Suzie Saturday

Yesterday was a full and wonderful day.  My best friend was in town, and we were able to spend about four hours together, not nearly enough time!  Suzie, a speech pathologist, now works with children with Asperger's.  She is so involved and so committed;  I think a documentary following her through a few days of working with her kids would be fascinating.

Any teacher who is as dedicated as Suzie has always been can get so excited, so passionate about the work that--even as a long retired teacher--I feel that passion and curiosity.  Curiosity is a major aspect, I think.  Why does this individual learn this way?  What are the obstacles, how do you overcome them, what methods will work in this situation?  How do they work, and how can they be used to reach a particular student? 

(One of her workshops was on Word Finding -- one of my problems since...forever.  My reading vocabulary is large, but I have always had trouble "finding" words verbally.  For example, "Would you hand me that...thing with the handle."  She brought me the handout on "Models of Lexical Access" :p)


My sister-in-law Robin (an adaptive physical education teacher) is the same way.  Both Suzie and Robin remind me of the fascination of how mind and body and learning work, but then both of them are exceptionally good at their jobs, keeping up with new research, enthusiastic, and inspiring.

Suzie and I played in the studio, and I gave her Lily which she said she will re-name (because I'm not very good at name-finding either).  I looked for the name Thomas suggested, but couldn't find it.  Thomas, if you remember will you e-mail me?

We went to lunch and talked and talked and talked.  I hate never having enough time with her, but I have a list of things to research:  MicMacs, television series Terriers, selective mutism.....  She had to go help her sister for a fund raiser at Holy Angels, and because I had been up since 2:30 AM, I needed a nap before Megan & Drew's engagement party.

More on that event later, but it was terrific!