Disability is Natural
http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/
A must favorite website by Kathy Snow
I am a SNOW CLONE!!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
I am a SNOW CLONE!!
I am a Special Education Advocate and Parent Trainer. A very proud parent to Mark and Mariah. Aunt Nana to many wonderful "Kiddo's" I hold close under my wing! Helping Parents Partner with Teachers. Helping with quality collaboration & communication so our Children with Unique Learning challenges are provided a Solid Education for their Future Success to Live Life Independently.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Should I request a teacher change?
When should I request for a different teacher?
I have been in this situation before, knowing that my daughter was in a classroom where the teacher obviously did NOT WANT Mariah in her classroom! It is a weird position to be in as a parent, to know your son or daughter’s teacher doesn't want or like them in their classroom. As parents, we do the best we can to provide our Child with what we can and what we think is best for them but when it comes to who they get as their new teacher...well...we as parents don't really have any say so about it, do we… We trust that ALL teachers will be good to our Children and teach ALL the students they are given in their classrooms with equal opportunity to be successful at that grade level. Who picks which students will go into which teacher’s classroom? How do any of us know if the teacher or teachers our Children get at the beginning of a new school year are going to be good teachers....for our Children? We don't and we just have to trust and accept that all or most are good teachers.
My daughter has been attending school since she was 2 years old and every teacher has always been open to conversations with me and friendly. Every teacher has always spoken to me or written notes that were sent home in her backpack. Right from the start of the new school year, Mariah’s 3rd grade teacher did all she could to not make eye contact with me anytime I was on campus. It was upsetting to me that, gosh darn it...why wouldn't she look at me or engage in any form of friendly conversation? Why would my daughter’s teacher not want to be friendly to me? I did all I could to make sure I smiled at her when I saw her. There was just something about this teacher that made it obvious that she was not going to get to know me or provide me with much communication! …Especially anything pertaining to things I wrote about in my daughter’s daily planner that went back and forth between school and home. Anytime I wrote something, she either didn't respond back or it was the most minimal response back. Nothing more nothing less...she actually responded like she seemed to be annoyed when I wrote in the planner about anything! It almost made me want to write in the planner even more every day, just to see how she responded to my concern or a question I may have had about something. Very frustrating for me just trying to get my daughter’s teacher to work with me! What was up with this teacher?!
Mariah has Down syndrome and the biggest impact of her disability is her fine motor skills especially pertaining to her being able to write words and sentences and her articulation, her ability to speak clearly, how she says her words so others understand what she’s talking about. Mariah couldn’t come home from school and tell me what she did in school like most girls her age could. My daughter's 3rd grade teacher was my first experience dealing with a teacher that didn't provide any collaboration and communication with me about how my little girl was doing in her classroom or what or how she did on classroom assignments. Thank God Mariah had a wonderful Para Professional or some districts call that person a Unique Aide, this person was there to assistant Mariah for everything throughout her entire school day. It seemed at times that this teacher thought maybe she didn’t have to teach or work with my daughter because Mariah did have the support of her own Para. Mariah’s 3rd grade teacher didn’t expect much from my daughter or have high expectations of her abilities. She had a negative attitude towards my daughter and was super stand offish towards me. This teacher never should have been assigned to be my daughter’s teacher or assigned any student with unique learning challenges! I wonder if she was mad that she was assigned the only student with Down syndrome on the school campus. Bet she didn’t volunteer or request to have her either!
The school year progressed and several months went by, almost half of her 3rd grade year had gone by and still this teacher just wasn't providing any communication and/or any collaboration with me. The communication was what it was with this teacher. I can't change the funky personality traits of my daughter’s teachers, but I can put in my request for a teacher change! The first time I did this, was with this 3rd grade teacher. I was nervous about it and I didn't really want to have to do this or pull my daughter from a classroom of peers that were wonderful classmates to her!
Each school year Mariah always seems to have a SPARKLER STUDENT that enjoys and wants to be Mariah’s helper. Any parent of a Child with Special needs would love to make sure their parents knew just how helpful and kind their Child is and how much they are appreciated for being so helpful and kind! Mariah had one particular boy student that was always so helpful with her, at times a little too helpful. Well at least in this classroom she had great classmates that liked her! Mariah’s classmates did for her what this teacher probably should have been doing all along and that was…giving her attention and believing in her! I received more feedback from her little classmates that year than this teacher ever knew possible! I found out how she over looked my daughter many times when Mariah raised her hand to answer questions in class, how she would never call on her. Did this teacher think the other students didn’t see and have feelings for what they themselves saw was going on in her classroom? I found out she only called on the smarter students most of the time….she had her favorites she called on all the time. This teacher did a great job making my little girl feel LEFT OUT and not good enough to be called on in class! I wish I could do a cancel erase and rewind to undo all the damage she did to my daughter's self-esteem that year. A good teacher would have called on my daughter no matter if her speech was unclear or if Mariah had the right or wrong answer! No matter what….this teacher should have been teaching by providing positive praise and including Mariah and some of the other students all along!
I attended the FIELD-DAY and saw with my own eyes how this teacher played favorites and let the same group of students participate in certain Field-Day activities. I saw with my own eyes how this teacher acted so cold and uncaring not only towards my little girl, but towards most of her students. Even though I was the only Volunteer parent that attended from her class, she still refused to make any friendly conversation with me and always avoided any eye contact the entire time I was volunteering that day! How can a teacher totally ignore a Volunteering parent….let alone some of her students day in and day out? She made me fell unimportant...she made me feel rejected. I was there to help and encourage the students! I was there to have fun with the students! I was there to help and be involved in my daughter's education!
When I saw the same group of ‘favorite students’ being able to participate in the famous on our campus and much anticipated TUG-O-WAR event, I felt in the pit of my stomach how it must have made those ‘excluded students’ feel. I walked over to be in the shade of nearby tree because it was getting to be hotter by the minute outside in the Florida sunshine that morning. I sat down in the shade and looked at the handful of students that I knew didn’t get to participate in the TUG-O-WAR event. I watched all the other classes and the different groups of students getting excited when their teachers called their names to be next to participate. I watched how all the other classes had their handmade Pom-Poms in their class colors using them to cheer on their classmates to pull harder on the rope so their class would win the Tug-O-War. Mariah’s class was different….none of them had any Pom-Poms like the all other classes did; their cheering wasn’t with as much enthusiasm or excitement as the other classes were. When I sat back and observed all this while I was cooling off in the shade, it was obvious this teacher wasn’t the best choice for MY daughter this school year. It hit me hard to see with my own eyes, how this teacher treated all her students on Field-Day. I felt sadness and hurt in the pit of my stomach for some of the kiddo’s in her class, my eyes filled with tears while I was sitting under the shade tree. I ‘felt’ sad for what I know some of her students felt…when they didn’t hear their name called to participate in the TUG-O-WAR or back in the classroom when their hands were raised up high, hoping to be called on and never getting picked to answer.
I thought things were the way they were in this classroom with this particular teacher because my daughter has Down syndrome. Not true, this teacher was set in her ways and her favorite students were her favorites, she just didn’t have it in her to BE FRIENDLY period! My heart broke for ALL the students that didn’t make this teachers “teacher pet” list this year!
