(no subject)
Yesterday went a lot better than I had expected. I didn’t expect to be at Jason’s school all day long. So, we got Jason ready. I was seriously expecting to have to take him in. Surprise! They actually had a wheelchair bus and a driver that he had had in years past. That made us relieved because Ms B knows what the story is. She is a small Japanese lady that I believe is in her 60’s. She reminds me of someone who would be a formula one driver in their off hours. She is a hoot.
We got there a little bit ahead of her in order to see who/what/if there was going to be someone to meet him. She got him to school ok, but they wanted her to offload his wheelchair at the side of the school instead of at the main entrance.
Each entrance to the school apparently had a sort of glee club cheering section for the first day. The 6th graders had the school all to themselves for their first day. Jason was stoked to begin with, but he was totally stoked when he saw that. The principal and house administrator was there as well as someone from the board of education. (Do you think we might have gotten someone’s attention?)
This is a brand new school building that was built on the same property as Alex’s high school. The old school with the same name is in the process of being torn down. So, there are boxes and shipping crates etc all over the place, and things are more chaotic if not more than you would expect. One of the things that hadn’t gotten passed around was elevator keys. So we had to wait around until one could be located. The person acting as Jason’s aid for this week showed up and was handed the principal’s key so Jason could use the elevator to get to class.
I was introduced to Jason’s home room teacher and was co-opted by the school nurse. She had started to go over Jason’s health plan etc. There was a lot of exchanges of information going on as well as medical release signing etc. I ended up talking to the nurse and the teacher through about 2 periods of class (he so far has 3 teachers in 6 different classes on 3 different floors) One of the big things that we spoke about that wasn’t part of his usual medical stuff was an evacuation plan. I am under the impression that the district didn’t tell them squat. I was so glad that I had printed out his IEP before I left the house. Apparently, no one at the school had it.
Anyway from home room, I caught up with him in social/life skills class. I gather that it is a special ed only class. The teacher had Mike and I run through a little getting to know you exercise with the kids. Jason has his buddy J from kindergarten in his classes as well as a new boy A, who hadn’t been to any of Jason’s classes before. She apparently teaches social studies too. They are going to be doing ancient civilizations, like ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. I offered to send her vintage pictures that I have via email if she would like them. This school year the Pacific Science Center will have a rare King Tut exhibit, so they are hoping to be able to arrange that.
They did pay attention to my email about Jason not being in general ed PE. They were still scrambling to find him a class assignment. At the moment, he is going to be the TA in the library. I still want to get him into a general ed class, preferably science. I think that the school won’t make a decision on that until the IEP meeting toward the end of the month. More on that later.
Anyway, by the time all info was exchanged with that teacher, I trotted back upstairs to his homeroom teacher’s class because that was next on the agenda. Jason came back in a bit early and I tube fed him showing the nurse etc. It’s not terribly difficult, but it seems to be the biggest thing that scares people. This time the teacher and I got to talk while everyone else went out on a floor tour. I expressed concerns about Jason doing keyboarding while in this class (this is reading/writing) since it’s in his IEP. It turns out that they have not received all of their computers for the school yet. They are still waiting on cabinetry etc too.
Anyway, from that class we went up to the 3rd floor for his last class which will be a combo of math and science with the current set up. This teacher is from Norway originally, and she is an RN on top of being an educator. We spoke of some of the things addressed in his IEP. This was another classroom that doesn’t have all of its computers yet. The really nice thing about this new building is the center screen is a huge interactive touch screen. I thought that was kind of spiffy. We discussed an evacuation plan again. I told the teacher that if you have a fire burning down the door, grab the kid and go. The chair can be replaced. People are more important than things.
This particular teacher is Jason’s IEP coordinator too. She had emailed various people at the district to get an IEP set up. She was told apparently rather sternly to bugger off they would be handling it. She said she would email me once she has it. Jason’s attorney emailed me later that evening, and I finally have the IEP meeting that I requested LAST YEAR scheduled. His teachers don’t even know when it is yet.
Anyway, I think they were rather surprised since we spent the whole day there. I think we were the only parents who were there the entire day. I know we were the only parents in Jason’s classes that were there. I am torn between wanting to believe that they were impressed that we not only bothered to show up, but we were encouraging dialog and wondering if they were thinking OMG what a right pain in the neck these parents hover so.
I have given them every contact number I have as well as my home and work email addresses. So, I think they can at least attest to the fact that I am trying to be a help and not a hindrance. The one concern I did have was that they told me they will give little if any homework. I am not used to that. Granted, I don’t expect him and his classmates to work 100 hours a night on homework, but I would expect to see a little something.
