apparently they all think I should be married and they want to make sure everyone knows. I actually thought it was pretty funny.

The funny part is that I agreed to wear it to breakfast in the morning. Besides its only prek that goes to breakfast at the time so no one else is in the cafeteria. WRONG!!! It was a rewards day for the other grade levels. A fellow teacher that started the same year as me was in there dancing with the other students. I ignored her first attempts to ask if I was engaged. I shouldn't have. I left with my two students to walk back to class. I passed four PTO parents and they had some cake questions to ask. Andrea came running out of the cafeteria and yelled at the top of her lungs.... "ARE YOU GETTING MARRIED!"

I was a little embarrassed about all the attention, but my teammates just laughed. I smiled and said no it's crazy hat day and this is definitly crazy for me.

Kim was having to much fun taking pictures of me. It was a very funny day.
Next time I'll stick to being the BOSS.
Good laughs though!

I got my trash kicked by a four year old!

Well I might need to start wearing one of these to work. Friday while working with a student on the floor I got head butted in the mouth. Unfortunately for me we were sitting right in front of the white board. It was not prevoked and I'm not really sure what brought it on. All I know is that the student got me really good. My head flew back and hit the whiteboard right in the center of head. I have a good busted lip that swelled up pretty quick and I had the wind knocked out of me for a few minutes.

I didn't actually pass out, but it took me a few minutes to realize what had happened and to see clearly. My vision got very blurry for a few moments. I'm surprised she didn't knock a tooth out. After gaining composure, as much as possible anyways, I walked down to the nurses office. I was pretty dizzy still and my head was killing. She had a coupld of kids in there so I just asked if I could have an ice pack. I was standing right in front of the fridge, but I couldn't think of where in the nurse's office and ice pack would be. NOT GOOD! I took some excedrin too and went back to class. After an hour I still felt dizzy,weak and extremely nauses so I went back to the nurse who wouldn't let me leave her office until mom came and picked me up. Boy am I glad she lives close. We went to the doctor who left me alone in the room for about 45 min. Made me laugh... hey she has a head injury lets leave her alone. DUH. Anyways he said I had a concussion and gave me some muscle relaxers to take at night. (Does that sound odd to anyone) no headache medicine just muscle relaxers. I stayed at mom's for a couple of hours and then went and picked up my car. I still have a headache and a little light headed. Guess its back to the doctor tomorrow after work.

Don't worry I won't sit on the floor in front of the white board again.

OOPS! Early bird catches the...ZZZZZZ

So I've been trying to get up early and study before school, because by the time I get home I'm so tired from chasing kids all day that school work is the last thing I want to do. Well yesterday I got into bed about 8:30. I was so excited, but had to change my alarm back to 4:00am. WRONG thing to do. I was so excited when the alarm went off this morning and I hopped right up. I started typing and reading away when I realized the computer clock said 3:22am. That was a little confusing so I grabbed my phone. Yep it said 3:22am as well. I must have changed my time clock while trying to fix my alarm. Oh well. I finished what I needed, but couldn't go back to sleep so I started another project. Needless to say I am very tired now.

Heather and Shelly's birthday

Heather and Shelly let me live with them over the summer. It was awesome! I saved gas and travel time to school everyday. I came back to Alona's house on the weekend to sleep in my own bed and then went back to the Burnham's on Monday. I loved it!

For their birthday in August we all went bowling. It was a lot of fun and there was a good turn out. There was a little difficulty with getting our lanes at first since the bowling alley messed up on our reservation, but it all turned out to be great fun. I made them a hippo cake since they love them.

Melissa, Mark, Shelley, Alona, Daniel, Ed

Jaimee, Carla, Nikki, Jennifer

Katherine, Alona, Kim, Heather

Ed and Melissa

Heather, Nikki, Cordell

Maryland

So I just figured out where all my pictures went (on another SD card). In August I spent a few very fun day with Jason and Dadra in Maryland. It was fun to visit them and to get a way from school. I made sure that no homework came with me. It was great! We went to the zoo, Aquarium, saw a dolphin show, went to the National Mall, Arlington Cemetary and watched the changing of the guard. Jason and Dadra were kind enough to let me take one of their cars and visit the family I use to nanny for. The boys are all grown up and one is a Sophmore in College now. (YIKES)

Abby is hilarious and loves to play dress up. She's got her cat walk down. Landon has the best laugh. It was nice to get away! They have some beautiful parks there that we spent alot of time at. I also can officially say I've stepped foot in W. Virginia now. :) We went hiking one day down this beautiful path. Jason will have to remind me the name, but it is a 150mile trail that is beautiful. I would love to bike it one day. Any one want to join me?

McCall Brynn Hemming

I thought I would jump a head a little from previous things that has happened (I'm not sure where all my pictures went.)

I took a quick (and I do mean quick) break from studying this weekend and flew out to Rexburg ID for the blessing of the 8th grandchild in our family. McCall Brynn Hemming was born August 15 2009. They blessed her yesterday in church. I was lucky enough that it was a 3 day weekend due to Labor Day so flew out Saturday morning to Salt Lake, drove to Rexburg with my parents and brother that night. We went to the blessing Sunday and drove back to Salt lake that night so I could catch a plane back to Texas this morning and not miss any work. I even got a few things done on my thesis on the plane ride.