I put in for a teacher change shortly after Field-Day, because I just knew things were not going to get any better than how things were. My request wasn’t well received by my principal especially when I made a suggestion as to which teacher I thought would be a better match for Mariah and her unique learning challenges. I knew of this other teacher that had worked in New York schools and had Special Education background and she was friendly too! To top it off, her students during Field-Day all interacted with one another and were happy and jumping around having fun! My principal suggested another teacher, so I went for an observation into that teacher’s classroom. During that classroom observation the New to our campus Special Ed teacher was also in that classroom working with several of the students. The Gen. Ed teacher was working with small groups of students at the same time the Special Ed teacher was working with a small group for Reading. Students were being rotated between the two reading groups or sitting in their desks doing independent seat work. The students that sat at the table with the Special Ed teacher obviously had to have an IEP to be with her. I counted about 11 students that went to the Special Ed teachers table, which meant that THIS classroom was made up of mostly students receiving Special Ed Services & Support through an IEP.
When there is a classroom of about 18 students and 11 of them have IEP’s that to me is not a typical General Education classroom! Yes they were all typical students but I didn’t see any student with an outward appearance of a significant disability or syndrome like Down syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome or CP. Were they struggling readers with a Specific Learning Disability or ADD/HD, yes I’m sure they were. Would this have been a good classroom for my daughter to be transferred into, several months into the school year? Maybe...and absolutely yes she would have benefitted from the Special Ed teacher that came into this classroom using the Wilson Phonics program as reading support.
I had to weigh what was going to be best for Mariah. Would it disrupt her too much by pulling her out of a classroom where her classmates accepted her and helped her and they wanted to be her helper? She spent more time on the computer that year while in this class, which was a good thing to some degree. Mariah is computer savvy and enjoys learning and being on the computer. I liked all the DATA that I was able to view from the computer program she was using. It was very apparent my daughter got most of her quality academic learning in her 3rd grade year via the computer program; Compass Learning Odyssey program. Her Para Professional would get Mariah set up to work on the computer and her teacher would just allow Mariah to be on the Odyssey program sometimes for hours in a day! I have the data and the times to show this! Mariah enjoys this web base computer program and does well with it. Our school district has made this internet based computer program available to all students and everyone can gain access to it for several subjects and an array of learning topics. Mariah likes the computer Odyssey program and so do I because of the easy access to the data it provides! I request it as part of her *ESY service each year now so it continues to be available for Mariah to access over the Summer time break.
Mariah’s 3rd grade teacher didn’t believe in her or teach her like she should have. She certainly didn’t show a willingness to collaborate or communicate with me as an involved parent and partner in my daughter’s education. I will always need to make sure my daughter is learning as well and as much as she can every day. Without the back and forth collaboration and communicating that any parent would want and need from their Child’s teacher ….things just were the way the way they were. I gave a lot of thought about removing her from this teacher, but her classmates were the ones that were being Mariah’s ROLE MODELS and were the ones showing her what to do. It was her classmates and friends that year that made her year great! I choose to keep her in the same classroom with those classmates because they were the ones that BELIEVED in her and helped her throughout the entire school year! Mariah was being educated in a General Education classroom with her typical neighborhood peers without disabilities. That’s what the Federal *IDEA Law mandates that Mariah is entitled to! She needed that more than any one adult teacher that didn’t see her potential or her abilities, she only saw a girl with Down syndrome. Mariah learned that year that she was accepted and had friends….real friends, friends that invited her to Birthday parties and sleep-overs. That was the year she had her first sleep-over, I was so happy for my little girl….my dreams for her being accepted and having friends was happening. She had a very big crush on 2 boys that year! Mariah was being included into her 3rd grade classroom maybe not by her teacher but by her classmates!
Having friends and being accepted into the community is what every one of us wants! In 3rd grade Mariah learned how to be a friend to many and many learned how to help Mariah do her classwork. It was a crazy year with a teacher that was unwilling to be friendly or collaborate with me. I learned what to look out for in a teacher that year. If a teacher refuses to make eye contact with me or has a hard time being somewhat friendly without it feeling fake or speaks in a negative way or tone about my daughter not being able to do something….for me, it is a sure sign that the teacher is not going to do well teaching either! Some things should just feel right and when they don’t you know it! A mother’s instinct will always tell you in your heart what is going to be best or better for your Child.
ASK FOR A TEACHER CHANGE AS SOON AS YOU KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT THE TEACHER IS PUTTING YOU OFF! – If you have signed up for a Parent/Teacher conference early in the school year and that appointment gets cancelled or moved and before you know it, weeks and maybe a month goes by before that conference is held, you will know by the time you finally meet if something is going sour. Don’t wait to see if things will change!
"A day of learning lost for our Children with Down syndrome is a precious day of learning a much needed skill! Our Children don’t have time to waste with a teacher that doesn’t want to teach them or doesn’t care to understand about their learning style. If a teacher doesn’t have high expectations for all students in their classroom and motivates all students with positive praise and recognition for doing well, don’t expect that teacher to be a good teacher for your Child." Request a teacher change ASAP during the first few weeks into a new school year, don’t wait! You know you have to do what’s right and best for your son or daughter. It’s not about hurting a teachers feelings…it’s about having a good teacher that is willing to work collaboratively with parents and praises all her/his students to success! It’s about teaching my Child…who happens to have Down syndrome and is on your student list to be in your classroom this next year! This is a true story of my life long journey to educate Mariah!
Hope this helps some of you be a wiser Advocate for your Child. If you are a teacher reading this, I hope it opens your eyes to the parent viewpoint and encourages you to be a more collaborative teacher with parents. Have higher expectations for your all your students especially those with unique learning challenges because every student needs teachers that BELIEVE & ENCOURAGE & EXPECT MORE!
*IDEA - Individual Disability Education Act
*ESY – Extended School Year
I have been in this situation before, knowing that my daughter was in a classroom where the teacher obviously did NOT WANT Mariah in her classroom! It is a weird position to be in as a parent, to know your son or daughter’s teacher doesn't want or like them in their classroom. As parents, we do the best we can to provide our Child with what we can and what we think is best for them but when it comes to who they get as their new teacher...well...we as parents don't really have any say so about it, do we… We trust that ALL teachers will be good to our Children and teach ALL the students they are given in their classrooms with equal opportunity to be successful at that grade level. Who picks which students will go into which teacher’s classroom? How do any of us know if the teacher or teachers our Children get at the beginning of a new school year are going to be good teachers....for our Children? We don't and we just have to trust and accept that all or most are good teachers.
My daughter has been attending school since she was 2 years old and every teacher has always been open to conversations with me and friendly. Every teacher has always spoken to me or written notes that were sent home in her backpack. Right from the start of the new school year, Mariah’s 3rd grade teacher did all she could to not make eye contact with me anytime I was on campus. It was upsetting to me that, gosh darn it...why wouldn't she look at me or engage in any form of friendly conversation? Why would my daughter’s teacher not want to be friendly to me? I did all I could to make sure I smiled at her when I saw her. There was just something about this teacher that made it obvious that she was not going to get to know me or provide me with much communication! …Especially anything pertaining to things I wrote about in my daughter’s daily planner that went back and forth between school and home. Anytime I wrote something, she either didn't respond back or it was the most minimal response back. Nothing more nothing less...she actually responded like she seemed to be annoyed when I wrote in the planner about anything! It almost made me want to write in the planner even more every day, just to see how she responded to my concern or a question I may have had about something. Very frustrating for me just trying to get my daughter’s teacher to work with me! What was up with this teacher?!
