The Life That Chose Me

I just finished my Advanced Moodle Course (which my county calls Elearn) and did manage to get a decent course laid out that might be useful for the teachers in our county.  You can see most of the content on my TeacherTube or YouTube sites.  If and when I add more content, that will appear on one of those sights. 

I learned a lot by taking this course, since my course is also about teaching adult teachers.  One of the problems with this course about interactive learning is that it is still taught in the traditional 20th century way.  That means you have one teacher in front of 20-30 other people and that one person disseminates the content out to the students.  However, there was a group of teachers that did get together and collaborated on their online course.  However it was tough going for them as they hadn’t actually taken a Moodle course before.  Many Moodle courses still look like they could have been produced years ago, as they involve a ton of reading and then an occasional quiz to measure understanding.  what these courses really and truly need is to incorporate the production of actual content.

This course is being or has been taught by 3 different instructors, and I’m wondering why they didn’t pool their time and resources in developing content for this course.  Each instructor could take a topic or a day (it’s a three day course) and really and truly demonstrate the power of this technology.  For instance, this class had a few other nerds like me, but also had some people who have difficulty managing basic computer functions.  By having recorded content online, it would allow those people who needed to see something multiple times to actually see those instructions multiple times while the faster people could keep progressing or enhancing our own courses/sites.

You can get the gist of what I’m saying by looking at this video.

So I’ll be off and traveling for the next 3 weeks, and we’ll be driving about 3,000 miles!  Fortunately, both of my kids travel really well.  Having an extra mp3 player and laptop/DVD player will make things a little easier.  Stay Cool!

D.

In making my course for teachers and paras for students with severe disabilities, I’ve been looking for content related to what we do in the classroom. Today I decided to work on Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) sometimes also called Discrete Trial Instruction (DTI). Same thing, different name.

I prefer video over text alone, so I went first to TeacherTube, since the school system doesn’t block that site. However, the only video there on the subject is the one I posted. Oh well. YouTube is a better source for videos on anything and a search there was much more fruitful. Here’s one working with a very young child. No matter the age, the same rules always apply. Keep the instruction consistent, reinforce independent responses, and record the responses for data analysis. The YouTube video gives very comprehensive, yet concise instruction on the topic and I’d love to use it.

There is also a series of Lovaas training videos on YouTube which are much more advanced, behaviorally speaking, but the one listed above gives a better overview in a lot less time . Part 1 shows how not to do it in the beginning, which you can see from the comments elicited strong reactions from a few viewers. It’s a bit dated, but you get a good view of a purer form of DTT from the Lovaas people. There are many YouTube videos in a variety of languages worth looking at and these are mostly used for and by parents. Teachers and paras really need to tap into this information, too.

Typing in “ABA” reveals a lot of videos showing it in action, mostly with very young children with autism. DTT is not the same thing as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). ABA is more of a global description of a system. It’s sort of like referring to “rain” as “weather.” Yes, rain is weather, but it’s only one aspect of weather and even precipitation. Weather encompasses all manner of meteorological events including wind current, barometric pressure and the jet stream. ABA encompasses a whole lot more topography beyond just DTT, but a lot of people outside the field confuse the two.

I recently put a couple more videos up showing some of what I do with a type of DTT here and here. This is also serving as a sort of tutorial in modeling for para instruction at the same time instructing the student. I probably need to make a more explicit para training video since that is a big issue for most special ed teachers.

I like DTT because it is straightforward, and something that paras can learn and do pretty easily. It can yield some good data and works well with short-term IEP objectives. It is something that is not expensive to set up, and it is accessible to anyone who wants to learn how to do it.

Catherine Maurice’s Behavior Intervention for Young Children remains one of the best and most accessible resources on the subject even though she makes the common mistake of confusing ABA with DTT. Many of these interventions can be used with older students with severe autism and you’ll recognize what we do in the videos compared to what is done with the youngsters. It’s only been within the last 10 years that DTT really took off in the autism community, so students in high school were probably never exposed to this behavioral technology at a younger age.

