WE HAVE A HOME

Friends and Family.

I finally have my new office.

Construction is still happening on our school site. But we managed to finagle our way in today to take a look at the massive amount of work that needs to happen between now and Monday. I imagine the rest of this week will be very, very LONG.

BUT THAT’S OKAY.

We have a home. And an almost finalized roster. Our paraprofessional, Bruni, and I are still putting bits and pieces together.

But let’s back up to this morning.

Today’s professional development has been the most rewarding and most effective for me, personally. We started out the morning going over policies and procedures. We continued on with the SST (Student Success Team) process – which basically means that there SHOULD BE HOOPS AND FIRES to jump through before a student qualifies for special education services.

That sounds like a bad thing. But it’s not. Because schools and districts often qualify students WAY TOO QUICKLY and several students are placed in the system when they really don’t need to be. Please refer back to my post on how SPECIAL EDUCATION IS NOT A DUMPING GROUND.

After our SST session, we moved onto my personal favorite of the day – a training on the Goalbook ToolKit. The toolkit models and aligns IEP Goals with Common Core and UDL (Universal Design for Learning) so you can develop IEPs AND design lessons that help all students succeed. All the special ed teachers/service providers reading this, let’s get something straight real quick. I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT goals should be individualized to the child. I’ve always avoided goal banks because they’re usually not applicable to MY KIDS. But please go take a look at this site. You will be amazed at the level of support it provides you as you write your IEP goals and develop strategies for your kids. I was in tears by the end of the session because I feel like, FOR ONCE, I’ve found something that is SO.SO.SO helpful.

After that session, I sat through 3 hours of SWIS Data Training. As the data lead for our particular school site, I need to familiarize myself with the website. I have a numb bum after that training but it was helpful.

After taking a mini detour to see the new office, I went to meet Julia at some food truck parking lot extravaganza in Santa Clara.

They had all sorts of adventurous things you could try.

I definitely went the safe route and ordered a Chicken Burrito Bowl instead. I may or may not have inhaled it in less than 5 minutes. By the time I realized I didn’t take a picture of it, I only had a couple of bites left. And I didn’t want to put my fork down. So, you just have to imagine that it looked delicious.

We got dessert from the Treatbot truck. Which is basically just Diddy Riese with better tasting ice cream.

I went with the classic ice cream sandwich. Chocolate chip cookies and old-fashioned vanilla. Can’t really go wrong there, my friends.

Now it’s time to hit the hay because I have a long day ahead of me. I will be leading a presentation on the ISE (Integrated Special Education) model during the day tomorrow. I also need to wake up early and get a workout in AND clean up the apartment a bit since my new roommate will be moving in.

Cannot. Wait.

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