Elizabeth Has a Crush

I believe I talked about Elizabeth's* case in one of the first posts, Confidentiality. Elizabeth is a new girl who has a significant history of sexual abuse. Similar to other victims, she has a history of abusing other children as well. We learned this information on the first day of school. One of the measures we took was to limit her exposure to younger children. The one place we had limited control was the school bus. She rides a small special-ed school bus, which creates a more intimate situation. Apparently Elizabeth has developed a crush on a student 2 years younger than her. Unfortunately this student is immature and he isn't aware of her intentions. It all started when I saw the two of them walking off the bus, she had her arm around him. That didn't sit well with me. Later, when I met with the social worker, her intern informed me of some of the things that Elizabeth mentioned to her. Elizabeth told her about having a crush on this particular boy and her desire to kiss him. We knew that something had to be done immediately. The trick is doing something that doesn't raise the alarm of everyone in the school, yet ensures the safety of all children, including Elizabeth. I redid the bus seating arrangement. There is supposed to be a perimeter of empty seats around Elizabeth. I had to move her crush farther away. I often wonder if any of the children, including her, get why we go through all these motions. I wonder if she knows why she has an escort whenever she leaves her classroom. I wonder if she scares herself as much as she sometimes scares us.

BBC

Angela's Twin?

Today was Alejandro's PPT, but that story will have to wait. First, my day started off at a frenzied pace because I had to talk to one of my students who I see for counseling. Her teacher was concerned because Angela* told her about her twin sister dying in a drowning accident. I doubted that the student ever had a twin so I tread carefully when I spoke. I talked to her about what it meant to have a twin sister. I tried to figure out her timeline, because she kept changing it from having a sister that died at birth to having a sister that died when she was old enough to drown. It was frustrating because I felt like I was dealing with someone who possesses a poor sense of reality. I reasoned with her and I talked about the fact that she didn't have any pictures of herself with her twin, which is something that all twins experience. I asked her if she had any pictures of herself when she was a baby. I pointed out that there were no pictures with her twin. I knew that there was a possibility that she may have had a twin that died at birth and maybe she misunderstood a story. Well, she has many misunderstandings of this magnitude. She also talked about finding out that she was adopted. I wasn't sure how true that was. Apparently I forgot that I meant to call her mom after my morning PPT to ask about the source of these interesting stories. Luckily I was reminded when I walked into the teacher's lounge and had a teacher ask me "What's up with Angela? She has a dead twin sister?" Another teacher remarked, "Oh yeah, didn't she say that last year?" Then another chimed in, "I just saw her telling the nurse about it." Now, I talked to her first thing in the morning, and she was still talking about it hours later. I called her mother and she didn't give me the response I was looking for. I wanted some kind of reaction. Mom told me that the stories weren't true. She mentioned that Angela does want siblings, but there was no basis for her ideas about a twin sister or her adoption. Mom was too calm to me for having heard that her daughter was saying crazy and bizarre things throughout school. She was a little too cavalier about her daughter's ramblings. It was like she had heard it all before.

BBC

The Package

For some reason my latest case feels like an episode of "Alias". And I'm not sure if they used the term "the package" on the show, but it has that feel. You await the arrival of something monumental, something that you've discussed, yet have never met. The stories you hear are ominous, yet you need to be prepared and professional, and most of all warm and welcoming. so when it was decided that Alejandro* would indeed attend my school, we had a lot of information to consider and yet we didn't have the privilege of knowing anyone who had actually met the child. This is a kid who only attended school for 4 days last year before he was suspended from school and put on homebound for the rest of the year. They had a PPT at the end of the year to suggest a psychiatric evaluation. it was determined that some of his issues were caused by the fact that he spoke no English and was placed into an all-English classroom. My school district doesn't have any bilingual schools, so he was participating in his former school's English Language Learner's program (all 4 days that he attended). Anyway, based on everything that happened last year, including running away from the school which required the police to come and apprehend him and threatening kindergartners on the playground, my principal was reluctant to have this kid start school in my building. We were trying to determine what would be an appropriate placement. My district decided that it would be in my school with a part-time bilingual aide.

Well, once we realized we would be getting this kid, we had to make sure everything was ready. But we didn't know what to expect. The kid was receiving therapy over the summer, so we could possibly see a transformed child, or the same angry threatening child that the other school saw last April. We spent so much time planning and fretting over this, that it was actually an odd relief once he arrived.

Alejandro arrived in the morning with his mother. Both of them spoke only a few English words. My Spanish is really rusty, having studied it in college over a decade ago. I struggled to communicate some basic ideas, but I think that the mother appreciated my struggle in Spanish. I'd like to think that she knew I empathized with her struggles in English. I talked to Alejandro a little bit. By talk, I mean that I asked him questions that I could remember from exercises in Spanish. Te gusta deportes? I gave myself a vocabulary refresher by pointing and labeling objects in the room to his approval. It was interesting, because there were a few words that he didn't know and his mother had to correct him. Alejandro's aide arrived and they went to class. I was on call for most of the day, which meant that someone had to know where I was at all times. My principal decided that she would hang out in the hallway near Alejandro's class, just in case she needed to intervene. We were on full alert for the day. His first day went without incident. I was glad that he had a good first day. We know that this may be the honeymoon period so we are keeping our fingers crossed and thinking positive thoughts. I must be rubbing off on everyone, because the first thing out of the special ed teacher and the principal's mouths that morning were "I'm going to think positively about this" More converts to positivity.

BBC
*of course Alejandro is not his real name, silly.

TAG, You're Not It (Again)

I swear I'm not recycling blog titles, it's just that the last two were appropriate for the subject. I've come to dislike IQ testing for Talented and Gifted (TAG) eligibility. At first I relished it as an opportunity to give some of the brightest students in my school the chance to receive an enriched educational experience. What has happened is that I've actually made pre-teens cry in my office during IQ tests. I figured out what it is. All of the students that I have tested have been smart enough to know what they don't know. It's one thing to be completely ignorant and think you're acing a test when in fact you're bombing it miserably. It's another to know when you are bombing it. This can affect performance, especially for a student who thinks that he or she is smart and now feels stupid because of what he or she doesn't know. It's difficult seeing the anguish on their faces. I try to be reassuring and tell them that they are doing well, but they're probably thinking, "Bull, I know I suck." I think what's worse for me is that I see how smart they are, but they don't qualify as gifted. That's what sucks. I don't want them to feel like failures, because they are far from it. But who knows what messages they tell themselves when they aren't accepted into the TAG program. I know that teacher recommendations are important, but I'm kidding myself if I think that the program is lenient when it comes to the IQ cutoff score which I believe is 130 in my district. If my district is strict about that number then the 2 students I tested this week aren't getting in.

