Ayn's Multiple World

A good day done!

Good morning. This is me. We’re to work 10 minutes late this morning. This might be our more normal time. I think we got held up this time because we didn’t get the schedule down with Rich wanting to stay in bed. He had the cards, then he felt sick to his stomach … so must have been out later. He got to sleep in an extra hour. I wasn’t sure how to approach the sandwich deal, but he stated that he would bring one with him when he came today. I was going to handle it though~!

Sr. Margaret Mary was in Sr.’s office earlier when I came in … it felt like a nice cushion. Brandi and Candice didn’t say anything to me besides hello, so we figured ok we’ll let that go. I have staff training today though so we’re going to have to figure that bit out. I don’t know whether they are going to approach me or not concerning the event of the week hehehe. Seems pretty silly now, but we’ve come down to Maria is having problems and the others are just “in there.”

Brandi came in to use the scale in my office. She asked what was up … and we told her it was too early for anything to be up. She had to keep going … Theresa wasn’t in yet so Brandi was going to cover the group. I’ve been listening to her group for a few moments. They seem to have handled the mini-crisis that came up.

Apparrently, Maria yelled at one of the clients for being in the bag of someone elses, but that someone else in Brandi’s group said that it was her bag and she’d given her peer permission to be in that bag, because her mama was the others’ mama and vice versa – so that made them like sisters.

Oh oh … now that same client is talking about not knowing what happened to the pictures of the wall. Yeeks. It’s a center-wide mystery. I’m wondering whether or not to tell her I took the pictures off to make room for Thanksgiving since everyone had their own pictures. Naw … not unless I hear it again. It seems they’ve moved onto other topics. That’s enough.

The one client had gone and explained the situation to Maria and it seems to have worked out amicably, because there was nothing else she felt necessary to report back to her group.

Going to have to think here a moment about the group this afternoon … both actually, because the group we have at noon has gone through the neighborhood map. But, the group tomorrow hasn’t, so I want the Group today to hold back one more week and then they will all be even. And, then there will be the staff group.

Ok, as to that … we’ll present the time so that if they want to talk about anything during the first 10 minutes they can. I don’t know if they want that space or not, but you always got to plan as if its free space. Maybe if I get out one of my old schedules.

Hmm, stopped in the washroom. Theresa called in … she’s not coming in so. They are doing what they are supposed to bed doing in dividing the group. That’s not too bad. Wish that Theresa had come in – important when sister is gone to keep schedules, but sometimes that kind of stuff can’t be helped. Thinking too that Theresa asked me on the way past her room what had happened to the pictures and I just told her I wouldn’t get into that and the important part was that there was more room for Thanksgiving now that Halloween was over. I think they are all trying to get there own version, most likely because of Maria starting another. BUT, that would be me being paranoid again.

One thing for sure is that I’m going to need something strong enough to distract them into focusing on work than anything else. Not sure … oh, we were going to get out the last schedule. Hold on.

Wow! I haven’t made a schedule since Week 3 back at the end of September. There have been many interruptions though. I did do the lesson, but it was done late.

And, there were times that I was gone, and times that Sr. wanted the time for other things. I forget too that there is no meeting on the first Thursday of the month.

Hmm, speaking of meetings … we got a note saying that the Behavior Meeting is going to be on the same day as our Thanksgiving celebration at the special dinner. Ok, that’s all good.

The first 10 minute discussion went like this – we’re talking Staff training now.
Discussion (10 minutes): We have been talking about breaking down elements of what you teach. One way to do this is to identify the goals and objectives of our lessons. The goal is part of the big plan. For example, I would like all the individuals in my group to know how to identify coins and state their value, or I would like all the individuals in my group to walk around the block. Objectives are the steps it is going to take to accomplish the goal. For example, one objective for the goal of identifying coins might be “The individual will point to a quarter,” or “The individual will place five fingers on five quarters.” An objective for a goal to be walking around the block might be “The individual will independently use the washroom before going out,” or “when asked, the individual will stand behind a line,” or “the individual will start to walk with gestures and the verbal cue, “start.” We will work on examples of goals and objectives as a group.

