Laura Poth
October 19, 2023
Hello everyone!
Little late on the blog post as we have been so busy here.
I am sad that the count down to home is on, I am not ready to go back home yet. I wish we were staying for a few more months. I have settled in to life here in Brisbane with a steady routine. I have made friends with teacher-aids in my program and we have A great group that goes out for weekly trivia nights. I have gotten to know my students better and formed relationships with them, I had one today tell me she was going to miss me when I leave.
I absolutely love my placement. I have developed very close relationships with my students. It has been a great experience as I get to be very hand-on with the students and their education journeys. I have 5 students under my partner teachers case load that are on the complex needs category. However, I get to interact with all the students in the inclusive program as we have a relief room in which they either come to to decompress or are scheduled to be in to work on school. The students in this program range on such a big spectrum. It is interesting to see the inner workings of how they run the program at this school. There are many inclusive teachers that have categories of students and about 4-7 students on their case load. There are many teacher aids that are around all the time- almost a one to one ratio for the students. There are 3 upper level management leaders as well. The students here are well supported in their days and education. It has been great to see how ICP’s (IPPS but in aus) are made here.
I am excited to sit in on an QCIA meeting this following monday with a student. Here in australia, the students are on ICP’s, once they reach grade 11 they go to a different plan. The plan pulls out 6 life goals from A list of 60. The 6 goals are determined in this meeting. The meeting consists of the teacher, OT, psychologist, speech pathologist (if the student has one), management leaders, parents and the student.
Being in a new climate for school is interesting as well. There is an outdoor swimming pool on campus that we had swimming lessons in the other day… in October… crazy!! As well as the giant 3 foot long snake that was hiding against one of the buildings, the custodian is trained in how to take care of wild life issues such as this.
I will cherish my last week at this school. I have already learned so much and am so excited to learn more!
