it’s Going to Be a Long Year

I just came out of my first GAA committee meeting dealing with a student from someone else’s caseload.  This committee had the Sp. Ed. department head who was representing math, a regular social studies teacher, a regular science teacher and a special ed. Teacher who was representing language arts, myself (acting as GAA caseload manager) and the facilitator, who is in serious need of a name.  I’ll call her Ms. Van, since it’s nice and short.

 

My God. 

 

I got a bit of background from Ms. Van, who is acting facilitator for all 15 GAA students, meaning that she is attending all 15 meetings.  She did not volunteer for this, she was drafted like the rest of us were drafted.  But her job is compounded by the fact that committee members were asking questions for which she had no answers.  Who is going to be teaching the student?  What happens next Semester when this student won’t have the same classes?

 

As case manager, I did try to give as much direction as I knew how to do.  GAA has been my life for over a week now, and is quickly claiming the lives of many others.  It is a growing cancer that is infecting more and more people.  It’s somewhat comforting to know that the chaotic madness is nationwide and not strictly confined to Georgia.  But this particular student, unlike Taz, has some academic abilities and can actually read above the 3^rd grade level.  He simply lacks motivation.  When we get to collection period 2, we’ll have a bit of a motivation session.

 

So we basically did for this kid what we should have done last week for him; pick out the standards, the strands, the elements and the tasks.  This meeting was supposed to last an hour and there some very, very impatient people wanting to get out of there.  Sadly to say, they were special educators. 

 

I wish I could say I walked out of there feeling good about what was accomplished.  Frankly I’m not sure we accomplished much of anything.  One big hurdle was assigning the assessment and teaching tasks.  Another was that very few of the standards were aligned with the IEP goals and objectives although I was surprised to see that the ELA standards were fairly closely aligned.

 

There is a lot of work to be done and we only have about 6 more weeks to do it. 

 

NCLB really sucks.

 

 

Supplying a Laugh Track

This GAA stuff just gets better and better.  I thought I would be managing Taz’s assessment and could devote all my time and energy towards him.  But it’s never that simple, is it?  I’ve actually been assigned another student to head up, as well as being assigned as a consultant on 3 other student committees; Mr. Pyle’s students.  This means I’ll probably have to do them.  Actually, each student has a committee of around 6 people assigned.  The committee has a caseload manager, a facilitator, and a regular education teacher from science, social studies, ELA and math.  The assigned regular ed. teachers are all very, very young and I’m not sure they have any idea what they are in for.  But if they know their Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) that’s all that is important for me at the moment.  Also have a look at their section devoted to severe kids.  If you look very carefully, you’ll notice something: there’s precious little there, aside from the bloody forms and worksheets we have to turn in.  I looked at the samples for high school ELA which are very very few…10th grade.  10th grade?  Who gives a shit about TENTH grade?  We need ELEVENTH GRADE, you stupid ignorant knobs!  11th grade is the grade in which we have to turn in all of those stupid forms!

 

I had this wild idea that it might be useful to have some collaborative space on the internet for all of us to kick ideas around and perhaps even solicit more input from other teachers around the county and even around the state.  I’m not at liberty to use my blog space, and it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.  But I knew someone on my blogroll had been into this sort of thing.  Sure enough, Reflective Teacher is forever using collaborative tools and technology.  I thought PBwiki would fit the bill, and looked at his.  I got all registered and began editing my first page when the f#$&!&*@ sonic wall slammed shut, blocking access.  So, I’ll be bugging the county IT people about getting us into the 21st century.  We are on a pretty hard lockdown, out here in the sticks.

 

Anyone out there using Tiddlywiki?  I discovered this little gem while on my search for a tool, and see a lot of potential in it.  What I don’t see is a way to add a discussion forum or comment section to it.  Otherwise, it could be just the thing.  We do have a network folder just for all the teachers in the school.  I might throw it out there and see if any of these younger teachers can bring it to heel in serving our purposes.

 

 

And the GAA drama will continue.

 

dick

 

 

Training for GAA

Pretend that I posted this a week ago!

 

Today was the training for Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) for a bunch of us in the high schools.  A bunch of administrators were also there, thus reinforcing the seriousness of all of this.  At stake is AYP.  It took Magnolia High School all of 2 years to get off the needs improvement list and no one wants to go back on it.  No teacher, including me, wants to be responsible for the entire school not making AYP.  The special ed administrator and the testing administrator were both there as well as administrators and the severe teachers from other high schools.

