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- Hi I'm Sam Miller, chief administrator
at Central Rivers AEA
and today we're gonna shoot another episode
of On the Job in Central Rivers.
Today, we're at North Cedar Elementary School
where I'll be following Lacey Brakebill,
a team representative.
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All right, so tell me more about the team rep role.
- Okay, I think team rep role is kind of an umbrella
and you have other job positions underneath that.
So special ed consultant, school psych, and social workers.
As a special ed consultant,
I am coming out of the classroom.
I was a special ed teacher before this.
Part of the special ed consultant and team rep role
is supporting teachers and administration
in buildings, problem solve, and support student progress.
I've been where the teachers are.
- Sure.
- So I've had those questions about paperwork
or students and just needed someone
to help me problem solve or figure things out.
I might collaborate with teachers
to problem solve student behaviors, work on paperwork,
provide ideas for instruction,
decide if additional evaluation
or assessment is needed for students.
- That sounds like a lot.
- It is, it's a ton.
- Yeah, how do you prioritize your work
so that you don't feel overwhelmed.
- It can be difficult at times.
Kind of navigating the stress and the workload is different
than a teacher.
I have a fabulous mentor who is always available
by e-mail, phone, in person.
- Alright, shout out to Hannah Hanson
for being an awesome mentor.
- My regional administrators have been great too
that I've been working with.
When I have a question, I feel like it's being answered
and I'm being supported.
- I really appreciate hearing that
because the one thing that we really strive for
as an agency is to help people
in their transitions feel supported.
It sounds like right now we're doing a nice job with that.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Well let's talk about today.
- Okay.
- What am I gonna experience today?
- I'm going to be working with one
of our special ed teachers here
in the building, Deena Fischels.
She is working on a student annual review
and has some questions about goals
and where to go with the goals.
- Alright, are we ready to go meet the teacher?
- Yeah, definitely.
- Alright, let's do it.
- Okay.
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So Deena, you have annual review coming up for a student
and it sounds like he's making really good progress
on his reading goal, right?
- Yes.
- But his teacher is concerned about writing.
So we need to look at his reading goal,
decide where we want to go from there,
and then take a look at his writing samples
and see what work still needs to be done,
what questions we still need to answer.
- And I would love if you could help me out
with the writing because I just feel like
that's hard for me to know.
You always help me look at their data and know
like will he qualify, so I would like some help with that.
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- [Lacey] So he's made really good progress.
- Yeah.
- So what am I looking at here?
- It's a rubric that looks at accuracy.
So once he hits that accuracy level,
they increase the level of text that he's reading.
- The way this is written is it's really just
to assess his accuracy.
With our group, he's able to hang and do an S
when he's reading together with the group.
Now, like on the F&P testing, it's all him by himself
and it's a lot more of a different story.
- But I'm wondering if we have one
that takes comprehension into consideration as well.
I will ask and see if anyone's using anything like this
that maybe has a comprehension component.
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- Can you share with me,
just so I have a better understanding,
of your relationship and what it's like working
with the Central Rivers team rep?
- Honestly, Lacey's been great as far as like
if I e-mail her with a question, she's always like right
back at it.
She gave me her cell phone number so I could call her.
I'm like times that I'm at home with a sick kid
and I've had questions and I want to finish things,
I told her right off the bat
like my first IEP is a behavior one
and I never know how to like redo their goals.
"Oh, I'll sit down and help you with that."
So like she came down to my room
and she meets at a time that works for me
and I've never had a problem
like time-wise getting things done
because she's very on top of it.
- Thank you for that because what you described is
really what we envision and want is our team reps
and the teachers in schools that we serve
to have such a good relationship and open communication.
It sounds like Lacey has rocked that.
- She has.
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- Lacey that was amazing.
I mean, getting to see you and the teacher,
the relationships, the communication.
- Well I've had good models for this
with the team reps that I've worked with in the past
and know what I appreciated as a special ed teacher.
So I try to do those things for the teachers
that I'm currently working with.
- Your hard work, your service, your commitment
does not go unnoticed.
- Thank you.
- And I know you represent all of our team reps
who do an amazing job and play such an integral part
of what we do as an agency.
So thank you.
This has been a great day at North Cedar Elementary School.
I've learned so much about the work
of our team representatives.
As you may know, we have over 120 people in these positions.
I really want to thank Lacey for taking me around today
and showing me the work.
Her ability to coach with a teacher,
understanding students is just one
of many things required for our team reps.
The ability to juggle many balls at one time is
such an important characteristic.
Central Rivers AEA team reps, you play such a great role.
Thank you for everything that you do.
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