TOTY August 26, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Backstory, Teachers.Tags: teacher of the year, Teachers
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Right now, the conventions are in full swing and soon we will elect a new POTUS and FLOTUS. President Of The United States and First Lady Of The United States. Or at least someone will elect one of these clowns into the Whitehouse.
TOTY = Teacher Of The Year. Our school does this in the fall, which I always thought was a really funny time to do this. I mean, about 1/4 of the faculty is brand new and don’t know anyone let alone who would be teacher of the year. So they do what I did my first year and voted for the one they know best or who their more experienced friends suggest. But since this is an honor bestowed on a teacher based on teaching, it would make more sense to do it at the end of the year when we can look back on what the teacher actually did. but maybe that’s just me.
It the preliminary round, teachers nominate one of their colleagues for TOTY. Then the ballots are counted and I think the top 8 or 10 are listed on the next ballot. Then you circle your favorite and then the nomination is down to 4 or 5. Then it narrows to 2 or 3 and finally the winner is chosen. This process takes a few weeks as the teachers always have a few days to fill it out and turn each ballot from each round in. Then a faculty meeting is called and the winner gets flowers, some cake and a reception or something like that. The winner of the school TOTY then competes with all of the other TOTY’s from the other schools in the district to become the County TOTY. This involves filling out a questionnaire and being visited by the school board and superintendent. Plus there’s all sorts of media coverage. It’s great fun…unless you’re in the middle of it.
About 4 years ago, I made that first round ballot. And then I made the second round. And then the top 3 or 4. It was totally nerve racking! I don’t mind the national exposure of an internet blog or Teachertube, but the scrutiny of my peers…it was an awesome amount of pressure. This was made even moreso, because I had some really and truly awesome peers. There were too many better folks than me that didn’t make the ballot and I knew it. Fortunately, one of those awesome folks won it. I don’t remember who won it, but I remember the guy who got 2nd place. He got 2nd place for the next 3 or so years before finally winning it. I even kept the first 2 round ballots and didn’t vote because I was just so proud to have my name there! I may or may not have cast a ballot for myself in my final round, but still made a copy of it that I still have somewhere. I was proud and scared at the same time.
My first pick didn’t make the first cut this year, which is unusual. I usually do better at picking someone who at least shows. However, my name did appear on that list again. And exactly like 4 years ago, I have some mixed feelings. It’s a great honor to make the ballot at all, as we have over 120 faculty in this building; the largest in the county. And if any of you fellow teachers read me, I totally get what you’re doing especially if you read my last couple of posts! It’s okay to vote for someone else…REALLY! I did.
Seriously, there are some good candidates everywhere in every department. Fact is, I idolize most everyone else who is “out there” teaching 25-35 students at a time. I don’t know if I could do that. I’d like to try someday. And a bunch of these folks are stepping into other roles like club and class sponsorships, activities like the prom and homecoming plus tons of activities in the community and churches in addition to being awesome teachers. They are SuperPeople.
I’ve seen many SID/PID teachers become TOTY in their respective schools but they don’t do as well at the county level. As I’ve said before, we are not increasing test scores or improving the graduation rate. I think a lot of it amounts to a sort of respect that comes from a body saying “Geez, I could never do that!” So the faculty gives some recognition and TOTY is a good vehicle for that. Actually, it’s one of the only vehicles faculty have for honoring one of their own. I wish they had a Para of the Year award as well, as I think it would help boost their level of recognition.
So I get it. Thanks for the support, and I like it as long as I don’t make anymore of the cuts. Been there, done that and it was sort of fun but it really is stressful! I feel the love, really. Now go vote for someone who really deserves it and can carry the MHS* TOTY torch to a district victory!
dd
*MHS = Magnolia High School which is the blogname for the school I teach at.
Still Depressed; A casualty of NCLB August 22, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Uncategorized.Tags: GAA, moving on, NCLB, severe disabilities, Special Education, standards
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The list just seems to keep growing, doesn’t it?
I have talked about NCLB and its effects upon the severe population ever since the it forced everyone to align with it through the use of the alternate assessments. While I have always had individual lesson plans attached to data sheets, I’m now required to turn a set in every week that includes standards, standard numbers and eventually I will have to follow some sort of centralized mandated format. The all-wise powers higher up the chain are busy deciding what format we all have to follow. Heaven forbid that we actually have anyone be an individual or deviate from enforced conformity! Novelty, creativity and originality are frowned upon in this new paradigm of education.
