Any Special Educators out there? How do you feel about the No Child Left Behind Act and your job? Seems like some of us who teach resource will have to be certified in the core subjects ie. history in order to teach it to resource students. With the shortage already out there how will this happen? Will we have to go back to school to teach Special Ed? It really stresses me out to think I will have to go back to school..again!!!
I don't know about other states, but Alabama is doing their own revamping to it... requiring a MASTERS degree in the area you are in... WELL... I have my MS in LD but I teach early childhood handicapped... so I am waiting to find out my fate. They are checking the files for us all in our system to let us know what we need to do. Lori
I don't know about you, but I am disappointed in Bush's latest for schools. I agree we need good teachers in school. I don't agree that the amount of formal education a person has will make them a good teacher. I homeschool my child who is hyperactive and has had seizures since birth. I do very good and have no degree, only 2 years of college, and that was in engineering, not education. If I, an untrained person, can teach a child, disabled or not, and have them at or above where they should be, isn't that what we are wanting? I wish the emphasis was not on teacher's creditials but on teacher's products (what their children come away with). I hope we don't lose good teachers because of stupid new laws. I do know in the state I live, Alaska, they are talking about how they are going to meet these regulations in the bush (outlying areas).
Seems to me it's a rather unrealistic law... I'm working in special ed. summer school... the kids I'm a 1:1 aide for is prety much unresponsive. Although he's almost 10, you get less from him than you'd get from a young child... I'm sure he's smarter than he's able to let on, but still... There is NO WAY he's not getting "Left Behind..." He's included in his classroom during the year with a 1:1 aide, but obviously no way he can show that he has "mastered" these concepts that supposedly EVERY child, disability or not, is "supposed to" have mastered at particular ages... it's not realistic to say that every child witll be able to x, y, z, without exception... They oughta call it "No Child Left Stagnent."
I agree with you... all the classes in the world won't make a good teacher. We can cram and forget just like the younger students. All that bookwork meant nothing for me when it came to classroom management and behavior modifications... I needed to see it BEING USED IN A REAL CLASSROOM. I wanted to see just how that teacher handled that behavior and etc. One thing about teachers and their classes... Reg Ed is "taught" to teach and SPE ed is "taught" to modify. I didn't get to take all the "teaching math, reading" etc classes like reg ed teachers did and they didn't get to take all the SPE classes we did. I learned more thru teaching itself... having my own room... what techniques worked and what didn't. BUT THEN AGAIN... look who wrote NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND... he doesn't have a teaching degree does he? he's never been on our end of the classroom. ANYWAY!! I'll hush. Lori
Lori, I agree completely... as a regular ed. ECE major, I'm appalled to learn that my University (which is top teacher-producer for our state) is no longer requiring ECE and El. Ed majors to take the Introduction to Special Education class I took as a freshman... in fact, it was my sophomore year they stopped requiring it... instead, they have us take Multicultural Ed.... and while ECE majors take 2 other special ed. classes, one is a technology class and one is a collaboration class... with the focus on inclusion and the NCLB laws, not requiring a basic "these are basic things to expect if a child in your class has been labelled ___ and here are things that might help that child in your classroom" class is stupid... I fear for the next graduating classes... BTW, they also told me I wasn't "allowed" to do a duel ECE/Special Ed. major...
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb these people running the country and our universities. Jax St.'s SPE under grad degrees used to be MR and ED (BD, EC, whatever your system called behavior problem students) you could get a double major in them... was only 2 or 3 classes difference and an internship I think. I went for HI (hearing impairments) and there was no time for other SPE classes for me. Now they have that collaborative teaching degree. I have no idea what that all covers. I know Jax St. doesn't have the deaf ed program anymore. I got my master in LD. I think masters is collaborative teaching, too, instead of separate degrees. Yes, inclusion is a BIG thing now, but not all kids are in an inclusion class. I feel sorry for reg. ed teachers having our SPE kids in the class if everyone knows good and well they will not be able to make it in there. Some do wonderful, but some do not. If some of my SPE preschoolers were in a regular preschool class, they'd have the regs crying from all of their screaming and temper tantrums that some throw. I'd like to see a reg ed preschool teacher deal with some of mine when they first get in a classroom after being a wild child and not having any kind of discipline or structure at home. Reg teachers are not trained for this... SPE teachers aren't trained to teach reg. ed teachers... that would be the universities' job. As for the severe and profound MR in a regular class... that is a different and long soapbox for me. Their needs cannot be met in a reg. classroom. They might like to think they can... but they realistically can't. It's a shame. Lori
There is NO WAY that 100% of American kids will be on grade level by 2014, and they can't fire us all. I don't worry about it. Next year a new prez will come in and there'll be a "new" initiative... don't let it get you down...
Who wrote NCLB? Bush? No, it was the policy makers in Congress. In politics, it does not always mean that the president should veto any bill that comes his way that he does not agree with. The president needs to work with congress. They have to compromise. Our entire nation is formed from compromise, and it lives today. More money is being put into our education system than ever before.
