End of the Year Reminiscing

The end of the school year is always incredibly exciting! And while I sit here writing seemingly endless amounts of progress reports (blech!), I can't help but smile thinking about all of my crazy, hyperactive, exhausting, hilarious and sweet students. Here are a few snippets that make me happy looking back on the year...

-The autistic student who calls me "Mr. Handsome". It always makes me smile. His mom and I think he calls me that because when he does his speech homework she says things like "great job Mr. Handsome!" and he has associated the "Mr. Handsome" name with speech. We have been working on calling me "Mrs. Annie" and he is pretty consistent with it now, but every now and then a little "excuse me, Mr. Handsome" slips out and I can't help but love it. Yes, he is still working on he vs. she and Mr. vs. Mrs. but we're getting there. 

-All the happy faces and squished noses against my window who wave with an enthusiastic "Hi, Mrs. Annie!" as they head out to recess.

-Hearing all the students try to figure out why a joke is funny when they pass the "joke of the week" posted outside my room. So hilarious to hear them try to work it out. and such great language discussions happening all the time! I didn't realize how hard jokes are to understand for ALL kids, let alone language kids.

-One day when working on definitions with a little guy I asked "What does the word 'wild' mean?" He responded, "it means, when you're really really....fabric." WHA?! I still have no idea what he meant to say. However, we have made some fabulous progress since that day. :) There was nowhere to go but up!

-When teaching non-literal language with another little one this dialogue occurred...
Me: What does it mean when someone says "he kicked the bucket"
Student: Some guy kicked a bucket.
Me: Well that's what it sounds like huh? But this is one of those tricky sayings that doesn't mean exactly what the words say. When people say someone kicked the bucket, it is a funny way of saying that they died.
Student: Oh that's crazy!
Me: yeah, sometimes idioms are crazy!

          The next week......
Me: what did it mean in the book when it said "the pig was as dead as a doornail"?
Student: it means he kicked the bucket!
           BOOM.....genius!

-My ridiculously hyperactive 5th grade language group who randomly decided to call me "Mrs. Boss" one day. I think one of them must have seen the movie Australia so it wasn't an original idea. Nonetheless, I felt like I got a promotion. Honestly, that group was the hardest group I've ever had, but one of the most endearing. Two girls and one boy with pretty involved language needs and serious ADHD! I had them twice a week at the very end of the school day and every session was such a whirlwind of trying to control behaviors and emotions and hopefully get some good language lessons in. I would never admit this to them but I might one day miss their constant bantering and melodramatic discussions of who has a crush on who (oh to be 10 years old). Those three were the perfect combination of odd and likeable and every once in a while we'd have a language lesson that I felt really got through to them. I could tell a million stories about that one little group but looking back on the whole year with them kinda makes me tired :)

-There's so much more to tell but I should probably stop at the risk of pure Logorrhea. All of my students are awesome! There are stories every single day that make life as an SLP so great, and tiring, and funny and fulfilling!

Do you have any good therapy stories? If you are an SLP it's pretty much a guarantee! Do share!