The Art of the Question II

Today I had two PPTs and they were both successful. One was for a new student who is having some difficulty making the adjustment to our school. Mom requested a PPT immediately and we've had the opportunity to meet and learn more about her son before the meeting, which is always nice. There were things that the mom told me in private about the student's history that I wanted to share in the meeting, but I felt like it was off-limits until she mentioned them. Luckily for me, she opened the door with some choice comments about her family's history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and depression. This admission led to other questions that we all had about the medication the student is currently on and his behavior at home. I felt like a lawyer in a tv drama where there is evidence that is inadmissable but then the defendant makes a statement that allows for a certain line of questioning. I felt on edge because I was afraid that we would end the meeting without discussing some of the bizarre behaviors we had seen, his medication regiment, or our thoughts about further testing. We were so focused on making the meeting a positive and safe experience for mom, who evidently has her own mental issues, that I was afraid we were treading too lightly and would leave the meeting with no substantial knowledge gained. Fortunately, Mom was forthcoming with some of the information, but as someone once told me, for every one thing admitted, there's most likely two or three more alarming things that are omitted. In the meeting she mentioned that her son was "institutionalized" (to use her word) over the summer. When I spoke to her before the beginning of school she told me why this occurred. During the meeting she didn't mention the reason, but she talked about the boy's issues with his absent father. Classically Freudian or Oedipal, take your pick. As the mother was talking I felt myself enter the zone and all of a sudden not only did I know what to ask, but I also knew how to phrase it in a way that would give me what I wanted without making the mother defensive. My clinical interview skills are improving. I felt like I accomplished what I wanted to do. This student will require a lot of brainstorming and program reviewing because I feel that we will have to change our strategies frequently to meet his needs.

BBC

When Background Knowledge Backfires

I was in my office today when a teacher knocked on my door. She has a new student and she was worried about some things that were occurring in the classroom. She mentioned that the child hasn't caught on to the rules yet, that he's needed to go to the bathroom several times in the morning. The other issue, and I suspect the main issue was that the student told another student that he didn't have to listen to her because she's white. This obviously flustered the teacher because she was in my room talking about the student and she didn't know how to handle it. All of this became clear when I learned that the student started school yesterday. He hasn't been exposed to our positive behavior support system long enough to understand it fully. He's still feeling his way around the teacher and figuring out what he can and cannot do. I was surprised to hear her concerns when this kid hasn't been here for 2 full days yet. His racial comments must have struck a nerve. In addition to those issues, there was a history of animosity from the family. His older brother attended the school years ago and developed quite a reputation. Apparently his father threatened a teacher and the police were involved. So now this student is carrying the baggage of his family's actions, which one could argue is warranted, but still, this has cast him in a negative light. Now it seems that his new teacher sees him in that same light. My principal shared the history with the teacher, but I wish that this kid could have had a chance. We'll see if she comes around. The social worker and I told her that she has to make a connection with the student, besides, we don't know his true feelings or intentions. He could have made those comments for shock value. Nonetheless, I think she has to present herself in a manner that debunks his theory on why he doesn't have to listen to her. I envision many teachable moments for the two of them. Let's see what happens.

BBC

9/11

Today was the anniversary of 9/11 and its always interesting to hear the perspective of children who were either in preschool or not even born yet. I talked with 6th graders today and their experience and knowledge of the event varied greatly. I could tell that they really hadn't talked about it and understood the magnitude of what happened until now. It was as if they were finally able to ask certain questions and be able to understand the answers. We discussed why the towers collapsed, why so many people died, and how people responded in heroic ways that day. I was able to share my own 9/11 experience with them. I think it helped to demystify the event, although I know it's still unfathomable to them and to me as well sometimes. I spent a lot of time trying to explain how large the buildings were, but to children who have no concept of size and living in a small suburban town with nothing that comes close to a skyscraper, that's extremely difficult. Saying that they were really, really big just doesn't cut. I was reminded of how children perceive things based on their cognitive development when the primary teachers (3rd grade and below) complained about how the moment of silence was announced. My principal mentioned words like terrorist, attack, and airplanes, and some of the children thought that she was talking about the present. I'll have to discuss with her about choosing her words wisely.

BBC

Obama's Education Plan

This article caught my eye on The New York Times website today. It gives some insight on Obama's experience in reforming education and what he is likely to do as president.

BBC

Investigative Reporter

There are so many new kids in my school this year with significant behavior concerns that I've spent the majority of my time on fact-finding missions. I've been contacting numerous PPT coordinators, school psychologists, directors of special education, and pupil and personnel directors since the first day of school by email, snail mail, fax and phone.

Today I learned that a child that was supposed to have been outplaced in a different district is now coming to my school. I heard that he was a handful from his former school psychologist. He only speaks Spanish and exhibited some disturbing behaviors after being in school for a total of 4 days last year (he enrolled in April). After being suspended twice, his mother requested a PPT and a psychiatric evaluation was recommended. The results came back over the summer and for some reason the higher-ups (my director) thinks that my school would be an appropriate placement. This child is apparently very aggressive; at his last school he bit the social worker.

Today I was on the phone talking to his former school psychologist. As she was giving me detail after detail I felt like I should take a course in shorthand because there was too much information for me to write down. I may need to go to some type of journalistic training to learn how people take notes so quickly. I felt like a reporter because I wanted to get every detail correct so that I can share accurate information with my team members. I will have to schedule a PPT to determine this kid's eligibility and quickly devise a plan for how to address his needs. Just another opportunity to gain valuable experience (that's what I keep telling myself.)

BBC

Hot Mess

This was Friday's story that I never got to write about. There's this kid, let's call him Tony. Well, Tony has ADHD and he has his good days and his bad days. It first started with Tony jumping off the bus and running into the school. That was the beginning of a rough day for him. The social worker, her interns and I set up a system that allows breaks for Tony from the classroom. Around 10 o'clock someone goes to Tony's classroom and gives him a walking break. We just walk around the building for about 10 minutes and then he returns to the classroom. The unfortunate thing about Tony's situation is that A) we never know if he's actually on meds or not. His mother claims that she gives him his pill every morning. Some mornings he's okay, others, like this past Friday, he's the Tasmanian Devil. B) his former teacher contaminated his current teacher by telling her all of the things that Tony doesn't do well, but nothing about what his strengths are. His teacher now has a very negative attitude towards him. It's to the point where I avoid her because I don't want to hear her negative comments.

Friday, Tony was a hot mess. His entire day was a long, drawn-out episode of what happens when a kid with ADHD is bored with school. After getting off the bus, his morning got off to a rocky start. I got a phone call in my office from his teacher telling me that I was needed in the music room. I arrived to find him sitting in his seat following what the teacher said. (This is interesting, because for the past two years whenever I've been called to someone's room I'm usually greeted by a sobbing child who won't leave the classroom and can't tell me what's wrong. So far this year, I've walked into classrooms and couldn't immediately tell what the big emergency was.) Anyway, I called Tony out of the room and asked him if he knew why I was called there. He told me something about classmates laughing at him. We discussed why they may have been laughing and what that had to do with me being called to the room. I didn't get much out of him and I was ready to send him back to the room when he asked if he could use the restroom. I sent him in and told him he had 2 minutes. He has become notorious for spending extraordinary amounts of time in the restroom. While he was in there another student went in there and then left. I knocked and went in. He was washing his hands. He was probably playing around in there, but I was able to retrieve him from there.

Later that day, I saw him twirling in the lunch line. I ignored him because I know that he really can't contain himself. About an hour later I made my way down to the main office to look at someone's permanent record. I passed by the table where children who lose recess have to sit and noticed it was unoccupied but there was paper strewn all over the floor and table. I said, "what's going on here?" The receptionist simply said, "Tony." So then I chatted with my principal, and went looking through the files and then made a couple of phone calls in the conference room. I probably spent 15 to 20 minutes there. As I was about to leave to go back to my office I noticed that the table was still unoccupied. I asked my principal, "Where's Tony?" She thought he was still sitting at the table. The receptionist finally turned around from her chair to see that he was no longer there as well. she just assumed that he was sitting there when I passed through the first time. The principal remembered that he went to the restroom in the nurses office, so she sent me to get him.

