The Life That Chose Me

My IEP series has yet to include this as this is my very first crack at this abomination. And as a teacher, it is truly an abomination, compared to the good ‘ole days when all you had to do at the very last meeting was look at goal mastery, write some minutes, pat the child on the head and say “C-YA!” In those days, dismissing a child from school and special education was as easy as gravity.

Not so, anymore. From a 1 page breezy narrative, it is now a 5 page millstone.  You can look at it/download it here.  Ours looks slightly different, but it is just as painful.

The reauthorization of 2004 requires this document in order to facilitate the child’s post-secondary transition and provide some sort of seamlessness with vocational rehab agencies. I have no idea if this is true or not for most students, but I don’t see the usefulness for any of my students. Let’s go through this thing together, shall we? I’m filling this out for the student I have identified in past entries as Spaz who is leaving after over 20 years in the system. I’ve had him for 7 of those years, so for about a third of his life. This should be easy, given our history, right?

Checking off assessments used…

This looks easy enough…check, check, check…

And provide copies of the assessment reports.

Crap. The boy has a folder that takes up an entire file drawer. A lot of the medical stuff is buried very deeply. This is going to be painful, made even moreso by the fact that the copier is clear across the school. Perhaps the Central Eligibility Report will suffice for all of this. Yeah, let them look up all the stuff!

Students desired postsecondary goals. This should take into consideration education, employment and community access.

Spaz is pretty darn sick of school and seems tired of everything else for that matter. He’s tired of going into the community, which he used to love more than anything else. But we need to put something down so I can say that he will pursue a placement in a day-hab/sheltered workshop setting. Also, because of the severity of his disability, paid employment is not a goal.

That last statement is a tough one, but it’s the truth. Even as a greeter at Wal-Mart, his spitting on people is not exactly going to earn him a big paycheck. He bites any materials he works with, and his hands are all in his mouth. At least he’s not biting people, and that’s progress.

Spaz will live with his family as long as possible but group home, respite and other living alternatives will be pursued. And I think those alternatives will be pursued diligently as his mother has endured a lot of hardship over the years with Spaz. I daresay, more hardship than most because Spaz has some extensive needs and some extreme behaviors which will try and test the patience of the best of people at their best. She’s had to endure being with him, who has only needed 10 hours of sleep per week, and his waking hours seem to be spent bent on destruction. He breaks things, chews on things, picks at things and generally raises havoc. Curtains, window blinds, windows, walls, electrical outlets, appliances, fixtures…nothing is immune once he fixes upon it without constant supervision. And try keeping your temper on less than 2 hours of sleep every single night.

Moving on…

Academic area: Reading

Well, if I had to pick his brightest spot, this might be it. Spaz can read a few sight words (Walk, don’t walk, go, in, out) but he’s not reading extensively beyond the pre-k level. His functioning according to an adaptive behavior questionnaire is less than a 2 year-old level. He might read at a 3 or 4 year-old level. They want accommodations and assistive technology, but there’s not a lot to offer as far as his reading.

Math

He can almost count to 15, and does so failry clearly with his own voice. Otherwise he uses an AAC device with supervision. Again, he is functioning at a 3-4 year-old level, tops.

Written Expression

Spaz has been working on writing his name for several years and can almost write “Spaz” legibly, but he does bite the pencil, pen and/or paper that he is writing on/with. Which means that writing is not very functional at all for him as he will destroy/eat whatever he is writing on/with. This includes a computer mouse or keyboard.

Learning Skills (Class participation, Note taking, Keyboarding, Organization, Test taking, Study skills)

He participated in class using his AAC device, answering orally or by pointing to people and pictures.

In every one of these areas, they want to no the accommodations, the date and an accommodations rationale. The rationale is the same every time for Spaz: He has a severe intellectual disability and his skills are negligible to nonexistent! That’s the assessment report’s words, not mine. But they have the virtue of being true. And depressing.

Social Skills and Behavior

This area is even more depressing, as he has a laundry list of all sorts of behaviors that have came, went, and returned again over the years. Why on earth am I required to fill this out? How can a parent read this, if it is a truly honest account, and NOT be reduced to tears?