Mariah has Down syndrome and the biggest impact of her disability is her fine motor skills especially pertaining to her being able to write words and sentences and her articulation, her ability to speak clearly, how she says her words so others understand what she’s talking about. Mariah couldn’t come home from school and tell me what she did in school like most girls her age could. My daughter's 3rd grade teacher was my first experience dealing with a teacher that didn't provide any collaboration and communication with me about how my little girl was doing in her classroom or what or how she did on classroom assignments. Thank God Mariah had a wonderful Para Professional or some districts call that person a Unique Aide, this person was there to assistant Mariah for everything throughout her entire school day. It seemed at times that this teacher thought maybe she didn’t have to teach or work with my daughter because Mariah did have the support of her own Para. Mariah’s 3rd grade teacher didn’t expect much from my daughter or have high expectations of her abilities. She had a negative attitude towards my daughter and was super stand offish towards me. This teacher never should have been assigned to be my daughter’s teacher or assigned any student with unique learning challenges! I wonder if she was mad that she was assigned the only student with Down syndrome on the school campus. Bet she didn’t volunteer or request to have her either!
The school year progressed and several months went by, almost half of her 3rd grade year had gone by and still this teacher just wasn't providing any communication and/or any collaboration with me. The communication was what it was with this teacher. I can't change the funky personality traits of my daughter’s teachers, but I can put in my request for a teacher change! The first time I did this, was with this 3rd grade teacher. I was nervous about it and I didn't really want to have to do this or pull my daughter from a classroom of peers that were wonderful classmates to her!
Each school year Mariah always seems to have a SPARKLER STUDENT that enjoys and wants to be Mariah’s helper. Any parent of a Child with Special needs would love to make sure their parents knew just how helpful and kind their Child is and how much they are appreciated for being so helpful and kind! Mariah had one particular boy student that was always so helpful with her, at times a little too helpful. Well at least in this classroom she had great classmates that liked her! Mariah’s classmates did for her what this teacher probably should have been doing all along and that was…giving her attention and believing in her! I received more feedback from her little classmates that year than this teacher ever knew possible! I found out how she over looked my daughter many times when Mariah raised her hand to answer questions in class, how she would never call on her. Did this teacher think the other students didn’t see and have feelings for what they themselves saw was going on in her classroom? I found out she only called on the smarter students most of the time….she had her favorites she called on all the time. This teacher did a great job making my little girl feel LEFT OUT and not good enough to be called on in class! I wish I could do a cancel erase and rewind to undo all the damage she did to my daughter's self-esteem that year. A good teacher would have called on my daughter no matter if her speech was unclear or if Mariah had the right or wrong answer! No matter what….this teacher should have been teaching by providing positive praise and including Mariah and some of the other students all along!
I attended the FIELD-DAY and saw with my own eyes how this teacher played favorites and let the same group of students participate in certain Field-Day activities. I saw with my own eyes how this teacher acted so cold and uncaring not only towards my little girl, but towards most of her students. Even though I was the only Volunteer parent that attended from her class, she still refused to make any friendly conversation with me and always avoided any eye contact the entire time I was volunteering that day! How can a teacher totally ignore a Volunteering parent….let alone some of her students day in and day out? She made me fell unimportant...she made me feel rejected. I was there to help and encourage the students! I was there to have fun with the students! I was there to help and be involved in my daughter's education!
When I saw the same group of ‘favorite students’ being able to participate in the famous on our campus and much anticipated TUG-O-WAR event, I felt in the pit of my stomach how it must have made those ‘excluded students’ feel. I walked over to be in the shade of nearby tree because it was getting to be hotter by the minute outside in the Florida sunshine that morning. I sat down in the shade and looked at the handful of students that I knew didn’t get to participate in the TUG-O-WAR event. I watched all the other classes and the different groups of students getting excited when their teachers called their names to be next to participate. I watched how all the other classes had their handmade Pom-Poms in their class colors using them to cheer on their classmates to pull harder on the rope so their class would win the Tug-O-War. Mariah’s class was different….none of them had any Pom-Poms like the all other classes did; their cheering wasn’t with as much enthusiasm or excitement as the other classes were. When I sat back and observed all this while I was cooling off in the shade, it was obvious this teacher wasn’t the best choice for MY daughter this school year. It hit me hard to see with my own eyes, how this teacher treated all her students on Field-Day. I felt sadness and hurt in the pit of my stomach for some of the kiddo’s in her class, my eyes filled with tears while I was sitting under the shade tree. I ‘felt’ sad for what I know some of her students felt…when they didn’t hear their name called to participate in the TUG-O-WAR or back in the classroom when their hands were raised up high, hoping to be called on and never getting picked to answer.
I thought things were the way they were in this classroom with this particular teacher because my daughter has Down syndrome. Not true, this teacher was set in her ways and her favorite students were her favorites, she just didn’t have it in her to BE FRIENDLY period! My heart broke for ALL the students that didn’t make this teachers “teacher pet” list this year!
I put in for a teacher change shortly after Field-Day, because I just knew things were not going to get any better than how things were. My request wasn’t well received by my principal especially when I made a suggestion as to which teacher I thought would be a better match for Mariah and her unique learning challenges. I knew of this other teacher that had worked in New York schools and had Special Education background and she was friendly too! To top it off, her students during Field-Day all interacted with one another and were happy and jumping around having fun! My principal suggested another teacher, so I went for an observation into that teacher’s classroom. During that classroom observation the New to our campus Special Ed teacher was also in that classroom working with several of the students. The Gen. Ed teacher was working with small groups of students at the same time the Special Ed teacher was working with a small group for Reading. Students were being rotated between the two reading groups or sitting in their desks doing independent seat work. The students that sat at the table with the Special Ed teacher obviously had to have an IEP to be with her. I counted about 11 students that went to the Special Ed teachers table, which meant that THIS classroom was made up of mostly students receiving Special Ed Services & Support through an IEP.
When there is a classroom of about 18 students and 11 of them have IEP’s that to me is not a typical General Education classroom! Yes they were all typical students but I didn’t see any student with an outward appearance of a significant disability or syndrome like Down syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome or CP. Were they struggling readers with a Specific Learning Disability or ADD/HD, yes I’m sure they were. Would this have been a good classroom for my daughter to be transferred into, several months into the school year? Maybe...and absolutely yes she would have benefitted from the Special Ed teacher that came into this classroom using the Wilson Phonics program as reading support.
I had to weigh what was going to be best for Mariah. Would it disrupt her too much by pulling her out of a classroom where her classmates accepted her and helped her and they wanted to be her helper? She spent more time on the computer that year while in this class, which was a good thing to some degree. Mariah is computer savvy and enjoys learning and being on the computer. I liked all the DATA that I was able to view from the computer program she was using. It was very apparent my daughter got most of her quality academic learning in her 3rd grade year via the computer program; Compass Learning Odyssey program. Her Para Professional would get Mariah set up to work on the computer and her teacher would just allow Mariah to be on the Odyssey program sometimes for hours in a day! I have the data and the times to show this! Mariah enjoys this web base computer program and does well with it. Our school district has made this internet based computer program available to all students and everyone can gain access to it for several subjects and an array of learning topics. Mariah likes the computer Odyssey program and so do I because of the easy access to the data it provides! I request it as part of her *ESY service each year now so it continues to be available for Mariah to access over the Summer time break.
