May 11th- Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

May 11, 2017 Year 6 Day 11

FREE PRETZEL #11

Day 11 continued to bring sunshine and cool weather and it was a good day to work on our diction.  I got the FREE PRETZEL in the morning, but was not able to find Sue Pettijohn until later in the day.   Sue is one of our speech therapists at Johnson and has worked with a number of my students over the past three years, including two this year.

Sue really enjoyed her pretzel

Sue has been a speech language pathologist for 30 years, 24 of those years in a private practice and the last 6 years here at Johnson.  She reminded me that as part of her training as a speech pathologist, she is a certified swallowing expert.  Just part of the job I guess.

Sue has been a breath of fresh air here at Johnson.  She's a fellow golfer, although she needs to get back out there and keep working on her game and can do a little bit of everything at when called upon.  Today she actually stepped in for a 4th grade teacher, teaching the class about poetry.  She told me she had never taught a full 4th grade lesson before.  She said she loved it and it was really interesting to see the 4th graders responding to the different types of poetry and how creative they were.   Sue has a great way with her students.  She leads lunchtime activities with 5th graders from all three classes, called Lunch Bunch and just has a great way with children.  I cannot say enough about her. 

Sue has been calling me All-Pro since I won the Eagles All-Pro educator award this past fall.  It's a pretty funny running joke that I find amusing and now easily respond to.  Sue is a great person to talk to about any subject as she does not pull any punches telling you what she thinks.  She's honest, loyal and gives it to your straight.  She takes my jokes and my comebacks well too. She told me she was happy to get the FREE PRETZEL today and that even though she cheated on her diet yesterday, she was definitely going to cheat again today and with that she started eating.  Thanks for all you do Sue and I'll keep trying to be the All-pro educator you want me to be. 

Until tomorrow...