Comunication

Independent Living

Environmental Access

Self Determination/Self Advocacy Skills

Career/Vocational

Medical/Family Concerns

On and on and on and on this thing goes! And that is only page 3. The accommodation for my student is basically the same: 1:1 adult assistance pretty much every time, and the rationale is that Spaz has a severe intellectual disability, and is functioning at less than a 2 year-old level. What else do you want me to say?

And then I get to summarize all of this to recommend postsecondary outcomes, which for him will require 1:1 supervision and support at all times. As a teacher, this is totally demoralizing. Yeah, I know he’s got a severe disability, but the outcome of 7 years of instruction should have come to more than this. No wonder most teachers quit before they see the results of all their work. It’s too depressing to contemplate.

The next section is even more depressing as if that were possible. It’s the student perspective. I’m somehow supposed to interview Spaz and ask him:

How does your disability affect your schoolwork and school activities? (Think about grades, relationships, assignments, tests, communication, extra-curricular activities.):

In the past, what supports have been tried by teachers to assist you in being successful in school?:

Which of these accommodations and supports worked best for you? Why did they work?:

D. What strengths should others know about you as you begin college or work?:

E.What has been most difficult for you in school?

As if Spaz is going to answer any of these!

What a load of rubbish.

And then we’re supposed to provide a list of contact information for service providers that parents may contact. And I know for a fact that our county has precious few, if any of these numbers. In fact, they had training material for filling out the forms and they used people at the board office as examples for each of those contacts for High School Team, Health and Family Services, Employment Agency, Community Agency, Institute of Higher Education as well as other agencies. I’ll be writing them to see if I can use their info! As it is, I know of no such database in the county, much less the county office of such agencies.  It’s as if they all have some sort of stealth technology to keep people from being informed.  I am NOT looking forward to going through this mess as a parent.  I also appreciate the parents who are doing it right now and blazing the trail for the rest of us.

This thing is painful to the max, emotionally as well as in the sheer scope of all the stuff they want. It’s the caseworker who has to fill all this horse manure out and it really stinks.

Thank you for listening, even if it was not as helpful as other entries about IEPs.  Maybe I’ll come up with a better informed follow-up or perhaps some of you can help me out

D.

Re: Unraveling the Mystery of Autism

I wish I had time to read a book like this, as I know a lot of other parents are reading it. However, I did manage to find the most top-rated review of the book by someone who DID read it, and her response is much better than anything I could have written.

Would that it Were so Simple, October 6, 2000
By Liane Gentry Skye, “www.lianegentryskye.com” (Florida, USA) -

Karen Seroussi has woven a remarkable, well-written story of her son’s recovery from Autism through tedious dietary interventions. Her offering of recipes gives the parents considering the diet for their children a place from where to start. As the mother of two Autistic children myself, I felt compelled to read it, even though a grueling 18 month trial of the diet in our home offered few, if any, results, other than depriving my sons of what foods they were willing to eat.
Seroussi is a gifted writer, and tells her story from her mother’s heart. But facets of her story disturbed me deeply. After reading this book, I felt my choice to live as a mother who has come to accept her children’s Autism and lead them towards a good life in spite of grim prognoses was viewed by the author as something to feel ashamed of. While this may not have been Seroussi’s intent, the insistence that something is wrong with parents who don’t try her techniques, or tried the diet and had it fail are somehow lacking was very bothersome to my heart.

Granted, dietary interventions have helped many Autistic children. However, this his book implicates that any parent who does not attempt the diet which benefitted Ms. Seroussi’s son is failing his/her child. Children who respond to diet are most specifically those showing a serum IGE response to specific allergens and gliadin antibodies. I’d strongly recommend any parent who considers putting a child through such a restrictive regime will get the bloodwork done first. This diet is not easy to implement and it is not easy to encourage an older child to follow it when away from home.

This book tells a rare, triumphant story. It is well documented, and worth a read. But please, don’t see diet as a cure-all if the techniques outlined simply don’t work for your child. The sad truth is, if diet were the cure, there would be no Autism.

