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.