Back from Break

The weekend was at once too long and too short.  I returned to work with a plan to keep up with my counseling and evaluations.  I checked my calendar for the day and saw that I didn't have anything scheduled...or thought that was the case.  So I went over to the middle school to complete my second classroom observation before heading to my school for counseling.

During the observation, my phone went off.  It wasn't a call, and it was on vibrate, and I saw that I had a meeting to attend in 5 minutes...at another school...crap.  So I ran back to my office and got what I needed for the meeting.  I keep all my appointments on my cell phone.  It is the only way that I have been able to keep track of appointments.  I really dislike planners that I have to write in.  I like having something that I know will always be with me like my phone.

So after a brisk run and a quick drive over to one of the elementary school, I arrive to the meeting just in time to find out the parent is running late.  Well I needed to burn the calories.  Probably the most exercise I'll get all week.

The meeting went well and I went on to my school.  My counseling went alright with only one student absent.  I spoke with the guidance counselor about some old referrals from last year.  I did some digging to get information for her and I also found a lack of information.  I decided that I needed to return to the office to have access to the actual files.  At that point it was lunch time so I took my leave from the school.

While I was picking up lunch, I stopped at a local comic book store to pick up a card game to play with my students during counseling.  The game that I researched was called Fluxx by Looney Labs.  Its an interesting little game without any of the usual gamer themes (dragons, zombies, etc) that I usually like.  The idea is that it starts out with a basic rule, draw 1 card and play 1 card, and some of the cards modify the rules.  Some cards dictate what the goal of the game is and some cards are actions.  So the rules are all on the cards and learned through play and the rules and goals of the game change during play.

While this isn't a therapeutic game, I could argue that it involves executive function and adaptation.

So after returning to the office, I type up my classroom observation and then look into the students whose names were given to me by the guidance counselor.  I find that two of them were never referred by I&RS and one had seemingly fallen through the cracks during the summer.  I managed to have a brief talk with my director but this requires a longer face to face than time allowed.  So I'll have to address it tomorrow.