The biggest casualty has been community-based instruction. The high cost of diesel along with NCLB have successfully obliterated this last vestige of relevant instruction for students with severe disabilities. Those with moderate intellectual disabilities are the biggest losers here. When I began teaching, we had many moderate students in my program and we went to actual jobsites where the students did actual meaningful work. Some of those students managed to get actual paying jobs right out of high school as a result of their successful experiences. However, those days are gone. NCLB, at least as our students have interpreted it, mandates teaching the core academic subjects on grade-level with grade-level materials. There is no time for job training or community-based instruction (CBI). When I started 8 years ago, we went out every single day. Now, we have not gone anywhere yet, and school has been in session for 3 weeks. There seems to be no real urgency to begin CBI for these students. They will be required to learn literature, algebra, history, economics, biology, geometry and chemistry just like everyone else. And when they leave this institution, they will be dumped back on to their parents or on to the street with no employable skills.
Those that I teach today are on the most severe end of the intellectually impaired spectrum and they have always been shunted off to the side and marginalized. However I have felt an increasing marginalization myself, as the shift toward the standards and academics has taken over. My students are not helping to increase test scores or increase the graduation rate. So as a teacher, my role as a teacher has become increasingly isolated. The self-contained setting has always been a somewhat desolate and lonely condition. But I’m feeling it even moreso this year. It just hit me all-of-the-sudden this week, as I was trying to get my “advanced” group to identify their own names and pictures of themselves that this academic crap is just a huge joke. At first, I had mixed feelings about being irreplaceable. “Hey! I’m important!” But that isn’t the case at all. The reason why I can’t be replaced isn’t because of the stellar job that I’m doing. It is because no one else wants it. And that is singularly depressing enough.
I do feel the administration has been as supportive as they can be given the fact I only have 7 students while everyone else serves close to 100. I don’t blame them for keeping me in place for another year even though I requested a move as it is a good strategy for the short-term. They figured that it wouldn’t be too disastrous, as I’m likely to put student interests ahead of my own. I would do the job and do my best, no matter what sort of students I’m serving.
They all can learn, but not at the same pace, the same time or even the same content. These kids with severe cognitive impairments; we need to look at reality and admit that they are not going to college. We need to admit that there are plenty of very happy people who have never gone to college and quit trying to guilt parents, teachers and the students into conforming to a standard that fails them. My kids will not be reading on the 12th grade level no matter how rich of a literacy program I expose them to. No matter how highly qualified their teacher is, they are not going to solve for X. But they might learn how to answer the question “What is your name?” or respond to “Do you want more?”
I feel fairly confident with what I do. I pretty much know how to deal with most of these students even though I still get nauseous from all the noise. A poopy diaper barely phases me anymore. It is just a significant part of what I do and separates me from the folks who can’t hack it. But I am ready for a little different life to choose me and since it won’t be at this school, I need to be looking at other schools.
Anyone else ever had to effect a transfer like this, where your present supervisor/employer is reluctant to let you go?
D.
Frustrations August 20, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Alternate Assessment, Ed Policy Discussion, NCLB, Special Education.Tags: blood, drool, NCLB, pee, politics, poop, severe disabilities, snot, Special Education, spit, Teachers
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I’m frustrated today.
I can find any number of reasons to be frustrated on a given day, but most of the time it just sort of passes and I move on in the space of a few minutes. However, today I’m just frustrated generally about the increasingly tight restrictions and procedures dealing with NCLB.
It has been awhile since I have vented my spleen on this particular legislation and the idiots who developed the law and the clowns who continue to push it as if it were the greatest thing in the world. I will never vote for any politician who supports NCLB. Period. And for the record that includes every senator running for president. I’ll sling the crap on GW Bush for assembling the unholy coalition that allowed this travesty to be inflicted upon this country’s youth. And what it does to kids with severe disabilities….there is no spot in Hell vile enough, hot enough or painful enough for those perverted sadists who would inflict even greater discrimination, humiliation and degradation upon these kids.
