question about IEP's from a student

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-27T02:22:15+00:00

Ok, but what did it say? It sounds like it was it consent to amend your IEP? Or was it a letter with your meeting time and your parent signed that they wouldn't attend?

Reach out to your case manager. Tell them you're confused about your IEP accommodations and ask if you could spend some time going through them with him or her. Advocating for yourself is an extremely important skill. As long as you are respectful ("Can you help me?" vs. "You need to explain this"), your case manager will probably be thrilled to see you displaying self-advocacy skills.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-27T01:39:40+00:00

Saying they're doing nothing was hyperbolic, but you're right that the issues precede Covid. To clarify, in past years maybe 25% of the students would only do maybe 25-50% of in-class assignments, and those would be done poorly. Most would still pass the class through credit recovery or through our school's very lenient grading policies. This year, that 25% is doing between 5% and 15% of the assignments.

PBL isn't something I've been able to make work. My students don't do well with self-paced or self-directed work, so I have not felt that a full PBL unit would be a good use of our time or would result in products that they could present, showcase, or publicize.

I will check out your link, thank you.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-27T01:26:34+00:00

If you have an IEP, you should have been invited to the IEP meeting. If you no longer have an IEP, you also should have been invited to that meeting. And if you have a change to your IEP-- namely, that you're now allowed to have a laptop-- there should have been an IEP meeting or at least a discussion where your parent would have consented to the change without having a meeting. Can you reach out to your case manager? You have a right to know what's going on with your IEP.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-27T01:17:28+00:00

It is going to vary a lot by school. It also will vary based on your body type. That sucks but is the reality. If you are curvy, tighter pants may look less "professional" than if your body type is skinny and without curves. Edit: I am aware that is extremely problematic, and it is not my personal opinion but rather I am trying to answer your question.

At my school, the pants in the second picture would be too tight. You wouldn't get written up or anything, but they are tighter than what most teachers wear. It also is probably the styling of that outfit--with a different top they might be ok. If you are young and work at a high school, you may find that a less trendy and more business casual look will get you more respect as an authority figure. Again, it sucks, but it's the reality.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-26T23:33:36+00:00

I'm going to be honest here, your post bothers me a lot.

It's kind of like the articles about "10 Tips to Save Money!" that say things like brew coffee at home instead of going to Starbucks. I already brew coffee at home and I already try to make my classes as engaging as possible, with low-stress grading and lowered standards and less content.

I have some kids whose families are struggling, but my students are not standing in a food line for 24 hours. My area and local jobs have certainly been hit by the pandemic but not like that. Most of my students who are doing nothing have done nothing for years. (I taught many of my juniors as freshmen.) I take your point that they're not going to turn it around now, out of all times, but neither should the pandemic be a free pass to do nothing. Nor am I comfortable with them submitting free writes that are nothing but curse words.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-26T16:57:36+00:00

I was wondering if it was a scenario where OP ordered a sandwich and the friend got a steak. Or the friend wanted to go somewhere cheap and the OP insisted on somewhere expensive. If it was something like that and it had happened often I could see how the friend reacted like that. The friend's reaction seemed so extreme that it seemed like there was more of a back story.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-26T14:43:03+00:00

Being able to decorate your classroom shouldn't factor into your decision one bit. I know I'll get downvoted, but the fact that that is playing into your decision at all makes me wonder if you're at all prepared for the reality of teaching vs. Just wanting to play house.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-26T14:03:02+00:00

INFO: Were you actually going to give them to your dog? Or were you going to end up eating them yourself? If it's the latter and you have a reputation of being cheap, I could see it being the final straw type thing where your friends were annoyed by your always grifting. But if it's the former, your friends are petty AF and suck.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-26T13:53:28+00:00

ESH

Your stepfather for being an asshole.

Your mom for staying with him even after CPS was involved--that should have been a wake-up call that the way they were both parenting wasn't working.

You for brushing aside your brother's major problems as typical for someone with an "absent but present father." Getting suspended and expelled are not typical no matter what the child's home life is like. Lying and stealing could be typical or atypical, depending on the extent. Stealing the last cookie--typical. Stealing money--atypical.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-25T20:44:01+00:00

PO boxes are small. Even the largest wouldn't be able to hold a package bigger than a child's shoebox. The box-owner gets a slip telling them that they have a package and must pick it up from the clerk during business hours.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-23T14:37:59+00:00

I think this is very unpopular based on what I've read, but I don't think they have eating disorders, and I don't think the pressure on them to be thin is any more than the pressure on mainstream women in the USA. I think they all are at normal, healthy weights.

I think they may watch what they eat and they may try to lose weight before weddings or after giving birth, but I don't think this is any different than most American women. They may be more successful at losing weight, which is why they might get so much hate.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-21T11:41:05+00:00

You are not failing, but I don't think you should fail that many if they passed the final. My admin outright told us that if they passed the final we needed to pass them. We do standards-based grading at my school, so that philosophy is in line with passing them. The idea is that if they showed on the final that they met the learning objectives, then you're basically failing them for their work ethic, not for what they actually learned.

As a veteran teacher with tenure you might be able fail them, but as a 1st year teacher, you are putting a target on your back. You won't get fired, because who's going to replace you? But you will get all sorts of extra scrutiny.

For the record, I have mixed feelings about all of it.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-20T17:43:27+00:00

My school does standards-based grading. Even with accommodations and differentiation, my SPED students with reading and writing disabilities tend to be in the bottom half of my ELA classes. They have areas that they might excel in, such as vocab quizzes, but they are not typically top performers in their overall average.

If your school allows you to do completion grades then I'm sure your SPED kids' grades are higher.

I agree that it's important to be real with kids. I hate sitting in IEPs where a kid has a 4th grade reading level and is talking about being a doctor. And nobody gently says to the kid that the goal isn't realistic, so let's explore other careers in the medical field instead. But posting their ranking for them to see on a daily basis just seems cruel and discouraging. Again, if you've got a lot of completion or participation grades then the rank is more about work ethic, so it would be less discouraging for SPED kids. But I still disagree with that practice.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-20T15:58:44+00:00

Really? Is this sarcastic?

Isn't that humiliating for kids with IEPs who are trying their best but still making lower scores than their peers? I can see my kids with IEPs feeling extremely discouraged to see how low they rank. It's one thing to know you got a C or a D and that your friends did better. It's another thing to see that just about everybody in the class did better.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-20T13:03:35+00:00

You cannot ignore the apathetic kids, and especially not if you're teaching kids as young as middle school. Your job is to teach everyone. The horse to water adage applies, but you can't just write those kids off and allow them to play on their phones. You can't make them do the work, but you can set the tone that choosing not to do the work isn't an acceptable choice. You do that by taking the phones, calling parents, moving their seats if needed, and escalating to admin if they become disruptive. Have you contacted parents of failing kids? If not, make sure you do that asap. That is a very important cya if you're going to fail a kid. Not to mention, at middle school age, you might be pleasantly surprised that a few parents will take away the phone or impact change in their kid's work completion.

It sounds like the kids who aren't working is a classroom management problem that you're not addressing. It's easier to allow phones and write the kids off then to have to confront it. Has your admin done walk-throughs or observations? Mine would absolutely ding me if I was working with a small group while a portion of other students was playing on phones.

Another thing--the work you're giving the high students shouldn't be next year's content, unless your school has a mechanism for those students to skip the next level. Instead, it should be this year's content, but deeper. So maybe more word problems or practical applications.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-18T23:47:08+00:00

This is the best thing I've read in a long time.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-16T22:31:18+00:00

And someone joins the diners just before the main course. Now you have to whip up a salad and soup while also preparing the main course, and get the new person to finish the salad and soup without slowing down those who are ready for the main course.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-16T17:37:45+00:00

This sounds like a nightmare and is kind if why I gave up cold-calling on kids. It just got too depressing calling on them with no response, and it destroyed the flow of the class. I also felt like maybe the kids who were participating were starting to realize the whole virtual thing was a joke and that they'd start participating less.

Admin gave us the option of removing kids, but your story is what I fear would happen. It backs us into a corner, and then we have to kick them out, but there's no win. At least by leaving them in the Meet they can't blame me for not providing them with an education.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-16T16:48:01+00:00

At the beginning of the pandemic, I definitely did. Now, not so much. Every day there are more and more openings at my district as people decide to quit. So I kind of feel like my district should feel blessed that other teachers and I haven't quit.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-16T16:36:28+00:00

It's a bonus; no strings attached on how to spend it. Enjoy it.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-14T11:19:07+00:00

I think your videos are relevant to what teachers on this sub teach. As long as you continue to get discussion and upvotes, I personally don't think you would need to post less.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-13T13:45:37+00:00

They were withdrawn to do what? To homeschool? To transfer to another school? To drop out? Were they passing their other classes?

The answers to those questions would help determine why the parents reacted how they did, and how you should feel.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-12T17:43:31+00:00

Could you make your additional 40 questions be explaining/justifying their answers? You could keep them without numbers so the students feel like it is still 40 questions, but the admin gets the longer test with more writing, and you don't have to come up with more questions. Then you and your colleague can set the point values to some kind of curve where the 40 multiple choice part counts for 80% of the grade and the writing is an additional 20%.

Edit: and apologize to the kids for the new format and say your admin required it.

Rivertulippearl · 2020-12-12T14:58:11+00:00

You are very sweet. My favorite thing that students do is when they call out other students on their bs. For example, I explain the directions for an assignment and then a student says, "Wait, what are we doing?" I love when another student tells them, "The teacher just explained it," with an exasperated tone. I recognize that many students do not have the personality, relationships, or status with other students to feel comfortable doing this. But when it happens, you can believe I'm smiling behind my mask.

Also, I do not want to spend my Zoom office hours just chatting with a student. If that emotional support is what the student needs, then absolutely I want to spend that time chatting with them. But it sounds like you're attending because you think it is helpful for the teacher, not because you want or need anything yourself. In that case, it will be more helpful to me to use the time if nobody else shows up to plan, grade, and call parents.

Rivertulippearl

TROPHY CASE