D.

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.

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

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

Overwhelming.

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

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

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

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

D.

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

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

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

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

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

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

D.

There are two basic reasons people make a major change from one occupation or location or relationship into another. One is that they are drawn or attracted. The other reason is that they are driven from where they are through dissatisfaction or circumstance. In my case, both of these factors apply. The dissatisfaction is well-registered through recent posts (although there is more to come) so I thought I’d deal with the attraction/enticement factor.

Now that it comes to me, it’s difficult to deal with one without the other.

One thing that has plagued me throughout my career in special education is trying to realize how I fit into the larger school mission. Sure, we are all devoted to educating students first, no matter the condition that those students happen to show up at our door. No matter what disability they have or whether or not they know English, we still teach them, such is the nature of public education. But the larger school culture does center on the core academic subjects.

Therefore, when I go to a faculty meeting, I am pretty much relegated to passive observer for information that mostly does not apply to me. Information on the graduation test, end of course tests, Learning Focused Schools and assorted other issues. When we went over our school improvement plan last week, I struggled to see where I fit into that plan. I’m not raising any test scores and certainly not improving the graduation rate. I try to be postive with whatever students I see, but we’re sort of in our own time and space.

Our program is about ½ nursing home and ½ school, which is unlike anything else in the building. And for the past 7 years I’ve been okay with that as there are advantages. The administration is unaware of what we do, and largely leaves us be as long as we keep the peace. And I am really stretching us out with the level of instruction we are doing as far as the grade level performance standards. And this has only fueled things in my own psyche.

I want to be a real teacher.

The other thing that really ignited my desire to move on, are the IEPs I LEAed for the milder students last spring. I attended scores of these meetings and the refrain coming from both the special educators and regular teachers was the same: there aren’t enough Highly Qualified science or math teachers to meet the needs of these students and teach collaborative classes. The choices were: regular education with little support or the special education diploma which is akin to dropping out.

Rewind 12 years. My first teaching job in the state of Georgia was at a private school teaching physical science. The school’s claim to fame was teaching kids with learning disabilities and getting them admitted into a college. For 3 years I taught there and felt I did a good job teaching the various science courses. I managed to get some pretty low-functioning students past the departmental exam. I did truly enjoy teaching science. I was eventually given a lot of the lowest level students precisely because that seemed to be where I did my best teaching. And that is precisely how I got the idea to get my master’s degree in special education.

So now I am coming around the circle and feel the urge to get back to the science teaching game. I try to do some of it here, and that’s been okay but it doesn’t resemble the sort of thing I was doing back then because my students are of an entirely different stripe. For instance, today’s essential biology question was “does the animal have fur, feathers or scales?” and I used some animal pictures along with a Gotalk to see if the students could tell me. Then we talked about birds having feathers and reptiles having scales and mammals having hair.

Thing is, the kids are sort of oblivious to all of this as I prompt them for their responses, mostly hand-over-hand.

I push a student around the school while he’s in his stander and we visit the academic halls. I find myself wanting to be a part of that. I see the teachers in there teaching and the students learning in less than 1,520 trials over less than 200 sessions. I feel it calling me.

Administration pretty much treats those of us in the self-contained severe settings as step-children. Our primary mission is to keep our kids from interfering with the real learning and the real learners. Our administration seems to see special education as sort of a pseudo-department and have no idea what to do with us. That just might be a skewed perspective based on my own limited view, however.

I can say the NCLB has not improved the lot of my students at all. It has served to marginalize them even more, in fact, as we are more short staffed in favor of servicing the golden band and we are not able to go into the community anymore. My paperwork requirements have tripled because of NCLB, when it was already daunting because of IDEA. IDEA has been marginalized while NCLB has taken over priorities and funding.

