Friday, January 8th

So little snow on the ground yet it seems to cause so many problems. I'm late to work because two of the major routes out of my town are jammed with traffic or completely closed off by the police for some unknown reason (At the end of the day, I learn that a transformer had blown on the latter which is what led to all the traffic on the former). The problem with being late to work is that I had an annual review meeting scheduled for 8am. I get to work at 8:05 and get over to the high school by 8:10. The family and students are there. I go to the conference room where we are meeting and find all the teachers there. I was expecting 2 maybe three but not all the teachers. I feel really bad for being late to my own damn meeting.

The meeting is a bit of a tough one. It remains cordial through out but the constant theme is that the student is capable but needs to put in more effort...or in some cases, some effort. The student is classified due to emotional issues, although complying with class expectations is the largest issue. Each teacher has their say and there is a lot of discussion about accommodations, modifications, and behavioral interventions. The problem is that you can implement anything you want but it all comes down to whether the student is going to put any effort forward. Every time something is brought up and presented, the student talks about why it wouldn't work for him. It becomes so...frustrating?...that I address this by pointing out this continued response from him (and this is also another common theme for this student: being argumentative or contrary). I add that I would appreciate that the student provide some constructive criticism or if the student is engaging in this nay-saying because they doesn't want to follow through with any of the suggestions that the student would just say they don't want to do it so that we don't waste our time continually throwing out ideas. As expected, the student denies that the latter is the reason they keeps nay-saying but the student pauses and stumbles out some words just a little too much before getting their response out which indicates to me that I hit the nail on the head.

The meeting comes to an end with only a few things decided thanks to the student's nay-saying. It is very difficult to implement any sort of plan in the case of students with this sort of problem because so much hinges on the buy in from the student. And when you have a student who isn't willing to compromise, or put in the work, or doesn't allow anything outside themselves to motivate them or give any sort of indication of anything that does motivate them (if they are even introspective enough to be aware of such a thing) there isn't much you can do.

Following this meeting, which ends up lasting 2 and a half hours, I go back to the office after speaking to a guidance counselor about the student whose parents I met with on Wednesday. It turns out that even if this student enters the school, they won't get credit because they have been out of school for almost half the year. When the guidance counselor spoke to the mother, she was angry about this, obviously. But it isn't a decision that the guidance counselor can make and, since it isn't a special education issue, it isn't an issue that I can effect. The main problem is that the student had attended school in our district last year but there was an ongoing residency investigation. During the summer, the courts had decided that the family did not live in the district and told them that their child could not attend school in the district. Since then, the family had made repeated attempts to register the student in the district again but did not provide the proper documentation (for whatever reason) and did not put their child in school. My opinion on the residency issue doesn't really matter. I do my job once I'm told a student is on my caseload. I do believe that the family didn't live in the district. I base this belief on the fact that every time I sent a letter home to the family at the address they claimed was theirs, I would get it back from the post office with a sticker saying this person does not live at this residence.

I return to the office for the staff meeting that I'm already late for. The meeting actually breaks for lunch about a half hour later. At lunch time, I'm involved in a difficult staff for a student due to conflicting psychological reports. Since it is a bilingual psychological report, it was completed by a consultant for the district. After looking at the information, we decide we need to speak with the consultant and, since she was the one that did both the previous and current psychological evaluation, have her comment on the discrepancy. We try to call her and end up leaving a message.

The afternoon session of the meeting goes on for another hour and we finally break for the day. I try to do a little paperwork before leaving for the day but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I then take another road home.