Replies to 'School Issues'
|
October 16, 2005, 12:37 pm PDT
 Quote From: west28 This is so true! I am an adult that works in a major school district in Houston, Texas. I left a job at the elementary level that I loved, to transfer to my daughter's middle school, because there are some teachers' that just don't care. I am a paraeducator(para) and I sometimes joke that I'm just there for the paycheck, but really I'm not. That's what separates me from some of them. I CARE! I can't help it. I have been reading the message boards on "school issues" and I can see that schools around the country need to get a clue. With the doctors diagnosing autism and other disorders better than they have in the past, gone are the days' when we thought "little Johnny" was just a slow learner. I have been told by a fellow para that one of my daughter's teachers said this,"If they need any help at all, they shouldn't be in my class at all". This teacher teaches an upper level class in 6th grade and said something to me as a parent , that maybe in the on level classes that my kid would be able to keep up better. WRONG. There is a para in there now( as per her modifications states in the first place) and she has made everything so much better . All she needed was a little help and she wasn't the only one!
I also think the schools should get back to teaching the basics. In Texas all they do is teach the kids how to take "THE TEST". If you live in Texas you know what I'm talking about ! Well, with all these kids' with Asperger's syndrome(a form of high functioning autism), ADD/ADHD, OCD, CAPD(central auditory processing didorder), dyslexia, TBI( traumatic brain injury), bipolar disorder, etc., and the anxiety that all these kids go through on a regular school day( and trust me, they suffer more than the average kid) these schools and some of those teachers' better start DEALING WITH IT! whew! - that was a mouthful.
So when your kid says that a teacher is out to get them, you had better check it out. And let the teacher and the school FEEL your presence. There are a lot of people that really shouldn't be teaching out there, and there are probably some of them at your kids' school! Hi there! I'm 17 and was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in May 2005, and I really know what you are talking about! People, teachers among with students, look at me and think: "She's perfectly normal!", but I'm not. They wonder why I get all that attention, why I have a reduced scheduale and why I do all tests verbally. They wonder why I'm allowed to sketch while the teacher is talking, why I can listen to music and why I can "get out of" groupassignments. Sometimes I want to yell at them, that I'm not normal. I feel like I should have a "real bad Aspie day", as I call the days when I just don't get any non-verbal comunication at all, just to show them, but I'm feeling to fine for it. Teachers often encourage me and say "if you just put a little more effort in to [subject], you'd get straight A's!" But guess what? It's so painful to sit in the classroom and try make out ONE voice from all the other 30 voices that I can't. And I can't really do homework, because for me life in school and life at home are different worlds (I discovered this after reading the book "Haze"). If I got homework that has to be turned in to get a grade, I do them at school, on breaks or lunches. My IQ is above average, but I still have problems to fight with everyday, things "regulat people" don't seem to notice. When did you hear the air conditioner or ventilation the last time? Who coughed? Did you hear Anna, three rows to the left and four seats down, drop that pen? Have you noticed how hard it is to watch a person in bright lightning when she's standing against the whiteboard? Do you smell that parfume across the room? I dunno... I might have missed the point a bit, but still... |
|
|
October 16, 2005, 1:02 pm PDT
Quote From: west28 This is so true! I am an adult that works in a major school district in Houston, Texas. I left a job at the elementary level that I loved, to transfer to my daughter's middle school, because there are some teachers' that just don't care. I am a paraeducator(para) and I sometimes joke that I'm just there for the paycheck, but really I'm not. That's what separates me from some of them. I CARE! I can't help it. I have been reading the message boards on "school issues" and I can see that schools around the country need to get a clue. With the doctors diagnosing autism and other disorders better than they have in the past, gone are the days' when we thought "little Johnny" was just a slow learner. I have been told by a fellow para that one of my daughter's teachers said this,"If they need any help at all, they shouldn't be in my class at all". This teacher teaches an upper level class in 6th grade and said something to me as a parent , that maybe in the on level classes that my kid would be able to keep up better. WRONG. There is a para in there now( as per her modifications states in the first place) and she has made everything so much better . All she needed was a little help and she wasn't the only one!
I also think the schools should get back to teaching the basics. In Texas all they do is teach the kids how to take "THE TEST". If you live in Texas you know what I'm talking about ! Well, with all these kids' with Asperger's syndrome(a form of high functioning autism), ADD/ADHD, OCD, CAPD(central auditory processing didorder), dyslexia, TBI( traumatic brain injury), bipolar disorder, etc., and the anxiety that all these kids go through on a regular school day( and trust me, they suffer more than the average kid) these schools and some of those teachers' better start DEALING WITH IT! whew! - that was a mouthful.