I felt the need to blog on this because I had a parent of one of my students who wanted to try this diet bring the book up. I gave her what you read above plus a link to my blog so she can see whatever comments this particular article generates. And it will probably generate a few.

The Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) diet is controversial for a lot of reasons, most of which are covered above by Ms. Skye above. I do have a study that was done on dietary intervention for autistic behaviors and it did seem to indicate that the diet might be helpful:

Knivsberg, Reichelt, Hoien and Nodland (2003) Effect of a dietary intervention on autistic behavior. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 18, 247-256

Abstract:
Autistic syndromes are characterized by impaired social, communicative, and imaginative skills. Urinary peptide abnormalities, in part due to gluten and casein, have been detected in some individuals With autism. These abnormalities reflect processes With opioid effect, Which may explain the behavioral abnormalities seen in autism. The aim of this single-blind, controlled study Was to evaluate the effect of a gluten-free and casein-free diet for children With autism and urinary peptide abnormalities. Observations and tests Were carried out With the 20 participanting children before they Were randomly assigned to either the diet or the control group. The experimental period Was 1 year, after Which observations and tests Were repeated. Significant reduction of autistic behavior Was registered for participants in the diet group, but not for those in the control group.

It’s the best study I’ve ever seen on the subject, but it still has flaws that you can read for yourself if you want to get the full article.

My wife and I did try the diet when our son was younger. It was not the best of efforts and it was resisted strongly by Thomas (I’ll keep his blog name the same to avoid more confusion than there already is!). His favorite food of all time is pizza which is pretty much nothing except gluten and casein. His favorite thing to do of all time is to eat out at the neighborhood pizza buffet. So right off the bat, we were off to a poor start. Let’s add a couple of other things into the mix:

• - He has a younger brother who likes pizza, hot dogs, cheese burgers and other more typical “kid food.”
• - He has a mother who basically likes the same sort of diet.
• - We were a single-earner family, and that would be me on a teacher’s salary.
• - We had a lot of other things going on just like everyone else

The cook in the family is me, and I resisted the diet for a long time because of the bother and the expense, but my wife, Jane (We’ll keep her blog name too) convinced me to try it, especially after I read the above study. So I did more research on the subject and did some thinking.

Wheat is not native to North America, so the people living here before the arrival of Europeans had to live on something else. That thing was maize (corn) and a variety of vegetables and potatoes which *are* native to the Americas. So it seemed like a more simple task for us to adapt to a more native diet as opposed to trying to find adaptations of a European one. I was thinking outside the box, but apparently ranged too far for the rest of the family. I did by the corn and soy-based noodles and flours and assorted other GFCF foods.

The entire family, including Jane, rebelled and none of them really went for it. They were sneaking donuts, cheese, pizzas and every type of forbidden thing every chance they got. The thing about doing this sort of diet is that “in for a penny, in for a pound.” You are either all in or all out. Having ANY gluten at all basically kills the whole process. This is not about scaling back or reducing intake it is about going cold turkey! So the entire family really has to be on board for it to work, and it was a forgone conclusion that by the end of our experiment the only one who stayed gluten free was me. That’s because I liked the things I made with corn tortillas and I don’t mind eating the same thing almost everyday. For everyone else, it was not a happy arrangement. The corn and soy noodles are probably still in our pantry as is some extra GFCF pancake mix.

Will a parent see improvement? Some will and some won’t, but this is not a light undertaking. A body has to be willing to go all the way with it, which our family was not collectively willing to do. And you know what? It’s all right. We are not poisoning our children by letting them eat the food they enjoy. We balance our meals with fruits and vegetables every meal. I grow a lot of my own fruits and vegetables in our own garden. Our family is okay and I might venture to say we are doing well because we are a more balanced family that has gotten away from letting autism rule over our lives. It’s something we live with and deal with but we’re not going to let it dominate us and get us all down. Parents who don’t want to try every single intervention under the sun shouldn’t feel guilty for not doing it anymore than I should be made to feel guilty about not getting LASIK surgery for my eyes. I have bad eyes and I wear glasses. My choice. If Thomas decides he wants to go on the diet later in life, that’s his choice. What about those autistic persons who can not make their own choices? Then caregivers do have to make those choices and make it on the best information available.

