Day one is down of teacher inservice training, with 2 more to go. I've often wondered why they feel they need to torture us teachers before they let us do what we love. Do administrators feel a need to show us a bit of their miserable life before they set us free with kids? I truly don't know, I just know that I am tired, crabby, and don't feel well: headache, stomach pain, etc. Come on along with me for a description of today's fine time!
I work for an educational entity known as an Intermediate Unit (IU) here in Pennsylvania. Intermediate Units were set up by the state to help school districts with special education services, so...if a district does not want to hire its own special education teachers, OTs, PTs, Speech Therapists, etc. they contract with the Intermediate Unit to provide those services. Each IU has its own catchment area. Ours covers a 3 county area.
My day started with a 1 hour, 15 minute drive to the building where inservice was to be. I picked up the special education teacher and the paraprofessional I work with, as it is best to carpool. We arrived at a school and were funneled into the library. It was a very tight fit and the room was warm.
The first 1/2 of the day was a review of non-violent crisis intervention (NCI). We review this program yearly to remind us how to handle a crisis involving any student who is acting out. I must admit, the person presenting did a much better job than in previous years of making the program fit for those of us that work with the preschool group of children. The second 1/2 of the day was spent listening to a wonderful woman who happens to be the most boring speaker on the face of the planet. She showed us a program for helping us understand how to set up the environment for students with disabilities, so the students can be as independent as possible. Several of us had already been to a specialized training that was given by the woman who had created and implemented the program, so it was just information heard over again in a less animated form.
Tomorrow, we sit some more to review all the procedures we have heard about for the past forever years ago. The next day we sit in a large auditorium to listen to the supervisors tell us about all the programs they've told us about a million times before.
I can't wait until I get to start speech therapy with my little ones again!
In the meantime, Daughter needs to be picked up at Girl Scouts; and I still have an Education Committee meeting to go to at church. My Happy Hour will not begin until around 9:00 tonight. A good glass of wine and then bed.
This is an open thread. Feel free to tell about your day and tell us what sounds like a good drink for your day!
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