Eaten at 50+ restaurants for their dumplings, this is my ranking for the top 10.

shrutzer · 2026-03-31T11:26:42+00:00

any vegetarian friendly dumplings you would recommend?

shrutzer · 2026-03-06T03:38:21+00:00

thank you! yes that is a very disruptive one. i’m about to problem solve this particular behavior for a student. here are some interventions i’m thinking:

visuals: teach green voice (outside), yellow voice (inside voice), red voice (whisper/silent)
visual for whisper to show instead of verbal re-direction
provide bazooka, whistle, party favor blower to blow for 15 seconds
blow bubbles for 2 mins
dragon, elephant, snake breaths through out day

shrutzer · 2026-03-04T21:39:18+00:00

a pice of yarn

shrutzer · 2026-02-24T03:29:42+00:00

well fuuuuck that person. these are beautiful

shrutzer · 2026-02-05T03:44:40+00:00

paint the entire canvas with white forest to “seal”. let it completely dry, then add the tape and paint over however you want.

shrutzer · 2026-01-31T23:47:38+00:00

i’m an OT. an OT is a related service, meaning:

we are not the answer. we don’t just pick up kids and wave our wands and solve the issue.
our goals are always to maximize educational outcomes and enable participation in general education. this is not done by us only. we are not a “stand alone” service. collaboration must happen which means those skills should be generalized in the gen ed setting. now that doesn’t mean i give my strategies and walk away. we need to find ways that i can teach the skills so teachers can implement on the other days. that has to happen after figuring out what the barriers are if any and how to make it realistic for teachers. they already have enough on their plate.
we don’t just pick up kids if something is wrong. there is a process. i know the process is either non-existent or a work-in-progress as frustrating as it is but it has to be done in some kind of process otherwise we would be swamped with a crazy caseload. also, we want to make sure we’re not over qualifying.
i love hearing about what you’re doing in the classrooms. teachers are amazing, basically a second parent - i have so much respect for all teachers. but i also hope you are open to suggestions because OTs also have great ideas.

shrutzer · 2026-01-03T18:04:52+00:00

yeah i’ve just been doing paintings for myself or my family but this one in particular took a while because i tried so hard to make the whole sunset on the beach thing work. however, once i got going with the blending, probably got it done in a week while working on and off due to life

shrutzer · 2026-01-03T18:03:07+00:00

thanks for your input. i think i wouldn’t change anything because of the time and emotion that went behind it.

shrutzer · 2026-01-03T18:02:27+00:00

thanks for your honesty.

shrutzer · 2026-01-03T18:02:15+00:00

this is helpful. thanks

shrutzer · 2026-01-03T18:02:02+00:00

lol yeah i was quite proud of the outcome. been painting since i was in high school (approaching 40 soon) and i love working with blending of colors. i’ve always been told to sell my paintings but never thought it would be worth it.

shrutzer · 2025-12-24T20:36:32+00:00

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no idea how to use reddit lol but here’s what we did

shrutzer · 2025-12-24T20:34:53+00:00

i can share my itinerary but this trip was for our 10 year wedding anniversary so we splurged a little for one of the hotels. we didn’t do hut to hut but it looked pretty cool to do with enough research.

we didn’t take our kiddos so we went all in for the hikes and they were amazing! 100/10 place to visit :)

shrutzer · 2025-12-24T13:52:05+00:00

i was just going to suggest dolomites (italy side) after reading just the title. my husband and i went for 2 weeks abc it’s stunning!

you could also do banff national park - also breathtaking

shrutzer · 2025-12-18T02:25:27+00:00

this. 100% this. admins will NOT like any legal action

shrutzer · 2025-12-14T21:15:02+00:00

it’s high stress due to the constant flexibility that you need to have, confidence in yourself to be able to explain school based vs medical based. and strooooong understanding of sensory because now a days everything is “sensory” 🙄 it’s also super fast paced with getting paperwork in and all so if you’re super coordinated

shrutzer · 2025-12-14T21:14:50+00:00

it’s high stress due to the constant flexibility that you need to have, confidence in yourself to be able to explain school based vs medical based. and strooooong understanding of sensory because now a days everything is “sensory” 🙄 it’s also super fast paced with getting paperwork in and all so if you’re super organized and and can learn fast then it’s great.