Mariah’s 3rd grade teacher didn’t believe in her or teach her like she should have. She certainly didn’t show a willingness to collaborate or communicate with me as an involved parent and partner in my daughter’s education. I will always need to make sure my daughter is learning as well and as much as she can every day. Without the back and forth collaboration and communicating that any parent would want and need from their Child’s teacher ….things just were the way the way they were. I gave a lot of thought about removing her from this teacher, but her classmates were the ones that were being Mariah’s ROLE MODELS and were the ones showing her what to do. It was her classmates and friends that year that made her year great! I choose to keep her in the same classroom with those classmates because they were the ones that BELIEVED in her and helped her throughout the entire school year! Mariah was being educated in a General Education classroom with her typical neighborhood peers without disabilities. That’s what the Federal *IDEA Law mandates that Mariah is entitled to! She needed that more than any one adult teacher that didn’t see her potential or her abilities, she only saw a girl with Down syndrome. Mariah learned that year that she was accepted and had friends….real friends, friends that invited her to Birthday parties and sleep-overs. That was the year she had her first sleep-over, I was so happy for my little girl….my dreams for her being accepted and having friends was happening. She had a very big crush on 2 boys that year! Mariah was being included into her 3rd grade classroom maybe not by her teacher but by her classmates!
Having friends and being accepted into the community is what every one of us wants! In 3rd grade Mariah learned how to be a friend to many and many learned how to help Mariah do her classwork. It was a crazy year with a teacher that was unwilling to be friendly or collaborate with me. I learned what to look out for in a teacher that year. If a teacher refuses to make eye contact with me or has a hard time being somewhat friendly without it feeling fake or speaks in a negative way or tone about my daughter not being able to do something….for me, it is a sure sign that the teacher is not going to do well teaching either! Some things should just feel right and when they don’t you know it! A mother’s instinct will always tell you in your heart what is going to be best or better for your Child.
ASK FOR A TEACHER CHANGE AS SOON AS YOU KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT THE TEACHER IS PUTTING YOU OFF! – If you have signed up for a Parent/Teacher conference early in the school year and that appointment gets cancelled or moved and before you know it, weeks and maybe a month goes by before that conference is held, you will know by the time you finally meet if something is going sour. Don’t wait to see if things will change!
"A day of learning lost for our Children with Down syndrome is a precious day of learning a much needed skill! Our Children don’t have time to waste with a teacher that doesn’t want to teach them or doesn’t care to understand about their learning style. If a teacher doesn’t have high expectations for all students in their classroom and motivates all students with positive praise and recognition for doing well, don’t expect that teacher to be a good teacher for your Child." Request a teacher change ASAP during the first few weeks into a new school year, don’t wait! You know you have to do what’s right and best for your son or daughter. It’s not about hurting a teachers feelings…it’s about having a good teacher that is willing to work collaboratively with parents and praises all her/his students to success! It’s about teaching my Child…who happens to have Down syndrome and is on your student list to be in your classroom this next year! This is a true story of my life long journey to educate Mariah!
Hope this helps some of you be a wiser Advocate for your Child. If you are a teacher reading this, I hope it opens your eyes to the parent viewpoint and encourages you to be a more collaborative teacher with parents. Have higher expectations for your all your students especially those with unique learning challenges because every student needs teachers that BELIEVE & ENCOURAGE & EXPECT MORE!
*IDEA - Individual Disability Education Act
*ESY – Extended School Year
I am a Special Education Advocate and Parent Trainer. A very proud parent to Mark and Mariah. Aunt Nana to many wonderful "Kiddo's" I hold close under my wing! Helping Parents Partner with Teachers. Helping with quality collaboration & communication so our Children with Unique Learning challenges are provided a Solid Education for their Future Success to Live Life Independently.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Not all teachers are good teachers......for OUR children!
I was excited for the new school year to begin! My daughter was going into the 5th grade, marking the end of attending Elementary school. How could she be going into the 5th grade when it was just the other day I was nervous about who her Kindergarten teacher would be!
Since this is my newest blog-baby and the reason I wanted to start this blog about INCLUSION, is because this particular school year was over the top in alot of ways. Things that happened this year are what has motivated me to want to share all in one place all the things that worked or didn't work for both Mariah and I. Mariah has always been FULLY INCLUDED in GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOMS with the only time she leaves her classroom is when she goes to visit the School Speech Therapist, Mrs. Newman. She has been working with Mariah since she started in the PLACE classroom at 4 years old. Mariah and I both love Mrs. Newman, she makes learning Speech & Language FUN...she gets to play all sorts of GAMES and use pictures when she works 'her craft'. Mariah likes her ST time at school, its FUN!
I have many stories and classroom 'situations' at every grade level she has been in that I could write about. I want to continue to write and share a little about each grade and the different teachers she has had over the years. How each teacher has helped, or not helped in Mariah being fully included and accepted by her classmates over the years.
At our school we have been doing what is called, Departmentalizing. This means our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders would be having 2-3 different teachers and changing classes just like in Middle School. It also means that the teachers are supposed to be teaching to what they are certified in. If a teacher has a Certification in Reading, than that teacher would be the Reading teacher. At first I was uncertain about my girl changing classes, but it really wasn't that big of a deal, the classes were next door or across the hall and she would be moving from class to class with all her classmates and she also had her Para that assisted her for safety concerns.
Mariah was assigned a wonderful Science teacher, Mr. Allagood and Miss Ridhur was her new homeroom teacher. I had been told she was a good teacher. Miss Ridhur the homeroom teacher would be Mariah's Reading, Language Arts and Math teacher. They had a third teacher, Ms. Borrows, she would be teaching Social Studies and also was going to be like a double-dose Reading & Math teacher. My daughter has always had her own Unique Aide or some schools call them Paraprofessionals, to provide individual support and assist her since going into Kindergarten. This year she was assigned a new Unique Aide, her name is Miss Rollings.
Mariah's IEP has always had the support of being able to have daily home notes to provide me with a snap-shot of her school day. Since Mariah's language skills are delayed, she isn't always able to share with me what she did at school each day. Our school has always provided a Daily Planner for every student, starting in the First Grade. I requested and advocated to make sure we had one for my girl when she started back in Kindergarten. So for years teachers and her assigned Para have always provided me good daily communication via the Daily Planner that would come home every day. I was able to provide communication back to the school thru that school planner as well. A spiral notebook would work fine too.
The school year started off great! I was excited for Mariah to be in the 5th grade and anxious for all the 5th grade academics I knew she was going to have to work extra hard this year in order to do well in the 5th Grade. She had a good group of homeroom classmates in the same class with her. There was Osman who over the years has always had a special connection with watching out for and helping Mariah. Just mention Osman's name and Mariah's face lights up! So Mariah was very happy to be back in school and in the 5th grade with all her school friends.
I wanted to make sure I signed up early for a Parent-Teacher Conference so I could get to know her new teacher and be able to discuss with her my expectations for this new school year ahead. My daughters Unique Aide or Paraprofessional was the one that usually wrote in Mariah's Planner to let me know what her homework was or anything that needed to be communicated back home. I would write little notes back to the school using this planner.
What I noticed just after a few weeks of the new school year, was that Mariah's new 5th grade teacher, Miss Ridhur wouldn't really communicate to me when I would ask her something in the planner or even when I emailed her. Mariah seemed to be going along with the demands of being a new 5th grader and was happy to be back in school again with 'her friends'. On the other hand, I was starting to feel like her teacher was avoiding having any conversations with me and wasn't providing me with much feedback and was unwilling to write any daily notes to let me know how things were going in class. I mean after all, I am the parent of the little girl in her classroom that has a significant intellectual disability...she does have student in her class now with Down syndrome. I would think a GOOD TEACHER would want to have at least one substantial conversation with that particular student's parent(s).
