schwa happens

Actually, I borrowed that phrase from my colleague next door but it describes my feeble attempts to teach the spelling of schwa this past week.  The directions say that it does not need to be taught at this point unless you are working with an advanced student.  I would say I am working with an advanced student because she asked about it.  I bravely took out the teacher manual and she and I struggled with it together.  It was a learning experience for both of us.  I believe it will continue to be a stumbling block for spelling but at least we gave it a good try.  I am hoping to be more fluent with teaching schwa by the end of this coming week.  We are just about ready to go on to nonsense words but have one or perhaps two more lessons with real words to get through before we move on.  I completed the online training for sub step 3.2 and am not feeling in any great hurry to go there!  That said, I do want to get there prior to my next observation on the 8th.  SO, onward we go!  It's hard to believe, but my student and I have already completed 52 lessons.  She is beginning to wonder about next year.  So am I!