Freakin' Kindergarten?!

Tuesday, November 17th
I get into work and immediately receive a call from the guidance counselor for one of my kids. She is making a change in his schedule and the mother wanted to speak with me. I make it over to the high school and meet with the student and the mother. After the official meeting, I speak with the mom about the difficulty that the student faces with finding a motivation to work to his potential (and he has a huge amount of potential) and that he may need to encounter something that he wants bad enough to summon that motivation or he may need a "rock bottom" event to wake him up.

Following that, I return to my office for a bit of putzing...er paperwork, and then go back to the middle school for some counseling. The group is made up of teenage girls and I encounter what I usually encounter with this type of group: the discomfort of having a male counselor. But what's a guy to do? I tell them to give it a try and if it doesn't get any better, I'll see what I can do.

I get back to the office, again, and learn that I am being sought out by the office manager. I start to head her way when my cell rings. I take it off my hip and see that it is the office manager and I stick my head into her office and say, "Are you calling me?" I'm informed that there is a kindergartener that needs a risk assessment. The kid has been threatening to cut off faces and kill people. The director also suggests that I bring one of my social worker co-workers along because she hasn't had a whole lot of formal experience with doing risk assessments. So we head on over and do our assessment. The kid isn't a danger to self or others but is definitely troubled and some other things come up during the assessment. With that completed, I head back to the office and my coworker goes to an IEP meeting.

Once back near my office, I meet with the transition coordinator/assistive technology person to discuss one of my students that she is involved with from an AT standpoint. We talk about a number of technical problems one of which is actually a territory issue that someone could fix in 5 minutes if people weren't so stringent.

After that, I go to a staffing for a student I tested. We review all the test results and come up with a possible plan and needed services. After that, I send several emails regarding my initial referral conference tomorrow. Then it is time to head for home.