Back to School: Aides

Looked up "Aide" in Google

Part one of the Back to School series, which will now include more posts, because more ideas!

Going through school, I needed a fair bit of assistance. Most of that assistance came in the form of an aide.

Starting all the way back in Grade Primary, I had a full-time, one-on-one aide help me out through the school day. When I was little and couldn't do as much on my own, my aide did a lot, like helping me on and off the bus, do school work, and even assisted with walking. As I got older, the help became way less physical.

I had many aides throughout my schooling. My family still gets Christmas cards from my first. The aide I had the longest was from Grades Three to Seven. This woman went from literally holding my hand to walk when she started working with me to smirking after I'd have lunch with a girl in junior high.

In the eighth grade, my parents and I decide to go with a male aide because of things like gym class and other issues where having a woman with me would have been uncomfortable. Someone who was less of a "Mom" figure.

In high school, help from my aide came mostly in the forms of carrying books and scribing for me, since I tended to hold my breath after writing for long periods.

On the first day of my last year of high school, Grade 12, I ran into some issues. Just mere moments after getting to my locker, my aide told me that the school wanted him to assist full-time with a resource room, which meant I would be on my own. Not wanting this, I spoke with the school's senior guidance counselor about my situation.

One of the perks of being a disabled student was that over the summer, I was given an opportunity to organize my classes for the year, within reason, to avoid stress and over-excursion. I worked it out to each semester consisting of two heavier, more academic classes, a lighter class, and a free period. Going with this, I was able to work it out so that my aide was with me for the two academic classes, and would help me with extra things like exams or going on college/university tours later in the year. I would be on my own for the free period and other classes. By the middle of first period, the issue was fixed!

College was different when it came to personal help. I experimented with using a note-taker, and made use of assistance with exams when I had them but, ultimately, technology proved to be more useful and I was able to do much more on my own.

Cheers