To all my classmates that have helped me through my journey. As we all go to our different directions to finish up our degree we may not talk to each other anymore. If you would like to stay in contact you may email me at cheryl.labonville@waldenu.edu. Good luck in the rest of your journey. 

Everyone has been part of a group at one point in their life. With every group there are multiple stages. The last stage is the adjourning stage. This is the stage where the group is leaving/dismissing. This can sometime be the hardest stage in a group. 

One of the hardest groups to leave that I was apart of was my high school band my sophomore year. Though I continued to be part of the group through out my whole high school career my sophomore year was the hardest year to leave for the summer. My sophomore year we were such a big family. We achieved so much by doing great at competitions, to helping a terminally ill classmate, to having the honor of representing the State of Michigan at the World War II memorial opening in Washington D.C. We also were invited to play at many other national events and also we were also invited to play in Ireland at their St. Patrick's Day Parade. Because of money we only were able to choose one and we decided to play in D.C. It was also hard to leave this group for the summer because our teacher was retiring. We were all very close and it was hard to say goodbye to her and all the seniors who were not coming back. To say goodbye we had a awards ceremony/good bye party. One last time to spend time together. It was hard at the end but we still stay in contact with each other. Especially when our classmate that was terminally ill past away the following December. We got back together and held each other through this hard time. We still stay in contact through Facebook till this day but we are not as close as we were. 

To be honest since this my program is all online I have not really gotten close to my classmates. I look forward to reading their post and see who will follow me into my advocacy program.

One conflict that I recently had was with the speech therapist that provides services to one of my students. I had bought it to her attention that I was worried about the child having Autism. She has the child's older brother and tells me that it is the mom that just wants more money for her children. When talking to my supervisor she said if I do not have the support of her I would not get anywhere. So with much regret I had to just work with the child on my own with what knowledge I had. At the last conference that I had with the parent, without me saying anything, she had a concern with her son. She has known someone with Autism and she sees many similarities. So I decided to talk to my supervisor and disabilities coordinator one more time. They said mom has to bring the concern to the speech therapist. If the speech therapist does not do anything then we will go from there. That is where we are standing on this conflict. Just by the comments that the speech therapist has made I do not think we will get very far with out a fight. We are hoping that we are able to get it figured out by the end of the year so the child does not fall behind in kindergarten. The conflict has still not be resolved but I will still stand strong on my opinion that this child needs help. I know you are suppose to compromise when their is a conflict but in my opinion I have to advocate for this child to succeed.

My co-teachers are being very supportive. They all think that something needs to be done. They are not sure what it is but they have stated that their are times that his response are not like a typical five year old.