When I walked into the nurse's office, she told me that he was still using it because she could hear water running. I shook my head and knocked on the door. It was unlocked and when the nurse opened it we saw that the entire mirror and counter were covered in sudsy water as if he was cleaning the bathroom. Meanwhile, his hands were soapy and his clothing was wet. My immediate thought was, "You're a hot mess." The nurse couldn't believe it, but I did. He has been using the bathroom as an escape from the classroom since school started. Now he found another way to occupy his time in the bathroom. What else could he get into by the end of the day? The principal was not happy and she made him clean up the mess. Friday was definitely not a good day for him.

BBC

School Psychologist vs. Social Worker

I was going to post about something that happened today, but then I remembered something that happened yesterday.

It's one thing to describe what it is that I do exactly in my school, it's another to describe how it's different from what another professional does when the duties tend to overlap. At work, someone asked me what was the difference between a school psychologist and a social worker. I was kind of thrown by that question because a lot of what we do in the building tends to overlap. Everyone knows that when a kid is having a rough time in class it's either me or the social worker that shows up. There are differences: The training is different, I had to go beyond my Master's to get a specialist's degree. Social workers tend to stop at the Master's of Social Work (MSW). My internship existed solely within schools. Social work students complete their internships in schools, hospitals, counseling centers, etc. My training deals more with cognition and behavior and I have more exposure to mental disorders. Social Workers focus more on social aspects of a child's life. They are more experienced in integrating family and school. My social worker is more aware of resources that exist in communities for families than I will ever be. I'm slowly becoming acquainted with the different resources that are available but her knowledge of what is out there is pretty extensive. We both meet with children and provide counseling, her counseling tends to focus more on social skills while my counseling may fall under more cognitive and academic tasks such as changing a child's self-perception, improving their organization skills, and making them more self-aware of their actions in the classroom. Of course, the social worker could work on these skills as well, just as I could work with a child on social skills-those things tend to overlap. Finally I added that I could give IQ tests and I was the only person in the building qualified to do so. That piqued everyone's interest.

Before I knew it I was peppered with requests from the teachers standing around to test their IQs. I told them that I wouldn't do it, and there was nothing they could do to convince me otherwise. I tried to explain how obsessive people can become when it comes to IQ. One teacher was willing to pay me, but I knew that it wasn't worth it. I remember being in my program and trying to find test subjects to practice administering IQ tests. Some people could handle it because they knew that they were just helping me out. Others took it too seriously, even though my methods were flawed back then, making some parts of the test invalid. I also tried to tell them that people can become obsessed with their "weaknesses" and the last thing I want are depressed teachers because they weren't as "smart" as they thought they were. After they kept whining and asking me why I wouldn't do it, one teacher chimed in saying "Jut look at how you're acting now and he hasn't even given you a test yet." That seemed to work for now.

I am thankful for having a knowledgeable social worker, it takes some of the pressure off me from having to know all of the answers. That's a good thing, since I find myself searching for those answers every day.


BBC

Sad Father

Since school started before Labor Day, I couldn't take any of the children's absences seriously, especially those who missed every day of the brand new school year. Those kids could always show up after Labor Day, following their own idea of what truly marks the end of summer vacation. There was one particular girl who hadn't shown up at school and was officially going to receive "No-Show" status. The school receptionist finally contacted a family member and was told that the family moved back to the city.

I was disappointed but I can understand how difficult it was to make that decision. The city's school district was the one that retained the girl twice. The family had enough and in the middle of last school year decided to move into the suburbs to give their daughter a fighting chance. We noticed right away how underdeveloped her skills were. She had some real deficits and after interventions didn't work, we tested her. She became eligible for special education at the end of last year and we designed a program that would have been implemented this year. It was disheartening to put forth the effort only to have to child leave the school, especially since she was returning to her former school district. I suspect that my suburban district was too expensive for the family. I remember near the end of last year having a difficult time trying to contact them. I've learned that disconnected or non-working phone numbers are sign of financial trouble. To their credit, the parents did stay in touch with me during the evaluation process, they were extremely helpful and grateful for the attention and assistance their daughter was finally going to receive. And now they've left. The father came by the school today to see the principal. My principal called me into the conference telling me that she had a "sad father' who wanted to speak to me. As I walked down the hall I was trying to figure out who it could have been and what it was I did to make him sad. When I saw who it was I was relieved. He stopped by to find out what he needed to do to ensure that his daughter's special ed program would follow her to the new school. I explained the procedure and informed him of his rights as a parent. He also expressed how he wished they could have stayed in the district but things didn't work out. That was nice of him. So many people just leave and we never find out why. My district is very transient that way. While someone has left, we have plenty who will take her place. Everything has to balance out-special ed homeostasis.

BBC

Confidentiality

Today we met with teachers to discuss the accommodations page in each child's IEP. This meeting usually isn't a big deal because the teacher has only known the child for a couple of days at this point. We met with the specials teachers (art, music, gym and media) to discuss all of the children who have IEPs. We had to discuss the new child who has a history of sexual abuse. We had to make certain arrangements so that the child would have an escort for whenever she left the room. We had to inform the teachers about this plan, without explaining why. It was hard to emphasize the need for constant supervision without giving any details. I adhere to confidentiality, almost to the point where I don't even share information with team members. I don't participate in hearsay, if someone wants information I tell him or her to consult the file, if he or she has permission to do so.

I am sensitive to this child's needs, but I'm also sensitive to the safety and well-being of the other children. I also don't want to single-out this child, but I'm not sure how to ensure safety without doing so. This will be tough.

BBC

Throw-Away Children

My principal has a term she uses for children that come from terrible homes, suffer from serious neglect, are deeply involved in Children's Services, foster homes, and generally bounce around from place to place - throw-away children. She doesn't mean this in a disparaging way towards them; its more of a reflection to how they are treated by their families and the system. Usually the most consistent, vigilant ones are the school personnel, but often we can't do much because the children are only with us for weeks or months if we are lucky. Then they move away to start over, after we have spent time and energy lining up resources to improve their lives. But they aren't at fault. It's not like a 7 year old can just up and leave. It's usually an agency, or a foster parent, or the biological parent that decides to move away. Sometimes I'm not sure if people realize how much the upheaval really disturbs a child's well-being. There was a student who didn't show up yesterday and we all assumed that he would eventually come to school after Labor Day (there are always those few families that take it upon themselves to extend summer vacation.) Well I got a note in my box informing me that he moved away. This was a kid that we worked so hard to get him what he needed and really planned out who he would have as a teacher. Now he has to start over in another place.

I have new student who's case is absorbing a lot of my mental energy. She's a child with significant history of abuse and her psychiatric report painted a picture that, quite frankly, scared me. What do you do as a school when someone arrives with a significant history of being a victim and perpetrator of sexual abuse? How do you maintain safety in your school, keep all of the necessary personnel informed, without letting that knowledge spread throughout the entire school. How do you protect the welfare of other children, while maintaining one child's confidentiality? This is something I know I will struggle with for the next few weeks. Luckily I am adept at telling people that I have to maintain confidentiality and I have a competent team of support people who are confident in their decision-making skills. This should be an interesting year.

BBC

First Day 2008-2009 - Positivity is the word of the day!

