Last day of August 2020

TERRY

We are in the last day of August and looking forward to a new month tomorrow.  I would say Terry has made some, but not much progress this month.  We are hopeing for much more starting tomorrow.  I have hope that we can not only continue OT and PT but get it more often.  IF I can make that happen then we will double down and work harder at home to make Terry better as well.  I would say that we do not need more nights like last night.  We were up 4 times to take care of Terry's needs BUT that is unusual as it is only twice most nights.  As the sun comes up and the day heats to the 90s we have hope that things will get better!

I had a difficult weekend.  No, it was not Terry but family.  I do not know why but I think of siblings a lot on weekends.  I thought about Dave and what a great man and brother he WAS.  I miss him a lot.  There was actually good news as sister Helen is now kind of settled into her new home.  It looks nice and I am guessing she will like the size of it better than the house she and Mike had built.  She has not commented much on leaving their home but I am guessing it was kind of bitter sweet.  Something she wanted yet leaving was hard I think.  Here I am putting thoughts and words down that I think Helen may have felt and I have really no idea!!!  I thought about sister Joan and her busy life in Utah with those great grand kids.  As is often the case my mind goes the way of Janet and Ronald and what would they be today if they had lived a long life?  My mind also wandered to my kids and the life they have.  I am thinking I need, in the future, to keep busy on the weekends so I DO more and THINK less!

As I welcome the new week we have no appointments scheduled and no place that we have to go so maybe we will have some surprises for the beginning of September.

It is August 30th, 1999

As I get into the car and head east towards Cleveland Ave I have many thoughts going through my mind.  Here I am starting my 23rd year in the St. Paul Schools.  I have taught 21 years at Highland Park Junior and it looks like I will stay put until the end of my teaching days.  I received a letter in the past week that said I should expect only 4 students this year.  I am concerned that 4 students is NOT enough to keep me busy so I suspect they may have me do some other teaching as well.  For that I am not excited and my feeling proved correct! 

I walk into the office at about 7:45 and am greeted by several teachers that I know and a new principal who I know has a reputation for not being all that kind to special education!  The secretary informs me that my room will be 108.  I kind of frown and stop to think.  108 is NOT a classroom as I am know the school and that is what used to be the print shop but printing was eliminated last spring.  I look in my mailbox and find a schedule of the week and hurry out to see my new room!  When I enter 108 I am floored.  The space is large as it had been a print shop that would accommodate up to 25 students.  NOW there were boxes piled high in the middle of the room and it almost made for two rooms.  There were NO student desks, only long tables.  It was very clear what this room was.  It had been dismantled as a printing classroom and over the summer was used to store everything that they did not know what to done with!  This was going to be a classroom for the deaf/hard of hearing and it was clearly only a junk room!  The boxes piled high were either empty or had junk in them from the summer work that was done.  The tables were old and ink covered.  There was no teacher desk and no chairs, only stools!  

This was the start of my school year.  As always I made do with what they gave me and in the end three students showed up for the year.  I later found out that one of the teachers at the elementary school encouraged parents to send their kids to other places.  

For the year I ended up teaching a senior high class of sign language in the junior high building and one can imagine how the senior students loved to walk to the junior high.  I often spent the first several minutes of class filling out forms for the students who did not show up!  I think they headed to the junior high and then ended up outside talking and smoking!  I also was assigned a second hour class in the senior high which consisted of special need kids working in a certain program where all one had to do was walk around and monitor IF they were working!  

It was a year to forget!  Over the next several years we did get students to come back to the junior high but the classrooms were not much better.  The last 2 years I had a room with another teacher and we were expected to have 2 classes going in the room at the same time!  The year after I retired they moved the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Junior High Program to another school several miles away. It certainly was time for me to move on!

As I finish up writing I hear Terry has the TV on so it is time to get her on her walk.