Expaned Core Curriculum.

Expanded core curriculum (ECC) is a set a skills and knowledge that are needed by students with visual impairments but I believe there are many that would be good for all students.  The ECC includes 9 educational needs that are addressed above and beyond the core curriculum (english, math, science, etc.).  The areas of the ECC are:
1. Compensatory or functional academic skills, including comminication modes
2. orientation and mobility
3. social interaction skills
4. Independent living skills
5. recreation and leisure skills
6. career education
7. use of assistive technology
8. sensory efficiency skills
9. self-determination
These additional areas are essential to addressing the overall needs of students with visual impairments. They represent areas that are not traditionally covered in core curriculum courses. To me it sounds like a more well rounded approach to teaching students. I do think that several of these areas would benefit other students as well.  Many times students leave high school being very unprepared for adult life.  Teaching to the test doesn't always address the functional skills that our students need to function as independently as possible for the rest of their life. Food for thought.

Mini research project findings.

I completed the mini research project for our class and I found the results interesting.  Out of seven people interviewed, five individuals felt that the big issue in special education is about a real need to focus on the individual needs of each student.  Four out of seven brought up preparing students for their future. Three out of seven people talked about concerns surrounding the set curriculum standards. They said that they felt that the set standards did not address the needs of the students since they do not address functional skills. Two out of seven spoke about concerns with teachers and highly qualified. 
The over all view was that everyone was centered on the needs of the students. The fact that these individuals come from all sides of the special education issue (parent, teacher, administrator, SPED director, etc.) makes it even more interesting that everyone is wanting to directly focus on the students. I think they were pointing this out as an issue and a solution for special education.
Special education has come along ways but there is a great deal of room left for improvement.

Work Based Learning... creating opportunities to learn.

I recently attended a 2 day workshop on Work Based Learning (WBL).  I an currently working with students in our school's transition or vocational progam.  We offer our students a work based learning opportunity on campus with 4 training modules that include food service, facilities management, business and vending services.  The students spend 9 weeks in each module and learn safety, work skills and exposure to job related information and exploration as a part of each group. It is a wonderful program that is helping to offer our students a better understanding of different jobs and the skills needed to preform these jobs.  We are using this in the transition planning  and service part of the IEP process to better address transition goal planning for these students. Our next step is to take these skills and help these students move out into the community to work on generalization of these skills.   There remains to be some resistance from comunity businesses due to different disabilities and a lack of understanding about the WBL process and requirements. This is our school's 2nd year developing this program so I am excited that we continue to expand it and adjust it to better meet the needs of our students.

Teacher Tenure. Where do you stand?

When the issue of teacher tenure comes up I have mixed feelings.  I am in my 23rd year teaching but it is my 3rd year at my new school and therefore I am approaching tenure at the completion of this year.  I am a teacher that believes that every teacher should be evaluated to help improve the teaching that is going on in our classrooms.  I for one am open to suggestions that will improve my teaching and I think that we all can learn new approaches and techniques no matter how long we have been teaching.  I have concerns with tenure at times because I see a few teachers that seem to hide behind their tenure and feel that they can not be touched.  I think this view takes the focus off of teaching children. I believe that we as teachers should always strive to improve and reach for better ways to reach and teach our students. What do you think about tenure?

College Programs for Students with Intellectual disabilities.

In the past, college programs for students with intellectual disabilities were not a possibility for post secondary education and training. I read an article today from USA TODAY
 http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-10-16-disability-college_N.htm that talked about college programs for these students. It stated that 8 years ago there were 4 programs like this and last year there were more than 250 across the country. It stated that these programs are carrying out what college truely is for,  which is to offer a continuation of learning.
I am excited that colleges are beginning to offer opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to participate with their peers.  I am aware of such a program at Vanderbilt and MTSU has a program run jointly with Rutherford County Schools.  I believe that these programs can help provide needed additional education and job training in an educational setting for these students. I also think that these programs can provide valuable opportunities for learning for students in special education programs as well as the general student body.   

Teaching... or Testing?

Many teachers today feel that they are no longer truely able to teach their classes but rather feel that they are simply preparing for the next test.  I know that there needs to be accountability in the classroom but I believe that all of the testing has left little to no room for the creative teaching and differentiated instruction that so many of our students so desperately need. I also am concerned that there is so much emphasis on math and reading that other subjects such as science and history are suffering. At some point I think that we need to stop and really take a look at the direction education is going in right now.  The current system is not working and students today seem to be leaving school very unprepared for life.  What's the next approach?  I think it is time to try something new.

TCAP-Alt Portfolios...Do they really measure up to the regular TCAP test?

