My kids vs. the rest of them

The past couple days I have visited and observed a school that teaches the same curriculum as the school I work at, but this school in Seattle is for typical kids who are just behind in school and need to catch up academically. Well, today I spent about 3 hours or so in an elementary classroom with typical kids (roughly 6-8 year old kids, so about the same age that I teach), but I left there thinking how much I LOVE autistic children :) There were no funny stories to bring away from the classroom ~ no kids throwing desks and chairs, none trying to secretly use legos and pencils as elevators because it gives them great joy, no one told me there was colorful cat hair in their sandwich, and no one was jumping up and down flapping their arms because they were so excited that they reached a goal. What a boring classroom! I chuckled to myself how much the teacher actually looked like a teacher - wearing a cute skirt and blouse with dress shoes and her hair neatly done. If I ever wore dress shoes to teach, I would break an ankle the first morning trying to catch one of my kids from running out of the room, or if I wore a skirt, it would be over my head within minutes of the day starting! One of my favorite days teaching is still when a student walked into my class after being absent and very seriously told me he had missed the past few days because he was sick with autism. It's good to be in a classroom with typical kids because it quickly reinforces my preference of being with a-typical kids! :)