paulandemily.com

< rant >
Why do people waste my time with a phone call when we have a nice instant messaging package for use in our office? I get so many phone calls that are simple one answer, close ended questions, when the person could quite simply double click my name, ask the questions, and receive an answer. Its mostly people who don’t work in our local office, so they waste long distance time too!
< /rant >

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Paul got on me because I haven’t written about my new job yet; so here goes.
I started my new job at Campbell County High School on 8/7/08. The position is a Transition Coordinator. It’s a grant position under Title 1 Part D. I’m working with students that are currently in Campbell Lodge or Holly Hill (residential facilities) or those that are transitioning back to the high school from the alternative school. Typically, these kids would come to the school, get enrolled, be handed a schedule and basically told “good luck!” There wasn’t anyone to make sure that the kids didn’t fall through the cracks…they had guidance counselors, but they are really busy and don’t have the time or resources to monitor these kids as closely as they need to be monitored. Thus, my position was created.
My overall goal for the program is to make sure that these kids graduate. This grant was created to reduce recidivism and dropout rates. I have spent the past 1.5 weeks developing the position from scratch. It’s been difficult because A) no one knows exactly what I’m suppose to be doing B) I don’t have a direct supervisor or team to ask questions to in my building C) I have a HUGE learning curve with learning the school system, the programs that these kids are coming from, and all of the in-school supports / programs / testing that is available for them.
Basically it looks like I’ll be spending my time helping the pre-transition process like getting their transcripts put into the computer, making a schedule for them, notifying the teachers of the child’s situation, and getting to know the kids before they even come to the high school. Once they are ready to transition, I”ll be showing them around and monitoring them weekly (via face to face visits, emails updates from teachers, phone calls home or to their residential facility) to ensure that they are holding up ok, fitting in, and being successful. There’s a TON more stuff that I have to do including holding ARC meetings, making a graduation plan, career planning, teaching organizational skills, social skills, self-esteem, etc etc etc. I already have about 40 kids on my caseload, and it will just go up from there. I assume that I’ll keep the kids until they graduate so my list will eventually be really huge.
It looks like it’s going to be an exciting job; all the teachers and staff at the high school and alternative schools are really excited for the prospect of the program and what it can do for the kids. I’ll update more in about a month to let you know how it’s going!

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So after a long 6 years, I have decided to leave my job at NorthKey. It’s been a great experience here: my first “real job” during grad school, two internships, an unbelievable job in children’s crisis, great coworkers, great learning experiences, and wonderful friends. After a lot of research, soul-searching and long, drawn out conversations with Paul, family and friends, I decided to take a chance a something new.

I will be the Transition Coordinator for Campbell County High School. Basically, I’ll be working with Title 1, Part D kids (neglected & delinquent) who are transitioning from state agencies, residential facilities, detention center, and alternative school into the regular high school. I’ll be helping them to compile all of their credits from previous placements, do career planning, be a liason to all the agencies they are invovled with, work with their families, hold meetings, and basically monitor them intensely to make sure that they have the resources and safety net that they need to be successful in school. These kids typically get handed a schedule on their first day and told “good luck.” This is a unique position that will keep these kids from falling through the cracks, and work to reduce dropout rates and truancy. Cool stuff.

I’m excited for this new step in my career; it’s better pay, I’ll be in the school systems (one of my long term goals), and of course I get the amazing school schedule .

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Today was my first day back at work and Sean’s first full day at daycare. My day went well; it was actually kind of nice to get back to “adult land.” I’m not thrilled about starting to actually work again, but it was nice to be back in the work environment and have adult time and discussions.

Sean did really well at daycare today. He took several short naps, one long nap, and drank most of every bottle. The head lady said that he did wonderful. It wasn’t too difficult to leave him this morning; once I put him in their exersaucer, he was good to go and playing like crazy. He was asleep when I picked him up today, but was VERY happy to see his mommy!

When we got home, he had a bottle and PASSED OUT until 9pm when we finally woke him up to give him a bath and bottle and send him to bed. I wonder how long he’ll sleep tonight. Daycare seems to have worn him out!

The only negative to the daycare so far is that he came home smelling like patchouli…bleh. I don’t know what to do about it. Paul and I hate the smell of patchouli, especially on our boy! We had to really scrub him tonight and it didn’t all come off. Wonder if it’ll come out of his clothes easily. I have a feeling it’s one of the owners that wears it so I’m not sure what to do/say. Help?

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Well, my 12 week maternity leave is coming to a close this evening. It’s been a crazy journey! Who could have thought that my last few weeks of pregnancy I was saying “I just don’t know what I’m going to do for 12 whole weeks at home…” LOL. Silly (stupid) me!

Tomorrow I head back to work and Sean will spend his first whole day at daycare. I should have started a poll to see how many cups of coffee I’d need to make it through the day! I’m used to getting at least one big nap per day, sometimes 2-3! I don’t have any idea how I’m going to get up at 6:15a and make it until 5:00p, then get dinner ready and him into bed later, all without a nap! Whew. It scares me to even think about it!

On a happier note, Sean ALMOST rolled over today! I’ve been practicing with him and he can roll over from his back to his tummy if I flop his legs over for him first. Today, he was playing on his playmat and flopped his legs over by himself! He was laying on his side for awhile and if he had wanted to, he could have flipped himself the rest of the way over. We’ll keep up the practice and try to get a video of him rolling when he does it! What a big boy!

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