Ah, it is my last week before I go back to work in the schools. Whew what a summer!
I spent most of the summer working in Pendleton Oregon at a rehap/nursing home. It was fun to do the traveling gig, but at the same time kind of lonely. I "lived" 6 hours from home in a motel 6. While I made alot of friends at the place I worked, it was still difficult knowing that I only had 8 weeks and then would be gone.
Pendleton is a town with not much going for it. Within one day, one could do the tourist stuff and then needed to go find other things to do. It is close to alot of good hiking areas, but I did not have anyone to go hiking with. Also the heat prevented alot of strenuous outdoors things. DH did come out a couple of times, but he spent alot of the time working on the classes he was teaching that it limited what we could do. I did have the opportunity to connect with a high school friend, which was fun. Of course the initial fear of "oh my I have gained weight" and "what if" kicked in. But it was interesting that after the initial introductions, it was just like we were back in high school She took the driver seat when we went out which was what she did when we were kids, she always did the driving.
Working with the older folks always puts things into perspective of how important it is to take care of your health when you are younger. It also shows you how little regard folks have about honoring and taking care of our elders. For the most part the staff was great, but occasionally they brought in their home life and let it interfere with their work life. You could tell in how they responded to the people. The older folks could no longer live life autonomously. They had to have help in order to make their basic needs met such as going to the bathroom or laying down in bed or getting up. One person had to speak loudly often to make himself be heard, which was sometimes misconstrued as yelling. One CNA responded by yelling back and leaving him in his chair as a "time out" for yelling at him. Luckily, my boss was one who was able to respond when concerns were brought up to her and get behavior stopped or changed.
As I said earlier, now I am gearing up for the kiddos. This year the good thing is that I am in one district, the bad thing is I still have 5 schools that I have to meet the needs in. I do have an assistant, but she only helps in 2 of the schools and can be rather difficult to work with. She doesn't have any official training, and refuses to get any. She was grandfathered in and often has the air of being owed. Again, working with olders have taught me, you are not owed or entitled to anything. Our perspectives and work ethics often clash. I believe that my job is to work with my students, and I make the most of the time I have with them. I don't often spend time visiting with peers unless it is during my lunch or before or after school. I also strive to not grill the kids and embarrass them in front of peers. I have watched her grill a kid who was dealing with a father that drank and who was homeless in front of others....talk about embarrassment to the kid! I also don't believe in talking about the kid in front of them as if they have no feelings...i.e., he is just being lazy, oh, he can do it but he just doesn't try. We are there to provide support and role models for the kids, not tear them down. So many of our kids get enough negative crap from their family and peers, they don't need it coming from the educators in their life too. Oh well..I am going to keep a positive outlook...it will be a good year!!
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