There are some interesting questions that come up for me surrounding the TCAP-Alt portfolios.  These portfolios are suppose to be compared to the regular TCAP test. First, it seems a little strange to me that students who are unable to take the written TCAP tests are required to have proof in their portfolios that they had both peer interaction and that the data was taken in inclusive settings.  Students taking the regular TCAP would be ruled as having cheated if they had peer interaction while taking their test.  These students also take their TCAP tests in their regular classroom and are not required to take it in a variety of settings.   Also, general education students learn in the classes with activities that are teacher driven while portfolio students are required to do their activities ideally with people other than their teacher. Proof of choices are another odd part of the process of portfolios.  You have to offer at least 2 choices and must show what choice was made by the student yet some of these students do not really have an understanding of choices and therefore are not able to indicate a choice.  Do 4th grade students get to have a choice as to what they are learning or does the teacher and the curriculum make those decisions? Then there is the requirement of having to show a set amount of progress on each of the graphed sets of data.  Some of these students take months, even sometims years to really show some progress on goals.  Then there are the requirements to use alternative content standards in the core content areas of lang. arts, math, science and social studies (depanding on grade level). These altenative standards do not in any way address functional goals that many of these students are actually working on as a part of their IEPs. Then there is the scoring of the portfolios.  Our school had all proficient or advanced on our portfolios scores which on paper can show up as higher scores than the students in academic classes. Some of these requirements seem to be asking the TCAP-Alt students to do more than is required by the general education students. Also, where is the individualization in this process?
While I do believe that we need to have some type of test or assessment to indicate the abilities of these students and that it is difficult to have one tool that takes in to account the varied levels and educational needs of these students, I do not feel that the regular TCAP and the TCAP-alt portfolio should be compared. It is sort of like comparing apples and oranges but expecting them all to look like apples. Just saying!

Special education sustitutes.

There have always been questions for me surrounding the individuals who substitute in special education classes.  What type of training have these individuals received before being placed with students who have a wide variety of disabilities. Are they trained on how to lift, toilet, handle seizures, read braille, deal with behavior problems?  Where do the standards for "highly qualified" come into play when it comes to substitutes?  While most are very nice individuals, the substitutes I have encountered have been placed in situations in special education classes that really require specialization.  I also feel that schools sometimes simply have a "body" covering these classes which places the students at risk and the substitutes in sometimes dangerous situations.  Then there is the problem of not having enough substitutes. Often there just are not enough to cover the classes needing a sub. What happens then?  Anyway, there are many issues surrounding substitutes in special education.

A view on teacher training programs at colleges and universities.

I believe that teacher training programs need to be looked at to determine their effectiveness in preparing teachers for the demands of today's classroom and the diverse learners they will be serving. With a bigger push toward RTI, I believe that teacher training programs should take a more aligned approach when it comes to special education and general education college programs. Currently, most college programs only require a basic course in special education. 1 or 2 courses can hardly scatch the surface of what all is envolved with students with such a wide assortment of special needs. I feel that if they are going to demand special education teachers to get certified in a core content area, then they need to have general education teachers to become certified in special education or at least have them go through several courses to help them better meet the needs of their students.

Transition success requires community experiences and support.

A key component to successful transition for our students with differing abilities involves the businesses and agencies in the community.  Relationships must be established between the schools and the programs or jobs that these students will be moving to after they leave school. A great way to begin these relationships is through work based learning opportunities.  These experiences will vary greatly depending on the specific needs and interest of the student. The advantage to participation in work based learning is that it provides exposure to different jobs which may help a student to gain job skills and begin to determine job interest areas. Many community businesses and agencies are willing to participate in WBL but need more information on how the program works and who is responsible for aspects of the program such as supervision and liability issues. I believe that if we can get more students involved in some type of WBL that  the students will be more successful in finding potential placement in these programs. I think that our job in special education is to help our students work to be as independent as possible and to be active members of society. One of the first steps to this is providing opportunities to gain a better understanding of job skills and jobs that they can participate in.

Transition Planning... what do you do when the student has unrealistic post secondary goals?

Another issue that comes up when teachers are helping students to plan for life after school is that some of these students have very unrealistic and most likely unobtainable goals. At some point you will have the student that has the goal to be a Doctor or the next Taylor Swift.  It is not our place to tell this students how unrealistic these may be but we are obligated to assist them in looking at breaking these overall goals down to find something that is related directly to their goals.  For instance, I have some of those students who just know they are going to be the next big hit in the music industry.   I sit down with these students and do some job exploration including web searches to look at jobs related to the music industry. I talk to them about their ultimate goal and then I encourage them to have back up plans to work toward first.  Many of my students start to think about other jobs or ways that they can do things that have to do with music.  The other day I had one of these students say that they think maybe working in a music store might be a good backup plan. 
It is difficult at times to know exactly what direction to look in depending on the post secondary goals that our students have in mind. I think that a big part of the transition process needs to be exposing these students to many different job opportunities through work based experiences and instruction.  Many special education teachers could benefit from traning to help direct them in assisting students to plan for transitioning into post secondary schools, training, work and living situations.

