I hate idle times!

Okay, this blog is completely different from my last one. After being so excited about everything I was doing, these past two weeks have been at a complete standstill. I was writing my permission to video slips three weeks ago and needed feedback on the wording I was using. I sent it to my administrator, Jina Gettys, who works with special education. She informed me that there was a committee in charge of studies conducted within the district. I explained to her that I wasn’t working on a research study; I was just making a resource for teachers and parents to use. She got me in contact with the head of the committee, Dr. Lais Zachary, who emailed me the form I had to complete. My heart dropped out when I read that it takes four to six weeks to get permission to conduct a study after I turn the paperwork in. I called the head of the committee (who, luckily, I have worked with in the past and knows me pretty well) and left a few messages about the project I was working on and how it wasn’t a research study. I waited and waited, but still hadn’t heard back from her. One week later, I was sitting in a meeting with Jina, my administrator, and she made the comment that she was glad it all got worked out. I told her I had not idea what she was talking about and she informed me that she had gotten an email the week before approving it and that my name was on the list to have received it. I asked her to forward it to me, because for some reason, I didn’t get it. She did, and I thought everything was good. I was set and ready to start getting my permission to tape. One week later, I run into Jina again again. She asks me if I had set up the meeting with my principal yet. I asked her what she was talking about and again she asks me if I got the email. For some reason, Dr. Zachary had been sending emails to me but I haven’t been getting them. Luckily, she had “CC-ed” them to Jina or else I never would have known. Thankfully, this email said again that I was approved, that they would be sending me a formal letter through inner district mail and that I just needed to touch base with my principal, Marie, to make sure she knew what was going on.
My meeting with Marie was this afternoon at 1. It went really well. She gave me some pointers on how to get permission from the parents and some more resources to use. She also looked over the site that I had been working on and gave me some editing tips. So now I’m getting in gear to start taping. I am contacting the teachers/speech therapists within the district that I have been working with to get contact info. on the parents of the students that I want to tape. I will be making phone contact tonight and tomorrow night, then send out the slips (either through the classroom teacher or the parents’ emails) by Thursday of this week. I should be good to go for taping by next week. Whew!!