It seemed that no matter what small note I wrote in the Daily Planner or what I emailed to her, she wasn't responding or giving me any real feedback. Then when I started seeing Mariah's Math classwork coming home and it was all but the most basic of basic Preschool worksheets, I knew this new teacher didn't have a clue how to TEACH my daughter and that she had her own ideas on what and how she was going to teach her this year!! So began....what I will call: The 5th Grade MATH CLASSWORK WAR! Mariah of course had her Math IEP Goals that were to be worked on regularly, with any one of her three teachers, but mostly her IEP goals were going to be worked on by the 'double-dose' Social Studies teacher, Ms. Borrows. But her homeroom teacher, Miss Ridhur was her Math teacher and she wasn't having Mariah do any 5th grade Math work. Not even the most simple of beginning 5th grade Math classwork! Mariah wasn't very good at Math but she also didn't have to do ALL the 5th Grade Math classwork, but I expected her to be exposed to and participate in some of the 5th Grade classwork and to be able to do a few of the problems with the assistance of her Aide! Listed on Mariah's IEP she gets reduced assignments and extra time.
I had a meeting the week before school started with her entire team of new teachers and some staff and let all of them know of what my expectations of Mariah's INCLUSIVE 5th Grade year to look like and to let it be known that I also wanted Mariah to be able to be provided "a piece of" or "a small portion of" what everybody else was being taught and was learning...and that meant her 5th Grade Math classwork problems!! She needed to do SOME OF her 5th Grade Math CLASSWORK ~ IN CLASS and let her homework be the Math FLUENCY SKILLS work she still needed much help and assistance on. Mariah was still learning basic addition and was struggling with subtraction, let alone had never been taught her multiplication table yet! So now this year she was supposed to know how to dive into doing DIVISION problems and with some pretty big numbers and then there were the WORD PROBLEMS to work on! Without being able to have any regular communication with her Homeroom teacher, Miss Ridhur, it was of course creating a stressful time for sure! She was clearly showing me that she was NOT going to have Mariah do ANY 5th Grade CLASSWORK at school...ever! That she wanted her to do it only for homework with her mommy helping her!
What I saw coming home in my daughters backpack everyday was NOT what I had in mind for a good 5th grade school year!! I needed to have our Parent-Teacher Conference...and FAST! I had signed up for a meeting date during the Open House because all teachers 'free time' and conference appointments get taken up very quickly, so that's why I signed up during Open House time, I wanted to make sure we met sooner than later. When she CANCELLED our first set appointment, I was cool about it...but when she then wouldn't return any of my phone messages or any of my emails and wouldn't write in the Daily Planner and work with me even a tiny bit...the problem was growing harder and harder for me to take! There was not an ounce of COLLABORATION happening between this teacher and me. I had never had a teacher that totally shut me out and wouldn't MEET WITH ME for a Parent-Teacher Conference and kept canceling our dates. This teacher was showing me she was a BAD TEACHER...for MY GIRL!!
My emails became my only way of DOCUMENTING her non-communication and her unwillingness to collaborate with me even a little bit. Not only was I dealing with her homeroom teacher not wanting to talk to me, but her new Paraprofessional/Unique Aide, Miss Rollings wasn't being very cooperative either! I knew she wasn't a very friendly person from seeing her around campus all the years, but she certainly wasn't providing me with MUCH to go by in the Daily Planner either. She would never even have a simple conversation with me if she and I saw each other on campus and she only did the very bare minimum in providing me what my daughter did at school in the Daily Planner. I don't know why people have to be so cold sometimes when it comes to just wanting to know what is going on with our kiddo's while under their care at school, especially when our children have severe language communication and speech delays. Did she NOT want to be my daughter's Para/Unique Aide, did she NOT like my daughter or think she shouldn't be INCLUDED in the Gen. Ed 5th Grade classrooms? I don't know why my daughter had to have a Para/Unique Aide that has a cold shoulder towards me, maybe she's like that with everyone or maybe she doesn't like her particular job anymore. All I know is I HAVE TO TRUST HER...and trust that she is taking good care of my girl and that she is really there to help support and assist Mariah to do well in school, by redirecting her because Mariah gets easily distracted very quickly.
My excitement for my daughter’s school year was becoming a major stressor to me and my whole family now! With her new Aide not being all that friendly to me or ever talking to me, it made me concerned for how she may treat my daughter at school. When people can't or don't or won't make EYE CONTACT with me...it absolutely raises a red flag for me! I am naturally a skeptical person and I don't immediately trust anyone, especially those that can't look at me! Am I now supposed to trust my daughter’s new homeroom teacher and her new Aide when they both can’t even talk and/or look at me? Something wasn't right and something certainly needed to change...and quick!
My daughter needs people to believe in her abilities, not to just see her Down syndrome or to only see her as someone with a disability. Mariah needs FUN, HaPpY people around her that want to help her and enjoy being with Mariah! Those that work with Mariah absolutely need to be able to communicate and collaboratively work with her mom too!
After 6 weeks of much stress over what was turning into a very bad 5th Grade school year with Miss Ridhur and Miss Rollings. As each day passed it was very clear that I wasn't going to have my Parent-Teacher Conference anytime soon either too, (I signed up during the Open House!) so I finally requested to have a CLASSROOM OBSERVATION! Yup, don't know why I didn't do it sooner! After sending many emails and sending them to everybody that was part of Mariah's Educational Team, Miss Ridhur was NEVER going change to have a Collaborative and good working Parent-Teacher relationship with me. I now needed to see how she did things in her classroom!
The day had been set for me to come and observe Miss Ridhur's classroom. She knew the day I was coming and I'm sure she was anxious to have me be there IN HER CLASSROOM! Of course she was nervous, she had been doing her best at avoiding communicating with me for the past 6-7 weeks now, so here I was actually sitting in the corner of her classroom!
Ok so I walk in, I find an empty chair and sat down away from the students over in the corner next to the adjoining door to Mr. Allagood's classroom. I see where my daughter is and I made sure I wasn't near her or any of the students. I came in at the Reading class time and the entire class is taking a Reading test. The classroom was very very quiet because they were all testing. No big deal...but I thought it was a little strange that on a day she agreed to have me come and observe her Math class she is now testing all the students in a Reading or Language Arts TEST! My daughter on the other hand, was NOT taking that same READING TEST, instead was working on her own 'fluency' MATH worksheets! During the 45 MINUTES of her testing the entire class, every so often Miss Ridhur would come over to where Mariah was sitting and whisper to Ms. Rollings what she then wanted Mariah to work on. Mariah was then instructed to start working on something else by Miss Rollings. Mariah started turning her whole body around in her chair so she could read and write all the Spelling Words off the board and then turn back around in her chair again. The spelling list of words on the wall was not all that close to where she was sitting, this is why she kept turning around in her seat. *Mariah has included in her IEP ~ Close Proximity and Preferential Seating. Those Special Ed SUPPORTS & SERVICES on her IEP are on there for a reason!!
Mariah clearly was NOT doing anything that had to do with her being FULLY INCLUDED in the 5th grade GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOM with this teacher!
