Sometimes I Forget

When I work I sometimes forget why these kids need me.  I forget with language disorders things that we learn so quickly takes months or years to learn for these guys.  It's not until I start a basic unit on the Olympics and break out vocab such as team, coach, competition, and country to a group of older elementary students.  Once I realize the level of difficulty with these words it becomes an instant word game for me.  

Team becomes class

Coach becomes teacher

Competition becomes games

Country becomes... Okay I got nothing it stayed country. 

This is why I love my job.  There was know prep for that one.  After 15 minutes of going over those words I don't think they sunk in.  For the next 6 weeks we will work on those words several times a week and I will view success if one or more of them adds at least one new vocab word.  

For the next few weeks I have plans for team building activities to encourage working together not competing against each other.  We are also going to encourage cheering each other.  We are going to make personal flags that show personal likes, hold "practice" on our Olympic events, and hold competitions.  Our competitions will be basic relay races, family feud type activities for what makes a good listener and good friend, as well as singles events but I haven't thought of those yet.  

Oh I'm so excited for the next few weeks!!!