What I have been doing has value to the kids and their parents, but the larger society could care less as long as no one is getting abused. I’m staffed just enough to make us barely functional. It’s difficult keeping skilled people around.

dick

Dear Mr Dick Dalton,

It is my pleasure to inform you that you are being considered for inclusion into the 2006/2007 Who’s Who Among Teachers in Special Education “Honors Edition” of the Registry. Upon final confirmation, you will be listed among thousands of accomplished professionals in the Who’s Who Registry.

Gee. How nice.

I’m supposed to fill this little card/application asking for all sorts of information. I hate to disappoint all of my fans, but they’ll have to get their information about me off the web and from the tabloids like everyone else.

Also, the chance to be listed among thousands of other professionals seems like a dubious one to me. Unless I’m on the cover or something. I’m doing better being listed in my county edition of Who’s Who in Special Education only it’s called The Magnolia County Special Education Directory.

dick

GAA is still the dominant influence in my teaching life, but I’m going to take a shar p turn, here.

Every Friday and every Monday, the principal of Magnolia High, Mr. “Fightin’” Joe Clark sends out an email to everyone announcing how many of the staff are out.  Last Friday, about 20% of the staff were absent.  Monday, about 12% of the staff were absent while only 8% of the students were absent.  Our Superintendent mentioned this in a beginning-of-the-year speech he gavem where he said that teachers were missing more days than the students.  It would be interesting to know how wide spread the problem is, and what the cause is.

In my classroom, I rarely go a week without at least one person out for some reason.  As for me, last year I didn’t miss a day and haven’t so far this year.  But if it does happen where I have to, it’s not a big deal.  I just find it more of a bother to be out because it takes time to put things back together after just one day out and the kids like to punish me for not being there upon my return. 

But there is a problem that is lurking in the wings, and it seems to be growing nationwide.  Last Sunday, I happened to catch part of a PBS special on it, and this months Reader’s digest had at least 2 articles on it.  The radio waves are filled with advertisements warning about it an epidemic that is mostly preventable.  And it’s not autism. 

I’m talking about diabetes, specifically Type II Diabetes.  Apparently this is what happened to the little girl I was doing Hospital Homebound for last year, and they didn’t know she had it.  But it is a growing problem in the U.S. and threatens to overtake our healthcare system.  It is also becoming a global problem.  Apparently having all the food we want is killing us.

According to the PBS special, those of Hispanic or African descent have a 1 in 2 chance of getting diabetes at some point.  That is an incredible rate!   And the consequences of carelessly ignoring the issue can be quite dire.  The good news is that it is controllable and perhaps even preventable.  I’m sure there are readers who are more familiar with this that I am, and could expand on the topic much more.

Aside from the ads and publicity, this has been something that has been casting a shadow over my own classroom.  Queen happens to have almost every risk factor there is for this disorder, including a temperament that is in deep denial of the problem.  She already takes blood pressure medication that she does not take regularly as prescribed.  She insists on eating the fattiest, most sugary substances within reach and is relatively inert when it comes to exercise.  Her lack of physical mobility is becoming more of an issue as our students require more physical involvement.

Coach is also being monitored for his blood sugar, his heart and his blood pressure.  He is only about 25, but is overweight at about 290 lbs and about 5’11”.  The good news is that he has dropped almost 50 pounds over the last 18 months, and is getting serious about his diet and exercise.  He seems to have some motivation in his favor, as well as being of European descent which for some reason helps.

Patience is in her early 30’s, is not significantly overweight and eats relatively well.  She’s probably the most fit of the 4 of us..  However, she is of mixed Hispanic and African descent and she says it is easier counting members of her family who *don’t* have diabetes than ones who do.  Both her parents and 5 of the 7 siblings of her parents have it.  She suffers from low blood pressure, so her risk is still pretty moderate.

And then there is me.  I quit smoking months ago and have weighed 220 lbs for the last 10 years at 6’1”.  So I am a bit over weight but at least stable.  My blood pressure and general health have been pretty good and my family’s health has been good with no known risk factors.  I know I’m not getting enough exercise which is a challenge with a bad knee. 

