First Day!

Hi Everyone,

On Thursday, I had my first night of classes. When I say night, I mean I went to the Educational Therapy Meet and Greet at 3:30 and my second of two classes ended at 10:30. It was exhausting. I think everyone came to class with tons of energy and left feeling completely drained and overwhelmed. However, the program looks like it is really good and all of the people in my class are friendly and ask great questions.

I have two classes, Education 261, Intro to Mild/Moderate Disabilities and Education 264, Assessment of Learning Disabilities. Normally 261 goes from 4:30 to 7:30 and 264 goes from 7:30 to 10:30, but we had an Educational Therapy Meet and Greet at 3:30 beforehand so the whole evening ended up being 7 hours long. We got to meet Marion Marshall, the educational therapy coordinator, who was very nice and she gave us a tour of the school even though I knew where most of the places on campus were already. Then we met the person in charge of the education department in general, Kim Mayfield, who was very nice. Then, we started class. Most of the first half was spent on introductions, so I don't feel like we've learned a ton yet, but my first instructor, Professor Fields, was really great. She is funny and upbeat, which makes listening to her all the more interesting.

My second class is going to be way more difficult. Professor Kosmos is very nice and a great speaker, but she also goes over everything very quickly and speaks in acronyms, some that I know and some that I don't, so it's harder to follow her. It's also super late in the evening and everyone's brains were totally fried. She told us the story of her own struggles with learning disabilities and how she went on to get her masters at Harvard and her doctorate at some other school, so she's pretty hardcore. One of the things that I'm really excited about it learning about different kinds of learning disabilities and then being able to apply that knowledge to students that I've already worked with. I keep expecting to have "ah ha" moments (thanks Oprah), where I can say, "So, THAT'S why he was so needy/clingy/spacey/insert-appropriate-adjective-here". I got my first "ah ha" moment in class already, when she was describing types of Autism. It was pretty exciting!

I only have classes on Thursdays, every other week. I was worried that I'd have a lot of time on my hands, but there is actually a ton of work to be done and once the semester gets going, I don't think I'll have much free time at all! One of my upcoming assignment will be to do some case studies on famous people, past or present, with learning disabilities. I've already started looking up the information for that assignment So, wish me luck as I embark on a very exciting new adventure and I'll post more about what I learn as I go!

Cheers,
Chelsea