Hmm, ok, so we were leading up to goals and objectives.

Hehehe ok, we’re back … all is done and over with … it’s 2:30 pm and both meetings are over WOOHOOO!!! Just a little bit more now and then we’ll be on our way to Dr. Marvin’s. Oh, this must be pure joy!

I have to say things fell together nicely. I worked on the Staff Training agenda.

This is what we came up with.

Discussion (10 minutes): We have been talking about breaking down elements of what you teach. One way to do this is to identify the goals and objectives of our lessons. The goal is part of the big plan. Another part of the big plan is looking at the responses of our training on the individuals served. We will we will practice looking at DSP Chrononotes to define what was learned from each report.

The direct statements are the responses of our teaching or reporting efforts. By looking at the individuals collectively while keeping an eye to the specific domains and program areas, we can see a bigger picture of what it is that we hope to gain.

We also learn from each other as staff as to similar or different perspectives of our observation of the individuals served.

Human Interaction and Communication (20 minutes)

Complete the Communication Process Worksheet after we discuss the Chronological Report.

1. Indentify the interaction participants – those who are communicating.
2. Identify the message sender and their role in the interaction
3. Identify the message receiver
4. Where did the interaction take place
5. What was going on at the time of the interaction (things leading up to the interaction)
6. What was the facial expression of the sender?
7. What was the facial expression of the receiver?
8. What was the body language of the sender?
9. What was the body language of the receiver?
10. What was the mood of the sender (example: happy, sad, angry, and frustrated?)
11. What was the mood of the receiver
12. Were there any distractions on the part of the sender (example: other individuals, activity, television, etc)?
13. Were there any distractions on the part of the receiver?
14. Were there any communication challenges present ?
15. Was there any assistive communication devices used in the interaction? If so, what?
16. Identify attempts to communicate by the sender/receiver or receiver/sender that were not recognized.

Chronological Reports (30 minutes)

1. Read through together the material that was collected. Discuss what the material conveyed about the individual, the staff, and the program.
2. Distribute the most current Chronological reports from Ann’s caseload each to the same DSP? Encourage that findings are shared. Find where that information was placed on the report?
3. Distribute the second to the last Chronological reports from Ann’s caseload each to the same DSP? Encourage that findings are shared. Write down the item name, keywords, category, and action date – according to the example report given.

Ok, back! Over here! Before this meeting though we had the CIRCLE Program for Group II. We went down the list stopping before getting to the section where we are coloring the circle and placing shapes on it. I wanted to change it up somehow. It was toward the end so we brought the map out late. I realized within about 1 ½ that what I was going to do with it was too hard. I had worked most of the meeting trying to contain everyone to the same set of thinking processes. There was a lot of silliness to get over. I think the time was well spent. I wasn’t happy with the number of times people were getting up and down to do little things, or how often they tried to bring their private things onto the table which distracted both them and the group. We worked on that a lot. We always do it in a backward funny way, so I kind of trick them into paying attention. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea when to break things up. I can tell when people are non-responsive.

At the end I gave way to some more silly business … I asked for a volunteer driver to drive through the neighborhood – because I’d realized they really couldn’t respond to the map. It was like a side lesson … sure it was attached – neighbors – but, not very strongly. Go straight, turn right, go straight, back-up. The group added its excitement to the direction giving, but it was mainly just a way to levy out some of the sillyness. The idea was to tire them. Hehehe. We did get to talk about the right things. I felt much better with the directions that I’d typed out before group I. Now these directions will also be used for the Leadership group tomorrow, then it will be on to a fresh experience. When I step back, it’s easier to appreciate that more is going on than meets the eye and that it is a very good idea for me to be teaching the four groups. If I were fair, I would add trying to teach something to group IV too, but I’m not up to that. Sr. might be too quick to respond.

Nonetheless, it was probably a good session in that I could direct their attention
through most of the session. They were like distracting each other to pieces. I asked the staff about it because they were so out of control. Oh no … acted like angels. I’m like sure … Hell’s angels! Hehehe no I didn’t mean that … lets just conclude here with they were lively – like my bouncy grandchild. Pshwoo.