Guess who's back for another school year. After a nice summer vacation that evaporated like drops of water on hot asphalt, I'm back. Today was the first day of school and it marked my first time starting the year as the school psychologist. My former supervisor is now in her new position at the high school full-time and I'm on my own now. I'm happy. This fresh start also features new digs. Not only did I get a new office, but I got new carpet and new paint on the walls. That was cool, although the new carpet was giving me a headache today, and I don't get headaches often so that had to be the reason.

Anyway, the mantra for today and for the rest of the school year is positivity. At first I was starting to feel apprehensive about the upcoming year. I've got a lot of new players to work with in my school. I've got parents requesting PPTs before the school year even started and the pressure of being the only one started to get to me. I started to wonder if I could pull this off. Would I have any ideas or strategies to offer? Would any of them work? Then I realized that I was thinking about this in the wrong manner. I need to look at these possible situations and these new cases as opportunities to gain experience and add strategies and ideas to my repertoire.

For some reason the negative vibes from teachers were really affecting me today. I was told to pay attention to 1st grade today because there are some new children there and some former kindergarteners with behavioral histories. I used to think that the new students had it rough, because we would get all this information about them before they enrolled: the IEP, the reports, the discipline records, and we would have this profile of the kid before we even met him or her. Now I feel sorry for the children who are already in my school and move up a grade the following year, because they don't always get the chance to make a fresh start. This is especially true when they move from one "negative" teacher to another one the following year. There's this kid who's classic ADHD. The kid can't sit still to save his life, and he's on meds. His kindergarten teacher last year had a hard time adjusting her own attitude towards the student. Now she's contaminated the attitude of the student's new teacher. When the first grade teacher walked into the conference room to talk to the support staff, the first words out of mouth were, "I had to talk to him 5 times this morning." She already wants something implemented for him. So much for an adjustment period. I could feel the negative vibes coming from her end of the hallway, but I refuse to be drawn in. I need to maintain a positive outlook, for my sanity's sake.

BBC

Not Changing For Nobody

I'm starting to notice that a lot of kids don't adapt well to various surroundings. They act the same way whether they are in school, at home, around their parents, etc. I remember learning that I had to be different in school and at home; it was a matter of survival. Kids today act exactly the same way (they usually act spoiled and entitled) no matter where they are. It's baffling. Plus, they don't understand how this behavior gets them in trouble. It's always telling when a child doesn't change his or her behavior when the parent shows up at school. Most kids straighten up and have that look in their eye that says, "what the hell are you doing here?" But there are some that are not fazed in the least. These are the ones I deal with on a daily basis.

BBC

Trifecta

Oh, today was one of those days. I was sitting in my office when the secretary got a call from the gym. The gym teacher was calling because she had-not one, not two, but three kids having simultaneous meltdowns. I headed to the gym to get them, but I picked up the social worker as backup along the way. I've never dealt with three kids at once, so there was no way I was going in alone.

Two of the kids responded badly to receiving strikes in class. My school has a positive behavior support that involves a strike system. It's basically a "3 strikes and you're out" system. The kids need to stay strike free in order to win a reward on Friday. Well, it all boils down kids not being able to handle disappointment and setback. They have no resiliency. I have to figure out a way to reach these kids and get them to handle negative situations in a positive way. It has happened time and time again. A kid gets a strike, he doesn't feel that if is fair, and he has a meltdown that includes crying, immobility and a refusal to talk. Now the situation is worse because the immobility usually disrupts something like a class change. So I get called in.

I ended finding out what the issues were. If these kids could handle a setback, then they would have been able to move on and the strike would have been a single incident. Instead these situations ended up turning into a 30 minute ordeal. I think I know what my assignment over the summer is going to be.

BBC

Disappointment

I wasn't sure how to title this one, but "disappointment" seemed the most relevant. I attended a district meeting on Response to Intervention (RTI). My district is moving towards using RTI in the near future and we have been meeting to figure out how we will implement it. There was discussion to use one of the elementary schools to pilot a program so that we could see how effective the various components are. Unfortunately, the conversation turned to the school that was proposed and how much it differed from other schools in the district. The proposed school serves a more affluent population than some of the other schools, including mine. Some of the members of the committee had either worked in my school or were familiar with the mentality of the teachers in my building. They conveyed a message that said that no one else would buy into the plan because the school it was piloted on had a different population than some of the other schools. For some reason, if it works in the affluent school, it won't work in the working-class schools. I don't get this mentality. But hearing these teachers talk about how hard it would be to convince teachers in some of the working-class schools to buy into the program, made me think that there is little optimism in our society-which is disappointing on several levels.

For those not familiar with RTI: It is a system for determining special education eligibility for a learning disability. It's a system, a protocol if you will. You set up how it will run, and you do it. (This is really simplified, and I'm not doing it justice. That's why I linked to another resource. Consult the link to get a better understanding of what I'm glossing over.) As long as the people are in place, and everyone is doing progress monitoring properly, then it should work. I don't get why people are so convinced that things won't work, especially because of where initiatives are implemented. Why should that matter? Maybe I am naive, or am I just hopeful? This mentality is so pervasive in education and I'm realizing how much has to change in order for real change to occur.

BBC

Third Graders??

Yeah, I heard the news story, and there was nothing I could say. It was the topic of choice in the teachers' lounge. The thought of third graders possessing this kind of premeditation, planning and organization skills is astounding. I'm being flippant, but if this all turns out to be true (and some psychiatrists don't think so) it does speak to what kids can do when they put their minds to it.

BBC

Bullying Article

I only work with elementary school-aged children so the level of bullying that I deal with is minimal for now, but this article from the New York Times sickened me. You want to know what happens to a young man that would make him snap? Try being the kid in this article for a couple of hours. It's a wonder that something disastrous hasn't happened yet. Tick, tick, tick, tick.

BBC

The Art of the Question

We had a psychiatrist come in to conduct an evaluation on a child who had severe panic attacks. The child couldn't finish the school day, because he would have these fits and try to leave the building. Well this psychiatrist came and interviewed the relevant staff, the parents, and the child in a matter of a couple of hours. He debriefed the us after he had met with the parents and laid it all for us. It was pretty amazing how he was able to sum it this kid's whole life experience in a matter of 2 hours. I was really impressed. It made me realize how it's all about the questions you ask, and how you ask them. He was able to get the information he needed to develop his hypothesis on what was going on with this kid. He didn't use any fancy instruments, tests, surveys, etc. He asked some questions, then some great follow-up questions and was able to formulate a theory. It really opened my eyes to the effectiveness of the clinical interview. I guess that the main difference is that because he has an MD at the end of his name, people take his diagnoses seriously. I could say the same thing he said, and I could be challenged on it in court. All this means that while psychiatrists can make definitive statements about what is wrong with a child, I have to speak in terms that reflect vagueness and uncertainty. "It appears that..." "It is possible that..." "It seems as if..."

Turns out there was a lot going on at home; much more than what we were aware of. There will need to be some significant changes within the family in order for this child to meet success. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

BBC

Standardized Tests

I was a proctor for our statewide standardized assessments last week. I've come to the conclusion that students use the same strategies when they have no idea how to solve a problem. What's even scarier is that they use the same strategies when they think they know. I'm realizing that if a student has a word problem that he doesn't understand, then he will just add up all the numbers that appear in the problem. Simple, but wrong. Granted, I was proctoring for the special education students, but I would still hope that they would use certain test strategies.

