Saturday, May 20, 2017

I once again had the enjoyment of attending Career Day at Calvert Elementary School in Aldine ISD in Houston, TX!  It such a fun time!  It really is a dream come true to get to visit the school and read and discuss my books and about being an author.  I truly wish THIS could be my full-time job!  LOL!
The kids are so sweet and seem to really enjoy the stories that I read to them, and they ask the best questions.  One of them asked if there would be a follow up story to The Kitty with the Itty-Bitty Tail.  I thought that was a wonderful idea!  Hmmm...something to think about.  :)  However, this same student (bless his heart)...well, when I called on him, I said, "Yes, ma'am?"  He replied, "I'm not a girl!"  OOPS!  OH NO!  I think I recovered quite quickly and told him I was so sorry and then asked him, "What was your question again?"  I felt SO bad.  His hair looked like a girl's hair to me, but it made me think that's for sure.  Maybe in the future just ask "Yes?" and point out to whom I want to answer his or her question.  These particular students at this school wear uniforms, and he was also wearing a jacket that could belong to either a girl or boy so I blundered, but boy did I feel horrible about it.

One thing I had not encountered before was a classroom in which about half the class was hearing impaired.  A lot of the students were wearing hearing aids, and in fact, there was a sign language interpreter in the classroom translating for the students while I read my books and discussed them.  There were also a couple of other ladies in there, and I'm guessing they were also interpreters for the deaf.  I'm not really sure and didn't have time to ask.  We get 5  minutes to get to our next classroom.  I was glad to see that these students' needs were being met.  Coming from a family in which my mother was hearing-impaired, I'm happy to see these students have some resources available to them to help them learn.  I'm sure in my mother's day, and even mine, there was no such thing as this kind of assistance.

All in all it was a great, fast-paced day.  I look forward to going to Career Day next year if I'm available to do so.  I really hope I am because it is so  much fun, and the administrators that coordinate the event do a great job of making it run smoothly and make us community leaders as they call us feel very welcome and appreciated.

Lastly, I mostly read The Kitty with the Itty-Bitty Tail to the classes since I like the message it conveys to the students, and in today's society, I believe they need to start learning about bullying and feeling special about themselves at an early age.  We can't wait till middle school or high school to address this issue.  Too many lives are being lost because of it.  Anyway, for the Kindergarten class and the 3rd grade class (because they asked me to) I read Nana's Banana.  I guess I'm going through menopause or about to be because both times, I kid you not, I almost started crying at the end each time!  I could hear my voice cracking, and my eyes starting tearing up.  I just kept thinking, "Focus!  Don't cry in front of these kids!  You don't want them going home and telling their parents that the author lady cried"  LOL!  I recovered pretty quickly, but oh my!  Talk about being in the moment and dealing with the feels...