The End is Near

Just a few more days and it will all be over. I actually made it through all of my annual reviews unscathed. I have a few more items of paperwork to complete, but I'm closing in on the end. Unfortunately, if it's the end of school that means the children are losing it. They are falling apart in record fashion. The kids with behavior issues are coming apart at the seams, and some of the well-behaving kids are having issues. It happens every year, but it always surprises me. There's something about the prospect of spending summer at home that causes turmoil within some kids. They can't handle the lack of structure for the entire summer. I feel for them. The ones that come from terrible homes get it the worst, because school is an escape. So for the next few days I expect to get a lot of requests for help.

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Merit Pay for Teachers

This columnist makes a good point: merit pay can be disastrous in the wrong school. I think that mine fits that bill. http://bit.ly/16pECq

I see my staff becoming insanely jealous of any teacher that would earn the bonus. I can see some cheating happening, and worse, I think referrals would increase. Not only would we see an increase in teachers focusing their instruction solely on standardized tests, but more teachers would try (in vain) to have kids identified so they wouldn't be in their classes anymore. I'm not sure how that would work towards their yearly progress numbers. Furthermore, how would I become eligible for some merit pay? I'm pretty good at what I do, don't I deserve a bonus. Yeah, I don't see this working too well.

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ED not only means Erectile Dysfunction

Recently I was part of my first evaluation for a student with Emotional Disturbance. As I told the parent that her son qualified for services under Emotional Disturbance, the words sounded really awful coming out of my mouth. The mental health field has made tremendous strides by changing mental retardation into intellectual disability. Why hasn't there been a similar change in Emotional Disturbance? The term sounds very negative and contributes to the stigma of being in special education. Hearing that a student is ED conjures up images of the worst kind of student in the classroom. No one hears ED and has pleasant thoughts.

The student was the subject of my last post, "Stuck in a Corner." He's definitely ED, no question. His inability to regulate his emotions prevent him from meeting success in the classroom. In the PPT I described him as having 3 sides, 1 side is jovial and compliant, 1 side requires constant prodding to motivate him to perform, and 1 side is completely non-compliant. I have seen these different sides of him during the evaluation and observations. Now that he has been identified I hope that his new program for next year will help him find success.

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Stuck in a Corner

It always happens this way: I plan out my day, know where I need to be each minute of the day, and the unforeseen happens. I was observing a child in p.e. when he decided to have a meltdown. He was participating in a shooting contest where the students had to make the most baskets in 30 seconds. He missed a few shots at the beginning, but started to make them before the time was up. He became upset because he thought that one of the student's that was supposed to retrieve the balls for him impeded his performance. Luckily I was there to witness the whole thing and felt that he was being unrealistic about what actually happened. He stormed off the court and went through the emergency exit into the stairwell. I followed him and tried to coax him out of his funk and back into the classroom, to no avail.

We sat in the hallway for over 30 minutes as he repeatedly said "no" to every request I made. I ended up recruiting the principal to sit with him because I was supposed to finish an evaluation. I wasn't in the mood to sit with him, especially when he was being so non-responsive. He was stuck and I was stuck. Of course, I was the reason he stayed there, so once I left, he was willing to leave with the principal. I try not to take it personally when that happens, but it still gets to me. Sometimes I feel absolutely helpless when a kid refuses to leave the classroom, hallway, gym, etc. There really is nothing I can do when a student doesn't want to leave. I can't physically force the student to move. I have to somehow convince them to do so, but it is impossible if the child has a) emotional difficulties, b) a language impairment or c) general behavior issues or d) problems with authority. That accounts for about 80% of my school, so when a kid doesn't want to be removed, they put up resistance and we have a standoff. I guess the one thing I have going for me is that I never let the child see me annoyed by the situation. I try to stay pretty calm no matter what. I just wish that I could get some negotiation training from the FBI or something. I need to know some tricks on getting kids to give in and do what I need them to do. That might be beneficial in the long run.

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Genius

David Brooks' op-ed piece in the NY Times was interesting. Click here http://tinyurl.com/coepo4
I remember reading about Tiger Woods' work ethic and how he would practice religiously. He practiced so much that other competitors failed in comparison. I don't think it's a coincidence that he's selling Tiger Focus Gatorade: Hydration for Concentration. He knows what it's all about.