The students that I had all had time extension. Did any of them use it? No, only on the writing assessment. They finished before the actual time deadline on most of the tests, but they could have used as much time as possible. They had time to use their calculators, draw pictures to solve math problems, and really check over their work. But they didn't use it. It was very frustrating and demoralizing, because I wanted to help them, but I couldn't. It was really draining to see wrong answers, wrong strategies, and what seemed to be complete cluelessness about the whole process.

BBC

Rubber Room

I was listening to "This American Life" on NPR over the weekend and heard an interesting story about what happens to teachers who are removed from their classrooms in New York City Public Schools. Here's an archived version from The New York Times. When teachers are put on suspension because of some inappropriate action they are sent to the reassignment center, or as the teachers call it, the rubber room. Teachers report to the rubber room each and every morning until their cases are tried. Some of these teachers have been in the rubber room for months, even years. Some end a school year and start another school year in the rubber room. Meanwhile all of these teachers are earning a full salary. A full salary for doing 0% of work. 0.0%!!!! It would seem that the school district would want to hear these cases so that these teachers could be immediately terminated, if warranted. It is also peculiar that the teachers' union hasn't stepped in and stopped this mockery of the public school system. Any given day 750 teachers are attending these rubber rooms where they sit around, read books, play cards, sleep and do other frivolous things while substitute teachers teach their classes for them.

I know that some of these teachers get what they deserved. I'm sure there were more than a few that did things that I would not want a child to be subjected to, but why keep these people in limbo? This is reminiscent of Guantanamo Bay. Speaking of which, some of the teachers had been in the limbo room so long, that a prison culture has developed. There are racial cliques, people are hyper-territorial, and there is a pecking order. It's amazing how people respond to different situations. Educators reduced to hardened criminals.

BBC

IDK

Every now and then I feel frustrated with my job. I can't help but feel that people are expecting me to be an expert in everything. I'm now more aware of what I don't know and it makes mad because I wish we had these conversations in class when I had the time. I don't have all the answers. I know that I'm not supposed to have them all now, but sometimes I feel like people expect me too. I hate having to say "I don't know." It makes me feel stupid and unprofessional. On the other hand, I guess it's better than giving some bad advice. That could go horribly wrong.

I guess I have to take it upon myself to find relevant professional development opportunities. I also need to continue to read and research. Exactly what I wanted to avoid once I graduated. Education never ends.

BBC

The Democratic Dilemma

So in this surreal moment in life when the Democratic candidate for President will either be a woman or a black man, I have to seriously think about who I'm supporting. While I was taught in school that it's better for school psychologists to be politically neutral (you don't want to piss people off), I do have some political leanings. I am a registered Democrat and I will support the person that comes out of this alive. Despite my commitment, I do have to think about who is ultimately the stronger candidate. While they differ on some issues, the issue that I have to look at professionally was education. Where does Obama stand on education? What does Clinton have to say about education?

I checked out their websites to see what each candidate has to say. For what it's worth I saw a previous critique of the layout of the Clinton and Obama websites, and I think the critiques are valid. Clinton's website, check it out here, is dense with information, maybe too dense. I saw the text I thought "ugh." I guess I've worked with too many ADHD kids. There were a lot of good points, but I thought it should have been bulleted more. That first paragraph hits you with a thud. Obama's website, check it out here, has headers and has a nice flow. I'm just not sure about what he is actually saying. He presents more ideas and promises than Clinton and it begs the question: How much of this is actually feasible?

Education has been the cornerstone of the American Dream. Everyone is guaranteed an education here. If you get an education, you'll get a job. If you get a job, you can be a productive member of society. That's the sales pitch that America's been giving since the 18th century. So what are the promises that the Democratic presidential candidates are making? Clinton's promises seem to be more focused and there are fewer of them. There seems to be a realistic tone to what she is saying. She also mentions meeting the funding requirements of IDEA and providing support for children with special needs. Obama's promises are idealistic and are full of hope; you wouldn't expect anything less from him at this point. He proposes a "Zero to Five" plan that will focus on kids from birth to preschool. He also mentions making math and science a national priority. You read his ideas and they give you hope. I just wonder how much of this could he actually accomplish.

I have made a decision, but in the end I'll support whoever wins the ticket. I hope that NCLB will be amended, at least funded, so that we can change the education system in this country for the better.

BBC

The Return

I'm back. I can't believe that I've been gone all this time. I've spent this first part of this school year getting acclimated to my school. I am fortunate (or maybe unfortunate) to be working in the same school where I completed my internship. I have to say that the transition was smooth.

I've spent the first few months setting up my systems. I wanted to get organized and have people become accustomed to the way I do things. The rest of the support staff have been understanding. It is weird though how some of them have many years of experience, but because I have the title of "School Psychologist" they think that I'm an expert. I only wish.

My January was pretty calm, but the last week was quite eventful. I'm starting to think that full moons happen several times a month, that's the only logical explanation. I had 2 phone calls to make to Children's Services at the same time. That has to be a first. In the end both children are safe now, so that's the important thing.

BBC

The Real Deal

Where has the time gone. I haven't updated this blog since the summer. Several things have happened since. I finished my program and got a job! I spent the summer learning about reading instruction by being a paraprofessional for summer school. That was interesting.

The important thing is that I now have a job. I am earning a paycheck. I can now call myself a school psychologist. Therefore, I had to change the name of the blog. More soon.

BBC

Mission Impossible?

I'm supposed to raise the DRA scores of my kids in about 2 1/2 weeks!! I found out that testing was going to start earlier than I thought. All of the testing has to be completed by the middle of the last week of school. I also found out that those with high DRA scores are tested last so that they can benefit from intervention the most. Those with low scores are tested first, so they have virtually no chance of passing. It all seems to be a farce. We're putting children through a mandatory situation and dangling this carrot that's unobtainable. I don't get it.

BBC

Summer School

It's summer time and I needed a job, so I signed up to work summer school as a paraprofessional. In my city, there is mandatory summer school for those students who are at risk for retention based on their Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) score. I'm working with third graders who are at risk for retention. These students need to reach a certain score on their reading assessment by the end of summer school or they will be repeating third grade. No pressure at all!

This requirement begs the question: Can a student's score be raised in only 4 1/2 weeks? Exactly what kind of miracle are we teachers, tutors and paraprofessionals supposed to pull in that short amount of time? I'm definitely interested in seeing the rate of success for this program.

The children go through intense reading sessions at different stations in the classroom. They practice their fluency, predict what will happen in a story, talk about the different parts of a story, and practice writing essays.

So far, the children have been okay. I have witnessed several children who have found it hard to be in school during the summer. They remind me of the students at my elementary school who had a rough time at the beginning of the year. Summer school starts almost an hour earlier than the regular school day, so these kids are really feeling it. So am I.

BBC

It's Been A While

It's been a while, I know. I've been trying to survive the end of the semester. I need to write several entries about what has gone on for the past 6 weeks, but I'll get to that at some point. Anyway, the NY Times had an article about a recent ruling in favor of parents of children with disabilities. Basically, if a parent wants to take a school district to court over to challenge the services offered in the child's IEP, the parents do not have to use a lawyer, they can represent themselves. We'll see how this plays out.

BBC

A Serious Lack of Craziness

You may think I'm crazy, but I have been secretly wishing to have a crazy parent in one of my meetings. Not cuckoo crazy, I want full-blown, throw a chair, frothing at the mouth crazy. So far, I have dealt with many parents who are supposed to be really crazy, according to my supervisor and the head of Psychological Services, but they have all been really tame in meetings. I have even had to deliver bad news, and these parents have taken the info in stride. Needless to say, I have been disappointed. I really want the exposure so that I know what to do when I'm out there on my own. I see it as getting good practice and preparation for the future.