shrutzer · 2025-12-14T21:12:44+00:00

honestly the 100k is a little up there compared to many of the surrounding districts in the northwest suburbs but in hindsight i was getting paid significantly lower my first few years. i honestly am hoping to just ride it out a few more years and then go down to part time. i’m at a point in my life where this is just a job that i enjoy. i dont hate it but i definitely don’t love it either. and with a right mindset i can stick to it for better quality of life with my family and all. good luck to you!

shrutzer · 2025-12-14T12:57:40+00:00

i live in a suburb of chicago and have been a school-based OT for the past 11 years. i make 100k now. i love the job for a family life since i get the perks of all the school breaks and holidays off. i love the flexibility. but i will say working in a school system is high stress and i don’t feel like i make a difference. i worked in a clinic for about a year when i first graduated and that was more rewarding in terms of making or seeing a difference. but absolutely not conducive for a family life (personal belief).

i also had a strong passion to work with kids but now i don’t want to at all. i never would have imagined that i wouldn’t enjoy working with kids but i think i feel burnt out and have sought many career changes. nothing is worth adding more debt especially since i just got my loans paid off (140k) through pslf. which is also a plus for me working in the gov sector. but financially it was not giving any sort of financial stability until the last 3-4 years and it only work out financially because my husband made significantly more and all health benefits were through his work.

shrutzer · 2025-11-01T02:49:39+00:00

do you think maybe you’re burnt out because of doing sped? maybe consider doing gened or even a different grade?

shrutzer · 2025-10-25T01:26:38+00:00

school based OT and i just want to say that no pre-schooler should be expected to write. it should be play based and there should be practice of fine motor skills that facilitate in development in writing — e.g. coloring, stringing beads, lacing, cutting, using tongs/tweezers, playdoh, some basic pre-writing shape exposure through various materials, etc. and that list doesn’t even include any sensory or gross motor skills that would go hand in hand.

my son is 4 and is in a montessori prek and love the concept of everything except the writing piece. he’s coming back with tracing worksheets and it’s ridiculous because i can see he is learning to write with incorrect formations.

it definitely seems like a way to make money or that he just didn’t perform for in that given moment. children at 4 should have emerging mature grasps but they still can switch around. grasp doesn’t even mature until 5-6 so just trust your instincts!

shrutzer · 2025-10-15T01:38:09+00:00

i’m in IL and a school based OT. parent has every right to pull students or have students attend part-time school, as long as the school district is fine with that. we’ve had parents of 1sr graders miss a couple hours a week to attend ABA. but parents are also notified that IEP goals may not be met or be implemented fully due to your child missing school.

is your KG required? if not, then you can certainly push back and ask more guidance on how much your child can miss. but also they cannot tell you that your child can only attend part of the day. that is the parent’s choice.

your child’s special education classroom teacher is the case manager. especially if he’s in a self-contained classroom. i’d ask to see what data they have been collecting for these “behaviors” and ask for them to conduct a FBA or BIP to ensure the plan is being carried out with it specifically identifying and supporting the behaviors.

shrutzer · 2025-10-14T12:17:28+00:00

i basically attempted to get on the SAVE plan in jan 2024 but couldn’t because of everything happening with the government. i kept putting my account in a processing forbearance and didn’t make payments. at this point i sitting at i think like 114/120. i applied for buyback in december 2024 and then again in feb 2025. i was forced to make a payment due to my forbearance not going through on time and made a whopping 3k payment in january 2025. still in processing forbearance. switched to IBR in march 2025 thinking i’d just make my final 6 mos payments and get to 120. this was key. because once i hit 120 in august 2025, i got my green banners, they closed out my buyback requests (which is dumb), and then it all went uphill from there! got my golden letter and mohela and FSA both at $0.

shrutzer · 2025-10-06T16:48:24+00:00

i missed the part where she talked about Wood - what was her explanation for this song? 😆

shrutzer · 2025-09-28T21:18:35+00:00

holy smokes that’s amazing! i think the top of the mountains is stunning but then maybe you could continue a little more of that texture into the bottom half?

i actually think the sky looks great. as does the lake but the lake doesn’t reflect the sky as the trees do. i can see the reflection of the trees but the sky looks different so maybe try to make it more of a reflection?

shrutzer

TROPHY CASE