My Mojo's Back...

As many of you said in the comments (an e-mail replies) to my missing mojo post, teacher mojo appears to creep back in after going on hiatus via small gifts of appreciation, trust and humor from your students.

Here are some of the events in my classroom that helped bring it back:

• a student answering the question "How are you?" (while standing in the supine stander with me sitting in my teacher chair and resting the Dynavox on top of my head so it could be reached... maybe you had to be there, it was funny. Anyways, the answer was,) "It doesn't get any better than this!"
• a student new to AAC using a static display device for the first time ever and replying to the question "How are you?" with, "I feel silly!" and verbally adding, "Clown!"
• a student who frequently says "again" (meaning "more") leaving us confused as to what is wanted, answering "Again what?" with "Sprite. Cup." Oh, yeah, that's the stuff communication is made of! Now to use shaping and make that into a sentence...
  
• a student in our job training program returning from his third day at a new job site bursting with pride over working with one hundred percent independence on his task - quite the coup
• another student who carried a chocolate chip cookie all the way back from his job training site in his hand, in his wheelchair driving hand, so he could drive over to me, get my attention and stuff the cookie in my mouth and then laugh hysterically... because chocolate chip cookies are my favorite.
• seeing a student break into the biggest grin I have ever seen in my life when the classroom nurse and I when to her house and devised a plan to get her back to school after a month at home due to some equipment issues in her home
• celebrating the 20th birthday of one of my students today and realizing that two years from now, upon graduation, we will have been together for eight years and the student will have gone from a non-verbal, non-device using, communicative only through behavior, dependent for mobility teenager to a dynamic device using, capable of communication through multiple modes, power chair driving, employable with moderate support from a job coach young man with a great out look on life

Welcome back mojo and thanks kids.