 

The Big Boss, our county special ed coordinator was the main trainer although other county education administrators were in on it.  This was not the first training, as middle and elementary school teachers and administrators have gone through this earlier.  However the anxiety level amongst participants had to be noticibly higher, as evidenced by the frustration of the presenters.  And this is justifiably so, because of the gap between performance of some students and the grade.  For instance, the presenter wanted to use 3rd grade examples because that is what the knobs at the state department used.  The difference between a student functioning at an 11 month old and an 8 year-old is very significant.  However it is nothing compared to the gap that exists between a student functioning at an 11 month-old level and a 17 year-old.   This is the distance many of us high school teachers have to jump.  Elementary and middle school teachers are not necessarily getting a bargain here, but we are talking about getting someone functioning no higher than preschool meeting the same standards as the high school graduation test.  Granted it is the GEORGIA high school graduation test, which can only be so rigorous.  But there are still some pretty high standards compared to what most profound kids are used to meeting.

 

I had a chance, during a break, to talk to the secondary special ed coordinator who used to be at the state DOE when they were rolling this out.  She just came out and said that the folks in Atlanta really had no thought of the severe and profound kids when they were developing this thing.  They were thinking more about kids who were reading on a 2nd or 3rd grade level; kid who were simply way behind, not kids who were lower than a preK level.  The thought just never occurred to them.

 

The morning consisted of loads and loads of discussion about the procedures, all of which were outlined in something called a “Procedures Manual.”  The procedures consisted of what order to put the paperrs in, when they were to be submitted, which forms we were to make copies of and which ones we were forbidden to make copies of.  Each subject was to have its own folder and its own cover sheet.  Each had to be clearly labeled.  They went over what the evidence was we were to use, primary and secondary.

 

I was sitting between the two other high school severe teachers in the county.  The Southside teacher, who is new this year, was remarkably creative and seemed to adapt quite nicely.  This was the first time I had a chance to spend a lot of time with her, and she is pretty sharp.  The Northside teacher, OTOH, was having teething problems with this entire process.  I know the kids he has to do this for, and he has a tough job ahead of him.

 

In the afternoon, we broke into groups and the 3 of us worked together to work out plans.  And there were some good suggestions that came out of that, and I have a good outline of a plan.  Fortunately, much of it includes things I am already doing or things that can be done fairly easily.  My biggest challenge is the area of reading comprehension.  How do you demonstrate reading comprehension to someone with the reading comprehension skills of a 2 year-old with 11th grade materials?

 

I’ll share more details of what I’m doing as I go along.  Anyone else out there following along?  I’ll take any suggestions for 11th grade ELA teachers.  In the meantime, I’ll be consulting some from my own school about the materials and standards that are being used.  Maybe I WILL turn Taz loose in one of these classrooms!LOL!  No, we are averaging one teacher who quits per week at this school as it is.  No sense in further increasing the attrition rate.

 

dick

 

Why I’m Staying Home Election Day

Mine is not a political blog, and I have eschewed taking political sides all ‘round.  I will take aim at specific policies, such as NCLB and the alternate assessment or the highly qualified requirements and the testing and other crap that goes with it.  As far as I’m concerned, neither political party has done any favors towards education and specifically kids with disabilities.  At the time the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was first passed, the bill was passed by a democratic congress and signed by a republican president.  Since then, we have seen presidents and congressional delegations from both parties come and go.  Jimmy Carter was a democrat whose own party was in congress, as was G.W. Bush and then presidents who the opposite was true.  There is no configuration of the political branches that has or will come along and do much more for my kids (as a father and teacher) than has already been done.  At NO TIME has the federal government ever fulfilled more than a fraction of the financial obligation they promised (and keep promising) under IDEA.  EVER.  NCLB was a bipartisan bill, and was actually crafted in 1997 by both parties, long before we had the present administration.  G.W. Bush can take the blame, since he was dumb enough to want to take all the credit when it passed.  You will not see that one fully funded in your lifetime either.  Congress has never seen a pledge or a promise that wasn’t worth breaking. 

 

Right now the republicans have both houses of congress and the White House, and they still can not get anything done.  For the record, I am pretty conservative.  While I have voted Republican many times, I have also switched my vote up between parties before, including third party candidates.   I’ve even sent money a time or two to a political candidate I liked.  Only do this if you enjoy getting lots of junk mail from every two-bit politico in need of funds.  I’ve moved 3 times since my last donation and the buggers STILL find me!

 

This election, I am really thinking of staying home.  The school board race was actually decided in the primary.  The other local races are more or less in the bag.  There are no real controversial referendums on the ballot.  In the governor’s race, I like both candidates equally as much which is to say I loathe each one equally.  The congressional race is apparently a hot one in my district, as the attack mailings and ads have been pretty pointed.  I have gotten mailings from some republican operatives from some other state, raging on this guy which the democrat rails back.  This annoys me.  I might favor some traditionally republican issues, but I do not favor any extremism or shrillness from either party.  I like a reasoned, moderate voice.  Am I the only one who gets annoyed at the sniping, nagging, harping, niggling, smacking going on?  I’m not going to pick on the democratic party, because frankly it wouldn’t be as interesting as reading a real democrat criticize their own party.  I would really like to see a liberal critique his/her own party on a few things.

