Hey all

[ldteach73]

I'm new to this forum and am glad that I can use my special education experiences to help all and you all help me. Thanks, ldteach.

Question: What area do you specialize in and what is one positive and one negative thing that has happened to you being in that position of a special educator?

Also for those who know what IEP are all about here's a friendly poem for you.
IEPs According to Dr. Seuss
Do you like these IEPs?
I do not like these IEPs
I do not like them, Jeeze Louise
We test, we check
We plan, we meet
But nothing ever seems complete.

Would you, could you
Like the form?

I do not like the form I see
Not page 1, not 2, not 3
Another change
A brand new box
I think we all
Have lost our rocks.

Could you all meet here or there?

We could not all meet here or there.
We cannot all fit anywhere.
Not in a room
Not in the hall
There seems to be no space at all.

Would you, could you meet again?

I cannot meet again next week
No lunch, no prep
Please hear me speak.
No, not at dusk. No, not at dawn
At 4 pm I should be gone.

Could you hear while all speak out?
Would you write the words they spout?

[dolmansaxlil]

Last year when I worked as a special ed resource teacher, someone sent me that poem when I was working on my first round of IEPs. I giggled then, and I'm laughing again reading it now (maybe even a bit harder, since I moved out of Special Ed and I didn't have to do them this year!)

I'll share my positive story, even though I'm no longer in special ed (though with my three classes of 32 having 15, 14, and 12 IEP kids respectively, it sure doesn't feel like I left!)

Last year I was dealing with a grade 8 kid who was a real pain in class. He acted out constantly. He had difficulty reading, and was basically a non-reader, so I invited him to join a group of kids doing a reading recovery type program on the computer three times a week. I thought he may be a problem, or just refuse to come. I was wrong. He came, he worked his butt off, and we made a LOT of progress. I did notice that when the teacher did a read-aloud, he was enthralled and always wanted to discuss the book they were reading. When novel studies came around (something he hated), I talked to him and suggested he might want to try an audiobook (reading along with the text at the same time). For the first time, he was actually working with a grade level text, albeit on audio. His mark went from a C in term 2 to a B+ - simply because he could finally demonstrate his higher-level thinking without having the reading difficulties in the way. At the end of the year, he came down to my room to thank me, and asked me where he could get more audiobooks. His dad called me a couple of days later and thanked me as well, and said he had bought a subscription to Audible, and that his son had already gotten halfway through his first downloaded book.

[ldteach73]

That was great. I do that with my LD kids too. When we do a chapter book, I get the audio and some of the longer chapters I have them follow along while listening. Thanks for sharing.

[teacher333]

Thanks - I love it! I am passing it on to my colleagues.

[javamomma]

:) That is great!

[SLP]

I am a speech language pathologist and I teach a preschool class for children who have had traditional speech therapy but have not made meaningful progress. Positive: I get to do speech/language therapy as a classroom teacher.
Negative: large class sizes and too much paperwork!