BBC

Backtracking

If you've been keeping track, this post is coming up out of order. I know that I have the option of pre-dating my posts and I'm taking full advantage of that. So while the next few posts were written after the fact, these were thoughts I had on those particular days and I'm just transposing written notes into my blog. But I really felt that I had a few things to say about what went on from the beginning of April to the end of May.

BBC

High School Dropouts

The LA Times featured a four-part series on high school dropouts. Reporters looked at high school students at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. Very informative. It does beg the question, how are high school dropout rates calculated? How can school districts say one number and then an outside evaluator will say a completely different and usually higher number?

BBC

No new GRE??

ETS decided to scrap its plans to revise the GRE. After it was deemed susceptible to fraud after foreign students built databases of oft-repeated GRE questions, the academic world awaited a new version. But ETS said that it would have been too expensive, too long, and too hard to administer. Read more here.

BBC

Just returned from NASP NYC

I just got back from the NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) convention in New York City. It was great to attend so many great workshops and presentations and get some new ideas. As a student, I appreciated the opportunity to see so many of the "celebrities" of school psychology, and of course New York was fantastic. I feel energized to try some new things for the rest of the school year.

Who Should Pay?

Recent article about a lawsuit filed by a parent of a special education student. The parent is asking the City of New York to pay for the child's education at a private school. The city is arguing that the parent never tried the public schools. The case is under review at the U.S. Supreme Court. Who should pay?

BBC

Fed Up

These past two days really tested my patience. I volunteered to counsel a girl who has a proclivity to skip class. I took her case because the vice-principal decided that she would need counseling as well as the behavior plan that he designed. She didn't really warm up to me, which was fine, I'm still a stranger in the building. We talked for a little bit and she told me that she wished she could start over. I took this nugget and went with it. I asked her what she meant, and she said that she wished she could start eighth grade over because her grades weren't great. I explained to her that she was getting a second chance now and a fresh start. She told me that she was having a hard time with her school work, social studies in particular. So I had her get her assignment and we sat down and looked at it together. The lesson was on Reconstruction era federal government. There was a question about the 3/5 clause that she had to answer. I practically pointed out the paragraph that she needed to read in order to answer the question. But of course, she refused to read the paragraph and expected me to do all the work for her! When I refused, she asked to leave and I let her. I couldn't believe the nerve of this girl. The look of indignation that she gave me was priceless. I had enough of her attitude so I was happy to have her return to class.

Today, one of the 6th grade boys I worked with rubbed me the wrong way. I really needed his mother to sign a consent form for one of the counseling groups that I run. I purposely went to the school on Monday to specifically give him another consent form to take home. As I went with him to his locker, I saw one of the old consent forms that I had given him a while ago. I made him take that home too. I told him that it was important for him to have his mother sign it. I really needed it. Well, this morning, I saw him and when I asked him for the form, he said that he didn't have it. It wasn't the fact that he didn't have it, it was the cavalier attitude he had about it. He didn't even apologize for not having it. That pushed me over the edge. I can understand not having it, but the fact that he wasn't even sorry about it really pissed me off. This kid really needs to grow up and honor his responsibilities. He needs to understand this now.

BBC

Article on Middle School

I read and article today in the NY Times about middle school teachers. It' worth a read, and it really opened my eyes to the unique psychology of the middle school teacher. It does take a special person to deal with the turmoil of adolescence.

BBC

Manifestation

I sat in on my first manifestation determination meeting today. There was a middle schooler with LD who threw urine on to another student. We were supposed to determine if the behavior was caused by (or a manifestation of) his disability. Here's what happened: The boy had to use the bathroom and school security didn't allow him go back into the building. He decided to urinate into a Pringles can and in order to get rid of it, tossed it from the can out the window of the bus. Meanwhile the bus was next to another bus, in which a student had his window down. The victim basically had urine thrown on him.

I still had questions about how all of this really happened, because I felt like there were some details missing. Nonetheless, it was determined that this was not a manifestation of his disability, so he was suspended.

It was nice to see that his mother was livid at the meeting. Cursing up a storm and disgusted with him. I'm so used to parents that look like they have given up, or have no control over their kids. I'm not saying she has any control, but at least she cared enough to put on a show. I just hope the kid doesn't get into further trouble while he's out of school.

And that was just part of a crazy day which included a girlfight in which a security guard got punched in the face when he tried to break it up, and a model student bringing a cap gun to school. Good times.

Burning Out

I'm tired. I can't wait for this semester to end. I've got a lot on my plate, and I'm realizing how much has to get done in the next few weeks.

My supervisor posed an interesting question to me. She asked me which setting I preferred, elementary or middle school. I told her that I liked working with the middle school population, but I hate how the middle school is set up. The school psychologists at the middle school have a lot of administrative duties, and when they aren't doing paperwork, they test children. Ugh! They don't have dedicated counseling caseloads. I enjoy counseling, and there's only so much testing you can do. Well, the question my supervisor asked me was "Do you think it (the middle school's school psychology practice model) could be changed?" I hadn't thought of that.

When I think about applying for jobs, I think about how the "perfect" job probably doesn't exist. There is a huge gulf between the utopia of how school psychology should be from the university's perspective vs. the harsh, ugly reality of what actually happens. I haven't thought about finding a situation that's okay, but could be changed. In my mind, I think that I could change things, so that may contribute to where I decide to work, (that and whoever has an opening!) It would be hard to gauge in an interview if a system could be changed to fit my needs. I guess I would need to have some key questions that I would ask of the administrators, so I could get a better picture of how well I would fit.

BBC

Dreaming About Work

For the first time I had a dream about work. It started with me working on an evaluation of a child that will likely qualify as Intellectually Disabled (ID) and a mother who is resistant to that label. Everyone on the team knows the history and knows that the mom doesn't want this label. I've been working on building a solid case for having this child properly labeled. He's in middle school and is currently labeled ADHD. I'll admit there is some evidence of attention problems but the child is having all sorts of difficulties. I think his current IEP has close to 10 academic goals alone!

I've been thinking about this for a while because I accepted the challenge of pushing for appropriate services and diagnosis for the child. I just feel that the mother thinks that her child just needs intense instruction and that he's easily distracted. It's so much more than that.

So I was working on scoring adaptive scales before I went to sleep, then I dreamed about the upcoming meeting, and then woke up and continued to think about it. I'll be glad when its over. After checking his records today, I found that a neuropsychologist had made a similar diagnosis years ago, so I know that another qualified person tried to approach the diagnosis. Maybe I could use that to my advantage.

BBC

Clueless

I think it is safe to say that whatever kids were doing in college in our day, they are doing in high school today. And whatever kids were doing in high school, they are doing in middle school today. A kid came into the guidance office today because his two friends had gotten into a fight. Apparently, the fight stemmed from what occurred at a sleepover this past weekend. As soon as the kid mentioned the word sleepover, I knew I was in for a real treat.