 

So I’ll be a conservative and criticize the traditionally conservative party for a bit, while keeping an eye on the whole bunch.  IOW, any loathing I feel towards republicans can be multiplied by some random integer greater than 1 and applied towards the opposition. 

 

The main tipping point that spawns this screed is the failure of S. 843 or house version HR 2421 to be moved out of the house committee for a vote.  I understand that the Combating Autism Act might be somewhat controversial, but it perfectly illustrates the idiocy of the republican party.  This has passed the senate and has been supported or co-sponsored by some 227 representatives; this bill is a sure winner.  However, there is a republican congressman from Texas who refuses to bring it up for a vote unless HIS legislation on NIH reform is brought up to a vote.  The speaker of the house and majority leader of the house have refused to intervene.

 

This is the way business is conducted in Washington.  And don’t say it would be any different if the opposition were in control, because I’m not that naïve.  This is the way people get, no matter who they are, when they get too much power.  “To hell with what the people want, you are going to do what *I* want!”  Like the democrats in ’92, the republicans in ’06 are too fat and bloated for their own good.   The whole country needs an enema, and the democrats might just be the people to deliver it.  The republicans have not given me a good reason to get out and pull their lever.  OTOH, the democrats have all but promised to take more of my meager salary by repealing the tax cuts if they get control.  On one hand, if I vote for the opposition, this comes off as looking like an endorsement of their agenda which looks to me like “impeach Bush and it will all be better.”  OTOH, a vote for republicans tells them that they must be doing things right, and to keep doing what they are doing, which is spend $2 for every $1 they get from me. 

 

I’m not willing to do either.  I’m not impressed by the latest scandals nor the reactions to them.  Washington is full of slick crooks and this time around they can do it without my vote.

 

In fact, why don’t they include “None of the above” as an option for each election and each race?  Is it because “None of the above” would win each and every time?  Perhaps such an option would encourage a more positive campaign.  Think about it: If my biggest challenger is “None of the above” what kind of campaign ad would I have to run?   What kind of smear tactics are you going to use?  Is “None of the Above” a criminal, a cheater, a crook or even worse, a lawyer?  Every negative ad I run putting another guy down simply convinces more voters to go to “None of the Above.”  I might have to actually propose meaningful ideas and discuss things that mean something to the lives of people.  I might have to accomplish something meaningful to be re-elected.  

 

I might even bother to get out and exercise my right to vote “None of the above.”  Hmmm.  I’m going to think about that.  I might try writing in “No One” for those races I don’t care or know about.  Think about it; even in races that are unopposed, a “None of the above” choice would provide a bit of suspense.  Does the candidate have a REAL mandate or is s/he just a name to check?

 

I can think of no good reason a politician running for office would want a “None of the above” choice on the ballot, opposing them.  This means that this is a brilliant idea that has no chance at all of ever getting anywhere.  I’m glad I’m not the only one, and not the first one.  It’s an idea that has only gotten better over the past 20 years.

dick

 

Taking Shots: NCLB and Alternate Assessments

 

Let’s face some facts, here.  I.Q. does matter when teaching kids, no matter how we would like to pretend otherwise.  True, flaws abound in such testing but there gets to be a point where such testing is barely even necessary.  And all of the students I teach fall into this category.  They fall right on through the floor on most standardized testing instruments.  Those tests do not have standardized scores low enough for my kids, because they are in the bottom 1% of the population. 

 

I’ve been asked by a few teachers about the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA), and I am going to discuss my dealings with that specifically as we progress through the process.  Our district is behind.

 

But I wanted to talk about alternate assessments in general and specifically how they interface with NCLB. 

 

NCLB has the stated goal of 100% of all children performing on grade level by 20013.  The idea is that by 20013, all of the students who started at the time the law was passed will be graduating, and from then on, every child in school with be under those same rigorous standards.  There are a host of problems with this, relating to genetics, the bell curve and standards.  However nowhere is this exposed as the joke it truly is, as much as with kids like the ones I teach.  I teach the rock bottom.  These are kids who can not talk, can not feed themselves and some can not even swallow.  They are nearly all in diapers. 

 

It reminds me of the episode of the Partridge Family when Danny was drafted into the Army.  Everyone knew this was a joke, except the military who insisted it was not a mistake.  The gag was that this large, bureaucratic dinosaur of an organization could not recognize reality in spite of itself.  Danny went in and got his physical and went through the whole thing, even though he was obviously just a child. 

 

We hear stories about this all the time, as small children, family pets and even dead people are given credit card applications.  When it comes to large organization run by red tape, common sense is not so common.  That’s what makes them a good target for jokes and sitcoms.

