I Worked High School ESY... and Liked It?

Contrary to popular belief, summer school IS all fun and games.

It's official. I have finished my Clinical Fellowship Year and submitted my applications to ASHA and the California Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology & Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. I feel like one of the last ones in my cohort to apply... heck some already have their CCCs. I did this really unfortunate thing where I moved to California, which is notorious for being the absolute slowest state to issue temporary SLP licenses. It took me 12 WEEKS. Women from my cohort had their temp licenses in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in a mere 3-4 weeks at most. So, you might say that the additional 8 weeks waiting to start my California CF set me back a little hence why I wanted to Extended School Year (ESY) in the first place. Once I was issued my CA temporary license, I calculated the number of hours and weeks I would get by the end of the regular school year, and I was 70 hours short of being done. Whatever. It is what it is. I spoke with the Special Education director about wanting to do ESY, and her reaction surprised me:

"You want to work ESY? Wait. Really? We usually never have an SLP during ESY. Are you sure?"

I explained that I needed that time to finish my CFY plus I didn't want too much time off in the summer. And before everyone starts saying, "omg I wish I had more time off blah blah blah," the schools have SO MANY breaks for long periods of time. Personally, I am not used to that. I had 2 different research jobs during my gap year and then worked part-time in my research lab while in grad school and completing my practicum. And, if I'm not busy with work, I like to keep myself busy with other things. I need to go, go, go, or else I will turn into a blob on my couch (which is what has been happening as of late). So, I wanted to lessen the gap between school ending and when my contract would start back up by filling my time with work. ESY also ended up being something I needed to do anyways because of my contracted days and starting later than the other SLPs due to my graduation date of August 15. The SLPs usually start back 10 days before the teachers do. All of that to say ESY was inevitable but I went into it with positivity and excitement.

So, that's a little backstory of how I got myself into summer school. Now, what does high school ESY look like?

My district just had me focus on the SDC-I classes, which is our Special Day Class - Intensive. Some schools refer to these as self-contained classes. We have 3 in our district at different high schools, but for ESY, they were all at 1 of the high schools. I had about 36 students on my caseload: 35 SDC-I and 1 SDC student. For my SDC student, we met in my makeshift office for 30 minutes each week and worked on his goals from his IEP. He was such a great start to my mornings and made amazing progress on his voiced and unvoiced 'th'! For the rest of my caseload, I attended their morning meetings, cooking activities, and outings. The expectation was to focus on push-in services, but I always have to be extra and do the most; I also led group speech therapy for each class (super daunting at first) in which we talked about emotions, coping skills, and personal boundaries. I was blown away by the amount of support and positive feedback I received from the teachers and staff and even the students regarding my presentations and activities! As you know, I live for affirmations.

Overall, the outings for ESY were absolutely amazing. It is crucial for these students to learn functional life skills and social skills, which is the purpose of these outings. And many of them don't have the opportunity to leave their homes except at school. Here are some of the activities/outings we did:

Monday: Movie in the theater on campus

Tuesday: Target

Wednesday: Bowling

Thursday: Farm / District Fair

Friday: Water Day

I posted a reel on my Instagram of the highlights from ESY if you want to check it out. I loved summer school. I loved keeping up with a routine, working with the incredible teachers, and communicating with the students. And let me tell you, SDC-I knows how to make learning fun, so much so I will be coming back for ESY Round 2 next year!

I finished ESY on June 28, and now I don't know what to do with myself. I spent a week traveling to North Carolina with Wesley for a college friend's wedding. Being back home and seeing all my friends from college reminded me how much I miss everyone and everything about North Carolina. Going home is always a special time for Wesley and me, but then throw in a wedding -- chef's kiss. Shoutout to the Seebolds for having such a lovely wedding filled with love and fond memories for everyone. Wesley and I have another wedding in Florida at the end of the month, so you know I am going to be feeling all the feelings between now and then. This wedding is for my amazing roommate during my time at USC. I am so excited to stand by her side and celebrate all weekend. But, between those 2 bookended weddings, I am in limbo. Wesley and I are trying to take advantage of my time off by planning weekend trips at the very least. We are trying to plan a trip down to San Francisco to see some friends soon, catch a Giants game, and hit up a gluten-free brewery (yes, they exist. And yes, they're amazing). This weekend we are heading to the coast for Tatum's first beach trip! Tatum is entering his coastal doggie era. Stay tuned for a highlight reel of that trip (Skybridge in the Redwoods over a zoo, anyone?)!

In the meantime, enjoy these videos of Tatum learning to swim this past weekend!

First time in water and he was super unsure. Did not like it one bit.

This was the next day and he felt more confident with me in the water holding him while he doggy paddled. He got the hang of it and played fetch! Now he just wants to hang out in the bathtub and shower...