Friday, September 3, 2010
The Demand for Inclusion & the Lack of Planning Time
Hello all. Sorry I'm chiming in so late but it's been a long week. For all of those out there who are trying to balance your own classes plus trying to find time to plan with your gen. ed. teacher, you know the meaning of my title. You have the morning sessions in an inclusion setting but your planning time does not match your co-teacher's planning time. You're covered up the rest of the day with your own classes and, what do you know, your co-teacher has his/her planning period during that time. So, you do what any good teacher would do; you come in really early or stay super late, depending on what your co-teacher can do. I have just described my school day in a nut shell. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? How do we alleviate this conundrum? I feel it is imperative that the sped. and gen. ed. teacher work collaboratively to plan for the upcoming lessons but there is only so much time in a day. There must be a practical solution to this problem. I urge everyone to reply. All suggestions are welcome. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Labor Day weekend and I look forward to reading everyone's posts.
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I struggle with the same issue. Typically I come in early and stay late all while balancing graduate classes. I wish I new a practical way to solve this issue and have more time for planning. If you come up with one please share:)
ReplyDeleteI am still learning about inclusion and what it exactly entails. Currently I am a Special Ed Assistant for a Middle School in Lebanon, TN. Our school system has ichat where all teachers and admistrators can communicate in an instant message format at any time. This could be useful because you could discuss some information while still being in the classroom. Also, as a special education assistant I have also took over a simple lesson while the head teacher steps out to meet with another teacher during his/her planning period.
ReplyDeleteI remember you telling me about that ichat thing at your school, Sydney. I love that idea. I think that is as excellent way for teachers to communicate in a school. Do you think the ichat system is ever abused or misused? As far as inclusion goes, the special educator comes into the general education classroom and co-teaches with the general educator; students who are receiving special education services are not pulled out of the classroom into a resource room setting. But the special educator is not limited to just those students while in the classroom. As a matter of fact, my co-teacher and I rotate teaching lessons daily. And in my situation, I am the highly qualified mathematics teacher; my co-teacher is currently in the process of being highly qualified.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the success of inclusion is dependent upon how well the general education teacher and the special education teacher work together on the planning and implementation of the instruction to take place. School administration needs to take more care to set up shared planning periods for these teachers. I know that scheduling can be very difficult especially in large schools but there needs to be some importance placed on the team approach of inclusion.
ReplyDeleteFinding the time to get all of the things accomplished in one day is immpossible. I just read an article in Education week spotlight that the U.S. Eduation dept will need approx. 1.6 million new teachers in the next five years. It mentioned that a majority of the teachers are leaving the profession between the 3rd and 5th year of teaching. With all of the increased requirements such as highly qualified and new standards-teachers have to be the best of the best. The article mentions a book by Farber, "Why Great Teachers Quit. Faber addressed in his book 3 ways to fix the problem. Retain new teachers who could become good, Keep good teachers who could become great, and Help great teachers want to stay in the profession they love. Solutions are given to call for immediate change to accomplish this. Hope is the key word of each chapter. Sounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteBlog 1 Week 3
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the article, I agree with a reader who stated that "Until the government presumed to tell teachers how to do their jobs, there was never a shortgage of people willing to teach." a teacher shortage is also related to the recertification requirements in different states. For example, In NY state, in order to get my license there, I would have to take classes specific for NY which includes NY state history. There should be more consistency. (Blog 2, week 3)
ReplyDeleteI agree with whoever brought up administrators and scheduling. I know everyone at the school has a lot on their plate, but it sounds to me like whoever is setting up the schedule really needs to carefully set those planning periods. The ichat thing also sounds like it could be very beneficial! I think as long as teachers understand its sole purpose and don't become chatty cathy or anything, it could be a great way to ease the burden! I hope this gets better for you!
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