As far as being physical, while we do lots of lifting and positioning and moving, it is not quite as physical of a job as my own ancestors who were all farmers.  We have our own kitchen in our room, so we have access to food all the time.

And parents…egad!  ALL of the parents of my kids are severely obese.  Every. Single. One.  I hadn’t thought about that at all until just now. 

Am I being alarmist?  I don’t know.  I do know that I would rather NOT have diabetes than have to deal with whatever complications occur with it.  I see a lot of over weight educators (even bigger than me) out waddling around.  Could we be smarter about it?  Should we?  Is our healthcare system on the verge of collapse because of this one disease?  These are all sobering questions but I suspect I’m not the only one thinking about the possibility of dealing with these issues.

Links from PBS (although not the special I watched) :

 Frontline on India: A Pound of flesh

American Family: Dealing with diabeties 

 Second Opinion: type II Diabeties

dick

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

Part one was a longish tale of my experience as an EBD self-contained classroom teacher. This was followed by a very good experience as a para in a psychoed. As that year closed, I was wrapping up my Master's Program at GSU. Some irksome policy by either the state or the university prevented me from being able to do my student teaching while being a para. My supervising teacher did hers while teaching, why couldn't I do mine? It's an insane rule. Fortunately, I was able to do my practicum during the summer which was a shorter session made even shorter by the summer Olympics. Yes, it was 1996.

My summer practicum was being done at a psychoed that was running a summer school. I happened to draw the higher functioning SEBD kids who were actually pretty street smart but they were also not keen to do the sort of work that I was assigned to assign them. The supervising teacher wasn't keen to do much either. Once again, I felt like I was being thrown to the wolves as I was trying to teach and there was little to zero support from the teachers or the school as no one wanted to do any academic work. And the predictably acted out. But my supervising professor rescued me, and found another placement at a private residential hospital for kids with SEBD. This worked out really well as they were actually running more of a real school instead of some sort of summer camp. And it also really worked out well as my next job would be at a residential hospital for students with SEBD in waay south Georgia.

The hospital job was a good one, even though it was year-round. I still got all the other school breaks, just not the summer one. But I did get 2 weeks extra vacation. In addition, my budget was thousands of dollars. I could buy whatever I needed and more, mainly because the FTE money went straight to instruction instead of filtering through endless amounts of administration. The hospital budget was entirely separate from mine. It was a locked unit, and if kids acted up too much, they were sent to the nurse who gave them a shot which knocked them out. I could teach whatever I wanted and so I increased and expanded my teaching. I actually did teach some reading and literature type things.

But the hospital was suffering, budget-wise. The state was cutting back and the Child and Adolescent unit was on the chopping block. There were two of us teachers there, and we were told we might want to look for other jobs. So we did.

I was picked up by the local psychoed, whose director happened to be from my hometown in Iowa (pop. 1500), can you believe THAT? Anyway, I was not in the main center, but in an outpost 15 miles away in another town. And then I was sent to an outpost of that outpost. I was waaay out. Me and one other teacher were out there with the high schoolers. I should have known.

Before starting the school year, all of the new teachers and paras were given training in the Boys Town system. It is a very structured management system, that does have a decent track record of success. I had the freshman, and actually knew some of the kids from the hospital job as they had visited our facility a time or two.

There were some difficulties. I had no materials. I had gone from having anything I wanted to nothing, and a budget of $150 to spend. Then there was my para. I was still not savvy what to do with them, but had learned a thing or two from working both sides. Unfortunately, my para was also a bus monitor, so she arrived with the kids and left with them. We had absolutely no time to talk. And there was no planning period. And I had to teach a regular and full curriculum. Every subject a freshman would take in high school, I had to prepare for and teach. Plus follow the Boys Town stuff.

Add to this some racial tension.

