My first day at Giffen Memorial Elementary School was on Tuesday, September 9th. Sarah, Brittany and I approached the building together, each making note of how large the school was in comparison to where we once attended elementary school. We walked in the front entrance and signed in to receive our visitor name tags. At first, the woman responsible for the visitor sign-in table did not know who Peggy, our supervisor was, which sets forth an interesting representation of how large the school truly is. Moments later, Peggy appeared with a welcoming smile on her face, introduced herself to us, and proceeded to lead us through the maze-like hallways toward the resource room. By this point, the hallways were quickly filling up with loads of tiny children eager to eat breakfast, and Sarah, Brittany and I were continually exclaiming our excitement about beginning this placement. Once inside the resource room, the three of us still proclaiming our enthusiasm, we sat down at a table for a quick orientation. Peggy began to provide us with some background about the school: The students that attend are predominantly from low-income families whose parents were previously in jail, and there is only a 40% graduation rate. As she proceeded to tell us about the numerous stories she hears from the children on her caseload about the rats and the cockroaches in their homes, and about the little girl who was absent for weeks last year and turned up in a homeless shelter, I could feel tears filling my eyes. The stories became reality as I recalled each of the precious little faces I saw lining up for breakfast in the cafeteria on my way to the resource room. My heart broke at the reality of their circumstances, and I was immediately encompassed by the school and determined to do my best to make a difference. I believe it is important to have a general understanding of my caseload prior to administering therapy. If I appear not to care about their success as the speech pathologist, then they definitely will not care as a client.
As Peggy finished explaining the culture of the school, music began blasting through the loudspeaker. Apparently, an original song entitled, "We're Gonna Make It" plays every morning. The chorus says, "Who cares what the people say? We got it goin' on! No matter what comes our way, we're gonna make it, we're gonna make it." In my opinion, this song sets the day off with a positive start. In addition to it's purpose of encouraging the students, it was an encouraging message for me as well. Although we may be feeling slightly apprehensive about embarking on such a hands on experience, "we're gonna make it!"
When the song finished, Peggy went on to explain the speech therapy program used at Giffen and how a typical schedule for us is going to look. Since there are three of us and three kindergarten classrooms, we will each be placed in one of the classrooms. From my understanding, it sounds like we are going to become very familiar with Brady this semester, as each Tuesday will consist of reading a book that coincides with the theme for the week, and Thursdays and Fridays will be our therapy days in which we are able to implement and further emphasize the vocabulary from Tuesday's story. This coming week, the theme is "friendship," and the books are "Big Al" and "Big, Green, Scary Monster." What a coincidence, considering this is the book that was read to our seminar in the curriculum library on Monday!
Once we finished our orientation, Peggy gave us a tour of the school. I was amazed by the school spirit as almost every member of the faculty was wearing a green t-shirt with the school motto written on the front of it. Although the hallways were hectic and loud, every face was friendly and welcoming. Needless to say, it was the perfect first day.
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