Who Are You Calling A Bully?

Today, I had my first IEP meeting with a parent. I had to present results from my evaluation. I prepared my presentation, but the parent didn't show. At first I was relieved, but then I was disappointed because I spent 25 hours writing that report, and I wanted the payoff. Well, I got the chance to do a mock presentation, and I'm glad it wasn't for a real parent because I made a little mistake.

I was giving my interpretation of the behavioral scales and I was mentioning some of the ciritical behaviors that the teacher noticed. I made the statement that the child sometimes bullied other children. The social worker, who was playing the mother, flipped out on me. "Who are you calling a bully? Are you calling my child a bully?" Shit! Now what? I had to stop the presentation and ask what to do. Basically I never call someone a bully, unless the parent has mentioned that before as well. Of course that all makes sense now, but I would have had my ass handed to me if I had said that to the parent. I guess that's why I'm an intern. I still have a lot to learn.

BBC

The Principal's Office

As an intern I'm trying to soak up every single experience. On days when we've had meetings I've attended most of them. Sometimes it does get ridiculous the number of people who show up for the meetings. For some meetings there could be the principal, reg. ed. teacher, spec. ed. teacher, school counselor, school psychologist, social worker, nurse, and mental health interns. That's not including the parent. I can see how the whole experience can be unnerving, especially for those people who are uncomfortable with being in school.

For a parent that spent too much time in the principal's office, coming back to school to discuss their child must be horrifying. I think I will be a little more receptive of this and not attend so many meetings. Besides, I have plenty of things to keep me busy.

BBC

Predator

This is just sickening. From the NY Times. Apparently if you were a young teenage boy in
Bayonne, NJ this woman was probably hunting for you.

BBC

TAG, You're Not It

Our district was putting the squeeze on the elementary schools to get their testing done for gifted students. I volunteered to help my supervisor out, since it would give me more pratice administering an IQ test. I was only giving the verbal subtests, so I knew it wouldn't take me that long.

I forgot that one of the plusses of testing lower than average kids is that they often don't know what they don't know. (That was an overly PC way of saying, "They're to dumb to know they got something wrong.") Sometimes that innocence is truly bliss. The kid I tested started crying at the end of the test. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that he knew he got the last few questions wrong. Well, it didn't take a genius, he answered "I don't know" to most of them. I really felt sorry for him. Who knows what kind of pressure he was feeling or put upon himself to do well. That made me depressed at the end of the day. I don't know if he will qualify, his verbal score was just a little short.

Why is verbal capability the sole factor for determining giftedness? I know about C-H-C theory and g but isn't there more than just verbal skills. The kid seems to be pretty sharp at math, hopefully he will get some enrichment. My supervisor believed that his verbal score would qualify him for at least enrichment. That's good, because he's a great kid and I would hate to see him get lost in the shuffle. He could do whatever he put his mind to.

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Hablas ingles???

So I've been rolling along with my assessment and counseling cases so far. There is this one kid that I haven't met with yet and I realize that it's because I need to speak to the parents first. My supervisor suspects that the parents only speak Spanish, so communicating with them will be hard. My Spanish is really rusty, so I have been reluctant to call them. I really don't want to get caught on the phone sounding like an idiot. I need to take a refresher course in Spanish pronto. It's really silly for me not to. I would be extra attractive as a school psychologist job candidate if I could add Spanish to my repertoire. Tons of school districts need bilingual school psycholoigists, I need to get this done. I know that if I took the time to refresh myself and spent more time speaking with others, I could be a decent Spanish speaker. I won't be translating Cervantes anytime soon, though.

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School Shootings, Should I Be On Alert???

All the recent school shootings sort of have me on edge. I had a meeting with my supervisor today and we sort of glossed over it. I wish we were a little more proactive about what to do if something happens. We have a crisis plan, but I'm not sure what it entails. We don't have metal detectors in my school, and I don't think they are necessary, it is an elementary school. But some of these recent shootings involved outside people coming into the school and holding children hostage. That could happen just about anywhere, but I hope it doesn't happen in my school.

All this coverage makes me wonder about copycats. I wonder if the news coverage gives some disturbed people the idea of shooting up a school. I'm not trying to blame the media, but you do have to wonder.

BBC