 

The problem is this:  The DOE is every bit as humorless and bereft of common sense as the DOD.  Fact is, is they are totally and absolutely sober and serious about their intentions that my students will be able to demonstrate some level of proficiency in 11th grade high school subjects.  They are neither joking nor laughing and will hold the entire school hostage to that belief under the guise of making AYP.

 

Now I am not saying that my students can not learn.  They can and they do!  However, due to a variety of neurological factors, it takes upwards of 500+ trials over a hundred or so sessions for them to learn a new skill that they are only halfway interested in learning.  The average high school student is expected to learn it in less than 30 trials over maybe 5 sessions before they are tested for mastery.  Over the course of a decade of instruction, hopefully they get many more trials and sessions to become proficient in reading, writing and basic mathematics.  But my students have not had that instruction.  We’ve been working on getting them to feed themselves, speak, walk, use the bathroom, and wipe their own butts.  We do work on counting money and identifying coins where possible.  But Algebra has not been a high priority.

 

The alternate assessment has historically aligned with the functional nature of our curriculum.  We take IEP goals and measure mastery from there. However, this year, presumably with IDEA 2004 and NCLB supposedly in alignment, IEP goals are either thrown out or must align to the grade-level curriculum. 

 

Let me reiterate that for parents: all the work you do trying to fight for the school to provide certain services is actually being undermined by NCLB.  Because if you have certain goals you want worked on, and the school is under the gun to make AYP, which one of these is getting the resources and attention?  Which one of these do you think the principal is going to put pressure on the teacher to do?  You might want your child to learn a vocational or daily living skill that may help them live more independently.  The school does not care because your child needs to demonstrate some level of proficiency in algebra, geometry, reading comprehension and writing.  And these are not bad things to know, except that it takes these kids so long to learn something that the time might be better spent directly on a given skill, like dressing themselves.  This is why we have IEPs in the first place.  But the push and rush for AYP makes kids in special education ripe for discrimination that IDEA was supposed to remedy.

 

My kids used to not even register on administration radar because the alternate assessment was based on IEP goals I picked.  And I always picked goals the kid tcould handle for AYP purposes.  But now they have to come from the regular 11th grade curriculum, NOT the IEP. 

 

I have a question for you all: How many of you would feel good about an 11th grade curriculum that my kids could pass?  Think about it.  You do not have to be able to read, write, or count.  Is THIS the standard you want to set?  Are THESE the standards that NCLB is striving to set in order that our nation can compete in a global economy?  Trying to make my kids fit regular curriculum standards is going back to the days of discrimination.  Trying to fit everyone else’s curriculum to my kids does a disservice to ANY standards.  

 

There’s a very good reason why they don’t make saddles for pigs or milking machines for chickens.  They just don’t work so well.  Not everyone is equipped to do the same things.  My kids are not going to college.  Why would I want to subject them to more frustration and indignity than they have already had to endure at the hands of a public that misunderstands them, at best, and abuses them at worst?  And yet, the DOE is hell bent on doing it.  They insist on taking a kid, for whom just taking a shit is a challenge, and subjecting them to tests of reading comprehension, writing, algebra, geometry, world history and physical science.

 

I can think of no greater evidence that NCLB is a total loser than this farce that is being made with MY students.  My students have a whole lot more to offer the world than the sorry slobs in Washington or Atlanta who think they are going to save this country with their “more rigorous” standards.  I may be accused of throwing out the baby with the bathwater on this, but NCLB is a study of self-corruption and idiocy.  It will fail and implode because of the immoral abuse that is being inflicted upon students who are the least threatening to anyone.  That 1% of students who can not, even with the most major of modifications and adaptations take a standardized test.  Imposing standards that try to even look remotely similar is an insult to both my kids, and the regular education population who has to really work to pass that test.   

 

What this new alternate assessment is going to boil down to, is how we as a collective group can best lie, cheat and otherwise hoodwink our way through so that it isn’t us who is responsible for our school not making AYP.  My kids do not deserve this level of scrutiny.  I’ll gladly make video tapes of me teaching them relevant goals according to the curriculum set forth together with parents.  I’ll do that everyday, all day long.  But this business of holding us to grade level is ludicrous beyond words, and is in serious need of a laugh track.  

 

Stay tuned for more.

 dick

 

A Few Comments on Comments

A while back, I made a post using the term “Comment Whore” which is a term designed to generate a bit of emotion and reaction.  I would define a comment whore as someone who is putting out content with the express intention of getting lots of comments.  I suppose there is a kinder, gentler name for this practice, but I’m not sure what it is.  I know of at least one blog out there, that this is all she does.  She asks questions to her readers like, “What if you were a pencil, what would life be like?”  or “Tell about any goal that you had as a child that remains unfulfilled.”  And she gets tons and tons of comments.  Some of the posts are shallow, some are deep.  Most of them do really provoke some thought.   It’s what she does, and she does it exceedingly well, generating hundreds of comments. 