Every one of my kids will get a regular education diploma, even though none of them can write or spell their names. Few of them can pick out a picture of themselves from an array of 3. Even fewer can pick out their written name from an array of three. We are working on identifying the numbers 1 and 2. We are working on counting to 2. They have absolutely no concept of what “2” is. And yet, I am expected to address high school math and literature standards. They will each have a portfolio of pictures sent showing evidence that they have accessed the standards. Then, they will get a regular education diploma after they put in 7-8 years in my program. That means they will get the same diploma as every other student who has actually passed the real graduation tests and did all the work. Which immediately begs the question: just what exactly does a diploma prove?
There will be many students who will not get a diploma, but none of them will have severe disabilities. They may have studied as hard as they could, but they could not pass the test. They may be very employable, but they will not get the diploma that my kids get. The state will say they did not earn it.
And then there’s case where my students get the exact same diploma as your sons and daughters who took advanced classes and got all A’s. It’s the same diploma…are the standards really the same? Just how much is a Georgia diploma worth? I’d say it isn’t worth squat when someone with at IQ of less than 20 can get one. I’d say that the fact that these kids are expected to do the same as those who have IQ’s of 120 is a gigantic farce! But NCLB says that anyone not getting a regular education diploma is considered a drop-out. This is what happens when the baboons in the legislature decide to stick everyone under the same (unfunded) rule. It makes everyone equally worthless!
The time that has not been spent trying to teach them their own names, faces and the numbers 1 and 2 and the shape of a circle has been spent cleaning up drool, snot, pee, blood and poop. Lots of poop today. Almost as much poop as is produced in the federal and state capitals on a daily basis. Too bad poop isn’t considered for the alternate assessment. Too bad poop isn’t one of the standards for graduation as much as it is for being a lawmaker or government bureaucrat.
Plans August 9, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Curriculum, Ed Policy Discussion, Paraeducators, Parents and parenting, Special Education, Teachers.comments closed
Just completed our first full week of school, and this year is going to be a busy one! But I have a feeling it’s also going to be a good one despite several niggling things that we always have to go through as we start.
Indulge me as I get my whining out of the way:
- A computer that seems to have a dead power supply. I reported this a couple weeks ago and the tech folks are taking their time on it. This is probably because I have one working machine plus I resurrected an old 550 Mhz PII and got it online using a Puppy Linux 4.0 CD so the paras can get online.
- Anemic air conditioning which make our room the hottest in the building. Try doing all the lifting we have to do in the GA heat without getting cranky
- Gloves; this one is solved, but every year I order gloves to use for changing. And every year the order mysteriously gets lost as those responsible for delivering/obtaining the order tries to get their stuff together. I don’t like having to complain to the highest levels for something that seems so trivial.
- My class roster still doesn’t include two of my students which makes my numbers look smaller than they really are. Seven students still look small until you consider that they are almost all students with PIDs and in wheelchairs.
- Nothing was ordered from what we submitted last year as far as supplies.
- I’m already feeling behind!
- Lesson plans – I’ll get to that in a minute
Now for some good points:
- New paras – I have a couple new folks on board and I think we’re going to really do well together. I have to get my act together to get them trained up, but that’s on me, not them as they seem to be pretty quick to pick up on what I’ve taught so far.
- Despite the nigglers above, I feel like some folks are listening to me when I complain ( not that I give them much of a choice!). There are some benefits to being irreplaceable.
- The parents have pretty much all bought-in, so far as far as communicating back and forth. Having them on board can really make a difference on the year.
The new principal wants all teachers to submit lesson plans on a weekly basis. He’s flexible as far as allowing the teachers to collaborate and work together but he’s also working towards having some sort of uniform lesson plan for everyone in the building. I have no idea of how I’m going to fit into that scheme. One of the most common questions I get asked by the new PID/SID teachers is “what do you do for lesson plans?” I don’t have a good answer to that. The state DOE has some resources that might be helpful, especially the stepwise worksheets (if the links aren’t broken). But I’m having difficulty getting my mind wrapped around the standards-based nature of it. My kids are anything but standards-based! They are entirely too exceptional for anything to be “standard!”
This is why I fear and loathe the “one-size-fits-all” mentality of our educational system. It inherently discriminates against everyone who does not fit. It takes my wheelchair kids and throws them down the proverbial stairs simply because ramps are not standard. I have to write standard lesson plans because there is some rule that everything must be standardized. Welcome to the educational system of the 19th century and the industrial revolution.
