Friday, February 20, 2009

Made it to Friday

Some weeks are longer than others. This one was a doozy.

I got a locker at school so I could tuck my books and my bag away safely while I'm wandering the halls. I really don't want a cart because they don't go between the rows of desks easily, and the bag is just more practical. My compromise is getting a locker.

The work in the main building to repair the roof damage is certainly making for a LOT of noise in the rooms under the roofers. I swear it sounds like they have jackhammers up there. The good side of the tornado that got us a while back is that we're ending up with a good many repairs that would have been maintenance issues sooner or later. So a new roof now will save money later, especially if insurance is paying for it.

Lots of folks wondering what the new administration will do to education and special education. I'm one of them. It's my hope that we can continue to challenge under achieving schools, while making more realistic goals, particularly in the area of curriculum for students with special needs. A lot of people, not just me, worry about students not being able to tackle the tough curriculum forced on them, and the lack of programs to teach life skills and job skills for those who could learn those, but not Geometry or Physical Science. We all want students to achieve their best, but some are being lost along the way while we sweep away Resource (pull out) classes, and insist that special ed students will take regular education classes and demand they achieve a regular education diploma. We special ed teachers really care about our students and want them to have something realistic they can succeed at doing by the time they graduate. Yet, we are penalized for every special education diploma we award, because those are counted Federally as "drop outs." It's very stressful. For the students as well as us case managers. Lots of sad situations going on. I suppose there's no system that is equitable all the way around.

Just another place where life is not fair. Who knew that could be true, eh?

1 comment:

watercolordaisy said...

It is indeed very sad that there is no official recognition that some students don't learn the "official" way and some students aren't destined for college. A friend's son has dropped out of high school and is getting his GED because he is a junior and only has 12 credits. In taking the test to see how he'd do on the GED, he scored an 11.66 out of a possible 12 and will enroll in jr college this summer and he is finally excited. He just wasn't testing well in that particular school's environment but clearly he's a bright kid. But there was nothing in place to help him and his parents don't have the money for private school or special tutors. Crazy. His mom was feeling like a failure until a doctor friend told her he was also a drop out and got his GED and then went to medical school.... not everyone learns the way the school teaches. Numbers of butts in seats and scores on tests does NOT indicate success. It lets great kids fall through the cracks which is criminal. Kudos to you for the work you do to catch as many as can. Hugs!!!