Transition training... where is it?

As a special education teacher, I am responsible for helping to plan and implement transition plans and services that allow students to make gains toward reaching their post secondary goals. The interesting part of this is that during my 20+ years of teaching special education, I have had very little training or staff development in the area of developing, writing and implementing transition plans on IEPs for my students. I am a teacher that has sought out information in this area to better assist me but there are many teachers who have been in the field for a long time who have never really had any training in the area of transition. The transition part of the IEP is a huge focus for our students 14 and older yet the very teachers responsible for handling this part of the IEP have very scattered training in this area.  Most teacher training programs in collages and universities offer maybe 1 or 2 classes on transition but there are only a few programs that I have been able to find in the country that offer a degree in special education transition. Also, the state of Tennessee does not have an endorsement area for transition in special education.  With all of the talk of "highly qualified" how is it that there are so few programs and classes in such an important part of special education?  Transition affects every single one of our students as they move from school to post secondary education, training, employment and living. I think that there needs to be a much bigger focus on the area of transition in special education since our overall focus should be to provide programs and instruction to help these students reach their potential and to reach for their goals in life.

Transition from school to ...?

Transition services are an important part of IEPs for students who have disabilities and are 16 years of age and older. The word transition is defined by Webster's as " a passing from one condition, place, etc.  to another".  With this definition in mind, I am puzzled as to why this "passing" seems to be a one sided issue.  The school district is responsible for transition planning with the student on post secondary goals and is required to provide transition services that help the students to reach for these goals.  The problem with this is that rarely are there representatives from community agencies available during the transition pre- planning meetings nor do they usually attend the actual IEP meetings for these students. Where is the receiving side to this issue?  Our focus as teachers is to prepare these students to be as independent as possible and to become productive/active members in society. We are helping them to explore their post secondary options but we as teachers need the input from the actual agencies that will be serving these students when they leave the school system at 22. It seems to me that there needs to be a step in between schools and the communtiy. Maybe an interagency collaboration team that can truely represent the bussinesses, schools and programs that these students will be participating with in their communities. Where is the coordination between school and the community agencies? We seem to be dropping the baton at the handoff of these students during the "race" called transition.

Inclusion... We Still have a long way to go.

When it comes to inclusion, there are basically 2 models that are looked at.  First is the "push in" model which has the SPED teacher coming into a general education class to help in providing instruction and support to the student and perhaps the teacher. A key to this model is the differentiated learning approach to education that has the general education and the special education teacher providing a range of activities and the use of a variety of teaching strategies for children with different abilities. Students in the "push in" model may be included for part or all of the day. Many times students are included for certain classes.
The other inclusion model is called "full inclusion". This model has students with special needs included full time in the general education class and the general education teacher is the teacher of record for this child.  This approach has many challenges, first and foremost the challange of truely meeting the needs of all students. Some students with special needs will be able to benefit from inclusion in the general education class while others may not really gain from being placed in the general education classroom.
My big concern with inclusion is that we seem to be focusing on the physical placement of the student instead of what we need to be focusing on educationally for this student to reach his/her potential. With NCLB, we have lost functional curriculum approaches and have made a push for more of a one set of standards fits all approach to education. I just keep thinking about after school for these students and I can not help but think that them sitting in an Algebra class and not really benefitting from it is not going to help them if they can not understand even some of the basic concepts of math and money.  In the vision education world we have what is called expanded core curriculum which focuses on the life concepts that students with vision impairments will need to be more independent in life.  I feel that we need this for all students, especailly for those with special needs. What are your thoughts on inclusion?

Inclusion... We have come a long way.

While working on our group project, I stopped to reflect on how far education of students with disabilities ( or varied abilities as I like to refer to it) has come, I had to think about those that helped to path the way.  There were some early court cases that played such an important part in the development of the laws that have shaped special education as we know it today.  Cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvannia, and Mills v. Board of Education directly influenced the development of
PL 94-142 in 1975.  Free appropriate education for all students became an expectation in education but there have been many bumps in the road and changes along the way on the journey called education for all. In my twenty plus years of teaching students with special needs I have seen first hand how new laws have influenced such things as inclusion in the classroom.  I firmly believe all children have the potential to learn and I  feel that there continues to be a need for a continuum of placement options for students with varied abilities. I  feel that having one set of standards for all students is a step away from the individualized education approach to education that many of the laws have fought so hard to change.
Inclusion to me is not just placing students in the regular education classroom, but rather is including students with varied abilities at the level that will allow them to engage in learning that is meaningful and serves to help these students reach for the potential in life. I see the value in the education of ALL students.  Aren"t they all SPECIAL and don't they ALL deserve a great opportunity to learn?