This is how work satisfaction feels like?

This semester, I spend 3 days a week, 4 hours each day at a special preschool for children with speech and language delays/disabilities. At first, I really was rather dreading it, especially after hearing horror stories about the supervisors and just because of the plain simple fact that I would have to be interacting with kids and trying to stimulate language with them. Even though I spent the whole of last summer working with kids, I guess I still have my doubts about whether or not I would be able to work with kids in general in the future.

But the experience at the preschool with the 3-4 year olds so far has been pretty amazing. I am learning new things everyday about how to provide a good and rich language environment for these kids, how to make my speaking more salient and stand out to them for them to remember, how to keep kids engaged in activities I planned for them, how to gently manipulate kids without them realizing it, how to be flexible with them, and most importantly.. just how to interact with them in general.

I received good feedback from my supervisor who have been observing me very closely the past few days (frankly, her doing that kinda makes me nervous)... and a good feedback from her is like a piece of gold honestly. Especially after the horror stories I've heard of her. I think I went into this placement with some reservations and biases already in placed that made me extra nervous. But now I realized that I am a different person from others. Just because someone else had a bad experience, doesn't mean that I will. Always important to keep an open mind!

I have 2 girls assigned to me to do paired therapy with. These 2 girls are the most active girls in the group. Can't really sit still, and need really engaging activities to keep them focused. They're a handful but so adorable, you can't help falling in love with them. The way one of them holds your hand, and gives you hugs.., and the way the other says "wiggle wiggle" in that adorable voice while wiggling her cute butt... kind of just makes your day after seeing them. Cleaned one of the girl's poopy diaper (in the US, people call them pull-ups) in the bathroom today. Almost made her sit on my lap with her diaper on to take her pants off... but realized in time that her poop was flowing out of her diaper! Used a tonne of wet wipes to get that mess off her. Of course, poop had to be mushy and not in lumps -___- Made the experience so much better. And then my supervisor was standing in front of me, holding a plastic bag for me to dump the dirty wetwipes and diaper! The whole time, the little girl was narrating a story about her poop and being dirty, and trying to wipe poop off with her hands! Hilarious!

Exam on Friday. Haven't really had the motivation to study - really really bad! I honestly can't wait to start working and not have to study/do homework after I get off work. That way I can actually relax after coming home. You can  tell that today is really important for me, and made a mark in my life... since I am blogging about it when I really should be studying about Swallowing.

sigh, back to studying? or should it just be bedtime? bedtime sounds so tempting!