So when your kid says that a teacher is out to get them, you had better check it out. And let the teacher and the school FEEL your presence. There are a lot of people that really shouldn't be teaching out there, and there are probably some of them at your kids' school! I know exactly what you're talking about. My sister is from Texas and she has been telling me for years about teachers teaching to the test. Now, with a President and the Secretary of Education from Texas, the whole country gets to deal with this mind-set more than ever. I live far from Texas, but I see the trend in education going backwards rather than moving forwards.
I also have a son who has Asperger's and I can tell you that the schools have done a lousy job of addressing his weaknesses. According to one autism expert, what distinguishes all people with autism-spectrum disorders is that while they may have strong "absolute intelligence" (i.e., memorization of rote facts like they teach in school), they have weak "dynamic intelligence" (i.e., the ability to adapt to changing situations, etc. that is essential for human interaction). If it were just up to the school staff, my son would have never been identified as having special needs. In their eyes, he is a model student.
I also wanted to say that there are teachers out there who care--I'm one of them--or at least I used to be. The problem is that the System often prevents caring teachers from doing the job the way they feel it should be done. Teachers are forced to teach curriculum, rather than focusing on meeting the needs of their students; their success or failure is determined solely based on test scores.
I'll give you a very personal example. I was a Title 1 reading teacher. My personal goal was to figure out why each of my students was struggling with reading and address it in the best way possible. If I felt they needed help that I personally wasn't qualified to give, I would refer them to someone who could help them. That's what I would want my own kids' teachers to do. Well, it turned out that one of my students had a vision disorder that wasn't identified on the (useless) school vision screenings that are routinely done. But because I had done a lot of reading on vision disorders that relate to reading problems, I recognized the symptoms and attempted to share this information with the child's parents, his classroom teacher (who was erroneously calling him "dyslexic") and the principal. I was basically told that I should stick to teaching phonics and assessing reading comprehension and that I was wrong to refer this child's parents to outside help. Believing that following this directive and teaching this kid phonics (who already had a good grasp of phonics and knew that reading also has to make sense) would do him more harm than good, I resigned. Now, I'm not teaching at all. |
|
|
October 31, 2005, 10:06 pm PST
Quote From: west28 This is so true! I am an adult that works in a major school district in Houston, Texas. I left a job at the elementary level that I loved, to transfer to my daughter's middle school, because there are some teachers' that just don't care. I am a paraeducator(para) and I sometimes joke that I'm just there for the paycheck, but really I'm not. That's what separates me from some of them. I CARE! I can't help it. I have been reading the message boards on "school issues" and I can see that schools around the country need to get a clue. With the doctors diagnosing autism and other disorders better than they have in the past, gone are the days' when we thought "little Johnny" was just a slow learner. I have been told by a fellow para that one of my daughter's teachers said this,"If they need any help at all, they shouldn't be in my class at all". This teacher teaches an upper level class in 6th grade and said something to me as a parent , that maybe in the on level classes that my kid would be able to keep up better. WRONG. There is a para in there now( as per her modifications states in the first place) and she has made everything so much better . All she needed was a little help and she wasn't the only one!
I also think the schools should get back to teaching the basics. In Texas all they do is teach the kids how to take "THE TEST". If you live in Texas you know what I'm talking about ! Well, with all these kids' with Asperger's syndrome(a form of high functioning autism), ADD/ADHD, OCD, CAPD(central auditory processing didorder), dyslexia, TBI( traumatic brain injury), bipolar disorder, etc., and the anxiety that all these kids go through on a regular school day( and trust me, they suffer more than the average kid) these schools and some of those teachers' better start DEALING WITH IT! whew! - that was a mouthful.
So when your kid says that a teacher is out to get them, you had better check it out. And let the teacher and the school FEEL your presence. There are a lot of people that really shouldn't be teaching out there, and there are probably some of them at your kids' school! ahhh, sounds like you are one of the good teachers we need to be seeing more of! i commend you. in a lot of the schools the teachers know "little johnny" isnt a slow learner, but they stick the kids in a special ed class or a "learning lab" as they called it at my school. why you may ask? because the schools also get money for how ever many kids they have in the special ed classes. and i know for a fact that the money doesnt go towards the special ed classes. a lot of kids from my old school i remember that maybe they just had trouble reading, maybe a little trouble with math. "UH OH! they need special ed" no, they need maybe an hour of tutoring after school. some of the kids had legitimate learning disabilities, but the ones who were tested by the school were just thrown in there anyway because they dont have anyone to refer the students/parents to to get help for the student. thus, the students who could flourish end up floundering all through their educational experience, all because they had ONE problem that could have been adressed. this brings me to my next point, we have under qualified people working in the schools as well. special ed teachers need YEARS of training in my opinion, not just a substitute that they decide to hire full time (half of the special ed class at my old school consisted of people who had subbed for us before) now im not saying its this way in every school, so y'all please dont start an argument, im just telling of my expieriences. ;) |
|
Return to the Message Board