The Turn Over at Our School May 22, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Uncategorized.Tags: parents, Special Education, teacher evaluation, Teachers
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We are on the downhill slide of the year. One more day. And I still don’t know what I’m going to be doing next year! My evaluator hasn’t darkened my door in over a month (and that wasn’t for an evaluation but a discipline problem) but I did make evaluating me easier than gravity. I gave her a CD of some video I shot doing some teaching and included my data sheet/lesson plan with it. I knew we were going to be crushed at the end and thought she could use that in a pinch. So we’ll see.
What I do know, is that 1/4 of our faculty is departing this year, and one third of those will be from the special education department. It is going to be hideously hard to fill those vacancies, with mine being the absolute hardest to fill. Let’s face it; people are not beating my door down trying to get in. They might try to keep me in this room for another year, which would be stressful but I would do it with the understanding that this would be my last year at this high school. I won’t be screwed over twice. This state of limbo makes it hard to prepare for summer inservice classes as they are offering several co-teaching classes but they want the co-teachers to take the class together. That’s a bit difficult when a large number of those who will be doing the co-teaching are not even hired yet!
So why the big turn-over? For one thing, our principal is leaving. The new principal will be principal #4 for me. Administrators come and go. If you don’t like the one you got, wait a few years and you’ll get a new one. If you like the one you have, enjoy it because the wind will shift directions pretty soon. Fightin’ Joe was an assistant for a few years before taking the head job, and while he was an AP we saw quite a bit of him in my room and with my kids. He even played the role of Santa Clause during a Christmas party we had one year. I know – totally not age appropriate! Once he became the head guy, we rarely ever saw him. And really, that is absolutely fine with me. I know he had bigger fish to fry with AYP (which we made most years he was principal) and while I appreciate any time an administrator spends with us, no news is mostly good news. Administrators traditionally have to spend most of their time putting out fires and the fact that we’ve had relatively few has been a relief to us all.
Another reason we might be seeing higher turnover might have something to do with this Washington Post article. My previous article touched on that theme a bit, and I agree with Steven Rothman that somehow parents are micromanaging their schools to death. My take on it is that parents want to hold the schools responsible for raising their children, and when teachers and schools fail to raise the children (as they most certainly will) parents get upset. They are less concerned about the education their children receive as much as they are about making excuses for their child’s behavior or lack of progress. We live in an age where people can take charge of their own education and learning and yet precious few are actually doing that. They want others to hold their hands and babysit and nag them.
The answer to this is not going to come from us as educators. It has to come from us as parents. I am totally in favor of parents banding together, sharing resources, ideas or even complaining about us as teachers. But too often, these groups become gripe festivals that incite parents to go after the schools in order to demand more and more while offering very little. The autism groups are probably the most notorious offenders of all. I can tell when I have a parent that is being coached by a real life or online group. The adversarial relationship is there from the start, and parents are braced for battle. It’s one thing if the school or teacher has earned it by failing to educate as they are supposed to. But parents will too often wait until the IEP to air every complaint, and instead of an hour-long meeting, we end up there all day. Working things out ahead of time, instead of springing all the demands at once can salvage a lot of good will. Teachers should do this as well, sharing information on a regular basis. As educators, we can minimize a lot of the micromanagement by practicing a certain degree of transparency in what we are doing.
But in the end, it is up to parents to establish the prevailing culture of their neighborhoods and communities. I’m sure many of you know of children in your neighborhood running wild, making a nuisance of themselves, staying out entirely too late on school nights and basically not behaving in a responsible manner. And the parents let them. But I know that the neighbors can have more influence in the form of peer pressure. Peer pressure doesn’t end with high school. In the case of kids with disabilities, you might know of parents who seem to cultivate dependence by doing everything for the child except chew his food for him. Most kids can put on their own coats, use the toilet and eat with a spoon before they go to kindergarten. And yet there’s a group of parents who expect the schools to train the special needs kids to do these things. How do other kids learn this stuff without schools and teachers? This is why the school and parents need to be part of a cooperative partnership.
I’m sure I’ve spouted on long enough on this theme. Later this summer, my family and I will be going on a real vacation and seeing and learning about different areas of the country. It’s going to be better than whatever the school system can offer, but I don’t feel the need to force the public system to provide those kinds of educational experiences and opportunities. We’re doing it as parents, and that’s as it should be.
D.
A Word or Two About Parent Advocacy May 20, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Ed Policy Discussion, IEP, IEPs, Parent Support, Parents and parenting, Special Ed., Special Education, Teachers, moving on, teachertube.Tags: advocacy, autism, emory, genetics, parents, psychology
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I have new videos posted on TeacherTube! On one, I began a rant on the onerous IEP process that parents never see, which is all the work that goes into preparing these things. It turned out to be more of a rant on goals and objectives, though. I’m also playing around with Movie Maker effects to make it slightly more interesting.