Plans are a good thing, and I do have educational programs in place. For sure, I need to do a better job of adding structure to our day so the students and paras function a bit better. My lesson plans would be better written in a format the lends itself to picture schedules.
These ideas are not helping at the moment, as my lesson plans are due at 8:20 Monday morning. So I I’m starting with the ideas I had last year and building on those. We did do a few of those things, but honestly never got to most of it. In fact, it broke down within a month. But this is a new year and hope springs eternal!
Yeah,this time last year I was was making it my farewell tour. So much for that idea! Here I am again! Let’s see if I can get it right this time.
D.
Here’s some quick and dirty plans that sort of align with the GAA. Not very good, but hopefully I’ll improve that this year.
A Little Video Montage of Me August 2, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Special Education, Teachers, Uncategorized.Tags: Add new tag, Special Education, teachertube, videos
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This is a bunch of clips I made from various videos that I’ve posted to Teachertube and/or my YouTube channel. That little guy at the :25 mark may or may not be my oldest son who is now 9!
I actually did the music myself using the Qchord.
The First Day of School August 1, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Ed Policy Discussion, Teachers.Tags: politics, school, school supplies, Teachers
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I’m often asked about why our district starts on a Friday instead of just waiting until Monday. The reason is, is that opening day glitches always occur and instead of having only a 16 hour turn-around time, we have more than 48 hours to work things out. And there are always things to work out. For instance I know that several bus drivers had not driven their routes before having to pick up children this morning. I know of at least one who got had no idea how to get to the child’s house before calling late last night to let them know the bus number and time of pick-up. Other issues include not enough books, not enough desks, issues with the cafeteria and basically all of the logistics.
As a teacher, the first day of school can be a very long and painful process, and we are very thankful to have a weekend the next day! No matter how much planning is done, it is never enough until the kids come. And there are usually surprises. In this case, my program was really surprised. At the end of last year, it looked like we were losing some kids as they were going to be attending their home schools. However one appealed and the other moved simply to remain in our school zone. In addition to the one new student I knew we were supposed to get (who didn’t show up) we got a new one who moved into our zone. So that zone next door had exactly one student show up, while we seemed swamped with 6! And there are more coming. I didn’t expect to feel this short this fast.
In other news, Georgia is once again observing a sales tax holiday this weekend. It started yesterday and is supposed to be for school clothes and supplies. And once again, teachers are getting a $100 gift card so that we can buy some needed supplies. I’m looking for some news on this, but apparently I’m going to be the one breaking it:
The Georgia Department of Education has received reports from teachers that some merchants are experiencing difficulties processing payments involving Teacher Gift Cards.
The Department has communicated these issues to Bank of America who has determined that there is an issue with the scan feature of the Teacher Gift Cards. Bank of America has assured the State that the problem will be corrected by tomorrow morning – Saturday August 2.
Bank of America recommends that if gift cards are used before tomorrow morning, merchants manually enter gift card information instead of using the scan feature.
The Georgia Department of Education regrets any inconvenience and greatly appreciates your patience as we work to resolve this issue as expediently as possible
Regards,
____________________________________
Scott D. Austensen, CFA
Deputy Superintendent, Finance & Bus. Opns.
Georgia Department of Education
So there you have it. Teachers have to wait until tomorrow to use their gift cards because Bank of America has screwed them up. Why not just give us all $100 in cash? No glitches to worry about there! The reason for the gift cards is so that teachers who often dig into their own pockets for items won’t have to dig as deep. It’s along the same lines as the federal $250 deductions that teachers can take for buying stuff for our classroom s. It’s kind of an effort by the governor and the state legislature to buy more votes. In this case, teacher votes.
This year, we’re going to end up buying more than usual because the orders for supplies that we filed last February have not even been sent. So I can either buy my own stuff or ask parents to supply it for me. I don’t ask too much as the parents of my students are not rich by any stretch. They have their own needs and expenses, and I have learned to deal with what we have, mostly. But I think we’re going to need more bean bags for positioning and I’ll need more media storage space to back up computer files. The one thing I need most, but can’t really buy, is more time. I’ll just have to do better with the time that I have!
See you next week!
