Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

Kaylie: An Attitude of Gratitude, It’s All in Your Perspective

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, hands down. Spending time with families and friends. Eating entirely too much food. Most importantly, stopping to think about the things in life we’re most grateful for.

This past Sunday, my pastor began his sermon by explaining that he was very aware Thanksgiving had already come and gone, but he’d never had the opportunity to preach a Thanksgiving message and was not going to miss the chance, even if it did come a few days late. Toward the end of the sermon, he read a list of things that he was thankful for: the early morning sound of the alarm clock, sore muscles at night, mortgage payments and income taxes. Obviously, this is a pretty strange list, but he went on to give reasons why he was thankful for these things. The early morning sound of the alarm clock is a reminder that he has life another day. Sore muscles at night mean he was able to be productive. The mortgage payment is a reminder that he’s blessed with a warm home. Income taxes are paid because he has a job and the ability to work.

Help Wanted, An Effective Behavior Management System for High School Students

If you are a fan of music from the late ‘70s, “I’m sending out an SOS. I’m sending out an SOS. I’m sending out…” You get the idea.

Here is the problem. Behavior management. Behavior management is a common struggle for new teachers and a common topic to come up in a teacher job interview.

My main problem is the largest of the three classes I teach. The 19 students are all very high functioning. AND LOUD. I don’t have disruptive outbursts or any of the extreme behaviors you hear horror stories about in college and that fellow Reality 101 blogger Kaylie experienced recently. I just have students that like to talk and talk loudly.

John: Self-Advocacy Topics and Tips, Part Two

I have a short list of things I have learned as I taught the skills listed in my first self-advocacy piece. I know all students and classes are different, but if you have students similar to mine, these tips may be helpful when broaching the topic of having a disability.

1. Be direct/honest
I get right to the point and talk very matter-of-factly when talking about disabilities and weaknesses. No need to make a big deal out of this discussion or to “beat around the bush.” Just get to the point explain it like you explain anything else. If you don’t overreact to this conversation, your students will be less likely to overreact when told they have a disability.

Jerry: Managing Adults During Meltdowns

In a classroom full of boys there are bound to be times when things are somewhat hectic, chaotic and downright ugly. In my classroom, we label such times as Meltdown Level Events or MLEs. We take these events very seriously and even though these events sometimes happen rather unexpectedly, we are always on high alert and well prepared.

When I was first hired for my position last February, I took some time to do some observations. I really had no idea what the staff was talking about when they informed me that my student frequently engaged in rage-filled shouting episodes that would make Sam Kinison seem rather weak by comparison. Then I experienced a MLE. It is truly a sight to behold. I have heard this child scream himself hoarse. It is brutal for the child to experience; it is painful to witness and even worse when one of his meltdowns is aimed at you.

Danielle: The Nature of Professional Development

How much of a teacher’s professional life should be spent in professional development? How about a coordinator? An administrator? What constitutes professional development? Taking a class, going to a conference, watching a webinar or attending a committee are certainly all activities that everyone in the education field will agree are professional development related, so long as the class, conference, webinar and/or committee are education related. 

What about less organized activities? Collaborative planning, data analysis of student work, book groups about education-related material and peer observations have all come to be recognized as professional development too. Over many decades, the nature of professional development has evolved to include much more than organized conferences and seminars, and rightly so.

John: Self-Advocacy Topics and Tips, Part One

We used “the D word” a lot in one of my classes recently. No, not that one. For those teaching high school students with disabilities, the D word is “disability.” It’s one of those words that your students don’t like to hear. Recently, my district implemented a self-advocacy and disability awareness initiative. Part of the program was a survey given to students and parents to assess how much information stakeholders knew about a student’s disability. Surprisingly, the survey revealed that both students and parents knew very little about a student’s disability. Some parents even angrily denied having a student with a disability.

Jerry: (Para) Professional, Part Three

I know a paraprofessional who was responsible for getting children off the bus in the morning. Among the children who were helped off the bus was a student with multiple disabilities who was amazingly adept at taking off her shoes and did so frequently. One morning, the student arrived on the bus and had, predictably, in the course of her ride, taken off her shoes. The paraprofessional collected the child and promptly allowed her to walk into the school building without shoes, in nothing but socks. In November. This was, in my view, an individual who was not trained properly to work with students with disabilities.

In this final part of my three part series, I will note three ideas that I have come across in literature and in my personal experience that I believe might pave the way forward if we are serious about providing paraprofessionals with the respect their work deserves.

Kaylie: What To Do When Things Go Wrong

It was before 8 a.m. on Tuesday. My students were signing the daily sign-in sheet, completing the morning work assignment on the board, eating breakfast, looking at library books, and, of course, some were just milling around the room visiting. One of the last buses arrived, and three of my students entered the room. I was at my desk glancing at an IEP needing revision soon when I hear words that sound worse than nails on a chalkboard to me: “I haven’t had my medicine today! I’ll probably be a little rowdy!”

Let me start by saying that I am in no way against behavioral medication and truly believe that it helps a number of kids be successful. I don’t think it should be the first behavioral intervention, however, and find it very upsetting when some of my students believe they are not responsible for their own behavior after missing medication. Needless to say, this is not the first time I’ve had a student give me the old “I can’t help it; I haven’t had my medicine!” spiel. It is true that not taking medications can affect behavior, but I am a firm believer that students must still learn to make good choices.   

John: Teacher Evaluation Systems—The South Carolina Model

On Oct. 24th, I attended a meeting hosted by the South Carolina State Superintendent of Education. I was joined by more than 600 fellow special education and general education teachers. The topic of the meeting was teacher evaluation systems – one of the most hotly debated issues for teachers today. I have held off writing about this topic for a few reasons. First, I don’t like talking about issues that are political. Second, I wasn’t sure that it was an appropriate topic for Reality 101. Finally, I was too angry to have a rational discussion about it.

I decided now is a good time to write about this change for a couple reasons. First, I don’t think teacher evaluation is as much about politics as it is about education. Second, the more I think about the South Carolina plan, the more I can see real-life, everyday implications for the reality of a teacher as a result of the changes that are being proposed. Third, I have had time to review the proposed South Carolina plan in its entirety, listen to the explanation from the State Department of Education, and think reasonably and rationally about the topic.