Down to One Job

So after working for 3 1/2 months in a preschool class at Farrer Elementary School for children with autism, I am done. The school year ended the last week of May and I don't think the timing could have been much better. Working two jobs everyday and needing to get down on the ground with high maintenance kids for one of them was starting to take a lot out of me. The kids were really cute and it was fun to learn the best ways to interact with them. Each kid was so different and figuring out how to keep them happy and doing what they were supposed to be doing (instead of inciting tantrums) was always an exciting accomplishment.

I think I was the most excited about the progress I made with a little boy named Jaxton. He never wanted to stop moving so keeping him focused on his work was frustrating and I'll admit I usually tried to let the other aides deal with him. After working with him for a few months I learned to love his quirks and we became good buddies. He was one of the kids I most looked forward to seeing and he went out of his way to make sure I was the aide who was helping him.

I was usually too busy to take pictures during work but I did get some from the last day. A few of the kids are missing. It was hard to get most of the kids to actually look at the camera. I've added captions to the pictures in case anyone's curious which one is Jaxton.