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Snitching Ain't Easy

I have a new student that I'm counseling this spring. Our focus in on his anger management skills. He doesn't have any. When he reaches his boiling point, he becomes belligerent with adults, and has a huge persecution complex. Earlier this week, he had an incident involving two girls in his class. According to him, these girls are targeting him and threatening to hit him. One of the girls hit him with a stick at recess. My student became upset of course, but did not tell any of the recess aides. He went on to class and later another girl pushed him into her friend's desk, causing my student to take out the desk and causing a huge commotion. My student had enough and went to approach her when his teacher recognized what was going on and stepped between them. My student was sent to the office to cool off.

When I saw him he told me what happened. He even told me about getting hit with the stick earlier. I asked him why he didn't report any of this to an adult, and he said that nothing ever happens. The kid is actually quite bright because we discussed the reasons for the girls to keep bothering him. He said that they know he would get into major trouble for hitting a girl. So he knew how the consequences would be worse for him. He felt that he couldn't tell any of the recess aides what happened because they wouldn't do anything. He also that the girl would probably call him a snitch for telling.

This just about made my blood boil. The whole snitching thing bothers me because kids get confused and actually endanger themselves because they don't want to be seen as snitches. It doesn't make sense. I hate how the word has changed in meaning. It used to mean someone who was also a criminal reporting someone else's crime for a reduced punishment. Since when did it mean a victim that reports a crime committed against him or her?

I feel like lecturing everyone in my building about what it means to be a snitch. Endangering yourself in the hopes of not being a snitch is idiotic, and I want to work on changing the understanding of the word. Somehow the misunderstood meaning has become the de facto definition and it has remarkably impacted how kids deal with bullying and violence in school. My hope is that I can change that somehow.

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When Education and Politics Collide

I attended a town council meeting to discuss the proposed budget cuts to education. As a result of the mayor's budget, the school system would have to lay off 27 teachers, cut sports, gifted, and arts programs, and possibly eliminate a school. The meeting was a parade of the town's brightest students pleading with the council to save the gifted program. After about 8 or 9 students spoke about what TAG meant to them, the artsy students spoke about their programs. Some high schoolers spoke about their sports teams. Then some teachers spoke and they were followed finally by parents. The meeting got contentious when the fire marshall declared that there were too many people in the building, and asked those who had spoken to leave. Some obliged. I was only there for about an hour, but it was interesting to see the various factions lobby for their interests. Few people spoke about the possible changes that would affect a large number of students. Closing a school or eliminating a classroom in each school would have a profound effect on classroom sizes, but for the first hour that wasn't mentioned. The town council will make a decision by June. That gives plenty of time for more drama and sudden twists to this saga. The fate of education for the foreseeable future in this town is in their hands.

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Seniority

This should have posted on 3/27/09 - (sorry)

Yesterday we had parent-teacher conferences, where parents come in to discuss their children's report cards. This meant that the students only had a half-day of school. Technically, staff had the rest of the afternoon off and we had to report back to school by 5:45 for the conference, but I stuck around a little bit late and tried to finish some work. I headed home, walked and fed the dog, relaxed and then headed back to school at around a quarter after 4. I arrived, checked my mailbox and ran into my principal. She told me that she needed to talk to me, so I followed her to her office. Usually when she says that she needs to speak with me, it's usually about a student and she wants me to follow up on an issue. So it came as a shock that the subject of our conversation would be me.

We sat down and she told me that she had just returned from an administrators' meeting with the superintendent. The topic was the education budget that the board of ed submitted to the mayor. The mayor has cut almost $1.7 million from the education budget. The superintendent basically told everyone to prepare for the worst. In order to adjust for the deficit, she would consider everything from closing schools, redistricting, or eliminating classes. It would be brutal if it went through. In preparation for the worst, the superintendent announced 27 people would be laid off. This number included one new teacher in each school, and one new person in each department. My principal told me this and then asked me the question that gave me a chill, "Are you the last person hired in your department?"

At first I had to think about it. I breathed a sigh of relief when I remembered that a colleague left her position last year and someone was fired a few months after I was hired. My feeling of comfort was short-lived when my principal outlined how some people would get lay-off notices and mentioned that anyone on leave would be guaranteed their position. Well, what did that mean? I knew that there was one school psychologist out for an extended leave, so then, would they eliminate 2 positions? Then I started to worry again. We have someone out for an extended leave, so if she returns, does that mean I need to start looking for another job?

I went home and tried not to think about it but it was hard. I ended up trying to keep my mind occupied, but it didn't work. I kept vacillating between "I'm going to be laid off" and "It won't be me on the list." My principal had a meeting the next day, where the list of faculty was released to the administrators. When she arrived at school she broke the news to me-I was not on the list.

That day I learned a valuable lesson: always know your seniority. My principal showed me a list (where was I supposed to know where to find it) of every employee in the district by order of seniority. I was third from the bottom, so I think I'll be safe for a while. In the end, someone from my department decided to retire at the end of the year, so in a way everyone was spared.

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State Assessment Season

It's state assessment time in my district. Children around the state are taking the the state's proficiency test for the entire month of March. I don't think that Lent and the state test occurring in the same month is a mere coincidence. Everyone is on edge and the kids are reaching their breaking points. Not to mention that Daylight Savings Time hasn't helped at all, either. I proctor the tests for three English Language Learner (ELL) students, and I have seen the pitfalls of testing this population firsthand. Since my students are ELL, they could have all parts of the math test read to them. So I was able to sit down and read aloud the directions, sentences and word problems in the math test. It is supposed to be the way to determine if a child has true math skills, by removing the language component. It does require the student to be able to understand English when it is spoken to them, which is a big assumption. While I was able to read to them for the math test, I wasn't able to read more than the test directions for the reading and writing tests. It has to be really frustrating for a student to sit there and struggle through a test that's not in your native language, a language that you've been exposed to for only a year or two. In fact, I know it's frustrating because I had a student have a complete meltdown in my room. He was inconsolable and I didn't know how to make him feel better. I wasn't sure what I could say that would make him feel better, or could comprehend. I felt trapped because he wouldn't leave my office and I had to dismiss the other students and take his test back to the secure location.

My other gripe is that the test is designed to fool students into thinking that they are doing well. The math test is especially guilty of this. It's a multiple-choice test, and without a doubt, each question has one answer choice that is possible by trying to solve the problem in a simplistic yet incorrect way. It drove me crazy because as I read the questions to my students I watched them use horrible tactics to solve them. I wanted to yell at them, but of course I had to keep everything to myself. I'm starting to think that we may need to go the Princeton Review route and talk about answers that are there to trip you. I would settle for kids trying to solve a problem, and if they do it incorrectly there answer isn't a choice. I remember that happening a few times on the SAT and GRE.

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IQ and Older Fathers

Today's New York Times had an article about the IQs of children of older fathers. Older fathers have children with lower IQs when tested in different cognitive areas, including fluid reasoning, memory, and motor skills. When I see studies like that I often wonder who did the testing and what test did they use. According to the news article, the information was gathered from 50,000 mothers who attended 12 clinics from the years 1959 to 1965. Whatever test was used, it must have been the earliest edition. Interestingly, an older father's detriment to IQ seems to be biological, while an older mother's asset to IQ seems to be environmental. Older mothers are more nurturing and have the economic means to provide more enrichment. The article mentioned the age range of the the fathers and mothers in the story. They had participants as young as 12 and 14! A teenage birth in the 60's had to be controversial.

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School Psychologists and Pop Culture

I don't have HBO, I can't afford it. So there are many shows that have entered the pop culture Zeitgeist that I never got to experience the first time around: The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, The Wire, etc. Nonetheless, I just started watching The Sopranos on DVD. Season 1, Episode 7 titled "Down Under"featured a school psychologist. Anthony Jr. stole communion wine and showed up at school drunk. He was suspended from school and the principal decided that he should be evaluated by the school psychologist for ADD. The first thing I noticed was that this Catholic school had its own school psychologist. Impressive, but likely, I don't know. There were a lot of things in the episode that wouldn't be legal now. I'm not sure if it's a reflection of the time since it was 10 years ago (1999), a depiction of special education identification in private/parochial schools, or poetic license. First, the principal and the school psychologist strong-armed Tony and Carmela into the evaluation. I don't remember seeing them sign a consent for the evaluation. The second thing was the lack of a PPT. The only person doing the eval was the school psychologist, but I can personally attest to being the only person doing an eval, this happens when I do outside evals for my district. But this has only happened with re-evaluations. An initial would require a lot more evaluators, including school nurse, social worker (if available) and speech and language.

There was a part of the episode where they showed the evaluation. In the scene, Anthony was completing a projectives exercise. He was looking at pictures and had to describe what he thought about them. My first reaction was, "What test is that?" then I remembered that for test security they wouldn't be able to show an actual test. I thought the school psychologist's demeanor was dead-on. Even his noncommital speech about the "possibility" of having ADD was classic. I think it was interesting how the different Soprano family members kept mistaking the school psychologist for a psychiatrist. He was introduced with the title of doctor, but somehow everyone turned him into a psychiatrist. All in all, it was a decent depiction of what we do.