But let’s knock off the evangelical guilt-mongering by the various proponents of various cures. If you have a cure, conduct a study and publish it and open yourself up to some serious scrutiny.

D.

Amidst the death march known as IEP season and the end of the school year, I took time out to to attend a workshop on eLearn, otherwise known as Moodle.  I like using the term Moodle better than eLearn, but that’s just me.  Newton County has its own ideas.

I had a chance to see what others were doing from around the county on their eLearn sites.  We had elementary and middle school teachers represented with one other teacher representing another high school.   Most of the time was spent actually working on our Moodles, with basically everyone getting theirs better ready for a fall roll out.  Some of us have not been very active on our sites for a very long time.  In fact, according to our illustrious instructor, Beth, that would be most teachers.  I would be one of them, up until a couple of months or so ago when I decided to take on this new project where eLearn would play a prominent role.  Even then, it was a bit of time before I tackled putting together modules since I have to generate all of the content by myself.

Other teachers can use Google, PBS, United Streaming and various other sites to put their content together.  Mine is mostly self-generated although I am starting to see things appear on TeacherTube that might be useful that I can use.  If any readers are generating content and posting, let me know!  My stuff is available and out there for the taking/viewing/using and I have more stuff I’m getting ready to put up.

Back to eLearn/Moodle, I did manage to pick up most of the things I wanted out of the class so that I can [roceed to develop the site.  One think I quickly learned is that my site was looking visually impoverished as everyone else had all sorts of nifty graphics and animations on their sites.  I thought I was doing well on original content and even some interactivity, but still have a long way to go.

I plan on taking the advanced course this summer, so perhaps I’ll be blogging that, but no promises, especially since I have a backlog of posts that need to be rolled out.  But it was nice to be around another techno-nerd in the school system, as we seem to be relatively few and far between.  It would be neat to get self-identified propeller heads together for a one day convocation/conference/confab before school starts, sort of like a mini SXSW for teachers and teaching.  It could be done in conjunction with new teacher orientation.  Nothing too heavy, but just getting tips, tricks and contacts before school starts.

Who knows?  Maybe I could become a sort of Scoble for education.

D.

Yes, I will SO be blogging you!

Yes, this Thursday is my refresher session for what our county calls eLearn, which is actually Moodle. Moodle is actually the centerpiece of the course that I’m developing for paras and teachers of students with severe and profound disabilities. The videos, the podcasts and this blog are all resources that I’ll be using and Moodle will help provide the instructional format, content organization and assessments in order to actually put it together like a real course.

At least that’s the idea.

Last summer, I attended an eLearn class and was sort of excited about it. Trouble is, I had no idea of how to use it, because my kids can’t read, write and most can’t manipulate a mouse well enough to navigate around even with Moodle’s efforts with accessibility standards because most are reliant on single switch access and do not attend or track with that level of detail. It was a bit depressing for me, because I saw all sorts of possibilities with this great tool, but I wouldn’t have much of a chance to develop it or to use it. This lack of application and interface with the web 2.0 technology that I know and love has been a big driver in pushing me out of the SID/PID setting and driving me toward a higher functioning population. I want to create content and be out there, which I’ve sort of been doing the past couple of years with my blog. But I want to leverage the internet as a platform to provide students with the opportunity to access content easily and repeatedly at their own pace.

My audience in this course is not kids, as much as it is other adults which hopefully will have some sort of multiplier effect in helping many more students with severe disabilities learn. In a sense, it’s just me, self-marketing myself. Otherwise known as pimping myself out… for the greater good. I could see some parents tapping into this material, too. And for anyone out there so inclined, you could also contribute to the cause by posting some content that might be useful. You can read this post to see my wish list!  So maybe some folks will tune in from the workshop and get turned on to blogging and maybe some of my other readers will find some of this interesting.

