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?