Second-to-Last Friday

It's Friday!

This morning, we learned about special education.

When it comes to special needs students (and all students, really), it is our responsibility to advocate for our students. It is our legal obligation to uphold the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for each student.

There is a big distinction in actions we can take.

Accomodations: change the process, but not the content (i.e. organizers, large font), change to the way students show learning

vs.

Modifications: change to the content or difficulty level of the gen ed curriculum

And then we watched a video that was obviously filmed in the 1980s that reminded us that telling student with learning disabilities to “try harder” will never, ever work.

We learned to teach students to advocate for themselves. Not every teacher knows to ask for an IEP. A student needs to tell a teacher that they have special requirements and what those requirements are. The students need to learn how they learn best, and what they can do on their own to succeed.

Also, fair is not always equal. We were shown an example

Later in the morning, we had a session on meeting the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). The most important part is to remember that ELLs include those who don't speak English as a first (or second, or third) language, as well as those who don't readily speak “academic” English.

One of the examples was a passage we were given in French, with some questions in English following, to show us how difficult it was to answer questions about a passage in a language we don't understand. I actually translated it for the class, which made me feel special; I guess I haven't forgotten too much from high school French. It was also pointed out to us, though, that the questions was even more difficult because we didn't understand the culture it described (the French school system).

The heart of the achievement gap is a literacy gap, or vocabulary gap. They may speak the language, but there is a big gap between speaking the language and being able to decode academic texts. Hence my students' problems with multiple-choice questions. There is a big difference between being able to communicate socially and being able to understand a teacher.

And then there's the issue of getting a kid comfortable enough with a non-native language to ask questions he might be uncomfortable asking in the first place. (I'm really considering creating a participation-required IDK box.)

We now have a couple more ideas in our toolbox for differentiating the lesson for students who are special education or ELLs.

I also received a comment on a lesson plan complimenting my key points, one of the most important parts of our plans: “Good WHAT, WHY, and HOW”. This is the TFA equivalent of an A+.

In other news, Texas' abstinence-only education program seems somehow flawed. For some really shocking reason, it seems that since enacting the program, rates of teen pregnancy have increased. Gov. Perry, who is considering a bid for president, when asked for a statistic to suggest it works, replied that "I'm just going to tell you from my own personal life, abstinence works."

That's why I need to be a science teacher.

The day ended with a nice, honest group discussion. We were expressing our frustration with some of the TFA logistics that leave us cramming our lesson planning into sleep hours while sitting around for hours while some programs (and breaks!) are dragged out. We were reminded, by an adored superior of ours, that we're here for a reason. We're here because we want to teach and because we want to help people. We're not here because we love everything about the organization that runs the program. We're here because we want to be.

Although, if you really want a fun time, wait until the heat index pushes 115 and sit in traffic on a yellow school bus. Oof.