From the autism walk, you can see CJ singing the National Anthem! I don’t know him that well, but I’ve always looked at CJ as being pretty severe as I’ve never heard him say anything! But seeing is believing, and there he is singing just as well as ever, and pretty much stayed on-key the whole time with no music to help him. Is it true the national anthem is one of the hardest songs to sing? CJ made it look pretty easy! Plus there is a presentation by Kimberly Rockers where she talked about genetic links to autism. Yeah, that’s my oldest running around and standing in front!
But I want to do more than just post updates, as I have some actual thoughts to blog about. And this time it is about parent advocacy. I ended up on the other side of it recently, and it was more traumatic and harrowing than I would ever have anticipated. Part of the reason was that it was very much unanticipated.
If you want to raise the blood pressure of the teacher, waiting until the IEP to spring all sorts of concerns and complaints is one way to do it. But you’re going to pay a price for that tactic, which is some resentment from someone who could be advocating with you. Is it worth it? Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t.
When going through the IEP Process, I advocate the teacher and parent working together hand-in-hand and step-by-step, collaborating on providing the best services for the student. “Best” in a public school is a relative thing. The first, greatest and best teacher for your child is YOU. Not the teacher, the SLP the OT or PT. It is YOU, the parent. No one else has the time that you do with your child. No one else cares as much. No one else has the motivation that you have. No one else has the knowledge you do. No one else has the intimate relationship and attachment that you do. And more often than not, many of these other people you rely on to provide services have their own children to care for and feed. During school time, you want these other people to be effective in helping your child to meet their potential. Meeting potential in the school system nowadays means accessing the regular education curriculum. Math, English, social studies and science are what we’re supposed to be teaching. Communication, mobility and other skills must fit into that general education context. Folding laundry and washing dishes are not part of the general education curriculum. Those days are disappearing. Write your congressperson if you feel differently. I have.
One area of contention I had to endure was Extended School Year or ESY. In my view, given what I said above about the parent being teacher #1, ESY makes less sense when you consider that the person that is going to be delivering services is not necessarily the child’s teacher/therapist. It is also probably not going to be in the same location and it is not going to be following the same schedule as the regular school year. Different setting + different teacher + different schedule + different bus + autism = …..progress?!??!
Think again. A child would do much better to have services done in the home or staying with family for the summer. As it is, it is a recipe for behavior problems all the way around and NOT a recipe for progress. Some people are wild about providing social skills instruction during the summer. I can say from reading the research that the efficacy of even the best social skills programs is suspect, at best. But I see more and more parents advocating for it. So let’s plug in a novel peer group into the equation I just outlined above. You have a sudden, severe series of transitions that will be repeated at the end of the summer when they go back to school. Are you really doing your kids any good? I don’t know. You decide.
When I see this sort of “advocacy” it begins to look more and more like the parent simply wants the school to raise their child for them. It is also the failure to see the reality that school services might be able to make progress but school services are not a cure!
As parents, we didn’t ask to have children with disabilities. We’re sending the best children that we have. I just want to make sure that my children have the same access that other students have to an education. However, I do not rely on the schools to teach my children everything. His mother has really done most of the real grunt work when it comes to his education. And she has done a stellar job of it. I’m realistic enough to understand the limitations of public schools in that they do not have the resources to do everything demanded of them. I believe that parents need to step up and take the responsibility for educating their children. The school system is there, but it is not the main education agent nor should it be. We, as parents, need to step up. And if you are a parent of a child with disabilities, you’re going to have to be twice as diligent. Does that mean being more diligent in getting your child services? No. It means learning how to do the things service providers do, and do them yourself. The best therapy my son ever got was after we were able to watch what the therapist did. We have video of his OT, SLP and PT therapists working with him, and we were able to replicate what PT, OT and speech were doing at the private therapy clinic. The light bulb came on in my mind when I saw my son participate a Georgia State study with Mary Ann Romski, and I saw exactly what the SLPs were doing. In fact, much of her research revolves around training parents how to implement interventions.
I’m a big believer that if parents are given the knowledge and tools, they can be the ones who are making the real and significant contributions to a child’s development. Fighting with the school system simply saps your own resources and energy that you could devote to more meaningful activities.
The experience of being rolled over was an exercise in humility. I’m not as good as I thought I was. I am not a special ed. wizard. I’m one person, trying to do the best I can within my own limitations and I have a lot of those. I’m not able to cure anyone, and I’m sorry if I gave the impression that I could. I’ve come to realize that the best I can do is to extend the hard work parents have already put into raising their kids, not the other way around. Nowadays, people often talk of parents needing to support their schools and teachers, which I think is backwards. The parents are the primary educational agents in the lives of their children, and the school plays a supportive and augmentative role. I’ve been around enough to see what happens when family support at home breaks down. Performance at school also slips and behaviors worsen and little learning takes place. So teachers and parents need to be supportive of each other.
