Do you start resource services right away, or just hang out in the gen ed rooms? When I taught sped before I always felt awkward during this time. I wasn't supposed to pull kids right away and with it being right at the beginning of the year there wasn't really anything for me to do in the gen ed rooms either. I spent some time with my team planning IEP dates and things like that, but I know it didn't rub the gen ed staff the right way that we had all of that extra planning time. My first year my P didn't let me start services for 2 weeks! She'd said I could observe my students in gen ed, but seriously, that does not take 2 weeks! The second year I told her I needed to meet their IEP hours and got her to let me start on day 4, but I was still a little lost on those first couple of days. When I'd ask gen ed teachers if they wanted me to help them with something, they always said no...I think they wanted those first couple of days to just get their own classes set up without having to worry about an extra person, and since I wasn't doing inclusion services (and won't be in this position either) it's not like they needed to get the kids used to me being in the room.
Our kids started this past Wednesday. None of the sped teachers pulled kids or went in the classroom. This was a time for Gen ed teachers to establish rules ECT. I spent my time pulling ieps, making copies of accommodations to give to teachers, getting my computers out of the vault, and mentoring new teachers. It still didn't fill up the day and I didn't enjoy it. However, it is what the P wanted, and I think it is good for the students. Thankfully, I start providing services Monday. I will be doing inclusion this year....in the past I've been so not a fan But, this is my third year at my school, and I don't think im working with any "This is mine all mine" types. Good luck Waterfall, I hope this is a good fit for you. Staying at one school has a lot of rewards. Those first awkward days are soon over.
We started school this past Thursday... My plan was to spend Thur and Fri popping into rooms to observe my students, say hello and introduce myself, possibly pull a few grade-level groups (not necessarily the same groups I'll be pulling for services) to go over the procedures and expectations in my classroom, and getting caught up on paperwork (yes, I said getting caught up, not getting ahead, sadly). In reality, what I did was babysit a new student who required full-time para support and enrolled late afternoon the day before school started AND chase one of my other students (new to me, but not the building) around the building all day. One had an emotional meltdown and the other gave me a beating. Let me tell you.... This is NOT how I was planning on my first day going. I now refer to it as the worst day I've ever had since starting at this school. Friday was a thousand times better, but it was still primarily spent on just those two students. Forget about the other 15 I have on my caseload. I'm starting regular services Monday. I'm not sure whether teachers are happy about this or not. Our district-level admin has told us that we cannot use the beginning of the year as extra plan time though, and we were required to tell our principal what our plan for the first two days would be. I actually want to get started on services asap. Sure, I'd love to get paperwork taken care of, but some of the kids really need their services. And, they need to include coming to my classroom as part of their regular routine asap.
I do baseline assessments for the first week. I try to have everything figured out, schedule-wise, and begin implementing it the first full week of school. It has been my experience that my ETR data has not always been immediately useful to me, for progress monitoring. A lot of my goals have progress compared to baseline. I'm not sure what I'll be doing this year, as we are trying something new and it seems I will be told what to do :shrug: Another teacher and the principal discussed things without me, and the grade level has to ability group for rotations, not homerooms. My added bonus (choosing to be positive ) is that I have a 1:1 para, and a 1:1 nurse for students this year, so I can assess individually even if I start on day 2, while the other adults monitor other students.
Good luck! I'm not a fan of inclusion services either. The plus side of having so many grade levels is that pull-out services are pretty much the only option. As for the school, I feel like I can survive anything after last year! They ended up with a 68% teacher turnover when all was said and done, and honestly the 32% that are still there were very experienced teachers who just didn't have a chance of getting hired anywhere else (too expensive). I'm the only new hire for my new school, which I take as a great sign! Also numerous people keep telling me that I have "traded up" as far as districts go, lol.
We have assessment days before school starts, and my P said I could assess for IEP goals on that day. If anyone's not familiar, assessment days are when kids come in before school starts for 30 minute appointments to meet with their teacher and do some basic reading, writing, and math assessments so that the teacher knows what levels everyone is at. They're very popular around here. I guess I'll just see what the P wants me to do. I'm meeting with my team this week for lunch so I'm hoping to get some of the "scoop" from them.
Wow! Assessment days before school starts sounds a little intimidating. If the results are accurate, that would be great to have to start the school year. I'm just not sure how accurate these would be... I would try to pop in to a few different classrooms just to hear some of the expectations of your students and see your students in their classroom. My special education teacher spends a lot of time that first week getting documents ready for all the teachers who work with her children (gym, music, art included). She also makes a personal contact to each family just to start the open dialogue. She also tries to meet individually with each student to figure out their learning styles, if anything changed over the summer (divorce, move, new sibling), and what goals they have for this year (beyond IEP goals).
I wont have my kids for a couple days. I will be planning my own lessons, pulling for assessments, and helping the gen ed teachers any way that I can. We have several new teachers this year, so hopefully I can help them find their way around.
I do assessments and getting-to-know-you type activities. The very first day I usually use to get organized and don't pull kids, because they never really have my assignments (including room!) quite down until then. This year due to religious observance days the first week is basically just two days so I'm not going to be able to plunge very far in anyway.
I make sure that all of my students have any adaptive/sensory materials they need, check in on my behavior students/kids with emotional issues to make sure that they are okay and make sure the teacher has support if needed. Every year there seems to be a surprise student who needs a lot more support than resource and was improperly placed at our school, and I spend a lot of time helping them and talking to the folks downtown. These are the kids that usually also have an IEP due the first week of school. The rest of the time is trying to make the schedule, as my position is like Waterfall's - I'm the only sped teacher w/k-5 kids from 10+ classrooms.
