Where did the day go?

Tuesday, November 10th
Well, today started off in a mundane fashion with the exception of knowing that I had a teacher meeting today involving one of my higher profile cases. I cleaned out some old testing materials from a cabinet. It is amazing what can accumulate when you have to make sure things need to be shredded or destroyed. It seems easier just to keep it.

Following that, I finished an IEP and put it in the mail. Then went back and forth between working on the psychological assessment and setting up a schedule for the 7th graders that I was assigned for counseling. Because of the frequency, I need to meet them in groups. In general, I really don't like group counseling. It is just something that I don't enjoy. But this isn't about my enjoyment, so I started trying to figure out what to do for an icebreaker. I decided to use a game that I had actually gotten for staff lunch time as a sort of team building activity (this idea is a hold over from my previous career). The game is called Rorschach. Its a fun little game and you can immediately see the psychological allure of the game. It requires you to be able to guess what over people will respond as well as trying to be unique.

Follow that it was lunch and then the day got interesting. This is where I'm going to speak in generalities because I don't feel comfortable and want to err on the side of caution. I had to contact a parent about their child attending an after school activity and the district's need to have staff present at the activity. The parent did not want staff present at the activity beyond who is supposed to be there/required to be there.

Without going into detail (again), I'll just say that there are a lot of factors that come into play when deciding services for a student. And those factors can be at odds with each other. When does the physical safety of the child and district liability outweigh the student's need for independence and to not feel stigmatized? I don't know the answer but I have a feeling I'm going to find out. I just wonder if I'll find out through normal methods or due process or mediation.

The day ended with my teacher meeting. The district has purchased a software program called Classroom Suite (sorry, no link, I'm not sure whether I personally endorse this product) to help modify assignment and present class material in different ways. The software had a much steeper learning curve than initially thought so we have bought the services of an AT special to make assignments for teachers using the software. But in order to do this, the teachers have to be able to tell the AT specialist what is coming up next in the curriculum to get the stuff ahead of time. So we had a meeting to try to figure out where we, as a team, are headed with educating this student. This encompasses more than just classwork because it is also about trying to figure out how to get the parents over a hump in preparing for their child's future. Again, this is not an easy task.

Well, tomorrow is another day. I have a feeling I may be using the phrase: "You'll need to speak with my supervisor."