The boys had a contest on who could stay up the longest. The loser would be subjected to having someone's balls put on him. This led to lots of scrotums (or is it, scroti?) being placed on people and someone feeling uncomfortable with the homoerotic activity. When my supervisor heard about the prank, she erroneously believed that "balls" was a euphemism or slang for something else. Oh no, this kid meant testicles, and I knew it. I found it humorous that my supervisor and the rest of the guidance staff could not fathom middle schoolers doing this. I remember thinking that this was probable in high school and a definite in college. I guess I'm not that innocent. One of the counselors came in and said that she wasn't surprised. She thought some of our kids had talked about rainbow parties. My supervisor and the rest had no clue what rainbow parties were. That's when I realized that there is a real generation gap when it comes to sexual knowledge. People of a certain age don't think that kids are doing these things, but they are. I think we are doing these kids a huge disservice when adminstrators and mental health staff members focus on the act being inappropriate and not on the fact that it is happening. School pyschologists and counselors have to know the lingo and the activities of children and youth. It was astounding to see how clueless the mental health staff was in my school. They are just now getting around to using the internet. But there is still so much that they need to learn. No wonder kids get away with so much. People really have to stop being shocked and start taking action.

Hormones

I'm beginning to think that my sixth graders are starting to get hormonal. There have been a lot of interpersonal conflicts recently. Girls are fighting and boys are being sexually inappropriate. It's just hormones running rampant through sixth grade. I feel like we're a couple of months away from rainbow parties and lewd details on myspace. It's scary only because I know its going to get worse before it gets better. The next couple of years are going to be rough for these kids. Adolescence is full of confusion and emotion. You couldn't pay me to go through that again.

Everything is so freaking dramatic. At the junior high, I had a girl that was ready to fight three others because they were talking about her. First, she came into the office to tell me that she was mad and ready to fight 3 girls. I immediately noticed that she was wearing shoes that didn't match. She chose a more comfortable shoe for her right foot because she hurt her ankle and was wearing a splint of some sort. Anyway, it was really noticeable that she was wearing two different shoes. Apparently one of the girls wrote a note to the other girls remarking that she was wearing mismatched shoes. This is why the girl wanted to fight?! Despite my efforts to make her see how ridiculous she was being, she still felt that she had justification to fight. Fortnately, I do believe that in the end all violence was avoided that day. Whew!

BBC

Sometimes You Do Get Through

I had a breakthrough today with one of the kids I counsel each week. One of his goals is to acknowledge his strengths and weaknesses and accept that he has a learning disability. After having some unsuccessful sessions with him, I finally sat down with him and talked about what he as good at in school. It was weird because, for some reason, he was more receptive to what I was saying in session. We were able to talk and discuss what he needed to work on in school, and he was able to tell me some ideas on how he could change. For this kid, it was a huge step towards meeting his psychological goals. This really made my day. I'm learning to appreciate those good days.

BBC

Suicide Risk?

Today I get called to a third grade classroom because a kid said something disturbing that attracted his teacher's attention. The kid was playing a game with other students and blurted out "Raise your hand if you wish you could die," and he raised his own hand. So I get buzzed to visit the classroom.

The child talked to me and I tried to figure out his state of mind. I asked him how he was feeling, and he kept telling me that he was okay. Although, I could clearly see that something was bothering him, especially when I took into consideration the anguished look on his face. He looked like he was on the verge of tears. He told me that he was feeling sad, but he wasn't sure why. I asked him if he said that he wished he could die and he said yes. "How often? " "Sometimes."

Now at this point, I'm taking this very seriously. I'm looking at an 8 or 9 year old child with possible suicide ideation. What do I do now?

In the back of my mind, I was screaming at myself, "Find out if he has a plan! Find out if he has a plan!!!!" I asked him why he sometimes feels like dying and he said, "I have a boring life." I dug a little deeper and asked him what could change that would make his life not boring. He replied, "I could play baseball." After explaining to him that baseball would be possible in the spring and trying to gain more information, I couldn't get a good read on his intentions. He kept telling me that nothing else was making him feel sad. And I was starting to get pressed for time (I hate it when that happens, but I had to be at a meeting later.) So I knew there had to be more but I didn't feel that I had enough time to get what I needed from him. Our conversation left me with a feeling of uneasiness, so I told my supervisor and sat in on their conversation.

She was able to ask him about a plan, which he had none. Overall, her approach was great. She was able to get more information out of him and learn enough to assess the situation. The child seems depressed, so I may check in with him to see how he's feeling over the next couple of weeks.

I know that these things come with time, but I really felt like I didn't know what to do. Correction - I knew what to do, I just didn't know how to do it. Watching my supervisor talk with the child was a great learning experience for me. I hope that I can gain those counseling skills before I'm out there on my own.

BBC

Puzzles vs. Mysteries

If you haven't discovered the genius of Malcolm Gladwell, author of "Blink" and "The Tipping Point", and contributor to The New Yorker, you really need to read his work. Everything I've read by him has made me think about how I think about things. His latest article discusses the Enron scandal, and examines it through national security expert Gregory Treverton's interesting concept of puzzles vs. mysteries. To summarize, Gladwell argues that the US Federal Prosecutors treated Enron as if it was a puzzle. There were many pieces to gather and once they gathered each piece, they would know what Enron was up to. His argument is that Enron was actually a mystery. All of the pieces were there for everyone to see, it just took the right person to look at the information, know what he or she was looking at and interpret it.

That got me to thinking. Sometimes in school psychology, we tend to look at assessment as a puzzle. We look at a child and try to gather pieces of the puzzle, and when the puzzle doesn't make sense, we keep trying to find more pieces, i.e. we conduct more tests. But what if we looked at the assessment process as a mystery instead? What if it's a matter of interpretation? I think we tend to steer away from looking at the process as a mystery because we want everything to be concrete, make clear sense. But we all know that, sometimes, things are bit murky. We, as school psychologists, are given the task of looking at the murky information, make sense of it and interpret it for others to see. I think that one byproduct of this change in philosophy will be a reduction in the number of tests given to a child. A kid can be tested to death if the results don't support a clear answer to why he or she isn't functioning well in the classroom. Somehow this needs to be addressed. Maybe a change in philosophy could be the change we need.

BBC

Back to School

Ughhh! I didn't want the break to end. I was in serious denial on New Year's Day. When my alarm went off this morning I had to resist the urge to hit the snooze.

The first day back after the Christmas break is interesting in a school. All the kids are sporting new clothes, new sneakers, and new hairdos. Teachers look rested, and everyone talks about starting a diet and complains about how much they overate during the break.

One of the kids I counsel got a grill for Christmas. Gold plate and cubic zirconia, gotta love it. The thing actually looked uncomfortable. He insisted on wearing it during our counseling session. I should have threatened him with reporting his new mushmouth to the speech and language pathologist, but I was getting too much of a kick out of watching him try to talk. If this kid ever knew what braces felt like, he probably wouldn't bother putting that thing in his mouth. But he's young, what else could I expect?

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Thank You Folks, Good Night!

Remember that episode of Seinfeld when George figured out that he should always leave on a high note. He cracks a joke, people in the meeting laugh, and he figures that's the best time to make his exit because it will go downhill from there.

I'm at the point now where I would like to leave my internship. Not leave for good, but I've been ending on a high note on most days, and I know that this run will end soon. We had a PPT meeting where I had to deliver results to some parents today. The kid had some major attention problems in testing and in the classroom. After ruling out other things and looking at the behavioral scales, we figured that ADHD was the logical choice. It kind of sucks though, while you get a high of figuring out what is wrong with the child, you don't get the satisfaction of telling the parent that you have the cure and the child will be fine in a couple of days. That's the part that's missing. We just get to deliver the news and then offer a plan and a label. Fortunately, the parents were aware of the child's attention problems, so ADHD wasn't a new concept for them. They thanked me for doing the evaluation. They thanked me. That was pretty cool. I got the chance to pass out some literature on ADHD and it made me feel useful, like I was offering some information to help them understand their child better. And to top it off, my supervisor and others told me that I did I good job reporting my results. That was cool.