So, with that said … I should probably make a few notes on the staff training meeting. I think that went over fairly well. I had a few direct hits from Maria, but I reflected them back to her. She couldn’t take over the meeting, because I was
too strong. I didn’t know it until I started talking, but I really felt I knew what I was saying – I hope that was their impression too. You can fool around all you want, but it still has to keep coming back to the work. Today was an excellent plunge into that.

I started and then I remember thinking at one point that wow – I was like talking a lot. I gave them 3-4 periods to come back and ask questions. We had them read through the Communication process too, but we went pretty much straight into the material I wanted to get into today. It was in preparation for being in their rooms. I told them that was a done deal and the Report was ok’d by Sr. Theresa.

And, that right now it was a matter of time … I don’t know if she’s going to suggest ½ hour or if I can spend up to 2 hours a week in each of the rooms. I want to become a regular fixture. I don’t want to be pinned down to times either. I want to come and go freely, so I don’t worry about missing sessions. That’s real important for my sense of freedom too. I don’t want to be pinned down. I noticed this weekend that Maria got to the room twice before me and then called to say they were already there. I expect to start at the top of the hour, not a minute before or after. They want to come in and “dump” them not considering who’s gone to the bathroom or needed water. It’ my opinion that that should be done before hand.

Sister’s impression too. Today we wasted 10 minutes waiting to adjust because they were bouncy and because they hadn’t finished those tasks or gotten their coats and bags and such for the next Town Hall Meeting after and then out the door and home.

Hmm, that paragraph strayed a bit. Mostly though wanted to get back to the staff meeting. There were a couple of times that Stephanie the other hard nosed one wanted to make me into a bad person for not knowing about her problems. It’s like speak woman … what’s on your mind? I think the funny thing is that when they present like that, they all seem to have in the back of their minds that I have a ready solution for them. That was never to be how the meeting was run. It should be more like – ok, let’s all think about that, any suggestions. Candice gave a good suggestion. I don’t recall the problem now, but I remember thinking that Candice had some depth in something she was saying. I don’t know where she is now though … I was just going to congratulate her, but she’s gone out. Eh.

I think after meetings everyone has to distress for a bit. I try to hide from the inner working of the DSPs most of the time. I have to be satisfied that when I’m with them that business is happening. Pretty much like we’ve been trained by Sr. Theresa. If you are in her space – you are there for a purpose. Best get done with it and move on down the path.

Sometimes the staff want to do things or say things that are petty … and we have to redirect. I told them that I would be reading both Candice’s and Holly’s Chrononotes, whether or not Holly has them doing something different on them or not. The major difference there is that I have the DSPs take notes on the goal data sheet, and Holly has them placing goal notes on the chrononotes … On my chrononotes and on Candices until she is at least done with training, I want everything, but goals. I’ve heard about them already. I don’t know how much difference it is going to make on the sheets. I think after a while that Holly’s notes are going to look a bit silly if they are simply statements like so and so can or cannot perform a task.

Hmm, we did that with the group today … we talked about objects. Anything and everything is an object – even people, and especially people according to many great psychologists. I wanted them to understand that after a while, we were going to realize that many of the objects that we give the individuals served, are just on or another, some bigger, smaller, harder, and softer. At least that’s my understanding so far. The group wanted to make a big deal about length and quality of the notes.

There’s a difference between both of those between Cathy and Sue, and between Theresa, Imelda, Maria, and Brandi. Brandi tried to sound authoritative when she said that Sr. Theresa told her to keep her notes lite. But, my general response … does that mean they are light-headed. No, I didn’t say it like that, although I did ask Cathy and Sue if they had been told to write shorter notes. Neither had (thank goodness), so I told her that we couldn’t answer that without talking to Sr.
Theresa, and that I would.

I did tell them at the beginning, that I wasn’t there to change them, that had to come from inside of them. If they didn’t feel compelled to write something of importance on the note that any attempt to change that would meet with their resistance. I wasn’t going to put myself as that person that forced them to do anything. I said, I think we could all say notes could be improved, but that I wouldn’t do that – at least not directly. Basically, if they want to contribute one or two sentences in two weeks time and they think that’s fine, well – then that’s them. Stephanie wanted to be orderly … she wanted to know exactly how long or worthy a note was expected to be … like ok – again that is up to you.

