Finding our Groove
Good morning. It’s me. I ddn’t go to the chat room yesterday. I had made a rule that we couldn’t go during the day and then when we got home the ones who watch the “star” news won out until Sweetie came home. We had dinner, watched a show, and then umm made merry. Ahh that be the holidays!I had problems over eating when I first got home – I ate a few pieces of turkey and a couple of spoonfuls of sweet potatoes while waiting for sweetie. But, I did well in turning down the temptation to eat on of Sr.’s fundraiser candy bars and we didn’t stop by at BK while we had $4 in our car. So, that was good. This morning we had a banana, which is normal first thing, but didn’t feel like eating our regular large bowl of cereal. We had another chance 15 minutes before leaving, but decided we weren’t up to it. We also noted that two fruits seemed enough for daytime snacks instead of doubling up on either an orange or an apple. This is of course in addition to the sandwich. We’ll see how it goes. Also, we were going to hold up on the pop, but we got a diet coke anyway. We haven’t adjusted yet to getting water. We did ask sweetie to pick up 6-12 waters at the store. We told him we’d fill up the bottles after that with tap water, but we needed some bottles. He was agreeable to that. We’ll see.
I think that is about it for the diet happenings this morning. Let me think … anything else? I don’t think so … we are going to write a little in our blog before getting started at work. We have a few things we would really like to get done today. We would like to:
1) Do some blogging (7:40-9:00 am)
2) Prepare the CIRCLES lessons for the week (9:00-9:45 am)
3) Complete C’s annual, goals, and goals and objectives sheets (9:45-10:30 am &
2 pm – 4 pm)
4) Meet with Group III for CIRCLES (10:30-11:15 am)
5) Meet with Group III for observations to the Chronological Report (CR) (12:00-1:30 pm)
6) Stay for overtime to enter information to the CR (4:00-6:00 pm)
Ok, that’s good for me. Would be a good work day … let’s start!
Hmm good. This first part before this sentence got posted to the OH site too. Now there is 45 minutes.
Hmm, we’ just stepped in for something going on with some of the individuals in the Leadership group. There are a few that have been working out in the community for holiday season, but they’ve been bickering between themselves. I don’t think they have enough structured time to be taking care of their anxieties and they are trying to dump on each other. And, then they are unstructured first thing in the morning when their staff is watching the doors up at the front end. So they just go on and on talking until they are crabbing at each other, because they both want to be in charge. The DSP talked to them before she left and she stopped in here now asking about it, but in the meantime, I listened to the clients and basically I figured that they just have too much unstructured time to be worrying over things. So I told them to get out something to work on. We’ll talk to the DSP more about structured time later … they need time to discuss their concerns that are business related while at the center, so they don’t have to take care of all that on the phone where there are too many opportunities to disagree. I heard the clients trying to organize like who would sit where in the van – things like that that are a big deal to them are things that should be handled by the staff, or basically, not a concern – I think it is saying that they are after some kind of pecking order and a sense of control. Maybe they feel that loss by being out in the community even though supervised by a job coach.
But, for now it is over because they’ve shut the door and the DSP is trying to figure it out.
I’m going back over the CR yesterday with K. I think it really works. The biggest thing is the Outline. It is taking all the clues and directing a plan of attack. I wonder how that would work on a spread sheet. Hold on.
Ok, that is interesting … it doesn’t switch over well from the Word document of the Notes, but it does copy well from the Word – written part – the first copy. It keeps the indentation. I think it would be easier to manipulate and gather information for all the individuals if I could keep it on the spreadsheets. How would that work? I think we’re going to need testing for some of the other people like from group I or group II to see if it still works well in outline form. I need to check per group and then per center as to if things are fitting together. For example, will everybody need to be tested for Words, Letters, Colors, and Alignment? It would seem these things affect others so become tools that would be needed at each of the levels. It’s hard to say right now, what’s happening at each of the levels.
Hmm, maybe we should have a master copy of all the skills and whatever else we’re going to track in the outline, but keep things more simple in the individuals char as to what they are working on. Then the DSPs can check the progress compared to the Center’s development of any given series. It might be a good idea to keep together the program areas in the outline, but I don’t know how it would go in that they cross over – like tracing, coloring, and stacking could be in math, English, or art. That’s sort of Sister’s point in the beginning that we could learn from natural circumstances. The “checks for” section seems specific to each individual too, although some like needs to achieve competence and confidence could carry over to many clients – so should be included on a master list of things that could be of concern. Same would go with “Encourage with” that could be unique or cross over to many.
In a sense, I think we are creating a list such as through the DSP Training book that categorized things in social skills, or listening, or whatever. That might have to be checked. I’m going to see if there is an extra copy in the staff training room, hold on.
Ok, It's now 4 pm and we're to the point of posting because it is time to go home. Plans always change, especially when you are in avoidance. I didn't make myself do the harder annual, et al. I did do the group and I did a 15 minute goal with a client. But, then I got into going through information from one of the program guides I'd made for the DSPs about 4 years ago. Although the material is old, I am finding that they are still using it just not down the line ... it is random. Two of the DSPs had their books at home to make lesson plans and one is on a long materinty leave. I might ask sister to have Rosa make up a couple of copies, but then again I would like to do something else. Trying to understand what the state is doing would teach me a lot on education curriculum, but I'm getting blown away with it. I think I have to spend more time with it at home. Then I finally after a couple of days checked my mail up front. I found that there was a book there that was one of five books sent to me as a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. It's the most amazing timing.
The book is called, "Getting to Got it! Helping Struggling Students Lean How to Learn." So, I started to read that up until a few moments ago ... about 50 pages of 150 ... theoretically, I could finish it tonight, but I would like to stop by at the group tonight ... Rich is gone. He was here for a while, but not very communicative. Sister is blaming him for not having enough payroll. I feel responsible because I'm not working on the grants. He's going to be out until about 8 pm. He was the one that recommended that I go home. I think I just might try that. Just need to pick up my desks. So, so ... I will be back later ... bye
posted by Ann Marie @ 11/27/2007 04:00:00 PM
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