Of course all this means that I will punched in the face by a 9 year old really soon. I need to go work on my reflexes.

BBC

Racial Balance

So the Supreme Court is handling a new case on racial balance of schools. This court is traditionally conservative so I think it will call the recent practices of schools in Kentucky and Washington as unconstitutional. The sad thing is that most people go to schools that are not racially balanced. I was lucky enough to go to a school with a student population that actually mirrored the demographics of the town.

Right now I'm working in a suburb that has a wealthy part of town and a poor part of town. Children on the south side don't get the resources that children on the north side do. It was interesting to look at a district map that showed how neighborhoods were divided in order to determine where students went to school. I've heard of gerrymandering, but my district is ridiculous. My school's zone looks like a double diamond. All the surrounding areas are a little more wealthier, but not by much. But it is interesting to see how the school zone looks. Who was responsible for determining which streets were in our zone? How is that determined? It just doesn't seem completely legit.

BBC

Today Was a Good Day

Today was great. It was the perfect way to end the week. I had to finish an assessment so that I could write the report over the weekend and hand it in on Monday. The kid that I've been testing was reluctant to come with me because he hated being pulled out of class. Today I had to be done with the testing, and I was feeling the pressure of the deadline. Of course when I sat down to prepare for testing I get call over the intercom to report to the office.

I get there and I'm told to see as distraught student in one of the classrooms. When I got there, the teacher told me that the student told her that she had a fight at home and she needed to talk to someone. I sat down with the student, and I was able to get her to open up to me and tell me what was going on. There were a lot of issues happening at home. Today, she had a fight with her sister which escalated into the police being called. Apparently, this student's family are no strangers to family services. After I got the necessary information I tracked down some resources and made sure she was able to get back to class.

I was finally able to start testing,. I had been trying to complete academic achievement testing and I only had a couple of subtests left. My student had a math test first, and then we finally met. Of course, by this time he had art class coming up, so we only met for a few minutes and then I had to dismiss him. Then I was off to meet with my supervisor. The meeting went well, and I received a good evaluation. It was nice to get some real feedback about what I can do to be better.

At the end of the day I was able to finish testing (whew), score it, and figure out how it will fit into my report. And the clincher, I was able to reconnect with a student that was mad at me because I failed to uphold my end of an agreement. He had been mad at me for weeks because I forgot to let him play basketball as a reward for good behavior. After using a teacher as a liasion, I approached him and asked if he wanted to play, he thought about it and said yes. I'm glad he finally agreed, because I was starting to wonder how long he was going to hold that grudge.

BBC

School Security Update

So my school really stepped up its security. It went from a school with an open front door that led directly to the indergarten with no one present to check on a visitor's nature of business, to a school with all locked doors, security cameras, a buzzer, and key passes for all personnel. I'm glad that finally happened, that was way overdue.

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Election Day

Another election, and no mention of No Child Left Behind. What else am I supposed to rant about? The war? Anyway, I ran across this article in the NY Times. It's an interesting story about people on the spectrum.

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Hell Hath No Fury

Hell hath no fury like an 11 year old scorned. I made the mistake of not following through with a reward system. An 11 year old that I'm working with didn't get his weekly award and was pissed at me the next time I saw him. It wasn't my fault, because his teacher told me that the program wasn't working. "Not working" equals "scrapped" to me, so I figured that the program had been dropped. Lo and behold, the kid was doing well and earning his checks. I was the one who didn't follow through, so now I look like an ass. I'm hoping that this will just blow over, but when I talked to someone who knows him well, she said that he doesn't let anything go, he holds grudges for a while. Great.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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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Recent Education Articles

Summer's been long. I'm not complaining, but there is very little happening education-wise for me. I did run across a couple of articles in the last two weeks. Here's one. Here's the other.

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The Chosen One

Sometimes you come into a situation where you're seen as the golden child. You go to a job interview and people there have read your resume, googled you, looked over your transcripts, read recommendations and have been really impressed with you; the on-paper version. They just hope you match up in person. The disconcerting thing is that while they have already anointed you as the chosen one, you still have to figure out if you really want the job. I had this experience when I went to interview for my internship.

As I waited for the school psychologist, my potential supervisor, to meet with me, I got a quick sense of what the school may be like. For starters, it was nice to walk into a building and be acknowledged. Why can't other schools understand this? I'm a stranger in your school, shouldn't someone address me to find out who I am and why I'm wandering through your building? The receptionist paged the school psychologist for me and I waited for her in the lobby. We met and the first thing she said was, "I was really excited to meet you after I read your resume. I was really impressed. I hope you're as good as you sound on paper." First of all, that was very disarming, the last thing you expect in an interview are accolades from the interviewer, especially ones that are that glowing. Second, I was coming into this interview relaxed. It wasn't for a job, it was for an internship. The important thing was for me to see if it would be a good fit. I would be spending the rest of my academic career in this school, I needed to make sure that I would get what I needed from it to prepare me to be a real school psychologist. To make matters worse, the very next person I met is the prinicipal, and she had more compliments and hoped that I would pick the school. Now I began to feel really paranoid. The last time I was in a similar situation was when I applied to the University of Virgina and was on campus for an interview. Everyone I saw on campus greeted me and said hello. At first I believed that everyone was told to say hello to the candidates, but then I realized that it was just Southern hospitality. But I digress.

We sat and spoke about how the school psychologist does her job in the school on a day-to-day basis. Her job is multi-faceted, which I liked a lot. She does everything, including testing, counseling children, consulting teachers, and working with parents. I was impressed, and I got a chance to see her in action that day.

After we spoke for a few minutes I got a tour of the school. I haven't been in many schools, but I like how this one was set up. The lower grades were all clustered together in pods. It reminded me of the end of an airport terminal. Each grade level had a resource room available for those chidlren with special needs and a planning room for teachers. This set up allowed for easy collaboration among teachers. It was nice to see how the building fostered a sense of community.

During our tour the principal pulled us into a meeting with a couple of cops. Apparently there had been a recent incident involving bullying and group of about 5 students intimidating another student. This gave me an opportunity to see how the school psych. works with the community as well. The cops were called in because parents in the neighborhood were feeling threatened by "roving gangs of youth". It seemed like the worse these "gangs" were doing was loitering, and possibly some vandalism. The concern of the police and the prinicpal was how to stop this before it turns into something serious.

To understand this problem I had to understand the nature of this suburb. For the most part, the town as a whole wants to ignore the problem. Most people want to say that the problem exists across the border into the neighboring city. They don't want to acknowledge the fact that it is happening in their town. This lack of acknowledgement means that there are no programs that can deal with this problem within this particular neighborhood or section of town. The sad thing is that it isn't a problem, yet. It's merely an annoyance that could quickly escalate if nothing is done to stop it. I'll keep my eyes and ears open this summer.

Overall I liked what I saw. I observed the school psychologist teach social sklls to a 4th grade class. It was nice to see the school psychologist do a variety of things throughout the day. I felt like I saw a lot of positive things during my visit and interview. I didn't really see anything negative, but I'm sure I will witness something one the school year begins in the fall. Nonetheless, I am ready to finally be in a school where I can do some good (hopefully). I hope I will be half as good as everyone expects me to be.

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