Consequentially – each staff is given one side of the paper and they are to place on it 2 weeks of information. Some of them are still writing large words – 5 words to the line, where others can fit 10 or 12 words, not place large spaces.

I just won’t tell them what to do, but then this system does place pressure on the lesser writers … also, I think some of the grief is on us as Q’s. The DSPs have written hundreds of notes, and basically, so what has been done with all of them?

There is still a question on the table, is it worth the time to be going back, or should we start from where we’ve come. I think that it’s a more historical process if you go back. Maybe you can pick up on things that have built to the present, or you could just start from here as it might be the first day of their life. It’s almost fairer to do that, because it means that everyone has a fair chance of paying attention. Not to say books, couldn’t be written according to the information placed before. I personally would like to start from just here, because of the gain I think the clients are at now should be reflecting the staff putting better effort into growth processes.

We discussed today in general about the big picture and that I couldn’t define it for them. It was the sum total of all their efforts that went into saying how and what was of value, but that as we go down the line, we might challenge, the chore we give them about putting blocks in same color rows, or of having them place objects in a bucket and then take them out. I told them that if they were repeating I was more than likely going to place a special note at the end that said (repeat 2x), (repeat 3x), etc. I’m not going to bog the report down although, I could appreciate keeping record of how long certain things reached maturity. That seemed fair.

I was surprised with the fluidity of my discussion. We basically started from the point of “we are coming into your room although the time hasn’t been set” to the fronts of the package to the back. I tried to show them that things like chronological notes 27 or 52 didn’t mean anything .. they were just reflective of the order I’d placed the note into the computer program. We went over what domains and program areas were for and that the number at the beginning only reflected the order I wanted to place the domains since I could sort alphabetically. We went over similar notes, pulling up by category, program areas where there had been more notes than others, and about classifying behavior under a certain stature. (Resistant, self control, willing), etc. We talked about everything being in the past tense and that it was in that way different than a goal or objective. Goals and objectives come before the action and responses such as these came after the action. I also praised them highly for being the professionals they are. I told them that they couldn’t put in “wrong” information if they were maintained their observer positions. Some still like to draw conclusions and that was ok toward the back end, but held the least weight in the sentence.

I didn’t go through every – I paused, but wanted to keep things moving along. I brought attention to the parts that some of them were noted by quality, assistance needed, effort, etc. I thought that was a fair thing to do, because on occasion everyone mentions that kind of stuff and it is what gives us our point systems.

With the shapes, I just discussed that as various sizes and shapes of things like a puzzle being a 2 – piece or a 25 piece. All those descriptors were important to keep with the information and I hope that we get more. It makes it easier for comparisons. I told them that I hoped to find a purpose in everything we do … I gave them the example of everyone being happy with the Bead job under vocational readiness, but that someone had given an example that small beads and dark beads are harder to deal with. I let them know that we were working through yet whether or not I could do tests while I was in the room. I told them that would perhaps come in time when I was surer of the patterns of learning that were happening. We could test out hypotheses individually or in groups.

We sorted things like physical fitness in sections such as dance, walking and bike … all those things were important, for example maybe they pointed to the fact that outdoor activities were more enjoyed than inside – or like the pattern already seemed to show that there was a pattern that exercise was more pleasant when it was happening with peers. I also pointed out even food activities might be further divided between application, recipes, and eating. I also suggested that they volunteer headings they thought were important to watch, and they could do that by mentioning descriptor words in their notes. We went over a little with what we’d found in a food preparation area – in that one of the clients in Group III didn’t know directions, “Go up, over … no down” They admitted around the group that none of them did – know directions. I had just tested that theory with group II. No one DID know directions. There were other things, but my time is running short and I’m going to need posting and getting out of her for Dr. M’s appointment. But, so far … feeling pretty good about this~! Good job!

posted by Ann Marie @ 11/08/2007 03:36:00 PM Comments: 0