 

Another blogger just happens to have a huge enough and interested enough readership that she can generate 100 comments just by writing about mayonnaise.  Seriously.  I could not believe it myself and left her a comment telling her so.

 

Bloggers lurve comments.  The ones that say they don’t care are lying.  But I will say that when my comment box exceeds 10 comments, I get really nervous.  It’s sometimes a good nervous but sometimes bad.  If I happen to look at the number and it is too large, I’m wondering what the heck is going on!   Did I offend some group?  Did I start a fight somewhere?  Usually, it is because Liz has posted my URL on some other prominent board or to some group or linked to me somehow, which results in this dramatic spike in readership.  If I was making money from this thing, I would seriously have to put her on the payroll.

 

There is a price to be paid for generating a lot of comments, and not many bloggers are keen to pay this toll.  Namely, many of the comments are going to be critical, angry, nasty screeds that will flatten a body’s ego.  In the above mentioned mayonnaise controversy, there was more than one flame on the person’s character about her treatment of mayonnaise packets.  This was a ludicrous waste of bandwidth, which is why I left a comment flaming the flamers for being so petty and shallow.

 

I accept that most people who read will not comment.  It takes awhile for most bloggers to really and truly accept the fact that most readers who like reading don’t always feel like saying much.  I subscribe to many more blogs than appear on my blogroll, and RSS does not lend itself to commenting, especially since I do my reading offline.  I like the fact that several people have found things that I have written to be helpful and encouraging and I know that is the case because I do check stats and see what people are reading. 

 

I can say definitively that comments and other blogs have helped shape my thinking on many things.  By reading a few blogs by regular education teachers, I get a feel for what their days are like.  I know I am not alone by reading blogs by other special ed teachers.  I am also encouraged and inspired by reading blogs written by parents and by the people themselves who have disabilities or different abilities.  In fact, reading blogs by people on the autistic spectrum has shifted my thinking mightily in the way I look at efforts to cure and treat autism.  I’ve found a fair number of these through comments , either here or on other sites.  Even nasty critical comments give me cause for pause, and get me to think about where I am at, mentally just before I delete them. 

 

The biggest key to getting comments is to leave some.  I think almost every blogger will follow a commenter back to their place if they have one and leave the link.  Another step is to answer back and respond to comments.  I try to do this, but I am not always so good about it.  Sometimes I get to it and sometimes I don’t. 

 

“Comment Whore” is a pretty tough label. When it comes write down to it, all of us who blog are “Attention Whores” of one sort or another.   Why else would we post stuff out on the internet for all to see?

 

Dick

Another word or two about physical punishment

A reader asked me about spanking and it remains one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written.  I figure about half the folks looking at it are pervs and end up moving on.  But I remain amazed at the response all the same.

 

So I figure an update is needed about now.

 

He question was, do I still use it?  The answer is no.  I’m not saying I will never do it again, but there were some bad byproducts that were totally not anticipated.  While Thomas did and still does fall into line around me, the spanking brought on an obsession of sorts for him.  The last time he got it was actually in the church parking lot when he started seriously back talking.  And then for the next month, when we’re wlking in chuch, he is saying very loudly, “I’M GOING TO HAVE GOOD BEHAVIOR SO I DON’T GET A SPANKING!  I SURE DON’T WANT A SPANKING, DADDY!  THERE WILL BE NO SPANKING TODAY!”

 

I can just see child protective services ringing my doorbell.

 

It was traumatic for him, which I suppose is sort of the point in a way.  He does listen to me better now.  I’m hoping it sticks around but not so much it rules all of his thoughts, you know? After a couple of months, he doesn’t go on and on about spanking anymore. 

 

It was traumatic for me, as well.  Sure, I know it works but I’m no Ivar Lovaas.  It’s not something I want to do every day, every week or every month.  Having said that, I will give his arm a squeeze at times while making my point, but that’s about it for anything physical.

 

Jane is convinced that I taught him to hit, which is patently false.  The boy was hitting long before I took a hand to his backside.  Some things just don’t need to be taught.

 

So, to the reader looking for advice I’m not going to say to do it or not to do it.  But I will say that you might be a wee bit preoccupied with punishment.  Change your thinking and turn it around a bit.  For instance, church is a traumatic time for Thomas and his brother or any child his age.  But sitting still and quiet for extended time is a useful skill and is worth working on.  So that’s what we’re doing.  I have a train magazine for him that he is ONLY allowed to look at during quiet time at church.  He lurves trains and it is a powerful enough reinforcer to get him to fly right for a time.   Think about enticement rather than coercion.  Give choices instead of threats.  These are less traumatic for everyone.  And I am SO for less trauma.

 

When spanking Thomas, it basically was a nuclear option resulting in an instantaneous meltdown.  There was no more learning, talking, consoling, explaining, teaching that was going to happen for a long time and maybe even the rest of the day.   Even longer, perhaps, considering the ensuing obsession.   