I’m looking forward to getting out of class for a day, and it will be a nice break from the hectic schedule and noise and chaos that seems to go along with this time of year. I was here until 8:00 in the evening doing a bunch of IEPs last night. I think one more big push and I’ll have them done for the year.

I look forward to the day when I have time to read more posts by the good folks in my blog roll!

D.

This is something I’ve been able to say the past few weeks that I haven’t been able to say the last couple of years because I’ve been busy trying to stay secret and anonymous. During those years folks have crossed my path who might have been able to help me with stuff or who I might have been able to help more but these opportunities were passed by because I was intent on staying anonymous.

Coming out has been exciting and scary at the same time. Truthfully, I suspect a few folks might check me out a time or two and then move on with their lives and never come back. Bloggers tend to be on the somewhat nerdy side, and most local people with whom I share my blog address are simply not on that page. Others might look around and check back periodically. And maybe a few others might feel like joining our little edublogging community.

There have been a number of days, especially this week, where I was missing the opportunity to rant, rave and vent. Some of my most popular posts were when I was spewing bile and vitriol upon my hapless readers. That is trhe coolest thing about being an anonymous blogger in that you can flame the people around you for all the stupid things they do and few people are the wiser. Yeah, go ahead and look in the archives. If you think you found a post where I was flaming you, I might very well have been! But most of my wrath is directed towards those in higher echelons of power on the state and federal level. NCLB especially has received a lot of my rage along with the GAA.
FWIW, I’m known for being a prickly pear amongst the people who are directly above me, and more than once have been chided for being unprofessional in the way I share some of my views. I have tried to tone it down a bit this year. Honest! But sometimes I think it’s time someone just comes right out and tells the truth and exposes the fact that there is a king or queen running around somewhere with no clothes! Ever seen a king or queen nekkid? Not a pretty site. A princess and an occasional prince might be able to pull it off, but not too many royals who actually wear the crown and sit on the throne.

Put yer clothes on!

For instance, in our county we have this entity called the Central Eligibility Committee (CEC). I’m not going to get into all the specifics of it here (local sp. ed. teachers can see for themselves on a sharepoint site) but I will say that the more interactions I have with that entity, the more vile and evil I think that it is. I know most of the people that make up the CEC and like pretty much all of them. But as an entity and a body that wields a considerable amount of power and influence, it has more in common with the old Soviet politburo that an entity designed to serve students with disabilities. It should go the way of Soviet communism, and disappear entirely so that IEP committees (made up of people who actually know the student) make eligibility decisions based on more than a bit of paperwork.

Anyway, I want to welcome whatever new folks happen to stumble into this from the Covington area, and note the disclaimer in my profile!

D.

IEP season started ’round these parts in February, but really it has never ended. As soon as school started, addendums were being written to adjust services and schedules from those written just months earlier, while transfer students were being put through the process from scratch.

I’m visiting several middle schools this week, representing the high school for 8th graders transferring into the high school next year and without exception, I haven’t seen a familiar face yet. Every one of these teachers are new and I’m seeing brand new folks lead the IEP process. In many instances the LEA, the graduation coach and the regular ed teacher are also brand new. What this means is that a lot of parents are the most experienced people in the room when it comes not only to their child but to IEPs in general. These new teachers all use the same word to describe their experience with writing and delivering these IEPs:

Overwhelming.

In addition to attending and LEAing meetings for other teachers at this school and attending several others, I’m busy writing IEPs for my own students, which is no small job hence my lack of posting around here. It is THE most stressful and busy time of the year for special education teachers around the country. My blog gets a tidal wave of hits as my IEP series pops up on other blogs, search engines and discussion groups. I hope y’all find it helpful.

This business has put a crimp in my TeacherTube video postings but I have new footage that will be edited and posted at some point. I hope to shoot some more in a couple of weeks as the paperwork craziness slacks off a bit. I hope it slacks off a bit.

I do have some good ideas, courtesy of those new teachers that I talk to. Lesson plans, data sheets and data collection are towards the top of the list. I’m also looking forward to taking some classes this summer or maybe attending a conference or two and blogging those. I’d also like to get my online course up and running at least for our own county. I’ll be attending a class in a week that wraps up my Moodle training.