So when you are advocating, just what exactly is your expected outcome? If it’s a cure, you’re going to be frustrated pretty much all the time. If it’s for everything you want, you’re going to be frustrated all the time because even when you think you’ve gotten it all, there’s going to be a missing piece. Perhaps you get the para support but the para is untrained and lazy. Or perhaps you get an untrained teacher. Training these folks takes time. Are they going to spend school time getting the training? That’s less time with your child. Is it over the summer? Oh wait…you want them to do ESY! You’re going to have to break in and break countless teachers, paras, therapists and administrators as you fight and battle your way through your child’s school years. Because I have seen more than one teacher move on to another setting rather than continue battling a contentious parent, especially with the prospect of having to be locked in battle for years in the self-contained setting. Let’s face it, I am not up to the task of fighting with the parent of a 16 year-old until that child is 22. Quite frankly, some of you are bent on being angry and frustrated and seem to be conditioned to making everyone else scared, angry and frustrated.
As a parent I have had skirmishes with teachers on a few occasions, usually when the teacher wants to put the child in an overly restrictive environment when they have no data to substantiate such a placement. Basically, if the school starts making noises about putting my child in a self-contained setting, they need to show me something more than just an opinion. Sometimes a parent wants to try a less restrictive setting, and I admit I get nervous about that with my students whose functioning is measured in months. There’s the whole fear that they’ll be victimized by some of the street-wise kids. But you want to try, go ahead and try. Perhaps it will work. I’ve seen good things happen when severe kids are around those less severe. But transitions can be rough.
I’m interested in hearing/reading stories from parents whose advocacy has helped turn a situation around. Perhaps you managed to turn a bad teacher into a good one? Or maybe you’ve battled for years and finally got everything you wanted and it turned out the way you wanted. I have heard of parents who battled until they eventually got a teacher they wanted. I’ve been on both sides of that one, as a parent getting good teachers and as THE teacher some parents wanted.
But I am not all that, as either a parent or teacher. No super teacher/parent here. I can write about it better than I can actually do it! In fact, this is not as much me choosing this life as it is the life that has chosen me!
D.
Catching up May 17, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, IEPs, Parent Support, Special Ed., Special Education.Tags: autism, graduation, IEP, Special Education
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I’m trying to catch up on a lot of things this weekend. One of them is rest, as I am currently on the downhill slide of a death march, which involves finishing up all the junk teachers have to do to finish a school year. We have a ton of last minute IEPs, mostly by teachers who procrastinated too long and are so far behind. Next week is a 6 day work week for high school teachers as we have graduation on Saturday that we all have to work at.
I’m in the process of getting over a cold, which is largely caused by stress. I’ve been getting home wellinto the evening every night because of the massive amount of paperwork. I had one parent in particular who really went after me and I may blog more about that later as it demonstrated how to get what you want while you alienate a teacher who wqs otherwise sympathetic to the cause. Basically participate in a full-scale ambush. I’m glad when kids have parents that are good advocates and generally am happy to work with them. But when an adversarial relationship is insisted upon which does no good except guarantee that I won’t get to see my own kids, then we might have some difficulties.
I’m also working on video, audio and pictures for Covington’s 4th annual Autism Walk! I got some really good footage, not to mention a nice t-shirt!
Good stuff ahead!
D.
IEP Process: Summary of Performance May 12, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, IEP, IEPs, Parent Support, Post school Transition, Special Ed., Special Education, Teachers.Tags: IEP, Special Education, summary of performance, transition plan
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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.
GFCF – Re: Unraveling the Mystery of Autism May 11, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Autism/Asperger's, Backstory, Parent Support, Parents and parenting.Tags: autism, behaviors, diet, gfcf
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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:
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.
eLearn Blog May 11, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Educational Technology, Regular Ed, Special Ed., Teachers, assistive Technology, teachertube.Tags: education, moodle, technology, elearn
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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.
Welcome eLearn! May 6, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Blogging, Blogroll, IEPs, Paraeducators, Parent Support, Teachers.Tags: Blogging, education, moodle, podcast, teachertube, web 2.0
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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.
“I Have a Blog. Wanna See it?” May 1, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Blogging, NCLB, Special Ed., Special Education, Teachers.comments closed
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.
Up to my neck in IEPs May 1, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Uncategorized.Tags: education, high school, IEP, middle school, new teachers, Special Education, teaching
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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.