His teachers agreed to email me with any and all homework assignments at least. That way I can make sure he has it done and what not. This has left me at least hopeful. Now we have to deal with the district to see what they will and won’t do for Jason.
We got there a little bit ahead of her in order to see who/what/if there was going to be someone to meet him. She got him to school ok, but they wanted her to offload his wheelchair at the side of the school instead of at the main entrance.
Each entrance to the school apparently had a sort of glee club cheering section for the first day. The 6th graders had the school all to themselves for their first day. Jason was stoked to begin with, but he was totally stoked when he saw that. The principal and house administrator was there as well as someone from the board of education. (Do you think we might have gotten someone’s attention?)
This is a brand new school building that was built on the same property as Alex’s high school. The old school with the same name is in the process of being torn down. So, there are boxes and shipping crates etc all over the place, and things are more chaotic if not more than you would expect. One of the things that hadn’t gotten passed around was elevator keys. So we had to wait around until one could be located. The person acting as Jason’s aid for this week showed up and was handed the principal’s key so Jason could use the elevator to get to class.
I was introduced to Jason’s home room teacher and was co-opted by the school nurse. She had started to go over Jason’s health plan etc. There was a lot of exchanges of information going on as well as medical release signing etc. I ended up talking to the nurse and the teacher through about 2 periods of class (he so far has 3 teachers in 6 different classes on 3 different floors) One of the big things that we spoke about that wasn’t part of his usual medical stuff was an evacuation plan. I am under the impression that the district didn’t tell them squat. I was so glad that I had printed out his IEP before I left the house. Apparently, no one at the school had it.
Anyway from home room, I caught up with him in social/life skills class. I gather that it is a special ed only class. The teacher had Mike and I run through a little getting to know you exercise with the kids. Jason has his buddy J from kindergarten in his classes as well as a new boy A, who hadn’t been to any of Jason’s classes before. She apparently teaches social studies too. They are going to be doing ancient civilizations, like ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. I offered to send her vintage pictures that I have via email if she would like them. This school year the Pacific Science Center will have a rare King Tut exhibit, so they are hoping to be able to arrange that.
They did pay attention to my email about Jason not being in general ed PE. They were still scrambling to find him a class assignment. At the moment, he is going to be the TA in the library. I still want to get him into a general ed class, preferably science. I think that the school won’t make a decision on that until the IEP meeting toward the end of the month. More on that later.
Anyway, by the time all info was exchanged with that teacher, I trotted back upstairs to his homeroom teacher’s class because that was next on the agenda. Jason came back in a bit early and I tube fed him showing the nurse etc. It’s not terribly difficult, but it seems to be the biggest thing that scares people. This time the teacher and I got to talk while everyone else went out on a floor tour. I expressed concerns about Jason doing keyboarding while in this class (this is reading/writing) since it’s in his IEP. It turns out that they have not received all of their computers for the school yet. They are still waiting on cabinetry etc too.
Anyway, from that class we went up to the 3rd floor for his last class which will be a combo of math and science with the current set up. This teacher is from Norway originally, and she is an RN on top of being an educator. We spoke of some of the things addressed in his IEP. This was another classroom that doesn’t have all of its computers yet. The really nice thing about this new building is the center screen is a huge interactive touch screen. I thought that was kind of spiffy. We discussed an evacuation plan again. I told the teacher that if you have a fire burning down the door, grab the kid and go. The chair can be replaced. People are more important than things.
This particular teacher is Jason’s IEP coordinator too. She had emailed various people at the district to get an IEP set up. She was told apparently rather sternly to bugger off they would be handling it. She said she would email me once she has it. Jason’s attorney emailed me later that evening, and I finally have the IEP meeting that I requested LAST YEAR scheduled. His teachers don’t even know when it is yet.
Anyway, I think they were rather surprised since we spent the whole day there. I think we were the only parents who were there the entire day. I know we were the only parents in Jason’s classes that were there. I am torn between wanting to believe that they were impressed that we not only bothered to show up, but we were encouraging dialog and wondering if they were thinking OMG what a right pain in the neck these parents hover so.
I have given them every contact number I have as well as my home and work email addresses. So, I think they can at least attest to the fact that I am trying to be a help and not a hindrance. The one concern I did have was that they told me they will give little if any homework. I am not used to that. Granted, I don’t expect him and his classmates to work 100 hours a night on homework, but I would expect to see a little something.
His teachers agreed to email me with any and all homework assignments at least. That way I can make sure he has it done and what not. This has left me at least hopeful. Now we have to deal with the district to see what they will and won’t do for Jason.