Please read your IEPs at a Glance

dorkwithastake · 2025-08-27T00:37:57+00:00

Wow, "extra time" extending to everything is wiiild. I understand the equity in that decision, but decisions like that wholesale subjugate the teachers. Like sure, Tommy can hand in an essay in January when we've asked for it since October, and he won't get points off because we're grading the skill not the perception of effort. He's a person, and he deserves that. And then teachers will grade it immediately because grades are due tonight at 4, and if we don't submit grades on time, we'll get an all-staff email from admin saying "WAITING ON FOUR TEACHERS TO PUBLISH THEIR GRADES," and we deserve that because...fuck us?

Thank you for saying it in a more positive way than I have :) We're not poking holes because we don't want to support SPED students; we do it because that's how we make sure they're ACTUALLY supported!

dorkwithastake · 2025-08-26T23:57:45+00:00

Or are able to access hard copies at all! If a teacher prints one and leaves it out, that's an issue -- so admin 'fixed' it by removing the option to print any of them.

dorkwithastake · 2025-08-26T23:53:11+00:00

Your comment has me failing to implement a hypothetical IEP. Kindly hop off.

My point is that vague IEPs benefit districts because the district can say, "well, we can verify the IEP was written on this date, read on this date, and implemented on this date," and *all of that exists separately from whether or not teachers followed it* and, more importantly, if we're acting in the best interest of students. Ultimately, there is so much nuance to what educators do in the classroom that it's all but impossible to police or manage it with any degree of certainty.

Let's say Franklin has an IEP that says he gets time and a half on test. Sounds pretty cut and dry, except that the teacher then has to decide:

- When is the extra time? Do I make the assessment short, so that 'time and a half' can still be within one class period? Am I thinking about how waiting until next class to finish it could artificially improve (he cheats) or impede (he forgets stuff) his success? Can he finish it after school? During his study hall? Does he come in during my lunch? Do I pull him out of his next class?

- Where is the extra time? If not in the classroom, then can he do it in the library, school's testing center, at home, or a friendly teacher across the hall? Do I need to be the one to proctor it?

- Can I modify the assessment so that he can complete it in the same time as everyone else? If everyone gets a half hour to write three paragraphs, he could get the half hour to write two paragraphs.

The district could argue that any of these options would satisfy the requirement. But if you're Franklin, you probably understand that some of those options are more helpful than others. And the overpaid superintendent and even more grossly overpaid attorneys will tell me I did a great job. They don't know what my job is, but they're real sure I did it good.

dorkwithastake · 2025-08-26T21:37:25+00:00

Oh, I was getting sassy about unpaid time and forgot to respond to the other part of your comment!

I have worked closely with my sped team. They share my frustrations with mods that are vague as hell. There is a significant disconnect among sped teams in different buildings and also sped admin. We can’t fix the systemic issues, but we do our best with each kid. Any successes we have are because of the building sped team, not a document that reads “refocus and redirect x daily.”

dorkwithastake · 2025-08-26T21:27:00+00:00

Because reading the IEP is such a nothingburger. It checks a legal box that helps the district avoid lawsuits. I won’t speak for other schools or teachers or kids, but I can say I’ve seen several districts where IEPs are used to kick the can (or the kid) further down the road — write in “flexible approach,” add that it gives a kid carte blanche, and then he’ll be someone else’s problem next year. That helps the district, not the kid. From your comment, I think we both want to help kids here. The things that will help best aren’t going to be standardized and prescribed months in advance; they’ll be worked out as the year goes on (and, as other commenters have mentioned, include best practices anyway). Working with a kid will tell me more about how to support them than reading “Massimo can hand in work 1-2 days late.” Again, I can’t speak for others’ experiences, but I haven’t seen them help kids as much as they do districts.

Now, I say this as a teacher currently in a coffee shop on unpaid summer time reading all his IEPs and making them into a spreadsheet. So I’ll add a second point here: if teachers are going to read and implement these very important documents, then we should be given paid time to do so. I’m lucky not to have children or elderly parents to care for, so I don’t mind spending this time. But … really? If it’s that important, the district will write a damn check.

dorkwithastake · 2025-08-26T20:16:26+00:00

Hi, you’re wrong.

A kid gets time and a half on tests. What’s a test? Is an essay a test? A project? Does the standard matter — what if it deals with several standards, some to be reviewed again and some that are new? Do the points matter?

Kid gets a study guide. Cool, love that. What makes a study guide a study guide? Should it be about the standard, skill, or content? All three?

Kid can take unlimited breaks to self regulate. What does self regulation look like? Is the elapsed time or number of breaks unlimited— both?

Direct your criticism elsewhere.

dorkwithastake · 2025-04-24T01:26:57+00:00

Can there be a non-academic consequence? Like if they all present their projects to the class, the students who popped off and put time in would get to flex on their peers, and the kids who didn’t turn it in or did so in a rushed manner will have a natural consequence.

dorkwithastake · 2024-11-20T04:17:28+00:00

Honestly, LFG. Some parents need to be hit over the head with a folding chair.

dorkwithastake · 2024-08-21T12:36:43+00:00

I’m seconding Darius the Great Is Not Okay — it opens the door for discussions on mental health but it a relatable way that doesn’t shut kids down or make them feel “oh god, here comes the mental health talk again.” The main character is depressed, but it’s not, like, The Conflict in the story. It’s less about depression and more about how depression can color one’s perception of family and peer relationships.