McCall is so cute and it was fun to see Tanner and Brayden again. Here are a few pictures from the trip. I might mention that my sister Alicia made her blessing dress. She did an awesome job.

Behavior Change Project

In a year from now I will graduate from Sam Houston with my Masters degree. Many of you know I've been studying Autism and Low incidence disabilities. What some of you don't know is that the major emphasis in this program is on analyzing behavior. Obviously this is mostly taught in the area of changing the behaviors of students with disabilities, but the principals can be applied to anyone. Every semester we have to do a behavior change project, keep data, graph the data and write a huge paper on it.
I decided I would go out on a limb this time and try one on myself rather the on one of my students. This is were I need you help and I'm opening up to a lot in my own personal life. As many of you reading this know I have hard time remaining positive all the time. Although I feel I've come a long way since high school I still have a long was to go. I've also noticed that it gets harder the more time I spend by myself - inside stuying all the time, and I have less free time to be around others. Where I can not change some of my circumstances (ie the number of hours I need to study) I can change some of my thoughts during those long hours.

What I need from you if you choose to help me is to leave positive statements about me or funny- happy times we have had together. Just click on the word comment at the bottom of this post and leave me a message. I'll then record these statements on my MP3 and play them as I drive back and forth to school or on study breaks while i'm working out. My goal is to be able to feel these idle times up with happy/ funny things to think about instead of what I'm frustrated about. Just click on the comments box at the bottom of this post. A page will come up to leave me a comment on something positive for me to focus on.

Thanks in advance for your help with this project. Hopefully you'll be able to tell the positive effects it has. I thought I would share a few of my favorite times and happy memories as well. If you don't want to leave them in the comment section you an email me. I'm addicted to email - maybe that's my next behavior change project. :)

For my birthday Lisa gave me a chest full of 30 items that had some memory attached to it. They made me laugh remember all the things we've been through.

Teaching has been a big strenght to me. There is nothing more gratifying to me then seeing them accomplish a task they could not do before.

Cake decorating with friends. Can't get much better for me. Thanks for the room this summer Ladies.

Youtube or Homework... that is the question

So I needed a little break from studing and kept singing Amazing Grace in my head so I decided to go and look on youtube for a good version. I found Hayley and I had to listen to much more then just Amazing Grace. She is from New Zealand and has an amazing voice. Enjoy!

Phantom Of the Opera

Last Saturday My dad took me to go see Phantom of the Opera! It was lots of fun to be with Dad. Especially since he and mom had been gone for a couple of weeks. I love living close to my parents and being able to do stuff with them. I must say I was blessed with the best parents ever! They've helped me a lot. I love our "Daddy daughter dates"

Goodbye Dr. Ruth Debar

My Favorite(actually all of our favorite) professor decided to leave Texas for New Jersey. Not very happy, but its a great move for her. The whole cohort met at Main Event last Monday and to celebrate her and wish her luck. We have one girl missing from the pictures (she's on a family vacation.)

Erin, Heather, Ruth, Saritha ,Me, Fara, Jan, Jennifer, Samatha, Julie, Hope Katie

Jan's Husband came to party with us. We went after class and the first thing we had to do was eat dinner. It was nice to eat before 8:00 at night for a change.

Katie, Ruth, Jennifer
Me, Fara, Hope Saritha (or her profile anyways)

Best of luck Ruth! We are going to totally miss your expertise in the field of ABA and Autism.

Happy 4th of July

A group of us went down to watch the fireworks in the Woodlands. We just parked the car at a bowling alley and put our lawn chairs up on the side of the road (I-45 feeder). The fireworks were across the freeway, but we had a great view. It was lots of fun. After the show we sat around and waited for all the traffic to die down. People had pulled over everywhere to watch the show.

Nikki, Kim, Adena, Stacie, Heather, Cordell, Scott, Alona, Shelley Ed, Tatum, Jennifer, Bobby

IF you can't tell I love firework shots!

Just to show you how close we were to the freeway, here is a video clip. I had my camera turned for the first part until I remembered you can't turn video's once you down load them. OOPS!

Kate Leon Washburn

Last Saturday I had to chance to go to my cousins Baby blessing. Daciana and Mark Washburn welcomed Kate Leon on June 14,2009. Daciana and I grew up together in Midland, went to the same elementary school and drove our parents crazy. We would never tell them what house we were going to after school. So one of our parents would always worry when we didn't come home. I was super excited when they moved to the Woodlands just 45 minutes from me.

I love her dress! She is so tiny, but very beautiful.

What a great family! She's very blessed to have wonderful parents.

The joy of having family close. This is the Bushman side of the family that was able to make it.

Diona, Delisa, My mom Me, my dad, Aunt darla and Uncle Darrell(Daciana's parents) Kate, Daciana, Mark, Our cousin Eric and his family (Cecily, Lauren, Brandt and Wendy)

They blessed Kate in their home because Daciana's parents are leaving on a mission soon and needed to get back to Midland to finish up last minute things.