- For example - This boy is a fire starter, they knew it was him, but could never catch him because he would never be around when the fires were found. A teacher decided that she would follow him and watch him for a week, she had to hide, for if he knew she was there he would play by the rules. As she watched she found his triggers, then when the stress built up, he set a fire, then he was fine. He would seek out is opportune moment, he would wait until a classroom crises, when the focus was not on him. They are working with him today, to teach him, his friends, and family how to spot potential triggers and fix them before he blows. It is going slow but they are seeing progress.
It is said that, this 9% of the population, without help, will never be a productive person of society. They say this group will probably serve time in jail sometime in their lives, and will probably return. Many people with severe mental disabilities may fit into this group, when dealing with these issues they are considered "Roadblock" or "Traits" that you cannot change, just manage, unlike behavior which can be taught . The sad thing is they say that early intervention is the key to helping this 9%. They say that there are three key contributing factors in getting a person out of this group is, (1) Early intervention before the age 8, (2) Behavior Management plans and teaching proper behavior, and (3) a life partner who will help implement or manage the behavior plan through out their life. Most will not make it out of this group.
- For example…3rd grader Bobby can’t read, whenever the teacher asks that he read out loud, he causes distractions in the classroom, outbursts, violence, disrespect. Solution of the past is to remove him from the classroom, but this does not fix his problems, he is getting exactly what he wants, out of an uncomfortable situation, a reward. After watching him for a while they found that his “trigger” is the thought of reading out loud in front of his peers, or the fear of failing. We now know the “why”, so how do we fix it? We pull him out of class at reading time and tutor him one on one with a lot of positive feed back. Once he is confidant enough he will be able to sit through reading with his class and might even participate. His “trigger”… is fear of failure so we need to teach self esteem, teach him to understand that his best is different then Miss Suzy straight A’s.
The older generation in the class on Saturday was stuck on changing society, removing sex and violence from TV, changing the system… they were saying that until society changes we cannot make changes. I think I heard “back in my day” more time then I needed. Yes the past was a pleasant place to live, but it is not a place we will ever see again. We must adapt and change to meet the new generations. As teachers the major changes in society is out of our hands, we all agree TV is no good, but how many of us turn it off? We are all still watching. Society will change and we must/will adapt. We cannot provide a stable home life for very child, we cannot change bad parenting, and we cannot remove sex and violence from the media. We can only adapt and change the way we teach and the way we show progress of a student and the way we manage our classrooms and schools.
Points to Ponder –
- One third of Alaskans students will drop out of High School.
- 3% of students will drop out before the end of JR High.
- 30% of the
- Is it fair to Joey with an IQ of 58, to be graded on the same level as Cindy who has an IQ of 130? Joe will never get reach the standard A grade, so why should he keep trying?
"Now back in the old days" hey, you got a lot out of that class! Very interesting information. I do agree with the majority, however, the one failure that I see in the current system is the alternatives that are offered. A student cannot cope, due to a vareity of reasons, in the "mainstream" class so let's give them an alternative way out, like an alternative school where the students imediatly develop the attitiude that they are failures or found an "easy way out". If that does not work, let's give them the option of getting a GED, if that fails let's do a little home schooling. All of these alternatives are providing a student an easy way out. Granted that there are special cases where it is important to have alternatives. Personnally, I feel that the student not only needs the education in a class room environment, but they also require the "social" skills developed in school to suceed in life. Although, there is ample blame to go around, I still maintain that a "big" problem, especially at the high school level is the "counselor"! They have forgot the definition of the word. Their focus is on those students that will do well on the SAT and in the grade A and B category that are college bound. Those students that want to be a "Plumma" or any other vocational skill are seldom counseled as to what courses they need, alternative education plans to suceed in their career choice, and assitance in obtaining training. 30% of the high school graduates are college bound, of that 30% about half of them will drop out of college adfter the second year. Based on that, about 70% of the students are left on their own to figure out life. Over the course of the years, I have worked with hundreds of H.S. counselors, finding very few that were actually dedicated to provididng a service to all students, focusing primarily on the "college bound" scholar.
ReplyDeleteindividuilized teaching: seems this is what my husband has been talking about for years. How some kids are text book learners and some cant sit in a classroom. I recently had an appointment with the special ed teacher for Gage in hopes they can help direct me with why he hates school so much. So far we have he may be dyslexic.(*sp) I am waiting to see the results of this testing then I will let you know what I think of individualized teaching. What I fear is they will want to put him basically segregated from the "normal" kids.
ReplyDeleteI love that you are getting the skinny for us on little Johnny and little bobby's out there. Well done.
Tabitha, I don't know Gage that well, but I doubt they would take him out of the classroom, except for one on one tutoring.
ReplyDeleteIf you need to talk...behavior issues is not one I am an expert about, but I do know something about SPED ED system and your rights as a parents/student.
Dad, I have to agree with you about the counselors. I got low test scores on my SAT...probably because I was out partying the night before, but thats beside the point. Afterward the couselors quit giving advice and I was on my own.
ReplyDeleteAs far as alternative schools, if we did not have them our drop out rate will be worse then ever and we would loose any chance of getting those kids to "play the game". I have many friends who graduated from Homers Flex School and I would say MOST have made something out of their lives.