 

Every single person out there says that it should be controlled and done without anger.  I’m all for the controlled bit, as it is the adults job to be in control.  But I’m not so much for the “without anger” part.  That seems a bit silly, actually.  Of course I’m angry!   And registering measured anger is not a bad thing.  One of the biggest problems kids have today is the inability to self regulate.  They need to learn to regulate their own emotional reactions and modeling controlled anger is one way adults can help.  You can even tell them you are angry, and why you are so mad.  Guilting parents for being angry is annoying at best and harmful at worst.  And if you are going to make a good and convincing go of spanking you may need some anger.  It’s gotta hurt some.  The child, I mean.  It has to register.  I might have tried a mild swat years ago, and it simply did not register at all with Thomas.  Fact is, it is has to hurt.  No one wants to see their child hurt so the fact that it’s going to hurt you as a parent probably goes without saying.  But in order to get past my own issues, I needed some of the anger to muster up the nerve to do it and to do it “right”.   “Right” being defined as being severe enough that I would not have to do it again.  I’ve seen parents beating their kids repeatedly and that bugs me.  I’d rather get one good strong stout swat and be done with it.  Make the point once, and it is finished.  If it still doesn’t work, then doing it over and over again isn’t going to make much difference accept just help the kid get used to it and require ever more beatings.

 

So I’ll probably get lambasted for this one all over the place, having violated several rules of society, good parenting, behaviorism, the IRB, Good House Keeping, the APA and my own professional code of ethics, except I’m speaking as a parent, not a teacher. 

 

Okay, since I’m knee deep, I might as well enjoy the coolness of this squishy substance I’ve waded into:

 

When I was a kid, my mother used a belt on us kids and my Dad used a stick.  A stick he made US select.  Jane’s mother used a wooden spoon.  Some use rulers, hairbrushes, ping pong paddles, tennis rackets, shoes, and other assorted utensils.  Some schools have recently returned to corporal punishment and use various wooden paddles, some with holes drilled in them.  Some may recall the kid who got it in Singapore with a rattan cane.

 

But I do not advocate the use of such devices.  I have used my bare hand every single time.  And yes, it hurt my hand every single time.  Oh well.  It might have actually hurt me more than him, since he had jeans and underwear between my hand and his bottom.  But that’s okay.  Another incentive to give it one good blow and be done with it.  I’m not trying to wear out my hand or his bottom.  I am registering displeasure at a behavior that I want to stop immediately.  I am expressing intolerance.  I am enforcing my will.  If my hand is too sore to continue, it is time to stop. And one time is sufficient for me, physically and emotionally.

 

Spanking really is deep water in parenting today, and even moreso with kids with disabilities.  In schools, it is deeper water infested with mines and sharks.  I can’t believe anyone in a school actually does it now days.

 

For me, it was a very mixed result.  I do get tons more compliance.  Jane does not, and I’m not sure she could get my level of compliance even if she beat him diligently and daily.  There is some real difference in the way fathers and mothers relate to children, and fathers usually can get more compliance if they are motivated to gain and keep it.  Even though my own mother was generous in her use of the belt, Dad still was the ultimate even though he only spanked me maybe twice that I can remember my whole life.  But that was sufficient, as he made a deep enough impression.  That doesn’t mean I was a perfect child but I knew there were lines I dare not cross with him where I might try Mom many more times.

 

I’m not giving advice, I’m stating my one opinion and experience.  For kids with autism, they are all different and everyone’s mileage varies.  Please apply all disclaimers you have ever seen, read, heard of or dreamed of right here. 

 

Dick

When Life Chose Me to be a Para

I briefly chronicled my professional exploits elsewhere.  But with all of the ruckus about paraeducators and what I think of them, I figured now would be a good time to go back to those days and color in a bit more detail.  Just so you know. 

 

I originally wanted to begin being a para earlier, but was tempted and seduced into trying my luck as a full fledged EBD teacher who was supposedly supervising a couple of different paras.  This was a disaster.  One para was a mother who was just looking for a little extra work and money, and the other was an ex-music teacher.  Thankfully Music Teacher knew a thing or two and supported me and propped me up in ways she’ll never know.  The Mother was more clueless than me, which was very bad.  I really had no idea what to do with either of them.  It was a divine act of mercy that got me out of there, even though being let go was seriously demoralizing.

 

The next summer I was working at Arbys and going to school to finish that Master’s.  I was taking a class on instructional strategies that included folks from the MR, LD and interrelated disciplines.  You could invariably tell who the EBD folks were, because we were the ones smoking during class breaks!  It was during these breaks that I met Juliet.  Ah,yes.  Juliet with the long and gorgeous red hair.  Jane will have at me for writing that, but oh, well…

 

Juliet walked up to me and asked me if I was looking for a job, and I told her I was.  It just so happened she was looking for a para.  Thing was, it was 50 or so miles from where I lived.  She said if I was interested, I could call the coordinator of the psychoed outpost, which I did.  I interviewed with the coordinator and the Magnolia County director of personnel.  I told them of my history and they were very interested in me.  They sort of wondered if I was that interested in them but I was determined not to seduced away again. 