Mariah had recently turned in the required monthly project; a Social Studies poster that took a small team of helpers to help her complete. It was beautiful when it was completed and turned in. I saw all the other students beautiful posters, some were on the bulletin board out in the hallway, the others were in various locations within the classroom. I looked everywhere for her poster, but couldn't find it anywhere in her classroom. Then I saw that Mariah's poster was COVERED UP and BEHIND another students poster! It was peeking out with only a few 3-4 inches of her beautiful work showing!!!! The amount of work and with all of us that helped Mariah every step of the way work on it and complete her poster and it took several 'homework' sessions to finish it. It was very disappointing to see that this teacher wouldn't even display it like all the other student's posters had been. Seems this teacher really didn’t care that Mariah's HARD WORK needed to be displayed or seen by anyone, especially Mariah! Mariah worked hard on her West Virginia poster and she was PROUD of it and wanted everyone to SEE IT! This teacher didn't give Mariah any respect that she deserved for turning her monthly project in ON TIME and with following all the rules of the monthly project. Why?? Seeing that Mariah's poster was 'hidden' behind another students poster...none of the others were 'hidden' behind any...just Mariah's was. Being IN this teachers classroom was my time as a parent to see my daughter's class and to see HER POSTER displayed like all of them had been....absolutely upsetting! I can only imagine how it made my daughter FEEL! Thanks!
Where I was sitting in the back corner of the classroom, I was able to also see lots of other things in her classroom that maybe Miss Ridhur didn't realize that I was there to OBSERVE HER & HER CLASSROOM! When I couldn't find her monthly project poster displayed within the classroom anywhere, I started looking around the room for all sorts of other things and what I found was a list of all the students’ progress with reading their AR books. Accelerated Reader books that each student read they would get a sticker for every book they read. Looking at this list, I am reading all the students names, I read the list two or three times looking for Mariah's name. Mariah's name was nowhere to be found and absolutely was NOT on the classroom AR LIST!!
I was so sad and upset and my heart was broken because all along I thought I was doing right by my daughter by having her be FULLY INCLUDED in all GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOMS and yet, here I am seeing with my own eyes right here in her 5th grade homeroom classroom that she is actually being EXCLUDED and SEGREGATED within her General Education classroom because why?...because she has Down syndrome! Mariah had a teacher that didn't care!
As soon as my ONE HOUR CLASSROOM OBSERVATION was up...that was the only time Miss Ridhur looked up and at me and made any eye contact with me! She even spoke to me, saying, "Mrs. Harris, your observation time is up!" I smiled at her and I said, "Thank you" as I left her classroom.
The Principal had been near-by and on-hand during the entire hour observation, going between Miss Ridhur's classroom and the Science teacher, Mr. Allagood's classroom next door. He escorted me out of the class and down the stairs. It was in that stairwell that I let my favorite principal, Mr. Cashew know that I was not happy with that teacher and that it was very obvious she didn't have a clue about INCLUSION and that I didn't want my daughter to spend another day in her classroom and that Mariah needed to be in the Science teacher, Mr. Allagood's class starting Monday!
I will never forget the Parent-Teacher Conference I was finally able to have with Miss Ridhur and Mariah's other two teachers the very next day and how disgusted I was at her total lack or desire to be a GOOD TEACHER for my daughter! I was fed up with trying to make things work out with this teacher when it was very clear she had no desire to have a COLLABORATIVE & working partnership with me. My daughter was being treated LESS THAN, my daughter wasn't being praised to success. Mariah didn't get to have her homework displayed in the classroom like the other posters. Mariah wasn't being provided an opportunity to read and be tested on ACCELERATED READER BOOKS from the school library. Mariah wasn't being provided any opportunity to do grade level Math classwork while in class! Mariah was being EXCLUDED and it broke my heart to finally have answers to all the reasons why her new 5th Grade teacher wouldn't COMMUNICATE in the daily planner or respond to any of my emails or return my phone calls. This teacher was NOT A GOOD TEACHER.....for MY GIRL!!!!!
Inclusion so far was not happening in 5th Grade for Mariah!!! Miss Ridhur didn't know, maybe didn't have any training on inclusion, maybe she didn't 'volunteer' to have Mariah in her class, she had low expectations of her and she certainly didn't BELEIVE IN HER! She didn't care! Mariah IS a bright girl that can learn lots of wonderful things, but a teacher HAS TO CARE and a teacher has to have HIGH EXPECTATIONS for all students, not just the smart ones, but especially the students that struggle with their academics. Mariah will always struggle with her academics; she is going to learn what she needs to learn to be successful in life. If she has a teacher that BELIEVES in her and sees her POTENTIAL, then yes she will do well, of course any student would!
Mariah and I both had a very disappointing start to her 5th Grade school year. At the beginning of the new school year we were both excited and looking forward to having a great academic year. Now with putting in for a TEACHER CHANGE to start immediately on Monday with Mr. Allagood things have to be better! They just have to be, Mariah DESERVES a GOOD TEACHER that BELIEVES in her and will provide her with the right peer role models to sit next to her and work and assist her with Grade Level Classwork. More than anything Mariah and her mom deserve a GOOD TEACHER that is willing to return at least one phone call and TALK, COMMUNICATE & COLLABORATE....and yes...MAKE EYE CONTACT even! A GOOD TEACHER WOULD DO ALL THAT...
Putting in a REQUEST FOR A TEACHER CHANGE was the best thing that happened for Mariah's 5th Grade school year!
"Don't worry Mr. Allagood; you're going to do just fine!!"
*He was a tad nervous I'm sure!
**This is a true story ~ some teacher names have been changed and some names are Mariah's real teacher names.
Since this is my newest blog-baby and the reason I wanted to start this blog about INCLUSION, is because this particular school year was over the top in alot of ways. Things that happened this year are what has motivated me to want to share all in one place all the things that worked or didn't work for both Mariah and I. Mariah has always been FULLY INCLUDED in GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOMS with the only time she leaves her classroom is when she goes to visit the School Speech Therapist, Mrs. Newman. She has been working with Mariah since she started in the PLACE classroom at 4 years old. Mariah and I both love Mrs. Newman, she makes learning Speech & Language FUN...she gets to play all sorts of GAMES and use pictures when she works 'her craft'. Mariah likes her ST time at school, its FUN!
I have many stories and classroom 'situations' at every grade level she has been in that I could write about. I want to continue to write and share a little about each grade and the different teachers she has had over the years. How each teacher has helped, or not helped in Mariah being fully included and accepted by her classmates over the years.
At our school we have been doing what is called, Departmentalizing. This means our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders would be having 2-3 different teachers and changing classes just like in Middle School. It also means that the teachers are supposed to be teaching to what they are certified in. If a teacher has a Certification in Reading, than that teacher would be the Reading teacher. At first I was uncertain about my girl changing classes, but it really wasn't that big of a deal, the classes were next door or across the hall and she would be moving from class to class with all her classmates and she also had her Para that assisted her for safety concerns.
Mariah was assigned a wonderful Science teacher, Mr. Allagood and Miss Ridhur was her new homeroom teacher. I had been told she was a good teacher. Miss Ridhur the homeroom teacher would be Mariah's Reading, Language Arts and Math teacher. They had a third teacher, Ms. Borrows, she would be teaching Social Studies and also was going to be like a double-dose Reading & Math teacher. My daughter has always had her own Unique Aide or some schools call them Paraprofessionals, to provide individual support and assist her since going into Kindergarten. This year she was assigned a new Unique Aide, her name is Miss Rollings.
