First Week

So I finished my first week at my new job last week. It was CRAZY!!!! The craziness actually started before my first day so I’ll explain some of the background stuff first.

Background

After I got hired I had to wait 30 days to start because they had to give notice to all the contracted Speech Language Pathology Assistants (SLPAs) because they wanted to hire SLPAs directly. During my interview I was asked if I spoke Spanish, which I do … kinda. Well I went in about 2 weeks after getting hired to see if I had enough Spanish to do preschool screenings, which we all decided I do. I will mostly be asking “Que es esto?” and recording what they say so I can handle that. Well after this screening thing the lady that hired me, Lori, told me I would be at two schools with Vicki and I should go do some training 2 weeks before I started. So I went to the school Vicki was at for the morning and it was great. Well during lunch we got a call from Lori saying that since I spoke Spanish they needed me at Emerson to do preschool there. So I left since I wouldn’t be at that school anymore. Not too big a deal. Lori told me to report to Emerson at 9:00am on Oct 11th and not much more than that. Then Lori went on vacation for 3 weeks. The district HR people emailed me that I needed to come to the district office to get some paper work done on my first day. So on to the first day.

First Day

I get to the district office at 7:50am because I hate to be late to things to I tend to leave way early. I get there, do my paper work stuff in like 15 min. Well now I have about 45 min to kill since Lori told me to report at 9:00am. Did I mention that I didn’t know who I was supposed to be with this day since she just told me I would be working with Rebecca and Deb? Cause I didn’t. Well after 15 min I decide to go over there and just be really early. I get there introduce myself as Elena the new SLPA and ask the office staff where Deb is. This is what they respond with “Deb isn’t here on Mondays.” I’m starting to freak out. Me: “Well is Rebecca here?” Office staff: “She already left.” At this point I am fully freaking out. Me in my head: ”They apparently didn’t know I was coming. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW?!??!?” The office staff: “I think Bianca is still here. HEY BIANCA!” Bianca: “Oh hi, Rebecca was waiting for you but had to leave. I’ll draw you a map and you can meet her at the school” (walks me into the speech office) Ok well at least SOMEONE knows who I am and that I was coming. I’m calming down to just moderately freaked out. Ends up that Lori told me the wrong time, which wouldn’t have been a big deal to me if someone had just told me in the beginning that Rebecca was expecting me and to meet her here. So I got to the school, played with the kids and had a good time. I ate lunch. Then Rebecca showed me a room, gave me a schedule and a bunch of pictures to use and I did therapy for groups of kids for the rest of the day. By myself. On my first day. With kids I knew nothing about. Why yes that was an extremely stressful situation for me, thanks for asking.

The rest of the week

Went by without any major stressors. I absolutely love my supervisor Deb, who has been doing this for 30 years and still loves every minute of it. I had a super great time with all the preschoolers. They are so fun and cute. There is even a little Downs girl that is my new best friend, she is non verbal and I got her to say 3 words to me! Very exciting. I even got some really nice complements by the teachers I work with, which is always a good thing :)

All I can say is that I haven’t looked forward to the weekend that much in a long time!

(So I have been waiting to post this because I have a “Elena’s first day of school” picture but it won’t download so no picture)