School staffing meetings

The staff at Talli's school has a meeting each week to discuss how things are going with her, any problems, and any coordination that needs to happen. The meeting lasts 30-60 minutes and is lead by the Resource teacher. Here are those typically in attendance:

Resource Teacher

Classroom Teacher

School Nurse

1:1 Nurse

Speech Therapist

Occupational Therapist

School Social Worker

Sometimes the principal or district staff will attend as well.

If there is a major concern they ask me to come and meet with them, although I am welcome to come anytime. This afternoon is the meeting and I have been asked to come. There is no issues on their end. This does give me a chance to ask any questions that I have.

There are only 3 things that are pressing on me to discuss.

1. On a geography test on the continents and oceans, Talli got all of the continents correct, but didn't put anything down for the oceans. Did she run out of time? Did she get frustrated and give up?

2. Talli has been coming home with flashcards with her spelling words for the week, which is really helpful. This week she came home with ones she made herself. The problem is that her handwriting is so poor (hence, the reason she sees the OT) that in looking at them she couldn't tell whether a letter was a 'c' or an 'l'.

3. I feel like Talli is being asked to be more independent before she has the skills to do something herself. Currently, she has a fairly nasty yeast infection and having a wet bottom is contributing (she hasn't been on any antibiotics for a while). She usually is in a rush to goto the bathroom because she doesn't want to miss whatever is going on and she will either forget to wipe or she will get her pants wet in the process.

IEPs

Today we had an IEP meeting for Talli. In the end, we got pretty much what we wanted. There is new administrative staff at the school this year and the special ed and health staff from the district has changed. For things that we previously had push back on, some staff were asking for. One thing in particular, is that in the Health Plan within the IEP there will be a listing of the knowledge/skills that a staff member and her nurse need to have prior to being responsible for.

Typically, Talli's IEP is in May right at the end of the school year. We had this one today because we filed a complaint with the State Board of Education, this is different from Due Process in that the State can rule and have things changed without a hearing. It is also quick, they rule within 60 days of the complaint. In May 2010, the school did not give us 10 days notice for the IEP meeting. They also removed the Health Plan from the IEP and months later said it was a 504 plan. They also removed nursing as a support service in her IEP, so no nursing minutes were listed, only consult minutes from the school nurse. The State Board ruled that they had violated our rights (really Talli's) and that since she has an IEP because of the result of her medical conditions, the health plan and the nursing minutes need to be included as part of the IEP. So they had 6 weeks to get to the state 1. a meeting notice that was appropriate and 2. an IEP with the Health Plan included and the nursing minutes stated. Since neither of those things occurred in May 2011 when we met, they needed to hold a new meeting.

Tomorrow, I am going to start a line of posts called "Wasteful Wednesday". It will list the occurrences that happen that waste resources- it could be our time, money, or other people's money. Most are so frustrating, they are comical.

Our version of Home schooling

Although, Talli does go to ESY I supplement a hodge-podge of different bits and pieces that I have pulled from several places. All combined, we spend no more than an hour on "homework", excluding reading.


Handwriting
Spelling
Math
Geography
Reading
Science


Handwriting- A former OT of Talli's introduced us to Handwriting with Tears. Talli's writing is horrible, although, it has much improved. Occassionally, she reverses her letters, the letters are large, and she has difficulty with spacing. This summer we will work in the Printing Power book, each day she writes in 1-2 pages. On some days, she will write on the lined paper spelling words or items she has composed.


Spelling- We have added spelling goals to her IEP. Each year, there is a list of words that the kids are expected to know, many of the words are repeated to keep them fresh. There are about 100 "no excuse" words for the 3rd and 100 for the 4th grade. Her goal is to have a certain proficiency for both lists.


I make flash cards to help her practice the words. She has a very good long term memory, so once we can get the words in there, she tends to keep them. Since laminating can get expensive and I hate working with the home laminator I purchased a few years ago I do a quick and cheap version- trim them up and tape them to index cards with clear packing tape.

Since the tape doesn't cover the entire card, I have writing space on the back to make notes. I run through the words to make sure she can first read them. There were only 2 words in the 3rd grade list she couldn't read the first time through. Then we work on spelling, if she can spell it out loud (picture a spelling bee), then it is passed off with a note on the back and we don't bother with it for a couple of weeks. We work on about 6 words at a time.


Each day she tries to spell the word I read aloud. Once a week, I have her write them. We also use spellingcity.com to practice the words with the games. Her favorites are Hang Mouse and the word scramble.


Each year's worth of cards fit very nicely in a box for Energy Options candy bars.


Math- Talli is working on basic addition and subtraction, telling time, and counting money. At school, she uses Touch Math. She no longer needs the dots on the numbers or coins, but counts as if they were there.


Each day, I have her do 2 worksheets from the books listed below. Once a week, she gets her allowance of $3.50, which she has to count out and put 1/10 towards tithing and 1/10 towards savings. Then there is a discussion about how much she is going to save for a special event or toy and she has me put away a certain amount for that. Currently, she is saving to pay for her ticket to Disney Live! Three Classic Fairy Tales, which will be here in Illinois in March 2012.


The materials we use are:
Horizons K Math Package (I purchased from Son Light with the flashcards and manipulatives)

Time, Money, & Factions 1-2 (An I Know It Book)





Science- For science we are using
Magic School Bus books and videos
The Human Body, Super Science Activities
Facinating FActs, The Human Body

We talk about the systems of the body and she will do a worksheet out of one of the latter two books.

Geography- We started covering the Great Lakes Region, then the Prarie states, and then the West and Southwest (Florida was discussed almost daily because... That is where Disney World is!).
We used the following materials-
The 50 States Book and Magnetic Puzzle Map
Leap Tag Pen and Map
A cardboard puzzle of the states
A two week trip driving to California

Extended School Year

Today was the last day of the regular school year. On Monday, Talli starts Extended School Year (ESY) services. ESY services are for those who risk loosing skills over the summer break or who have an emerging skill that could be lost over the summer break. Those with Propionic Acidemia qualify for ESY as a metabolic crisis or stroke can cause them to loose skills.

In our district ESY is held M-Th in the mornings for 6 weeks. It is held at one elementary school in the district, so she will be bussed there each day. The classrooms are either multi-needs or instructional. Talli is in an instructional classroom. It tends to build her self-confidence as some in her class are a little behind her and some a little bit ahead.

The benefits for Talli are significant- rather than loose about 1 month of skills that the typical student looses over the summer, she tends to gain skills. I do work with her extensively over the summer as well, in my next post I will go over some of the things that we do during the summer and extended breaks from school.