 

My wife Jane and I were engaged and living together at the time.  Jane had a good job making good money and I was a student working at Arbys.  So in essence Jane partially subsidized my living expenses which I could never have afforded on what I was paid as a para.

 

 Juliet also subsidized me in a way.  Yes, the lovely crimson haired young woman lived less than 10 miles from where I was.  So we ended up car pooling, meaning she drove most of the time.  I would meet her every morning a little after 6 a.m. at a shopping center, and she would drive us to the psychoed in Magnolia County by 7:30. 

 

Juliet was just a few years younger than me, and had been a para just a year before I met her.  She had been a para for a teacher who resigned in the middle of the year so Juliet took over.  She had a degree in psychology and was in the same Master’s degree program that I was.  She was a para who became a teacher, and I was a teacher who became a para.  We were equals in almost every way, except of course she was my boss and got paid twice as much as me. 

 

Juliet and I were teaching middle school aged students with severe emotional disorders in a psychoed outpost.  Georgia has a network of psycheducational schools just for students with very severe emotional behavior issues.  There are center schools and then there are outpost schools.  Magnolia County had a small outpost which had a coordinator, a social worker, 4 teachers and 5 paras as well as an itinerant art therapist.  All of the paras who were with me that year have since become special ed teachers.  It really was that special of a place.

 

Since we were so small, we were also a very cohesive unit.  I learned from paras who had been there awhile, as well as from Juliet herself.  In many ways I had the most ideal situation a teacher/para could possibly have.  Juliet and I had a good relationship all around.  With the hours of commuting, we had a lot of time to talk and communicate.  To people who know me now, it might be difficult to believe I could be a good subordinate to a woman younger than myself who had really no greater depth of knowledge than I did.  But I had no problems with it.  I’ve been in the military, and have no problems with taking orders and following direction. 

 

Juliet was not a hard supervisor at all.  The role of supervisor was one she was just getting used to, herself.  I made it as easy as possible on her…most of the time.  I really never forgot who was in charge, so she never had to think about it.  We were just very comfortable with each other and had lots of respect for each other.

 

Paras seem to really grouse about the differential in authority between themselves and the teacher.  I have tried to explain this as a teacher.  Let me try to put it in perspective of a para, at least how I understood it.  Mush of it goes along with my military background and training.  Having superior rank does not mean a person is superior personally.  It has nothing to do with the quality of character or even technical skills.  In the military, every person in the squad has a specialty and a job which they perform with greater skill than anyone else on the team.  The officers can not do it all.  They coordinate and make sure things get done amongst all the parts.

 

Juliet was not better or smarter than me.  But she was higher on the totem pole, and I followed her and supported her all the way, no matter if I agreed or not.  Most of the time, we did agree.  But not always.  I sometimes thought she was too verbal with the boys and talked and lectured too much.   I didn’t always like all of the activities we did and thought a lot of them were silly and dumb.  But you know what?  I carried out her will because it was her job to think of the stuff and my job to carry it out.  It helped that I liked her, even though I did not always agree with her.  We had a good relationship.  She never lorded her position over me, and listened to what I had to say.  I let her know when I thought things needed some tweaking and we worked together.

 

This cohesion worked for the betterment of the students.  Juliet and I were on the same page.  The students knew that I was not going to be able to be played against her.  Our classroom was a safer place because of that.  We could actually enjoy these challenging students together and when things got tough we each had the other to go to. 

 

Because we had the relationship that we did, Juliet gave me lots of opportunities to try new things.  I added to the behavior management plan, and enhanced it with visual charts and tracking gimmicks.  I instituted a sort of token lottery system that also incorporated academics into it.  IOW, a student could earn a reinforcer for so many tokens but first they had to answer an academic question.  I also planned and delivered all of the science lessons we did, which gave Juliet a sizable planning block plus it was one less planning period she had to do.

 

I’m feeling the need to write more about this, but I’ll extend in another chapter.  I think the most important “take away” points are:

- I had a good relationship with my teacher

- I let her be the boss, and did so without resentment

- I supported her jealously and zealously. 

- I took initiative in making her life easier while challenging myself to try new things.

