Well since my last post was two days before the snow storm that turned a four day weekend into a three day weekend. So let me play some catch up.
Tuesday, February 9th
I get into work and start doing some prep stuff for the day. 9:30am rolls around and off I go to Piscataway Regional Day School which is an out of district placement that is part of the Middlesex County Educational Services Commission. I have a student interviewing there for a placement. The interview goes exceedingly well and I find out that my student is almost guaranteed a spot at the school. By the time the interview is done, its lunch. Since I'm in the area, I use my lunch hour to stop by my old job and visit my former coworkers. It was nice to see them again and we talk shop for a bit after the personal catching up. I also get to meet my replacement which turns out to have been a classmate of one of my current coworkers. It was funny to meet my replacement. She made the comment that she had moved the furniture around in "my office" to which I replied "its your office now."
After that, I race back to homebase and rush over to the high school for an eligibility conference. I go over my psychological evaluation and stay until the meeting is done. I then head back to my office, thinking to myself "how are we supposed to get all this snow when it is such a nice, sunny day." Once I'm back at my office, I have enough time to gather some stuff together and then it is off to a meeting at one of the elementary schools. One of my coworkers who is a bit new at the school district thing gets thrown a bit by some questions. I attempt to help out and answer the questions as best I can. I end up having to leave that meeting before it is over because of a middle school/high school special education teachers meeting that involves some training on our IEP software. I attend the meeting and assist with some technology issues, helping teachers log on and such. I also learn that school has already been closed for Wednesday in anticipation of the snow. Follow the training, it is quittin' time and I try to beat the snow home.
The Great Snow
The snow comes and closes school on Wednesday and Thursday. We already have Friday and Monday off dues to Presidents' Day. The plus side is the extra days off. The negative side is that I wreck myself with some shoveling and then come down with the worst cold/illness I've have in a year.
Tuesday, February 16th; Wednesday, February 17th
I'm grouping these two days together because there really isn't a lot of difference between them. While my fever has passed, I sound awful and can't say more than a few words without coughing. So I restrict myself from actually interacting with students and concentrate on paperwork. I manage to get my first round of March IEP meetings scheduled, the invitations written and mailed. I also get several IEPs finished. I get official word that my student was accepted for Piscataway Regional Day School and do the request for board approval, since the board meeting is on Wednesday.
I get assigned to determine whether a student is a danger to others for something that happened back in July of last year. The student is new in the district and this needs to be done before the administration is going to allow the student into the high school. Sigh.
Thursday, February 18th
I do some paperwork before going to visit another school district to see their life skills program. It is in a much larger district. Their high school has twice the population as my district. The program is interesting and seems really successful. The three of us that went dream what it would be like to have such a program in our district.
Back at homebase, I continue my paperwork blitz after speaking to our transition coordinator about the statements to use in the transition pages of the IEP for one of my students. I also call the parent of the student that I have to assess for danger to others. The father blows up at me because I am the first person to present this information to him. I incorrectly assumed that an administrator would have already informed the family of this requirement. Sigh.
Follow lunch, I spend the rest of the day writing IEPs and head for home.
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