12 of 12 - Boston Edition

Did you miss me?

I made it home safe and sound by about 6:45 last night. Rick and the girls survived the weekend just fine with the exception of multiple bouts of vomiting (Eldest girl) Friday night into Saturday morning. She was doing OK - aside from being tired - by the time I called to check in on Saturday morning. Rick also sounded very tired and the younger two girls were reportedly bickering all morning. However, things apparently improved and they had a good day on Sunday - they even managed to get out for a Geocache hunt and it was enjoyed by all.

As for me, I had a good weekend away with Patty. She was so relieved to have me along to do the heavy lifting and provide some additional supports in the classroom and I was more than happy to oblige. I think the most valuable thing I learned this weekend is that I do have some level of competence in AAC. I've been listening and learning a lot from both Patty and Dale (the Physical Therapist, aka "PT", on our team) this spring. I did learn a few things along the way and got my hands on a number of good resources but on the whole it felt more like a good, solid review of things I already know. The one thing that I know I need to work on is the thing you can't get from a classroom. Experience. Hands-on experience. I have the knowledge but I need to actually put it into practice with real live kids before I can gain the breadth of expertise that both Patty and Dale possess. It will come with time - after all, they've been doing this for more than 20 years. With all that experience under their belts it's a blessing and a gift to have them as my mentors.

OK...now on to the main reason for this post - my 12 of 12....Boston style! Be sure to visit Chad Darnell's site for more information on the 12 of 12 project and to view other blog entries.

7am
Best Western at Longwood Inn (right in the heart of the medical district)
We had an interesting check-in experience. Suffice it to say that our first room had only one bed. We were thankfully able to move but not after some snafus and lack of follow-through by the hotel staff. The waitress from room service who deilvered our beers to the room with the one bed might have assumed otherwise, but we were so happy to have two beds to crash in once we finally got moved at about 11:30pm!


The view from our hotel - not so very exciting. I believe that one of those buildings on the right is Children's Hospital.


7:30am
Boston streets on our way from the hotel to Simmons college
We were in the general vicinity of Fenway Park - home of the Red Sox - and I was told by Patty that the Citgo sign in the distance is famous seeing as it is right near Fenway. So, there you have it. We saw a famous sign on our trip - the extent of our sight-seeing during the busy weekend!


7:35am
Cumberland Farms/Dunkin Donuts
Breakfast of coffee and bagels procured from DD.


You could tell we were in Red Sox territory by the blue and red signs above the coolers in Cumberland Farms. (Click on the picture to enlarge)


7:45am
Arriving at Simmons College.


7:55am
The classroom where we spent the majority of our weekend
The building was very nice and according to Patty had just been renovated. Having not been in a college classroom for quite a few year I was quite impressed by the 'Podium of Technology' that existed. All the necessary technology could be accessed via a touch screen device on the podium. She had computer, DVD player and even a VCR right at her fingertips - among other things that we didn't use but had available to us.



8:30am
Classroom
Class is about to begin. A few of the computer-based communication devices that we were going to be demonstrating to the class.



11:30am
Still in the classroom
One of the demonstrations involved a pudding-making activity in which Patty played the part of teacher and three volunteers were each given a different device to use to communicate their wants/needs. This picture shows the device with activity-specific vocabulary and the leftovers from the pudding-making. Another student was given a device with relatively random vocabulary, and a third student was given one of the high-tech devices in which she had access to a huge amount of vocabulary - both commonly used words as well as access to pages with activity specific vocabulary. We wanted the class to see for themselves which vocabulary set worked best when given to a novice user.


12:15pm
Around campus
At lunchtime I took a walk around campus for a bit to get out of the building and see the sun for a while. The campus is currently involved in a large-scale renovation which they are expecting to have completed by the fall semester.



9pm
Best Western Hotel room
After dinner we headed back to hotel room where we did a bit of troubleshooting for a few of the issues that cropped up during the computer lab portion of the class and Patty did some editing
on some of her tutorials. It's a bitch when they make relatively minor changes between versions of the software and the students were quick to point out the inaccuracies/differences on the tutorials.


9:30pm
Best Western
I turned on the TV to see if there was anything mindless to watch for a while. Jurrasic Park fit the bill. Patty and I were both too tired to bother watching the whole thing. Lights went out by 10pm since there was another long day ahead of us.


Not too exciting, but a basic idea of our day. Patty has another three weekends of classes to teach but she is getting other "helpers" to join her those weekends. I'm on stand-by if she needs me the second weekend of August for her final class but at this point it looks like I won't be needed.

Rick is taking a vacation day today and the older girls are off to camp for the day. At some point today - if the rain stops - Rick and I might try to get out in our canoe for the very first time! We bought it a couple of years ago on Craigslist but the planets have yet to align just right for us to actually use it! I'll be sure to give a status update tonight on whether we manage to take our maiden voyage or not. Wish us luck!