Mariah's IEP has always had the support of being able to have daily home notes to provide me with a snap-shot of her school day. Since Mariah's language skills are delayed, she isn't always able to share with me what she did at school each day. Our school has always provided a Daily Planner for every student, starting in the First Grade. I requested and advocated to make sure we had one for my girl when she started back in Kindergarten. So for years teachers and her assigned Para have always provided me good daily communication via the Daily Planner that would come home every day. I was able to provide communication back to the school thru that school planner as well. A spiral notebook would work fine too.
The school year started off great! I was excited for Mariah to be in the 5th grade and anxious for all the 5th grade academics I knew she was going to have to work extra hard this year in order to do well in the 5th Grade. She had a good group of homeroom classmates in the same class with her. There was Osman who over the years has always had a special connection with watching out for and helping Mariah. Just mention Osman's name and Mariah's face lights up! So Mariah was very happy to be back in school and in the 5th grade with all her school friends.
I wanted to make sure I signed up early for a Parent-Teacher Conference so I could get to know her new teacher and be able to discuss with her my expectations for this new school year ahead. My daughters Unique Aide or Paraprofessional was the one that usually wrote in Mariah's Planner to let me know what her homework was or anything that needed to be communicated back home. I would write little notes back to the school using this planner.
What I noticed just after a few weeks of the new school year, was that Mariah's new 5th grade teacher, Miss Ridhur wouldn't really communicate to me when I would ask her something in the planner or even when I emailed her. Mariah seemed to be going along with the demands of being a new 5th grader and was happy to be back in school again with 'her friends'. On the other hand, I was starting to feel like her teacher was avoiding having any conversations with me and wasn't providing me with much feedback and was unwilling to write any daily notes to let me know how things were going in class. I mean after all, I am the parent of the little girl in her classroom that has a significant intellectual disability...she does have student in her class now with Down syndrome. I would think a GOOD TEACHER would want to have at least one substantial conversation with that particular student's parent(s).
It seemed that no matter what small note I wrote in the Daily Planner or what I emailed to her, she wasn't responding or giving me any real feedback. Then when I started seeing Mariah's Math classwork coming home and it was all but the most basic of basic Preschool worksheets, I knew this new teacher didn't have a clue how to TEACH my daughter and that she had her own ideas on what and how she was going to teach her this year!! So began....what I will call: The 5th Grade MATH CLASSWORK WAR! Mariah of course had her Math IEP Goals that were to be worked on regularly, with any one of her three teachers, but mostly her IEP goals were going to be worked on by the 'double-dose' Social Studies teacher, Ms. Borrows. But her homeroom teacher, Miss Ridhur was her Math teacher and she wasn't having Mariah do any 5th grade Math work. Not even the most simple of beginning 5th grade Math classwork! Mariah wasn't very good at Math but she also didn't have to do ALL the 5th Grade Math classwork, but I expected her to be exposed to and participate in some of the 5th Grade classwork and to be able to do a few of the problems with the assistance of her Aide! Listed on Mariah's IEP she gets reduced assignments and extra time.
I had a meeting the week before school started with her entire team of new teachers and some staff and let all of them know of what my expectations of Mariah's INCLUSIVE 5th Grade year to look like and to let it be known that I also wanted Mariah to be able to be provided "a piece of" or "a small portion of" what everybody else was being taught and was learning...and that meant her 5th Grade Math classwork problems!! She needed to do SOME OF her 5th Grade Math CLASSWORK ~ IN CLASS and let her homework be the Math FLUENCY SKILLS work she still needed much help and assistance on. Mariah was still learning basic addition and was struggling with subtraction, let alone had never been taught her multiplication table yet! So now this year she was supposed to know how to dive into doing DIVISION problems and with some pretty big numbers and then there were the WORD PROBLEMS to work on! Without being able to have any regular communication with her Homeroom teacher, Miss Ridhur, it was of course creating a stressful time for sure! She was clearly showing me that she was NOT going to have Mariah do ANY 5th Grade CLASSWORK at school...ever! That she wanted her to do it only for homework with her mommy helping her!
What I saw coming home in my daughters backpack everyday was NOT what I had in mind for a good 5th grade school year!! I needed to have our Parent-Teacher Conference...and FAST! I had signed up for a meeting date during the Open House because all teachers 'free time' and conference appointments get taken up very quickly, so that's why I signed up during Open House time, I wanted to make sure we met sooner than later. When she CANCELLED our first set appointment, I was cool about it...but when she then wouldn't return any of my phone messages or any of my emails and wouldn't write in the Daily Planner and work with me even a tiny bit...the problem was growing harder and harder for me to take! There was not an ounce of COLLABORATION happening between this teacher and me. I had never had a teacher that totally shut me out and wouldn't MEET WITH ME for a Parent-Teacher Conference and kept canceling our dates. This teacher was showing me she was a BAD TEACHER...for MY GIRL!!
My emails became my only way of DOCUMENTING her non-communication and her unwillingness to collaborate with me even a little bit. Not only was I dealing with her homeroom teacher not wanting to talk to me, but her new Paraprofessional/Unique Aide, Miss Rollings wasn't being very cooperative either! I knew she wasn't a very friendly person from seeing her around campus all the years, but she certainly wasn't providing me with MUCH to go by in the Daily Planner either. She would never even have a simple conversation with me if she and I saw each other on campus and she only did the very bare minimum in providing me what my daughter did at school in the Daily Planner. I don't know why people have to be so cold sometimes when it comes to just wanting to know what is going on with our kiddo's while under their care at school, especially when our children have severe language communication and speech delays. Did she NOT want to be my daughter's Para/Unique Aide, did she NOT like my daughter or think she shouldn't be INCLUDED in the Gen. Ed 5th Grade classrooms? I don't know why my daughter had to have a Para/Unique Aide that has a cold shoulder towards me, maybe she's like that with everyone or maybe she doesn't like her particular job anymore. All I know is I HAVE TO TRUST HER...and trust that she is taking good care of my girl and that she is really there to help support and assist Mariah to do well in school, by redirecting her because Mariah gets easily distracted very quickly.
My excitement for my daughter’s school year was becoming a major stressor to me and my whole family now! With her new Aide not being all that friendly to me or ever talking to me, it made me concerned for how she may treat my daughter at school. When people can't or don't or won't make EYE CONTACT with me...it absolutely raises a red flag for me! I am naturally a skeptical person and I don't immediately trust anyone, especially those that can't look at me! Am I now supposed to trust my daughter’s new homeroom teacher and her new Aide when they both can’t even talk and/or look at me? Something wasn't right and something certainly needed to change...and quick!
My daughter needs people to believe in her abilities, not to just see her Down syndrome or to only see her as someone with a disability. Mariah needs FUN, HaPpY people around her that want to help her and enjoy being with Mariah! Those that work with Mariah absolutely need to be able to communicate and collaboratively work with her mom too!
After 6 weeks of much stress over what was turning into a very bad 5th Grade school year with Miss Ridhur and Miss Rollings. As each day passed it was very clear that I wasn't going to have my Parent-Teacher Conference anytime soon either too, (I signed up during the Open House!) so I finally requested to have a CLASSROOM OBSERVATION! Yup, don't know why I didn't do it sooner! After sending many emails and sending them to everybody that was part of Mariah's Educational Team, Miss Ridhur was NEVER going change to have a Collaborative and good working Parent-Teacher relationship with me. I now needed to see how she did things in her classroom!
