Work

I constantly compare the new to the old. I guess we all do. We have to use our knowledge from the past to make sense of the present. I can't help but compare job in Utah to my job in South Carolina. While I technically have the same job title (Speech-Language Pathologist) my job here feels very different.

Utah
I was working in a middle-class suburb school
The school was built within the last 10 years
I worked at the same place for 4 years...I knew all of the teachers...and all of my students
I had a 25 minute commute to work
I had a decent sized room with a huge storage closet

South Carolina
I am working in a Title 1 (low-income) school
The school is over 40 years old...I would guess maybe older
This is my first year...I don't know all of the teachers...I do know all of my students
I have a 5-7 minute commute to work
I have an enormous room

I took a couple pictures of my room. It is enormous...you have to understand that in Utah most Speech Therapists are placed in closets...literally closets. I have a window and I can see the sun all day long. I also have a sink.




I also discovered this week that I have cockroaches. I was walking into my room with a student and she said "I see a bug." Except when she talks there are no consonants only vowels "I eee a u." I said "yes I do think that is a bug." Then she said "e a oe a i ou"... translation "we have those at my house." It told her that we had one at my house too. Then we sat down and continued to do our speech session...both keeping an eye on the cockroach the entire time. The cockroach circled its way around the room. My student got up at one point to move to the other side of the table. By the time the session was over it was somewhere behind the filing cabinet. I walked my student back to her class and then worked in the preschool classroom.

When I came back the cockroach had found its way up onto my desk and onto my water bottle. Unfortunately my resident bug killer was not around...I fought my urge to scream and tried to act rationally. I calmly picked up my water bottle and shook it in the garbage can. The cockroach fell inside. I then tied the garbage liner up and walked it down the hall and out the front doors. I untied the bag and let the cockroach go. I would not normally have let a critter go free...but I didn't think I could squash this one.

I talked to the janitor and asked him to spray my room for bugs. The next day when I came in I found the guy pictured below in the corner of my room. It looks like he may have thrown up on his way to die. Hopefully his friends and family won't stop by for a visit. Don't get me wrong...the school is very clean...we just live in the South and there are bugs.


On a lighter note...there are some things that my students have said that have made me laugh. I thought I would share.

• I was working on "wh" questions with one student. I asked "When do you brush your hair" she looked at me and said "when it gets nappy." I am 100% sure this is not a response I would have been given back in Utah. It makes me smile every time I think of it.
• I asked one group what "Better luck next time" meant. One student looked at me and said "It's like on wheel of fortune when you go bankrupt." I had no idea wheel of fortune was so popular among 3rd graders. Oh...he can't say his r's which made his response even better.
• I was doing a screening on a 3 year old head start student. I asked him what his name was knowing beforehand what it really was. His response "Handsome." I almost laughed out loud. There are some crazy names out here...but his name was not handsome. I then asked "What is your full name." He then told me his first name followed by "handsome" and then his last name. I seriously hope that I can instill this kind of confidence in my children someday.
• I was working with a kindergarten student that just talks in vowels. Several of my students sound this way... I think it could be because the vowels are lengthened in the South and it could be all that they hear. I was trying to get him produce /k/. Well I told him I didn't hear him say the /k/. He looked at me and said "u o a e e o" = "you don't have your ears on." I explained that I did have my ears on and that he did not say /k/.
• We were talking about Halloween this week and looking at a picture of a haunted house. This cute little boy looked up at me and said "I lived in a haunted house." I asked him what happened in the house and he said he would hear his name at night when he was sleeping. Then he said his name all drawn out like a ghost would say it. He had the most serious look on his face...it was priceless.