Reply to Please remember words matter- and maybe brief the art teachers

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "Please remember words matter- and maybe brief the art teachers"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agreed that many teachers of electives have little to no training in working with kids with SN or classroom mgmt in general. In truth, that’s all of us except SPED teachers. The real difference is not in training, but in hands on experience. Often kids with SN are pulled out to receive services and their pull outs occur during art, music, media, etc so that they don’t miss math, ELA, and PE. As a result, elective teachers don’t always go through the classroom management trial by fire that most classroom teachers experience. One of my first inclusion students was on the spectrum, had loud verbal tics, and frequently soiled himself. It was my first year teaching. My classroom was the appropriate least-restrictive environment for him. We survived. I think he learned from me. I know so learned from him. But he only took core academic classes, PE, and double period social skills. The art, music, FACS, and tech teachers never had him. They missed an opportunity to learn how to teach around loud verbal tics. They missed a chance to learn how to appear calm and be discreet when a student dies something that shocks you. The almost weekly pants-soiling earned me a reputation for being inflappable. I’m not. I just fix my face so fast, people don’t notice.
I’ve noticed that more parents are pushing for their kids to take electives. I think that’s great. Art, music, tech, and FACS are great things to explore as well as a good way to interact with typically developing peers. I wish parents were given more info about the actual learning environment in the elective classroom. My daughter with ADHD did fine in art because she was allowed to listen to music through headphones and was not distracted by classroom chatter. She has cooked independently at home for years, but would not have done well in her school’s FACS class where, for safety reasons, music is not allowed and there is a lot of distracting chatter. I only knew the character of the classes because of having an older child go through the same school.
Obviously, more training is needed for all teachers. Every student benefits from constructive feedback. Those brief interactions, often verbal and off-the-cuff, that are considered best practices for informal assessment can be devastating if not worded carefully and with both growth and objective standards in mind.
Keep the self-portrait up. It will reinforce that you value it. Also, consider turning the incident into a blog post or newsletter item to share with teachers. Many of us can learn from it. And it’s helpful to be able to point to when advocating for more training. The new teachers I mentor have just one course in working with students with SN. [/quote]

I’m an SLP (and mother to an autistic elementary-aged kid) and I agree with all that is written above but also want to add that [b]most “specials” teachers never see the IEP, are not aware of specific special education needs, don’t know about modifications/accomodations for specific students, and are rarely consulted or included in the team,[/b] not becaus they are bad teachers, but because of the  confidentially aspects of special ed law. Parents can share that information and more with the art teacher/PE teacher/lunch room staff, but the sped team can’t.  Even paraprofessionals in the classrooms aren’t necessarily aware of all the info in the IEP.   Paraprofessionals who travel with kids to specials have likely been told not to discuss any confidential information they may know about a student and, since classroom teachers usually have their planning periods during specials, they may never see the specials teachers.  I know I am surprising no one here when I say that it is a flawed system.  This art teacher may have no idea what your child’s needs are and certainly, hopefully, would be saddened to learn that her words made him feel so bad.  [/quote]

I found the bolded part out the hard way. From that moment on, I requested that all teachers that give my child a grade be required to read his IEP. Many people don't know that specials teachers (art, music, gym, etc.) are not required to read a studen'ts IEP. Parents don't find this out until they start getting email and phone calls from specials teachers complaining about their child. Its at this junction when I realized that DS was not receiving accommodations in all of his classes. When I suggested to one music teacher some things to do that are mentioned in DS's IEP, she wasn't interested and was rather dismissive. I went to DS's case manager for assistance and all was resolved.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics