This weeks reading from the book Culture in Special Education was very eye opening. I have been on the parent side of the IEP table and have felt what this weeks chapter described. Just going into the room knowing that they have all already talked about my child (and possibly me) made me uncomfortable. It felt as though they all looked at each other as my child and I walked into the room. The meetings became so negative at times that my mother, who sometimes attended with me, suggested that my son be removed from the meeting because it was obviously upsetting him. In fact on more then one occasion my son left these meetings defeated and in tears. I felt powerless. They held all the cards. They know the laws. I should trust them. I now find it hard to trust any teacher where my own children are concerned. As a co worker I have no problem communicating with teachers. Some of my closest friends are teachers. As a parent I find it hard to communicate with teachers. I feel like they are blaming me or my child for the current problem. I also know that parents have little input into he official IEP. No one talks to the parent before he meeting. Yes, the parent signs the necessary forms, but no one asks what they want on the IEP. The IEP is written before the meeting with the parents even happens.

How can we fix this? First, we need to build relationships between parents and teachers. Phone calls home, e-mails and letters should be happening on a constant bases. If the teaching staff knows the family and the family has learned to trust the teaching staff the adversarial feeling of meetings should decrease. Second, a small pre-meeting between the parent and the special education teacher may help the parent feel more at ease and included. No decisions need to be made, but a conversation with just one person on the teaching staff might allow the parent to open up more and make their input more valuable. Third, parents need to feel heard. This is their most prized possession. They know the child better then anyone. Fourth,the meetings need to be positive and solution oriented. Don't make a criticism unless you have a solution. No one wants to sit in a meeting and listen to people go on and on about had badly their child is doing and then be left with no answers on how the child will be helped. One last thought, we need to build trust. Both parents and professionals have lost the ability to trust one another. We are on the same side. We all want the students to succeed. It's time we start building positive relationships so that our children can have a brighter future.

I just read four interesting and varying articles for my Foundations class. Reading these articles really makes me think about what I believe and what I have seen already in the schools I have worked in. I do believe that children should attend their neighborhood schools and I also believe they should be in the least restrictive environment . How to make this happen becomes the problem. We have to balance the needs of all the children. If a child causes problems in a school that disrupts or even endangers other children we need to consider how to meet that child's needs without hampering the needs of the other children. That is the hard part. Every child deserves the best education we can give them, but how do we best do that. The government has given us No Child Left Behind. This is suppose to help us identify which schools are making progress and which are not. From my view point all NCLB has done is; stress the teacher, steal instructional time and lower the self esteem of kids who don't pass. It does not help design good curriculum or measure the progress of individual students. What we need the government to do is help with funding. We need good curriculum that has assessments build in. We need testing that shows the students progress and measures each student against themselves. A kind of PR for reading , writing and math. When we get proper curriculum and measurements then we can start meeting the needs of each student, The RTI model helps all kids achieve. It helps us reach kids at their level. It allows us to step in and help a student progress. Then reevaluate the student decide if more help is needed or if the help can be reduced. The best part about this process is that it can be done over and over again as needed.

Today I had a new class called Learning Communities. It was an awesome class with a lot of good discussion about culture, diversity and had they affect learning communities. We started the class by introducing ourselves, telling a story about our name and giving two things we love. For the first time every I admitted that i use to lie about the origin of my name. there was no interesting story about how my name came about, so I would tell people that I was named after the Frankie Avolon Song " Diana".

After everyone was done sharing we started discussing culture in the United States. We talked about how everyone has at least one culture. Sometimes we are a combination of more then one culture. We talked about the importance of knowing the different cultures of the kids we serve in our schools. There was also discussion about diversity. Many people shared their ideas and opinions with fear of judgement. It was a rich open discussion that I feel I am not doing justice to.

The last thing of the day was watching a movie called Prom Night. The movie was about Charalston Mississippi. Untill 2008 Charalston had two proms. A white prom and a black prom. Morgan Freeman came to the school district in 2002 (I think) and offered to pay for one prom if they intergrated. He was turned down. So, again in 2008 he came to back and made the same offer, this time they took him up on the offer. The movie interveiws many of the kids, staff and parents about how they felt about one prom. A group of white familiews refused to let their children go to the prom so they put on a small white only prom. Only thirty-five kids went. Some kids went to both proms. The group of parents against one prom would not talk on camera. They hid behind an attourny. I just can't believe this kind of behavior still exists in our country in the year 2008, probely even 2010.

Had a new class today called Learning Communities. It was taught by a women named . She was an amazing facilitator. First we went around the room, introduced ourselves, told a story about our names an then name3d to things we loved. It was a fun exercise and the first time I admitted to making up a story about my name. My parents just picked my name and I always thought that was boring. So, I would tell people that the named me after the Frankie Avolon song "Diana". Besides admitting to making up lies this exercise was nice because I learned a lot about the people in my cohort.



After everyone had a turn we began to talk about culture and what that means in our society. We talked about how everyone has culture and how different cultures have different idea and belief systems. No one can completely understand how it feels to be different then they are. We can only be open, understanding. We watch a movie called "Prom Night". I is a movie about a town i Mississippi that still had segregated proms in 20008. Morgan Freeman offered to pay for the pro if they integrated. He had offered this once before in 2002 and they turned him down. I just can't believe that anyone anywhere in the US still thinks like this. How can people hurt other people that way. It made me think about being more pro active about how I can help stop prejudice.

First Graduate School Reading

I have been reading the assignments for my Foundations class. Reading to understand is much harder then reading for pleasure. You have to actually think about what the reading means and how it applies to the class you are taking. I found this weeks readings to be very insightful. I loved reading what people had to say about using labels when it comes to learning disabilities. I have such mixed feeling about the use of labels. I think they can help if they are used right but wow can they hurt when they are used wrong. We have to figure out ways to use labels to manage the differences in learning without allowing those labels to limit or hinder these incredible kids. Kids who learn differently have such beautiful minds with such amazing insights. We have to start to embrace the tools that technology has afforded us. We have to find ways to get things like computers into the hands of children with learning disabilities. If a child can learn to compose, edit and rewrite on a computer the fact that their handwriting is painfully slow and hard to read becomes mute. If kids listen to books on cd's or ipod's they will be able to hear stories rich in language and thought. It will ignite their interest in history, science and the arts. These things are just the beginning. With new technologies coming out every day who knows what the future holds. The gap between gifted and learning disabled children closes with each of these new technologies.

The reading from the book was harder to understand. I totally got the part about parents and professionals being adversaries. As a parent, I have sat in many IEP meetings feeling like I was to blame, I was responsible, but I had no say. The book talked a lot about what people think is the cause and how to identify disabilities. There was a lot of discussion about different cultures and beliefs. My question is why does that matter? All kids need to know the things our society deems important. The reason a child can't succeed in school doesn't mater. What matters is how do we get the child to succeed. All kids should have an education plan that helps organize the needs of the child so we can make sure we are helping each child in the manner that works for that child.

Metaphor for education. I knew right away what I was going to use.....a dog sled team. The teacher is the driver and the kids are the dogs. There are so many ways this metaphor works. The drive is the guide guiding the dogs through different Terran, weather and assorted situations. The dogs have to trust the driver or they will not give their best performance. The driver has to trust the dogs to allow them the freedom the run. The dogs have to be properly cared for. They need the right kind and amount of food. They need to get the right amount of rest balanced with the right amount of exercise. The dogs have to work as a team. Each dog has a job and if they don't do it right the team will not preform at it's best level. The driver has to know the dogs completely. They need to know the weaknesses, strengths. personalties and temperament of each dog.They need to be able to tell when a dog is off, not itself. This metaphor can go on and on. I may find that I write about it again in the future, but for now let me end with this.... The driver has the responsibility to get everyone through the race safely and successfully.

Help I have an assignment due on Tuesday and I can't figure it out. Now I know what the kids feel like. In class i thought I understood but now that I am trying to do it I am lost. I just want to do well but I feel like I a failing. I get a metaphor bit I don't know hoe to use the software. I also don't know what they mean by making it flow. Help! Help! Help!

Tonight was my first night of graduate school. It is very scary. I have assignment due next Tuesday and I am very nervous. I also need to try to write in a journal. I am not sure how I am going to do this because I hate writing. I love telling stories, but my dyslexia makes hand writing hard for me. The truth is life is about stretching and growing. I will give journaling a shot because it will help me grow.

So It has been a while sense I wrote in this blog. I have been struggling with my twelve year old son's teacher which had me rethinking going to school. Do I really want to become one of them? The answer is yes. Yes I do. I know that not all teachers are perfect. In fact I have seen some pretty bad ones. Likewise there are some great ones. I want to be a great one while trying to help some not so great ones become better. People need to hear what it is like to be learning disabled. Who better to tell them then some one who is not only learning disabled herself, but who has children with learning disabilities. I can't teach people what it's like to be in a wheel chair, but I can teach people what it is like the feel like the stupidest kid in the room. The kid who makes mistakes when they read out loud and everyone laughs. The kid who tries to explain to a teacher why you didn't understand your homework. Only to be told that you weren't paying attention or you didn't try hard enough. So, I am not sure how far I will get, but I am out to change the world, One not so understanding teacher at a time.