December Cruising Kendall County
Wednesday, December 17th was a snowy, wintry day for our third cruise around the corners of Kendall County. Today’s visits were all in the Plano School District.
Plano High School was our first stop with Coordinator, Pat Gillen leading our tour. What a fantastic building! It is certainly not the Plano High School of the past. We loved the feel of the building – you can’t even tell which part is the “older section” and also loved all of the purple chairs! We were joined by Jennifer Cave, Social worker for our tour. There is a great office space for all of our support staff in the high school office – We missed seeing Randy Horner, Psychologist during our visit. Pat Gillen also has her own office space at the high school – it is near the special education classrooms and has a conference room to use for staffings. She is ready for EZ IEP – the conference room even has a printer! We visited the Life Skills Classroom – another great “suite” of rooms. Michelle Sanchez was working with the students in their daily living area – they were busy folding laundry. They also have a great kitchen area for cooking and other daily living skills. We missed seeing Jodi Sell, Speech Assistant but did see her desk and area that she works with students. Our next classroom was Donna Considine’s ISP room. She was helping a student with his final examinations. She misses her “trailer” from last year, but is enjoying being a part of the building. The classroom was equipped with new desks and additional furniture that she hasn’t had in the past. We missed seeing Dirk Summers, ED teacher – He was giving a final in a co-taught class during our visit.
On to P.H. Miller Elementary School where we saw Jon Warshawsky, Psychologist on our way in. We visited the Early Childhood classrooms – Michelle Brucher and Ruth Hanson Hale share the “EC space”. They have done a phenomenal job making the large area work with their two classroom groups. The students were busy making holiday decorations and working in their centers in Michelle’s room. Jaime Poulaki, Speech Assistant was working with a group of students playing a game. The students in Ruth’s room were sitting with “rapt” attention to her story about grandpa getting presents at Christmas. It turned out that it was Grandpa’s birthday – the book had an ending that surprised everyone! Ruth used her voice and inflection during the story to keep everyone in suspense till the very end. Our next stop was Trisha Duffy’s diagnostic room. The students were working together on projects– Trisha has colored paper over her lights which made for a very relaxing atmosphere. We stopped in to visit with Chris Cooper, social worker who shared all of the wonderful things the staff is doing at PH Miller for the needy students and families during this holiday season. Next we saw Linda Morel, Speech therapist working with a group of students. It was a very amusing and relaxing session – Linda was trying to explain what a “lamb” was for a worksheet they were doing. The students frequently said “lamp” instead of “lamb”, which of course led to more vocabulary discussions. They were a very friendly group and shared their work with us – we had a great time!
Plano Middle School was our next stop, where Gloria Mathewson was our guide. We sat in her office and she shared the “happenings” of Plano Middle School. It’s hard not to relax with Gloria – she even made our lunch arrangements for us! Patti Doyle, Intervention Manager was meeting with a parent, but we got a chance to tell her hello……..We visited Margie Bloome’s ISP classroom. She has a wonderful room with lots of great space. She has set up a reading corner which is very cozy for students to relax – and even has comic books for them to enjoy.
Centennial and Emily Johns were on our schedule – But, unfortunately, we did not get there on this date! We will be rescheduling these schools with Pat Gillen and will see you soon……
A big thank you to all of the staff at Plano High School, P. H. Miller Elementary School and Plano Middle School – It was great to see everything that is happening in these Plano schools!