Summer School

This summer I had a job that gave me, as an Elementary Education major, perfect experience for my future career in education. I was a one-on-one aide for an energetic seven-year-old in the special education summer school program at my old elementary school. The program ran just four mornings a week, for five weeks. Although it was a short program, I grew close to all of the students in my classroom, and especially the student I was working with.

During summer school, we did small projects, such as painting birdhouses and making flowers out of coffee filters, went outside for recess, and worked with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists. I also did ABA, or Applied Behavior Analysis, one-on-one with my student. ABA involves setting up an environment in order to elicit a desired response, often with a reinforcer (I used M&M's), in order to teach skills. With my student we worked on skills such as matching colors, grasping and releasing objects, maintaining attention, and communicating with gestures, communication boards, and other speech devices. My favorite part of each week was music therapy. A music therapist came into our class once a week to sing songs and give the students a chance to play some instruments. The students, as well as all of the teachers, always enjoyed this part of the week.

I am starting to think more about my plans for next year, after graduating from Stonehill. I have some possibilities in mind. I may find a teaching job and starting work on my Master's in a couple years, or there are some service teaching programs that I am interested in that would allow me to teach and work on my Master's at the same time. My experience this summer however, has me thinking more about the possibility of going into special education. It seems crazy that I will already be applying for more school and a real job so soon! Most importantly, right now it's time for me to take the GREs!!!

One of the other perks of my summer job this year was that I still had time to spend weekends with friends and do lots of summer things! This past weekend my roommate, Carrie, came to visit me. We went to the beach, had a cookout and campfire with my friends from home, AND went to the Taylor Swift and Keith Urban concert at the TD Banknorth Garden! Here's a picture of the concert goers in Boston and a couple pictures of the concert: