Good week so far.

I'm having a pretty good week so far. I almost hate to say it, it's like "tempting the evil eye" but there it is. We had conferences last night. I was dreading it for a variety of reasons but the main one was that I had a parent who vehemently wanted to retain their kindergartner for a second year in kindergarten. Minnesota school districts, in fact most school districts in this country, simply don't retain a student who is already identified as disabled - it really is counter productive. It is like using a general ed approach to address a special ed need. On top of that, the research shows that there are very few situations in which retention of any student is an effective way to "help them" progress. I had already had several tentative discussions with these parents to that effect but at the bottom it is up to the school Principal to make the final decision. I knew what she was going to say and was NOT looking forward to these parents' certain disappointment. Our school Principal is awesome! She was so gentle but immovable. It was an education to watch. The discussion lasted over half an hour but by morning the dad had left us all a message that he understood what we were trying to tell him and he agreed after all. And he thanked us for taking the time to talk it through with him!! Since he is an attorney I was pretty impressed by this message. I was ready for another round.

Today the snow made me 10 minutes late for a Child Study meeting (I'm the Child Study Chairperson) and the meeting was in progress when I got to school so I had to scramble to get my part put together and present it. By the time I was finished with that I had to teach a social skills lesson. Then I had to cover a class for a teacher who had to go to another building for a transition meeting. When that was done I had to leave to attend a meeting at the Staff Development Center. I had to leave that meeting 45 minutes early in order to be back at Madison for an IEP meeting! After such a day, of course, my phone was ringing when I finally walked back into my office (40 minutes after my duty day is supposed to have ended.) When I picked it up the person calling said "I called you at 8 this morning and you haven't called me back yet!" I had to laugh. I ran full blast all day but it all went really well so I had fun! I sincerely hope all my friends and family are having as good a week as this is starting out to be. ;)