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NASP Convention - Boston Day 2

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

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Live from the NASP Convention in Boston - Day 1

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

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

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

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Interpersonal Relationships

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

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

RTI Can't Come Soon Enough

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

Unappreciated?

Today I went to a workshop with school psychologists and social workers and someone brought up how we are unappreciated. The social worker complained about how she has done numerous social-emotional learning classroom lessons throughout the years and not once has a teacher or parent thanked her for doing so. This struck me as odd because I wouldn't expect to be thanked. It's not that I expect people not to pay attention to some of the things that I do, like classroom lessons, it's that I don't expect them to pay attention to it. (If you read the last sentence carefully, it make sense.) I've always considered this to be a thankless job. I don't need anyone to acknowledge it, and I don't expect them to. I have a feeling that if I were to wait for some acknowledgment for all that I do for kids, I would be waiting for an eternity.

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When Things Come Together

First thing this morning I had the two meetings that I mentioned in the last post. Both meetings went really well. I was amazed at how we were able to sit down and actually develop ideas on how to provide better services to students. I think we were able to change how one teacher views her role in the classroom. This particular teacher was hung up on the fact that her student wasn't turning in homework and his mother wasn't helping the situation. I told her that she had to let the homework go. There are more worthy battles to fight. I have often found it hard for people to realize that you can't always change behavior, but you can change how you react to it. I hope that the message sticks this time. My principal was pleased with the outcome of both meetings; it was her idea to have the meetings in the first place. If she's happy, then I'm happy.

On another note, I got a request for records from Nathan's mother. Now they are living in Vermont. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm expecting him to be back in my school by next year, it really is the next logical step.

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Tensions Running High

For some reason there were a few teachers who were a little high-strung today. I don't know if they all had rough days, rough weekends, the cold weather, or the fact that January seems to never end, but I was dealing with grouchy, stressed-out people all day. One teacher knocked on my door and came in to talk to me. That's always a sign of something serious, because teachers rarely have the time to actually knock on my door. The teacher told me that she had discussed the problem with the principal and she suggested that the information be shared with me. So I had one teacher complaining about her recent interaction with a mother and child. It's the old familiar tune of a student that isn't completing homework, mom thinks that the teacher doesn't care, and mom is doing everything she can to undermine the interventions and extra work that the teacher has put in place. This teacher wasn't that grouchy actually, more exasperated. As I was talking to her, there was a knock on my door and my principal walked in. This was a sign that she wanted immediate action. So she reiterated the case and requested a meeting of relevant staff soon. I looked at the schedule and she pressed for sooner, so I scheduled the meeting for tomorrow. She then asked me about an ongoing issue with a special ed teacher and a regular ed teacher. I didn't have promising news, so she demanded an additional meeting with those teachers after we meet on the first student. I had 2 new meetings scheduled in less than 2 minutes!

The other grouchy teacher run-in happened at the end of the day. I was at my mailbox and a teacher comes up to me and says, "I need help with this kid," then she proceeded to show me that the student's reading score hasn't changed since last May. My response was "At least he's consistent." I was treating it lightheartedly, which did not go over well at that moment. She became infuriated and stormed off yelling, "You know, I just can't get any help in this school!" I tried to tell her I was kidding and she's normally good-natured and full of sarcasm. I guess she was having a bad day.

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Nathan Epilogue

I just published the last Nathan post, I still had it in my drafts. It's fortunate that I didn't publish it because the story wasn't over. I guess the big move didn't happen, because my school received a fax from a school in a nearby town requesting records for Nathan. I thought he was moving to the Midwest, but I guess I was wrong. His mom entered the wrong school on the request form, which indicates her current state of mind, but at least he is enrolled in school. I think he's been out of school since the beginning of November. If he stays local, it's only a matter of time before he reenrolls in my school. My school should install a revolving door, it would make things easier.

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Snow Days

The kid in me loves snow days. There's nothing like waking up to a fresh coating of snow and seeing that school is canceled. On the other hand, when I have meetings scheduled on that same day it throws off my whole schedule. I am up to my ears in PPTs that haven't happened yet. I've had 2 snow days so far this year, and of course both of those days chock full of meetings.

I've had to make arrangements to have these meetings occur. I tried to fit some in next week, but they will only run into the other scheduled meetings. And the weather forecast for next week calls for another snowstorm.

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