To all of you new teachers looking for resources, ideas and help; hang in there. Experience has taught me (if nothing else) is that every year it is crazy towards the end, and every year I am exhausted at the end and every year I some how make it through the experience. Just take it a day at a time, one step at a time and things will work out. Things will get crazy and sometimes very, very ugly. But you’ll make it if you’ve made it this far. Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying.

D.

Our media specialist sent us teachers some nifty links, one to a group of presentations/speakers.  At first this link didn’t look too interesting or useful, although the talk by Jeff Bezos was entertaining.  But I drilled a little deeper and stumbled into this video by Johnny Lee that really took my breath away.

Using a Wii remote game controller, he creates an interactive white board sometimes called a Smartboard.  these things typically run around $3000,  but the total cost of the Wii setup is  less than  $75!  I would think a lot of schools would be interested in this.  you can find video demos on Teachertube here and here.  There are probably dozens more on YouTube and any teacher into technology should be getting excited about this.  Using open source software and the Wii, every teacher can have this useful technology at their fingertips.

It’s a bit late in the year for me to be diving into another technology project, but if I end up coteaching, I’ll definitely be there.

But the head array that he demonstrates is really something exciting for students that need an alternative way to access the computer and content.  He basically mounted a couple of infrared dots on some sunglasses and he had something that typically costs thousands of dollars to parents that use this technology for their kids with severe orthopedic impairments.  That is kind of exciting on a lot of levels and means I might be getting a Wiimote no matter where I end up next year.  The biggest issue, is of course, time.  I have a mountain of paperwork that I’m procrastinating from at the moment with all of my IEPs!  In fact, Johnny Lee himself developed this stuff while procrastinating from doing actual projects he was supposed to be working on.

While I know a lot about severe disabilities and a lot about technology, i still have a lot to learn about adaptive technology.  I know of a lot that exists, but I have never gotten my hands on a head array or other alternative switching devices besides the standard switches we use.  So while I’m up on a lot of things, I still feel behind on adaptive technology.  The sad thing is, is that I’m still way ahead of most teachers serving this population.  In the span of 8 years I’ve learned a lot, but most teachers don’t last more than 2 years.

Technology can change the way students access material but learning is still a function of a series of antecedent - response - consequence chains.  I’m excited about the potential, but it won’t be realized until more of us teachers get it into our hands and have a chance to really fiddle around with it.

D.

I have a few videos on TeacherTube with many more to come. My first attempt was demonstrating the Qchord, which is a sort of musical instrument that I sometimes use in the classroom. A more practical video is one I made on the use of switches for students with severe disabilities to use for communication. There’s also an activity attached to that lesson, about 101 uses for using switches in the classroom. Then I did a couple of videos on positioning for students with orthopedic impairments that some might find interesting. And my most recent effort was a screencast about using the Boardmaker software program that special ed teachers frequently use for communication and language instruction. I have some more videos demonstrating that software that I’ll be uploading once I get the narration audio track finished. The problem is that I’m very seldom in a space or environment where it is quiet enough to do narration! There seems to always be noise somewhere around that can be picked up by the mic! Plus we are in full-IEP mode right now so I’m squeezed for time. A ton of folks are hitting my IEP series right now, so I know a lot of people are using that resource.

After talking with one of the new SID teachers in the county, I got a lot of new ideas for resources to add. One of the most common questions I get asked is about my lesson plans. They are not very good or satisfactory enough for my taste and certainly not for addressing state standards. However I do have a data sheet that sort of functions as a lesson plan that I’ll be attaching to a future video on discrete trials. Future features will involve:

-Discrete trial teaching (DTT)

- More Boardmaker overlays

- Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

- Para training

- Schedule/lessonplanning/curriculum

I’m presently looking to get permission from parents to include actual students in future videos, so that should be pretty exciting. Even if I only get one permission form, I can demonstrate quite a lot of what I actually do. So far, I don’t know of anyone else doing anything like this, but if there is I’d like to know about it!

