The updates...
This year is moving fast! On Friday the school year will be 1/8 of the way over-- scary!
Anyway, today I got a big surprise... I am getting a new student and he is in 3RD GRADE! Up 'til now I have been the 4-6 BD teacher in the school, but apparently they are going to make me the 3-6 teacher. I am not happy about this at all. Compared to 6th graders (middle schoolers) 3rd graders are babies. I don't think it is a good idea to put even younger kids in my room, and I am going to do whatever I have to to try to make sure that they can find a better placement for this new student. My kids will eat him alive-- it will make a 5 year age gap for my students. I am not a one-room school house, and I don't know how to have a class that is. I feel like if they really move this new student into my class they are treating me more like a babysitter than a teacher-- and that's not fair to ANY of the students in my class.
I am going to file an official complaint against the case manager for my students with the Department of Special Education in my district. I think that it will be a good first start... I know that it sounds a bit harsh, but I have only MET her once and as I mentioned, the year is 1/8th over. My students are very high-needs, and it is just not acceptable for me to have a case-manager that is only in the school a day or two a week. According to my students' needs, my case manager is supposed to counsel with each one for at least 30 min weekly... this has NOT been happening, and I struggled with this all last year with my old case manager. It is so unfortunate, because as a teacher there is still only so much that I can do to help some of these situations. Also, if I had a case manager that was on top of her game, I would think that she would do something about making sure that the age gap in my class doesn't span 4 grade levels... especially during such hormonal years for the young adolescents in my classroom.
The good news that I got today is that I am getting another aide for my class... I am hoping that this will be a good thing-- sometimes it seems impossible to know if it will cause more of less chaos, but I am excited for it. This will help to make my class a little more in compliance with IEPs.
Anyway, today I got a big surprise... I am getting a new student and he is in 3RD GRADE! Up 'til now I have been the 4-6 BD teacher in the school, but apparently they are going to make me the 3-6 teacher. I am not happy about this at all. Compared to 6th graders (middle schoolers) 3rd graders are babies. I don't think it is a good idea to put even younger kids in my room, and I am going to do whatever I have to to try to make sure that they can find a better placement for this new student. My kids will eat him alive-- it will make a 5 year age gap for my students. I am not a one-room school house, and I don't know how to have a class that is. I feel like if they really move this new student into my class they are treating me more like a babysitter than a teacher-- and that's not fair to ANY of the students in my class.
I am going to file an official complaint against the case manager for my students with the Department of Special Education in my district. I think that it will be a good first start... I know that it sounds a bit harsh, but I have only MET her once and as I mentioned, the year is 1/8th over. My students are very high-needs, and it is just not acceptable for me to have a case-manager that is only in the school a day or two a week. According to my students' needs, my case manager is supposed to counsel with each one for at least 30 min weekly... this has NOT been happening, and I struggled with this all last year with my old case manager. It is so unfortunate, because as a teacher there is still only so much that I can do to help some of these situations. Also, if I had a case manager that was on top of her game, I would think that she would do something about making sure that the age gap in my class doesn't span 4 grade levels... especially during such hormonal years for the young adolescents in my classroom.
The good news that I got today is that I am getting another aide for my class... I am hoping that this will be a good thing-- sometimes it seems impossible to know if it will cause more of less chaos, but I am excited for it. This will help to make my class a little more in compliance with IEPs.
Labels: BD, ED, IEP, Special education
posted by liquidwafflegirl at 10/10/2006 08:56:00 PM
1 Comments:
BD kids don't count for "No Child Left Behind"?
This sounds ridiculous Jill, I am glad you are doing something about it. I personally don't like "normal" multi-age classrooms, it must be even harder with BD kids.
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