 

Basically, I submitted to her for the sake of the greater good.  I’m not sure I could have done that for someone I did not like or get along with.  Juliet was a hard word working and dedicated teacher.  It would have been more difficult to submit to someone who was not so competent and diligent.  She engendered respect and I happily gave it to her.  In return, she respected me and my opinions

 

In future posts I’ll talk a bit more about the programming and behavior management issues we had.  But I thought it was important to lay down the foundation which was the teacher-para relationship.  The more severe the disability, the more crucial it is that people work together as a unit and team.  Juliet and I were, in many respects, a perfect team.  It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot.  I miss those days, sometimes.  

 dick

 

 

 

What if it were one of your kids?: Escape Extinction

I remember hearing another telling a story one time about when her son, Ricky, was at the clinic to get his shot in preparation for going to school so he was about 4 years old. His mother had prepped him, and told him why they were there and promised Ricky a trip to McDonald’s afterward. So when Ricky walked into the clinic he was actually in a pretty good mood. There happened to meet another little boy about his age. “Are you here to get your shot, too?” he asked the little boy.

That boy’s mother had NOT told her son why he was there and the result was a temper tantrum. My question to you: what should this mother do? Should she give in to his crying and demanding to go home? Should she try to entice him with McDonald’s? The boy was clearly not negotiating. He was crying, kicking and throwing himself on the floor.

Are there any other parents or teachers who have encountered this sort of behavior? Are there any other parents who have a child who is not keen to get up out of bed in the morning to go to school? Am I the only one?

One reader suggests ignoring as a legitimate intervention in such circumstances. When the function of the behavior is to escape demands, escape responsibility or even escape consequences, ignoring is completely inappropriate. I’m not necessarily talking about overt behaviors like tantrums as much as refusing to move. If your child doesn’t get out of bed in time to go to school, and refuses to comply and he is allowed to sleep in, you are reinforcing noncompliant behavior. Who wouldn’t rather sleep in?

Thomas is such a textbook case of this. Monday through Friday, it is a chore to get him up at 6:15 to catch a 6:45 bus. He acts like he just can’t stay awake and sometimes complains that he feels sick. But, being the mean parents we are, we FORCE the boy out of bed and MAKE him go to school! This is non negotiable. Ignoring is not an option.

Guess what happens on Saturday morning? Does he sleep in? Does he take advantage of the opportunity to rest and sleep? No, he is up at 5:30!! Heck, we might even let him stay up and hour or two later on Friday just to see if he might sleep in. Not a chance. But we are not quite as rigid on this point, although I’ve been sorely tempted to keep in his room until 7:30 just because he can’t be left alone. But we just deal with it. Jane does mostly.

If a person refuses to do something, they may be trying to access attention. Then ignoring is a legitimate extinction technique, because it is matched to the function.

In the case of Jim, attention was not the function of his noncompliant behavior. How do I know? Because he could be left in the room completely alone and he would be perfectly content to sit in the chair with his head down between his knees all day long. Attention from people is not real high on his agenda. He’d rather people left him alone and there are more times than not when I can totally relate!

So we have a situation where a student is not only escaping demands but also getting access to some sort of automatic reinforcement. The first thing is to get the attention of the person. In Jim’s case it involved shutting down the whole vestibular feedback he had going on by leaning over his chair. The intent was that by gently tipping his chair forward he would just stand up. making guidance a lot easier. Instead, he rolled on the floor.

Upon some reflection, I now realize that what I wanted to do was put the escape behavior on extinction. The only way to do that is to block escape. Ignoring works when attention is the maintaining factor. Since I couldn’t get Jim to go to his class and he was too big to carry there, that is when I did some other work with him. In this case, trying new foods was a much higher demand activity than what the other class was doing which was basically watching a movie. And there was the key.

As a youngin’ I didn’t always want to go to school either. But I rarely ever missed a day because I lived on the farm. Farming involved MUCH higher demands than schoolwork ever could. Dad wouldn’t hesitate to dump me out of bed and kick my posterior out to the barn if I had a notion to skip school. So yes, I am pretty old school.

Many kids today have absolutely no concept of authority. Mine do. If one of my own kids refuses to follow a teacher’s instruction and dumping him out of the desk does any good, I say it’s okay. Parents nowadays are unwilling to project authority, and then wonder why their kids are brats.

I expect my sons’ teachers to follow through on what they say. If they threaten consequences, then there had better be some consequences. Failure to do so merely trains the student to ignore adults. This is how students begin training adults, as they begin putting parenting behaviors on extinction! Ignore a parent long enough and they will throw up their hands and say “What’s the use?”

So how do you put escape behavior on extinction? By not allowing the escape. And anyone who has spent more than a few weeks with a student can tell most of the time whether a student is trying to escape or gain access to something. You know who in your class loves attention. You also know the ones who will do anything to get out of doing work. It is possible to have both things in play at thesame time.

I’m not saying I haven’t made mistakes. Maybe I should spend a week chronicling my biggest snafus. I don’t care how much of a behaviorist one is, kids don’t come with an instruction manual and each one will present something new and interesting. That’s one of the reasons I stay.

dick