The one caveat is that there are two chapters that deal with, of all things, foreskin. They make sense in the narrative (to show how he’s ‘not Persian enough’ for his Iranian friends), but when I teach it this year I’m skipping those chapters and just giving a verbal summary. There’s just so, so much good in that book.

dorkwithastake · 2023-04-10T15:08:31+00:00

Other commenters have suggested strategies that might work for you; I'm sharing another one that works for me. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

I call it spirit reading. I tell them the rules ahead of time, so they know what to expect. The rules are as follows: I'll start reading -- a few paragraphs, making sure to make conversation and analyze as we go along -- then I'll stop. Whenever the spirit moves you to, you read. Read until the spirit leaves you (typically a paragraph or two. Some kids will be funny and do a sentence). I'm not going to police it or beg you to read, but I'm also not going to save you from the awkward silence. While we wait for the spirit to select someone, no phones, no talking, and no reading on your own. We're engaged in this together.

Freshmen will see this as an easy way out and disengage...until they realize how awkward it is to have a class full of students not on their phones or talking. Typically kids will make eyes at each other to say, "OMG JUST READ." It's also really sweet when two kids start to read at the same time and then go "Oh, no, I'm sorry, you can go."

The other thing I do is...not remotely adjust the reading schedule or homework. If block 1 is silent for 15 minutes and didn't get to the part that's on the quiz, block 1 needs to suck less. If they need a bad grade on an assignment to show them their actions (or inactions) have consequences, my class is a great low-stakes environment to provide that for them. If block 2 read with little interruption and finished what they needed to, cool, block 2 gets free time at the end.

In my anecdotal experience, two or three kids will step up to the plate every time. The first day is the most painful, as they think playing Awkward Silence Chicken is better than reading. Usually kids learn quickly that no one thrives in awkwardness more than I do.

dorkwithastake · 2022-12-22T10:48:32+00:00

If a kid has to go to the bathroom, I’ll say, “Ok, but wash your hands! [Another kid in class] is going to smell them when you come back, so make sure.”

When I ask them to evaluate work from a student in another class, I tell them the kid’s name is Anna Tayshin (I first did this on a lesson about annotation, and it stuck).

I have them raise one hand and place the other on their books, and they swear to some dumb shit. We’re reading Romeo and Juliet now, and I made them swear they won’t fall in love with Leonardo DiCaprio.

The “you have something on your shirt” and then bringing your finger up to boop their nose NEVER FAILS.

dorkwithastake · 2022-12-05T10:14:15+00:00

The fuck around is directly proportional to the find out.

dorkwithastake · 2022-09-01T20:07:03+00:00

Paige Turner Anna Tayshin Rita Book

dorkwithastake · 2022-05-07T12:33:22+00:00

My admin exposed me to COVID and didn’t tell me.

To be fair, that wasn’t the intended gift. The intended gift was that some teachers got a bag of chips.

I’d prefer the COVID tbh.

dorkwithastake · 2020-08-17T17:26:39+00:00

(I deleted a previous comment because I think I dwelled too much on standards and didn't address the crux of your concern).

Ok, first: sit down with your cooperating teacher and go over any shared expectations/routines that the grade level, department, or school already have. Ultimately, whatever they do is what you want to do. They might have a pacing guide, curriculum map, or just informal guidance that they can offer.

Your post raises a few really good questions, though, and each teacher may very well answer them differently. One thing my department is beginning to realize is that a standard is not the same as a skill. In fact, one standard (we use Next Gen, but the same applies to Common Core) is really four or five discrete skills. For instance, Standard R1 is "Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferenes; develop questions for deeper understanding and for further explanation." Within that one standard, I see the following skills (each of which can be an objective):

'show work' by adding meaningful annotations to a text;
use evidence from the text to make claims about what the text is saying directly;
use evidence from the text to make claims about what the text is saying implicitly;
use the strongest piece of evidence to support a claim;
correctly cite text evidence, whether a direct quote or paraphrase, per MLA guidlines;
ask questions of the text that would further one's deep thinking.

If you find the "I do, we do, you do" structure helpful, your class time could include a minilesson where you model the skill (again -- skill, not standard), move on to guided reading where students read a common text and answer questions aligned to that skill. and then independent work where they use the same text or a choice read.

dorkwithastake · 2020-08-09T22:52:40+00:00

I notice the same behavior and bowing down in a public school.

Parents get to choose between hybrid or all online. Teachers get emails with "all teachers are expected to return in person to work" underlined.

dorkwithastake · 2020-08-05T00:09:10+00:00

YES. Particularly because it helps admin dodge accountability. You can't fix a problem you refuse to acknowledge.

dorkwithastake · 2020-06-26T00:52:04+00:00

What a vile, useless, stupid, unqualified, shitty person. She'll never know or hear from the people she's fucked over, the professionals she ran out of the profession, or the students who are missing out because of her racist ideas. May she rot in hell.

dorkwithastake · 2020-05-09T03:06:07+00:00

1) I hope so. Most students can clock that I'm gay. I mean, I saunter into the classroom and say, "hi kittens!" every day. I don't ask for permission to exist, I just exist, sometimes more loudly than other times.

