The road less traveled has led me in many directions that I never could have imagined. The most recent one being my role as a Special Education teacher. I'm in my fifth year of teaching and I tend to identify more with the parents than with the district. Having been a parent of a child on the Autism Spectrum, I believed that I would always side with the parents over the district. After all, the public school system hadn't worked well for my own child. I had resorted to homeschooling to preserve my sons' self-esteem and love of learning. So why am I struggling so much with a parent this year? Why can't I figure her out? What does she really expect from me?
The way the system works in my district is that students from the elementary district are observed, their files are reviewed and the Program Specialists determine the best placement for the child as they move from the Elementary School District to the High School District. Our district goes from 7th to 12th grade. I teach an Autism Focus Special Day Class at the Junior High School level. It's not my job to determine placement. It's my job to do the best I can with what I am given.
My students have a wide range of abilities. I teach a different subject for each class period. Some of my students are with me for most of the day, while others only see me for one class period. I teach Reading, English, Math, Science, Study Skills, and Life Skills. All of the students go out for P.E. and an elective. I took my whole class out to 7th grade Science last year, but I needed to teach 8th grade Science in my room this year in order to figure out how to modify it for my students in the future. Beginning next year, I will be in a collaboration general education class for science and will no longer teach Science in my classroom.
At the Junior High level, math becomes more abstract. Many of my students have managed to memorize their basic math facts and have a relative strength in mathematics. This is usually the first place I look to foster inclusion. Unfortunately, memorization of facts is not enough to be successful in Algebra. The only courses offered in Junior High are Pre-Algebra and Algebra. I usually work very hard to round out the math concepts and fill in any gaps in a students' knowledge so that I can send them out to Pre-Algebra in 8th grade.
Since Reading and English require a level of language that most of my students haven't mastered, I rarely get to send students out for those classes. I currently have three students out in RSP Reading and one in what would basically be considered a low level general education English class. The point is, that I'm trying very hard to be flexible and create a mixed program that works for everyone. It isn't easy.
I wish that parents would/could sit in on some of the general education classes at the Junior High School level. The language demands are astronomical. I truly believe that, despite the current climate of education bashing, we are teaching our students at a much higher level than ever before. The topics covered in Junior High are things that I learned in High School and College. The students are expected to balance chemical equations in 8th grade!
So how do I foster inclusion in classes that have such high expectations? What do I do when parents insist that their child be fully included and the district insists on placing the child in my room? How do I modify classes that I can never attend because I am teaching my own classes at the same time? Is sitting in the back of a Pre-Algebra class with an aide, doing a totally different curriculum, really inclusion? What happens when I agree with the district placement but the parent wants full inclusion? What happens when inclusion actually becomes exclusion due to the wide gap between skills and expectations? Is it enough for a student to just sit in a general education class? How can I do a better job at making inclusion work when the gap is so wide? What do parents really expect of me?
No comments:
Post a Comment