NASP Convention - Boston Day 2

My second day at NASP wasn't as successful as my first. I woke up too late to make it to the one mini-skills workshop that I wanted to go to. The problem of lack of handouts continued into the second day. There were a few sessions that I wanted to attend, but I was spent by 3:00. There is only so much you take in after a while. All in all, I enjoyed myself. It's always good to get out of the building and do something for yourself. One thing that was new to me was the forms that I used to document my professional development hours. It was a good way to track what I did. The bonus of attending is that I now have a few more strategies to use and a few more ideas about improving how I do my job.

BBC

Live from the NASP Convention in Boston - Day 1

I'm reporting live from the NASP Convention in Boston. Despite everyone's grumblings about having to travel to New England in February for a convention, the weather hasn't been that bad. It isn't snowing, so that's always a plus.

My initial impression of the convention is that the association has done a poor job of gauging how popular some of the free workshops would be vs. the ones that are real duds. I've either attended or tried to attend 3 very popular free workshops and they have all been standing room only. Meanwhile I attended one session that had a ballroom and it was a 1/4 full. What gives, NASP?

I attended a session run by Cecil Reynolds, professor from Texas A & M, and frequent NASP listserv contributor. He's really nice and personable in person, too bad he comes off as a prick online. That's my assessment so far. More later.

BBC

Interpersonal Relationships

My principal has this ongoing joke that I should go back to school and get my doctorate, and my dissertation should be a study on the interpersonal relationships of teachers within my school. She always mentions this when she has a story for me about warring teachers and their juvenile antics. Today I was passing by her office and she called me in. She waved a letter at me and told me that she had more data for my doctorate. She handed me the paper and I tried to read it, but it didn't make sense. A teacher had written a note asking my principal to intervene with a conflict she was having with a fellow teacher. They were bickering about wall decorations and use of a personal refrigerator. It was ridiculous because they are supposed to be adults and should have been able to handle this on their own, but they wanted "mom" to intervene. She forced them to work it out amongst themselves during planning, but she informed them that she would be present during their planning time.

I had a more pressing issue that required my attention, so I sought her advice while I was there. I was approached by one of the special ed teachers who was concerned about one of her students. She told me that this particular student didn't feel welcome in his homeroom class. He's has a learning disability and really struggles with reading. The special ed teacher told me that the student often showed up at her door during off hours because his teacher sent him out of the room. It sounds like there was no inclusion in the classroom. He's starting to feel ostracized and unwanted, and we aren't sure if the teacher is doing this consciously. So the special ed teacher wanted to talk to the homeroom teacher but she wanted to a) use the right words so that she could convey a convincing message and b) do it when she wasn't so emotional about it. I commended her on recognizing how emotional she could be if she approached the teacher now. Other than that, I was kind of clueless about what advice to give to the teacher. My principal gave me some pointers. The teacher should focus on saying how she was uncomfortable with what was happening and that she wanted to know how she could help the teacher. If the teacher focused on her discomfort, then the focus wouldn't be on the actions of the other teacher. It made sense, and luckily it was exactly what the special ed teacher wanted to hear. In the end, I felt like I was able to help in some way. I'll see what happens once she actually approaches the homeroom teacher.

RTI Can't Come Soon Enough

I have this feeling that I will be signing a record number of kids for testing this spring. There are a number of students who have been retained and aren't making academic progress (Big surprise! When you have a kid repeat a grade but don't change anything, what do you expect? What's that saying about doing the same thing and expecting different results?) Well, now there are few kids that are basically in a holding pattern and we need to land these planes before they come crashing to the ground. Unfortunately, I feel like air traffic control and once I have these planes landed, each one is waiting for a gate to open and I have no gates available. Today I felt like I had to land one of those planes prematurely. There was a first grader that was recommended for retention last year who has made no progress in his academics. There was some inconsistency with attendance in kindergarten, which I forgot about at the meeting. It could be argued that there has been a lack of instruction. He should be receiving kindergarten instruction, yet he was getting first grade instruction. We met with the parents today and I wanted to give them some possible options on how to move forward. I hoped that there would be other interventions that we could use, but there weren't any viable options to present. The literacy specialist was absent and I wasn't sure about her availability to implement an intervention. It was hard to offer choices when I wasn't sure what the choices were. In the end the kid will be evaluated, and I'm not sure what he will qualify for. I just wish there was a clear procedure of how to address the needs of students before moving towards special education. That's where RTI will hopefully be effective. The 3-tiered approach to interventions will be welcomed. My state is supposed to start using RTI next fall, but with the economic crisis, I'm not sure if the state education budget will be able to fund this initiative. Something has to happen soon. I don't like dealing with such a nebulous matter.