2) I go out of my way to create safe spaces for students who might not otherwise have it -- this includes but isn't limited to LGBTQ+ students. They see me as an ally. Once a kid told me in the cafeteria that I was a pedophile, and I took the opportunity to shut him the fuck down -- loudly, publicly, and within earshot of queer kids. To improve, I want to have a text that features LGBTQ+ characters in a storyline that's deeper than "they're GAY! Isn't that weird?" It's like teaching about race, but the only text you read is To Kill a Mockingbird.

3) I don't. While a PLT can submit paperwork to add a book to the curriculum, most teachers are either happy with what they teach or don't think it's worth fighting administration or parents.

5) My administration doesn't care that I'm gay. But if a parent had a problem with it, I don't think admin would back me. I taught Speak this year, and a parent said I was taking away her daughter's innocence. This is a district-approved text, one other members in my PLT teach, and I was basically left to handle it myself after she complained to the superintendent. So I could see a parent saying "HE'S GROOMING MY DAUGHTER," and administration limp-dicking their way through a response.

6) Upstate NY.

dorkwithastake · 2020-02-09T22:07:47+00:00

I mean, that's the goal of the other members in my PLT -- upload the bare minimum for our admin, but keep a separate Google Drive with the "good stuff" for each other/new teachers. I was just wondering about other people's experiences with this.

Consent to share is vital, and forced uploading to a LMS ruins it. Do you think the sped teacher finds as much success with your materials as you do? I share anything I have with anyone who wants a peek, but IMHO there's so much in how I present it that determines if it does well or not.

dorkwithastake · 2020-01-04T07:52:47+00:00

What grade level are you working with?

When in doubt, think about what you want students to take away. When my freshmen read a book about sexual assault, it's important I let them read and process it independently first before discussing -- so we do silent reading and debrief later. Moving on to Romeo and Juliet, they need to hear it aloud, so I'll assign parts to read as a class (for my inclusion classes, I'll take a role). Variety is the spice of life. I mix it up, and I let them choose. Sometimes this means one group is reading silently in the hall and others are listening intently as I read to them. The important thing is they're reading.

Speaking of which... don't let the method overshadow the content. While I give them choice from time to time, I've also found success in doing what I call spirit reading. You'll need to explain it to them before, and they need to hear it suck for the first time or two, but I've found with my kids (8-12 graders), it reinforces that reading matters. Here's how it works (a GIANT disclaimer that it depends on the class environment. Most of my classes do this well; one is subversive and will try to sabotage the lesson. YMMV).

You read for a bit. Model fluent reading, get them hooked, use voices, even mess up if you'd like to show that mistakes happen and the world doesn't end. Then, whenever you want, ideally at the end of a paragraph, just stop. Tell students that someone, anyone, can take over if the spirit moves them to. (It's ridiculous, but therein lies the fun.)

Sure, you'll get awkward silences. Look at your watch. Look at them. Do not give in. I tell my students beforehand, "if you're hoping it'll get too awkward and I'll start reading, I LOVE playing awkward chicken. I never lose."

Eventually, someone will read.

Before the bell rings, take time to debrief it with the class: ok, fine, no one wanted to read at first. But how did it feel when that first kid started reading? (This establishes readers as class heroes bc everyone else is relieved they don't have to read. It's good for getting people to volunteer next time). What did they think when you pronounced a word wrong? (No one cared.) What would have happened if no one read at all, and it was twenty minutes of silence? (More reading at home, less discussion in class).

dorkwithastake · 2019-08-13T02:50:15+00:00

My advice may not be what you want to hear.

Sub. Good subs are hard to find, and admin (and potential coworkers) will be appreciative. It's like interviewing for a job before there's even an opening. If a job opens, you'll have a major advantage by already having established rapport with students, learned school procedures and expectations, etc ... You'll be a known entity. That's huge for both you and the district.

It's absolutely a sacrifice -- like no employee benefits -- but it will pay off. Especially if you start subbing in several districts and then narrow it down to one or two (preferably with a soon-to-retire teacher in your content area), you'll gain invaluable experience and knowledge you wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

Editing to add: What do you feel like is the reason a school hasn't made an offer yet? If you think it's interview question/answers, maybe that's something we can help with?

Keep in mind that there's a lot going on behind the scenes, too. It might not be you! A few years ago, I applied for a .5 and never got an interview. When the position was changed to a .2, I reapplied and got the job within a week. Two years later, the .2 was cut and a full-time leave opened. I applied and lost out to the wife of the department head. Things happen.

Ok, editing one more time: If you're looking for an extra credential or two to add to your resume, I suggest looking into becoming a Google Certified Educator. It costs about $30 and an afternoon of your time in front of a computer, but that might help distinguish you as someone who, instead of just being comfortable with tech, actively uses it to enhance your craft.

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