I use TeacherTube because YouTube is blocked by our school and TeacherTube does allow unlimited uploads. You can also attach lesson plans and activities to the video which can really increase its usefulness to other teachers. The downside is that viewers don’t often leave very many comments or give very much feedback compared to what I see on YouTube. The most discussed video is entitled “Pay Attention” which has over half a million views but only 83 comments and the next most discussed has less than 50 comments. It’s not a very interactive community, which is why I see having a blog to support my efforts as being a useful thing.

That’s my weekly wrap up. We’ve only got about 6 weeks left of school! Where has all the time gone?!?

D.

A teacher recently posted a comment about accomodations asking for some help and support, so I created this podcast in order to answer her question.

Answering a Call for Help

We are on Spring Break right now, but I am up to my neck in work projects. This blog is part of those projects, hence me having to “come out.” Yeah, the byline might still say Dick Dalton, but Dan Dage is the one doing all the work and has been all along! So it’s time I give myself credit and begin promoting and branding myself accordingly. “Magnolia County” is Newton County, Georgia. And that’s enough info for the moment. I’ve been spending time in my archives, cleaning and editing stuff that might have proven to be more incendiary than I might like being mindful of offending my coworkers who I generally like and get along with. I’d like to keep it that way, if at all possible! So if any of you see something that might be offensive and damaging and tarnish my pristine image (HA!) go ahead and let me know. Snarky comments from readers don’t count. You all are free to offend as much as you like.

My two projects:

Developing resources for new SID/PID teachers: We have several in our county by virtue of some leaving, moving on or getting arrested. Yeah, it is a very ugly business. Burnout is not a matter of if but when, or so it seems. A good special ed. teacher can make a decent run of it in 3 years before getting too frazzled. As hideously short as that is, we’re averaging less than that on the high school level, and that includes me clocking in 8 years. So I’d like to have resources out there for our new recruits, but also for anyone else around the country wondering what the devil to do with students whose development is measured in months instead of years, especially on the high school level where the developmental gap between the students and their peers is so astronomically wide. This blog will serve as a central place to access those resources, or at least that’s the idea.

Welcome to my play space!

Lesson Plans for my SID/PID students: Let’s suppose for a minute that I have some ideas as to what to do with my students. Translating that into a formal lesson plan that somehow connects what I do with grade level content standards is a Herculean task that I’ve yet to see anyone do well. There’s a couple of ladies at the state department who have done what I do (only better) but haven’t done it since we got into standard-based mode. I may require their help. I’m going to go ahead and start on my own, anyway.

Which leads me to presenting the first step/resource in accomplishing these twin goals. That is, accessing and becoming familiar with the state standards. The special education teachers in Newton county have yet to be trained in the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). Ever. We happen to have had our special education county meeting at the exact same time the various subject areas are having their GPS meetings every year there has been a roll-out. We are all in the dark.

But there is help, no matter what you teach in Georgia. The GPS website looks a bit plain at first glance, and I was wondering how this thing was voted best of the web last year. However one must drill down a bit to see what’s there. And you all can drill with me by going to the GA DOE’s Moodle site. You can access the courses by logging in as a guest (it’s a one-button process) and looking at the flash videos. There, you will strike gold. Units, sequences, lesson plans, activities, tasks and resources all nicely laid out by subject, by grade. It’s hard to get any easier than that. That is, if you teach a regular subject. For a SID/PID teacher, this is a more daunting task because we have to translate a high school standard into something a developmentally 11 month old in an 18 year-old body can do. I’m not saying it can’t be done. It can, and I’ve done it a few times with a few tasks. But I need to have enough plans to go a few weeks nonstop on this and that is the challenge. I need to be able to plan for the developmental 11 month old as well as the developmental 3 and 4 year-old with adequate differentiation while providing access for all to 9-12th grade standards. This is no small thing we’re tasked with.

So I just thought I’d share, and I’ll be getting back to googling, moodling and otherwise planning. And now you can get your first look at my nerdly self in action!

Dan