My class and the older high school students did their PE together in the gym. Or at least that's how it started out. But eventually, there was a huge brawl which shut that down. PE was easy up to that point, because they just played basketball or hung out. Now that we couldn't be in the gym, I had to prepare for PE, too. And I was on my own because my para refused to go outside on the ball field. So we had a few incidents there.

The real deal breaker came when one of the juniors, who had skipped school returned while I was having PE. We were playing dodge ball, which was actually fun. My version consisted of me hurling a large rubber ball at the kids as hard as I could. At their heads. They actually sort of liked it.

Anyway, Junior came strolling up the street and started talking to a couple of my kids through the chain link fence. Then some words were exchanged. Then he jumped the fence.

Junior had a gun.

He pointed it straight at one of my kids, right at his head. My kid never even flinched and actually dared Junior to pull the trigger. Meanwhile, I am trying to get the rest of the kids in the building, which was like herding cats. They all wanted to see someone get killed.

Did I mention all of these kids were Seriously Emotionally Behaviorally Disturbed? Just in case you forgot, I thought that might be good to throw out there.

None of them were too terribly bright, either. I have a bunch of kids who will not get out of the line of fire. Another who has a gun to his head, taunting the kid with his finger on the trigger. I have no idea where my para ran off to. Or the other teacher and her para. Or the administrator who was supposed to be out there with us. Good thing I wasn't the only fool. Junior didn't have the gun loaded, so he and my freshman just got into and old fashioned fist fight. And then Junior jumped the fence and was gone before an administrator finally arrived.

Jane, who was pregnant with our first child, was none too happy about the prospect of me getting shot. Neither was I. But I had all this prep work to do, so I was often there until dark.

A few weeks later, I testified at Junior's trial and he was promptly locked away in juvenile for a couple of years.

It was the middle of October when the head of the outpost called me into her office. She noticed that I didn't seem too happy. She then said my old job was still open. Would I like to go back? I thought for a minute or two and said I just might.

She dialed the number to the hospital, and I talked with the acting director. Would they mind if I came back? Would they be okay with that?

"OMG, YES! Please come back! We would love to have you back! We need you back! When can you start?" It turns out that the hospital didn't close after all and were stocked to the gills with children and adolescents in need of therapeutic educational programming.

At least I was wanted somewhere. I had to finish the quarter, which was just a week. I stopped by the hospital, got my old keys back and promptly pulled stuff off of shelves to prepare for my next and last week at the psychoed. I could not believe how easy it was to just have so much stuff. So I went back to the hospital, where I was wanted, needed and loved.

As it turned out, the hospital did end up closing the next year, which is when I got my present job in Magnolia County. Which is why I was the way I was with that principal who was peddling a self-contained job. That psychoed thing was still fairly fresh in my mind, and I was not interested in a repeat performance. Again.

I've stuck in this business despite some very bad experiences. Hopefully I'm not scaring too many prospective prospects off! But these are not the sort of things you will hear from college professors or the administrators trying to lure hire you into their EBD positions. And any teachers who might have been through these sorts of trials are probably long gone; long since fled to somehwere that paid more for less stress, like the military.

Told you things would get kind of gritty around here.

The fact is, I was shoveled off, abandoned, left on my own and generally taken advantage of, not just by administrators but by other teachers.

That first job, I was assigned a mentor who was the department head. She never once darkened my doorway. She called me to her room more than once, but never observed and gave feedback. No one did, except the administrator who evaluated me and promptly hung me out to dry.

Student teaching, I was never given feedback by the teacher at that psychoed center. I never saw her actually teach anything either.

And the deal with the gun; Where was everyone then? Junior belonged to the other teacher who was stationed out in deep space with me. Where was She?

There are many wonderful colleagues out there, who have supported and inspired me along the way. But there are quite a few who would just as likely shoot your back as leave it uncovered. You look around your fox hole and discover there's no one else there!

This is a tough business I've chosen…or rather a tough business that chose me.

dick