Whenever someone shares why they want to, or became a School Psychologist, the response is often “for the kids”.  We love children, right?  We love working with children and families.  But there are also those coworkers who, day to day, are invaluable to our work.  Today, I wanted to share my top 5 (in no particular order):

• SLP:  Sometimes I think that if I had to go back and I knew more about Speech-Language Pathologists, I’d think about becoming one as well.  In my 9 years, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing SLP’s.  My SLP is often my right hand day to day at school.  We’re both related service providers, we share many of the same students, and we both often work on pragmatic language goals. In a school where I don’t get much collaboration with other School Psychologists, my SLP is my #1 collaborator.
• Paraprofessionals:  Ahh, the most patient, hardworking group of people I know.  I LOVE MY PARAS.  I have always had the utmost respect for the work that they do every day, and as a School Psych, I depend on them a lot for skills transference.  With all my 1:1 paras, I love to work with them on what their student(s) and I are working on, so that they can use it day to day, outside of my sessions.  This is where the magic happens, and I am so grateful.
• SPED teachers:  My Special Education Teachers have no fewer than 1,000,000 jobs…IEP’s, teaching, helping in the classroom, planning, consulting…the list goes on and on.  I’ve always considered the Special Education teachers in my school (along with my SLP, OT, etc.), my “team”, and I am so grateful to have them and their comradery.
• Classroom teachers:  I often get questions from readers about working with “difficult” teachers.  As the daughter of a teacher, I know first hand the demands classroom teachers have on them (especially these days!!), and try to remember when working with any teacher, that they are going through a lot.  There is some reason behind their actions, and it’s our job to work with them to support students.  Every single teacher I work with is awesome in some way, and I do my best to learn about each of them:  their lives, their teaching style, their feelings on others being in their rooms, and am so grateful to work with them.
• Secretaries:  Is there a school secretary anywhere who doesn’t know the answer to any question you ask them???  How do I print this report card?  What day is the ELL teacher here?  Where is the best printer in the school?  There is no question they don’t know!

And a few more because we can’t forget them:

• Nurse:  I probably have more stories to tell from my school nurses than any other people.  From calming talking with the student I’ve already brought to her twice that day, to being the calm presence when I’ve been hurt at work, they are the best!
• Counselors/Social Workers:  I love my counselor and social worker.  My favorite thing about them is that we all do similar jobs, but with different approaches.  I love bouncing ideas off them and having a mental health “team”.
• Principal:  A good principal can make or break your day to day work.  I am always grateful for collaboration, and not having to be the disclinarian role. 🙂

Who else am I forgetting?