Sunday, August 29, 2004
thank god i'm on medication
these first 2 weeks back at work have been extremely trying for most in my department due to the assinine BD aka BitchDog
actually one day last week i woke up in a cranky mood and couldnt figure out what the deal was until that evening I noticed that my Lexapro for the day before was still in its slot
mystery solved; i was going thru the early stages of withdrawal
anyway
BD had asked me to go with her to a meeting about Inclusion the last day of summer vacation, which i did; after which i asked if we would be starting this at our school and was told "we dont have enough information to start now; let's plan on studying it more with the idea of implementing the program NEXT year"
fine
until a week after school starts she tells me we're gonna jump in feet first and do it after all; no training, no going look at schools that are doing it, no nothing
omfg
in case you are wondering wtf i'm talking about, Inclusion means that we will not pull the special needs students out of the regular setting at all; instead we will go into the regular class and work not just with the special needs students but with whoever needs us
studies do show that this works, but---hello!!!!!!!!, some training is NECESSARY
what we(regular and special teachers) are going to do is be coteachers in the classroom
problems with this include 1)changing students classes as we cant be in every classroom so one class per grade level will have to be the inclusion class 2) not enough special teachers for even that 3) childrens' IEPs have to be changed to reflect this and (fuckshitdamn) the state is monitoring us this year (September) and i foresee many citations due to this, paperworkwise
3) we are doing Quality, another program, which in a Quality school, all stakeholders are supposed to be part of the decision making process AND satisfied with the outcome, which is not the case with this 4)supervisors and others warn that we are starting to fast, to try it with just one grade and build each year
but BD is like a dog with a bone; once she grabs hold of something she will not let go
also. she has decided that i will only do inclusion in the mornings; in the afternoons i will do READ 180, which was piloted at our school last year and seems to bring up test scores of low performing students; but again i get no training---setting me up for failure
i cant find a link for Quality, but here's one for READ 180 http://teacher.scholastic.com/read180/
i have been repeatedly asked how i can be so calm amidst all the craziness and i keep saying "i'm on medication" lol; people say i am a walking advertisement for lexapro
i will start inclusion next week, but have only met with 2 of my 16 students on my roster (btw, this is the fewest students i have ever started out the year with)(i will only actually be doing inclusion with 4th grade, the rest of my students will be serviced by oy other special teachers--we each have a grade(or 2) that we will work with, but the kids stay on our rosters--another problem--how to track their progress) i dont have enough info to start READ 180 yet; the teacher that got 2 months training on it last year will give me an hour's training---good thing i'm abnormally wonderful at my job and a quick study and awfully intelligent(and have great self-esteem, but i'm on medication)
and a quick YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAA cuz keith made an appearance at jazzy's and it just made my MONTH
these first 2 weeks back at work have been extremely trying for most in my department due to the assinine BD aka BitchDog
actually one day last week i woke up in a cranky mood and couldnt figure out what the deal was until that evening I noticed that my Lexapro for the day before was still in its slot
mystery solved; i was going thru the early stages of withdrawal
anyway
BD had asked me to go with her to a meeting about Inclusion the last day of summer vacation, which i did; after which i asked if we would be starting this at our school and was told "we dont have enough information to start now; let's plan on studying it more with the idea of implementing the program NEXT year"
fine
until a week after school starts she tells me we're gonna jump in feet first and do it after all; no training, no going look at schools that are doing it, no nothing
omfg
in case you are wondering wtf i'm talking about, Inclusion means that we will not pull the special needs students out of the regular setting at all; instead we will go into the regular class and work not just with the special needs students but with whoever needs us
studies do show that this works, but---hello!!!!!!!!, some training is NECESSARY
what we(regular and special teachers) are going to do is be coteachers in the classroom
problems with this include 1)changing students classes as we cant be in every classroom so one class per grade level will have to be the inclusion class 2) not enough special teachers for even that 3) childrens' IEPs have to be changed to reflect this and (fuckshitdamn) the state is monitoring us this year (September) and i foresee many citations due to this, paperworkwise
3) we are doing Quality, another program, which in a Quality school, all stakeholders are supposed to be part of the decision making process AND satisfied with the outcome, which is not the case with this 4)supervisors and others warn that we are starting to fast, to try it with just one grade and build each year
but BD is like a dog with a bone; once she grabs hold of something she will not let go
also. she has decided that i will only do inclusion in the mornings; in the afternoons i will do READ 180, which was piloted at our school last year and seems to bring up test scores of low performing students; but again i get no training---setting me up for failure
i cant find a link for Quality, but here's one for READ 180 http://teacher.scholastic.com/read180/
i have been repeatedly asked how i can be so calm amidst all the craziness and i keep saying "i'm on medication" lol; people say i am a walking advertisement for lexapro
i will start inclusion next week, but have only met with 2 of my 16 students on my roster (btw, this is the fewest students i have ever started out the year with)(i will only actually be doing inclusion with 4th grade, the rest of my students will be serviced by oy other special teachers--we each have a grade(or 2) that we will work with, but the kids stay on our rosters--another problem--how to track their progress) i dont have enough info to start READ 180 yet; the teacher that got 2 months training on it last year will give me an hour's training---good thing i'm abnormally wonderful at my job and a quick study and awfully intelligent(and have great self-esteem, but i'm on medication)
and a quick YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAA cuz keith made an appearance at jazzy's and it just made my MONTH
