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.