My Supports

My Husband

By far, my greatest support is my husband.  He supports me in many different areas of my life.  He supports me emotionally.  I tend to be an emotional person and my husband is always there to offer a comforting shoulder to cry on or listen to concerns I may be having.  His biggest support emotionally is probably adding some logical thinking to my emotional responses.  He also supports our family financially.  He is a planner and budgeter.  He is responsible for the majority of our family income and he also plans how to best appropriate our money, while always allowing some for some extra activities.  He also supports me around the house.  He gets home from work an hour before I do and he always has dinner started and my lunch packed for the next day.  He takes care of laundry, yard work, and the animals anytime I am falling behind.  Without my husband and his supportiveness, I would not be able to live in the wonderful area I do or provide as well for my family. I would be under constant pressure and stress to balance my school work, career, family, housework, and finances.  Having the support of my husband allows me to live a less stressful life.  He is wonderful! 

My Daughter 

Unintentionally, my daughter provides me with emotional support as well.  It is truly a wonderful feeling to know that there is someone who loves me unconditionally.  When I am having a rough day, I can always look to her to make me smile and forget about what may be on my mind.  She is a very sweet, caring little girl.  I’m so lucky to have her.  She is also at that age where she is working toward her own independence.  This new interest in her own independence allows me to have less work to do with her.  She gets dressed in the morning, brushes her teeth and makes her bed so I don’t have to do those things.  That is a huge help as I’m trying to rush out the door.  Without her, I would be miserable.  She provides me with constant joy wants to help her mommy as much as possible. 

My Teammates

I have two wonderful fellow fifth grade teachers at my school.  We truly do everything together to take care of our school responsibilities.  We plan together, share concerns and joys about students, and collaborate to be the best teacher’s we can be.  We also work together to make sure that everything is taken care of.  I know that if I need to be out for a day, I can count on them to take care of anything I would need.  It’s wonderful to have someone to count on unconditionally.  Without my teammates, I would spend a great deal of time planning and preparing materials to teach.  I also would not have that emotional support and understanding when the job gets tough.  My job would be a great deal more difficult without their support. 

Challenges     

One of the main challenges I see in the public education setting is autism.  Many children who are autistic are affected in different ways.  Some children are very high functioning autistic children while others are not.  Most of the time, these children have a special education instructional assistant to help them in the classroom.  One student I am thinking of in particular, who is not the typical autistic student, was also border line MR.  In this situation, she needed to have the support of an aide in every part of her day.  Her assignments had to be modified to her level as well as the reading material she was working on.  These supports allowed her to be a part of the general education classroom.  This allowed her to feel that sense of community instead of being pulled out of the classroom to receive services.  Many times children with autism have a difficult time socializing with other children and interacting with others.  It would be important to have understanding individuals around who understand the needs of a person with autism.  Another support may be an expectation chart of how the child is expected to interact with others.  After meeting these expectations, there could be a reward for the appropriate actions.  The particular student I was imagining was unable to meet the grade level expectations and was enrolled in a Learning for Life program.  This program will support her by teaching her the essential skills she needs in order to become a functioning adult.  Without these supports, it would be very challenging to function in a school setting as well as in the real world.  These supports provide the necessary skills to help this child become a functioning member of society.