I haven’t had much of an opportunity to attend school this past 10 days, not that I am complaining or anything.  It started out last Monday with a trip up North to Columbus to visit a middle school and speak to the Faculty there; 2 snow days with 8 inches of snow, and then 1 day of school, long weekendvacation for President’s Day on Friday and Monday, and we just got word that school is closed tomorrow, 10 inches of snow today and a level 2 snow emergency.  My dad even got to come home from work early it was snowing so hard. 

Don’t worry,  I have been filling my time in a worthy manner, carrying my snowshovel around the neighborhood to earn money for my TSA Youth Ambassador fund, but shoveling driveways.  Not a bad job for a kid you know, it beats sitting around the house with as many snow days as we have stacked up.

My friend Bruce, my Mom and I took a trip up to Columbus for an inservice we held at a local Middle school there.  It was an interesting experience for me since I was suppose to talk to the teachers, and help them understand things a bit better for how to help a boy there.  I did get to speak some, but when you only have 1/2 hour to talk, and most of the teachers come in late, and leave early it puts a damper on what you can say and how effective you are.  I was surprised to see that only some of the teachers seemed to care  about being there.  They took notes and asked questions.  That is what I would be expected to do as a student for a guest speaker.  There were 3 teachers in particular that came late, and left early, that I could tell already had their minds made up for what they thought about being at the inservice.  This really shocked me as I wasn’t really prepared to watch a teacher act in a way that we students get in trouble for.  It was a good learning experience for me.  My mom and I shared our thoughts on helpful accomodations for the classroom, and how to address tics and what helps.  I have to think even if there were 3 people being rude in there,  there were more that were there that cared, and actually got something out of the inservice.  If not for anything, I got to meet a really cool kid with Tourette’s Syndrome, who had never met another kids with Tourette’s Syndrome,  and I hope that helps for him to see, he is not alone in this big, big world.

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