Take It To The Limit

First thing this morning my principal walks up to me and pulls off my name tag. "Let's see how well people will remember your name now." Then he just walked away. It caught me off guard because I had heard that most interns had to wear nametags well into the school year. After 3 weeks my nametag is gone. That's good, I felt like a visitor wearing that damn thing all the time.

So after I tested my kid's cognitive ability today I decided to go back and test the limits on some of the visual perception tests. With some more structure and no time limit, the kid was able to complete most of the tasks. This was a far cry from yesterday when he was not performing well. So now I have to acknowledge the need for structure in my recommendations. I was glad to see that he was able to do the tasks.

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Testing, testing, 1..2..3...

I was given my first evaluation assignment today. It was good to be working with a real kid. I've been practicing on the neighbors, children of friends, and some of my friends. I've practiced on some locquacious individuals. It was refreshing to work with someone who didn't give wordy answers for a change. When you work with children of superior intelligence, your idea of what's average becomes skewed. Practicing on the children of lawyers and doctors will do that to you. Working with the majority of children in our schools will show you what average really means. These children are, well, average.

I originally thought the kid I was working with had vision problems because when he worked on recreating patterns with blocks, they never matched the example. I was starting to freak out because I had never had someone do that poorly on that task. But as we went along he started to perform better. Whew!!!

When I thought about my first day of testing I realized that I probably didn't take the time to build good rapport. I have to remember that this is all a learning process. I guess the kid needed to warm up to me as well.

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Jerry Springer Mom

Sometimes you meet people and you think "Is this for real?" We had a meeting today with a parent who was concerned about her kid's reading ability and behavior in school. We were able to determine that the kid is actually on target academically. He just needs to gain more confidence.

The mother was going on and on about how the kid's former school never kept her informed. Then she starts talking about how she wasn't really there for the kid the first few years of his life. She told us that she was a recovering addict. She told us that she also did some illegal things in the house when she was an addict. I assumed she meant prostitution. I guess the meeting was like therapy for her because she just kept opening up to us. I remember thinking, "Please stop talking." She kept saying things like, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this..." Please, don't tell us anything! I kept looking at the kindergarten teacher's face and she kept trying not to cringe. It got to the point where I had to stop looking at other people in the room because I was afraid that I would start laughing.

The feeling I had about the case quickly deteriorated. At first things seemed positive because the child didn't have as many academic issues as we first believed. But after the mother kept spilling things I became wary of the whole situation. 18 year old daughter that returned home, sugar daddy serving as the kid's father, implied prostitution, and the clincher, she had been clean for only 60 days! The whole time she presented herself as being a recovering addict for the past couple of years. Everyone was under the impression that she had been clean for a lot longer. Alarm bells went off. We will have to keep an eye on this kid's home situation.

I Spy

Today was all about observations. I observed several classes to see different teachers' styles. I also observed some of the kids I'll be working with. I observed a special education class where children were working on reading and math. It was good to see the detailed instruction that the children received.

I also spent a lot of time reading files today to prepare for counseling and assessments. The case histories are always really interesting. It's like doing detective work, "Here's the evidence that's been gathered, what do you make of it?" So far I have found a few inconsistencies with one of the files. I like trying to follow the paper trail to see where someone screwed up. I guess it's still fun because I haven't put faces or personalities to these files yet. Once they become real I'm sure I'll feel differently. Until then I'll continue to read files with the Law & Order chime going off in my head. Dong-dong!

BBC

I Want My Mommy!

Today I had to eat lunch with a kid who was distraught because he missed his mommy. Actually I should backtrack, I was sitting an eating lunch when there was an all page for support services to report to the nurse's station. When I arrived the nurse filled me in on this child who was not having a good time at lunch. He was sobbing and telling me that the only thing that would make him feel better was to go home and see his mother. I told him that I would eat lunch with him and the nurse was going to try and call his mother.

We found an office where we could eat and he started to calm down a little bit. I finally convinced him to take out his lunch. Did you know they finally changed Capri Sun packages, now the little straw hole is made of a thinner material. Do you remember trying to poke your straw through the old packages and having the straw tear a gash into the package? Was it only me? I swore off of them after it happened a couple of times. I don't like wearing Capri Sun. Sorry for the tangent.

As we talked I realized that this kid had a really good point. He wanted to see his mom because when he went home from school she was only there for a short time before she left for work. She returned from work after his bedtime. He hardly got to see her. I would be throwing a tantrum too. There are many parents that are working 2nd and 3rd jobs just to make ends meet. Kids like the one I dealt with don't see their parents either. Why isn't this addressed? This must have larger implications on education.

BBC

Consoler of Small Children

I think that's what my cards should say, "Consoler of Small Children." It seems like that's what some people think is my job so far. In some ways I don't mind because it gives me some practice with working with small children. But I wonder how many of these teachers actually try to resolve the situation themselves? At what point am I called in?

I received my counseling and assessment cases. Those should be good. Now I just hope parents are willing to have their children work with an intern.

I Froze

Today I froze when I could have handled a situation. I wasn't ready to dive right into a situation until I was acclimated to the school. Well, a teacher ran into the teacher's lounge when I was having lunch and asked for support services. Then she pointed at me and said, "You!?" And I looked at her and shook my head no." I probably had a look of sheer terror on my face. I really didn't know what kind of crisis was happening and I didn't want to get involved in something crazy just yet. In the end it was a crying child. I'm starting to sense a trend here.

For the majority of the day we looked at the special ed modifications that students required in the classroom. We discussed these with the teachers. Most of them seemed receptive to the information. There were a couple that didn't take it seriously. I was glad to see my supervisor remind them that the IEP was a legal document to be taken seriously. I was able to get the inside scoop on teachers that were likely to cause problems by not adhering to the modifications that were suggested. We shall see.

BBC

Words

On my second day, I walked around the school and spent some time observing classes. I sat in on an interesting lesson in one of te first grade classes. For homework the students had to find words that they knew and bring them to class the next day. Most of the words that the children knew were brand names like Disney and Coca-Cola. Some of the children brought in cereal boxes, and this showed how much they identified cartoon characters with food products, e.g. Fred Flintstone and Fruity Pebbles. The lesson was a very interesting way to show children how much they know about words. I could see it being useful for encouraging children who have reading difficulties. Although, it is scary how effective marketing can be to children. Here's an article about the increase in demands on first graders.

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First Day

So I started. I'm in an elementary school and I was encouraged by the fact that many of the children were new to the school. Kindergarteners crying and transfers from other schools, towns, states and countries; we were all new today. Misery loves company.

First thing in the morning we had a child that was having a meltdown outside the school. He was afraid to start 1st grade. I watched the school psychologist console him. Correction: I watched the school psychologist console him from far away. I was supposed to be shadowing her, but I wasn't sure how close I needed to be to her at all times. I saw her talk to the parent for a few minutes and before I knew it, the car sped off and my supervisor was left alone on the sidewalk with the child. I made my way over, but I was little scared and excited. At first I was thinking, "Yes, a little excitement in the morning!" But then I realized that I didn't really know what to do. I watched my supervisor do her thing and I was impressed. It took a good amount of time, but she convinced a scared 6 year old to put on his socks and shoes (yeah, he arrived barefoot) and go to class. Actually she put his socks and shoes on for him and carried him into the building. But we were able to convince him to go into the classroom. By the end of the day he seemed fine. I guess that was one victory. Maybe I should keep count, I may need to remember all the little victories.

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