The day had been set for me to come and observe Miss Ridhur's classroom. She knew the day I was coming and I'm sure she was anxious to have me be there IN HER CLASSROOM! Of course she was nervous, she had been doing her best at avoiding communicating with me for the past 6-7 weeks now, so here I was actually sitting in the corner of her classroom!
Ok so I walk in, I find an empty chair and sat down away from the students over in the corner next to the adjoining door to Mr. Allagood's classroom. I see where my daughter is and I made sure I wasn't near her or any of the students. I came in at the Reading class time and the entire class is taking a Reading test. The classroom was very very quiet because they were all testing. No big deal...but I thought it was a little strange that on a day she agreed to have me come and observe her Math class she is now testing all the students in a Reading or Language Arts TEST! My daughter on the other hand, was NOT taking that same READING TEST, instead was working on her own 'fluency' MATH worksheets! During the 45 MINUTES of her testing the entire class, every so often Miss Ridhur would come over to where Mariah was sitting and whisper to Ms. Rollings what she then wanted Mariah to work on. Mariah was then instructed to start working on something else by Miss Rollings. Mariah started turning her whole body around in her chair so she could read and write all the Spelling Words off the board and then turn back around in her chair again. The spelling list of words on the wall was not all that close to where she was sitting, this is why she kept turning around in her seat. *Mariah has included in her IEP ~ Close Proximity and Preferential Seating. Those Special Ed SUPPORTS & SERVICES on her IEP are on there for a reason!!
Mariah clearly was NOT doing anything that had to do with her being FULLY INCLUDED in the 5th grade GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOM with this teacher!
Mariah had recently turned in the required monthly project; a Social Studies poster that took a small team of helpers to help her complete. It was beautiful when it was completed and turned in. I saw all the other students beautiful posters, some were on the bulletin board out in the hallway, the others were in various locations within the classroom. I looked everywhere for her poster, but couldn't find it anywhere in her classroom. Then I saw that Mariah's poster was COVERED UP and BEHIND another students poster! It was peeking out with only a few 3-4 inches of her beautiful work showing!!!! The amount of work and with all of us that helped Mariah every step of the way work on it and complete her poster and it took several 'homework' sessions to finish it. It was very disappointing to see that this teacher wouldn't even display it like all the other student's posters had been. Seems this teacher really didn’t care that Mariah's HARD WORK needed to be displayed or seen by anyone, especially Mariah! Mariah worked hard on her West Virginia poster and she was PROUD of it and wanted everyone to SEE IT! This teacher didn't give Mariah any respect that she deserved for turning her monthly project in ON TIME and with following all the rules of the monthly project. Why?? Seeing that Mariah's poster was 'hidden' behind another students poster...none of the others were 'hidden' behind any...just Mariah's was. Being IN this teachers classroom was my time as a parent to see my daughter's class and to see HER POSTER displayed like all of them had been....absolutely upsetting! I can only imagine how it made my daughter FEEL! Thanks!
Where I was sitting in the back corner of the classroom, I was able to also see lots of other things in her classroom that maybe Miss Ridhur didn't realize that I was there to OBSERVE HER & HER CLASSROOM! When I couldn't find her monthly project poster displayed within the classroom anywhere, I started looking around the room for all sorts of other things and what I found was a list of all the students’ progress with reading their AR books. Accelerated Reader books that each student read they would get a sticker for every book they read. Looking at this list, I am reading all the students names, I read the list two or three times looking for Mariah's name. Mariah's name was nowhere to be found and absolutely was NOT on the classroom AR LIST!!
I was so sad and upset and my heart was broken because all along I thought I was doing right by my daughter by having her be FULLY INCLUDED in all GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSROOMS and yet, here I am seeing with my own eyes right here in her 5th grade homeroom classroom that she is actually being EXCLUDED and SEGREGATED within her General Education classroom because why?...because she has Down syndrome! Mariah had a teacher that didn't care!
As soon as my ONE HOUR CLASSROOM OBSERVATION was up...that was the only time Miss Ridhur looked up and at me and made any eye contact with me! She even spoke to me, saying, "Mrs. Harris, your observation time is up!" I smiled at her and I said, "Thank you" as I left her classroom.
The Principal had been near-by and on-hand during the entire hour observation, going between Miss Ridhur's classroom and the Science teacher, Mr. Allagood's classroom next door. He escorted me out of the class and down the stairs. It was in that stairwell that I let my favorite principal, Mr. Cashew know that I was not happy with that teacher and that it was very obvious she didn't have a clue about INCLUSION and that I didn't want my daughter to spend another day in her classroom and that Mariah needed to be in the Science teacher, Mr. Allagood's class starting Monday!
I will never forget the Parent-Teacher Conference I was finally able to have with Miss Ridhur and Mariah's other two teachers the very next day and how disgusted I was at her total lack or desire to be a GOOD TEACHER for my daughter! I was fed up with trying to make things work out with this teacher when it was very clear she had no desire to have a COLLABORATIVE & working partnership with me. My daughter was being treated LESS THAN, my daughter wasn't being praised to success. Mariah didn't get to have her homework displayed in the classroom like the other posters. Mariah wasn't being provided an opportunity to read and be tested on ACCELERATED READER BOOKS from the school library. Mariah wasn't being provided any opportunity to do grade level Math classwork while in class! Mariah was being EXCLUDED and it broke my heart to finally have answers to all the reasons why her new 5th Grade teacher wouldn't COMMUNICATE in the daily planner or respond to any of my emails or return my phone calls. This teacher was NOT A GOOD TEACHER.....for MY GIRL!!!!!
Inclusion so far was not happening in 5th Grade for Mariah!!! Miss Ridhur didn't know, maybe didn't have any training on inclusion, maybe she didn't 'volunteer' to have Mariah in her class, she had low expectations of her and she certainly didn't BELEIVE IN HER! She didn't care! Mariah IS a bright girl that can learn lots of wonderful things, but a teacher HAS TO CARE and a teacher has to have HIGH EXPECTATIONS for all students, not just the smart ones, but especially the students that struggle with their academics. Mariah will always struggle with her academics; she is going to learn what she needs to learn to be successful in life. If she has a teacher that BELIEVES in her and sees her POTENTIAL, then yes she will do well, of course any student would!
Mariah and I both had a very disappointing start to her 5th Grade school year. At the beginning of the new school year we were both excited and looking forward to having a great academic year. Now with putting in for a TEACHER CHANGE to start immediately on Monday with Mr. Allagood things have to be better! They just have to be, Mariah DESERVES a GOOD TEACHER that BELIEVES in her and will provide her with the right peer role models to sit next to her and work and assist her with Grade Level Classwork. More than anything Mariah and her mom deserve a GOOD TEACHER that is willing to return at least one phone call and TALK, COMMUNICATE & COLLABORATE....and yes...MAKE EYE CONTACT even! A GOOD TEACHER WOULD DO ALL THAT...
Putting in a REQUEST FOR A TEACHER CHANGE was the best thing that happened for Mariah's 5th Grade school year!
"Don't worry Mr. Allagood; you're going to do just fine!!"
*He was a tad nervous I'm sure!
**This is a true story ~ some teacher names have been changed and some names are Mariah's real teacher names.
I am a Special Education Advocate and Parent Trainer. A very proud parent to Mark and Mariah. Aunt Nana to many wonderful "Kiddo's" I hold close under my wing! Helping Parents Partner with Teachers. Helping with quality collaboration & communication so our Children with Unique Learning challenges are provided a Solid Education for their Future Success to Live Life Independently.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)