students with special educational needs in a heterogeneous class
215140
Are you referring to Mainstream?\nWhich age group?Which level of education?\nWhat is the Special need? Learning/behaviour/physical?\nWhich Country?
421406
God bless you, I hope that the org that you start reaches many disabled children and their families. \n\nI am really impressed with IEP, I am in constant contact with my daughter's teachers. I think if I could change anything, it would be that more schools put disabled children into regular classrooms during extra activity more often. My daughter (in her first couple of years of school) picked up some bad habits. She is autistic, and she does a lot of parroting. They put her in art and music outside of her SPED class and she really flourished. She is talking more, she doesn't have some of the bad habits.
406423
I understand your frustration.  I have taught high school for 8 years and it is very discouraging at times to see the situations that exist in the classroom.  First of all, there is a mandate that Special Education students be mainstreamed into the general classroom population.  I have had a class of 34 students with 9 Spec. Ed. students (this is becoming more and more typical).  There are supposed to be teacher's aides to help in classes like that, but school budgets are spent so unwisely, at times, that there is no money for a teacher's aide for every teacher with a significant amount of Spec. Ed. students (who either have a learning disability, a behavioral disability, or an emotional disability).  This leaves the teacher and the students at a disadvantage.  Teachers now use more time on class management than on class instruction.  And, it's not just because of Spec. Ed. students.  For some reason many students like to "dumb down" on their own as to not be ridiculed by their peers for being too smart, a nerd, or a "lame".  School administration look at teachers with disdain and often let go of teachers with too high of a failure rate, so many teachers, when presented with a class or classes that do not produce on the expected level then create a curriculum that they feel the students have a chance to pass, even if it does not prepare a student to be on level.  Our educational system is in deep need of reforms that work, not just reforms that look good on paper but have no substance or effectiveness in the classroom or to the students.  I try to prepare students for high school and beyond, whether they are college bound, interested in vocational training, or ready to work once they graduate.  Teaching is a many tiered profession (teacher, counselor, mentor) if children are to be educated properly.  I worry about the same things you do, but I also know that the big decisions about education often do not rest upon  teachers' shoulders, but on an administration that is often too long out of the classroom to remember or know the things that work and the things that do not.  I only hope that it gets better before it continues getting worse.
111903
Have you considered looking for a special school? I know my cousin, who is mildly MR went to a school for MR children and I believe they worked with them as individuals and it helped. Once he transferred to a public school, they also put him in with severely MR and they literally taught him the same thing for the rest o the time he was in school. I would help him with his homework and every year it was the same, it became too easy and boring because all he had to do was take a letter from the alphabet, and write down as many words as he could using that letter. I felt at the special school he was actually learning, while at the public school, they treated him like a nuisance.
484073
When boy/girl or man/women are in classes together there could be less attention to the books! As opposed to male/female classes there is more attention to details of study!\n\nSuggest putting words relating to your question at "google" and there you will get 1000,s of answers, to narrow down to exactly what you need just keep adding or rewording entry...\n\nGood Luck!
424615
First of all--stop being so hard on yourself.  You have a great GPA.  You should be proud of yourself for being able to do so well in challenging classes with a learning disability.  You have what it takes--don't give up--and it will pay off for you eventually.
150545
Collaborate with you special education teacher.
441438
Some schools are underfunded and overwhelmed. The teacher may not be very qualified and has too many kids in one class to be able to handle all of them. If the kid in this class has parents who work three jobs and don't have time to help them learn to read, they can end up not learning. The teacher may be so busy and frazzled that they don't notice the one kid that is faking it. Also, if the child lives under the conditions outlined above and has a learning disability, it is going to be ten times more difficult because no one is paying enough attention to spot the problem. They may just label the child "stupid" or "disruptive."
592719
Small schools are better for education, get more interaction with the teachers...but it is harder with growing up!  I'd pick one in between the two, like 80-100 per class!
439695
We have watered down the education so much that it hurts!!!!  We no longer group students according to ability, but teach to the middle.  High level students do not get challenged, low level students get more attention and your average students lets lost in the shuffle.  the homogeneous classroom is a federal law, no school can put students in ability groups.  Why?  Because it stigmatizes the lower level students.  Meanwhile, we are dumbing down our schools.  My mother and I are both teachers, it is sad to think that somethings we used to learn in third grade math are now considered fifth and six grade level.  Behavior in a classroom is also a part of the problem.  If I have a student that is disrupting the class,  he may have to stay in my classroom because there is no where to put him and his parents will not answer there phone or come get the child.  If they do get the child, they may say we have lied about his behavior.  Many people in America no longer value education.  I am watching students whose parents have immigrated from India, Viet Nam, and Central America rise to the top in their classes because their parents value education.
521398
You haven't specified primary or secondary school - different tactics required. Also, SEN children have different needs. Some have physical disabilities, others will be on the autistic spectrum and some will have attention deficit problems. All may have their problems aggravated by being distrustful of other children thus making any integration an uphill job even for trained psychotherapists, let alone unskilled and unqualified lunchtime staff.\n\nYou cannot simply have one sheet that will act as a universal panacea for the isolation of socially inept children.\n\nNarrow down your parameters and specify which type of children you are aiming to support - then maybe you can achieve something worthwhile.\n\np.s. for autistic spectrum children check out Jessica Kingsley publishers, they have a great range of books about and for supporting ASD kids and teens.
388578
He won't need "special ed." unless he's not doing well in anything.  Ask the teacher to try to get his attention for the subjects that don't interest him.  He needs a reason to attend to boring stuff that is immediate.  A "D" on the report card down the line won't mean much to him.  Being embarrassed about not knowing what is going on in the "here and now" will.  Good luck and may God bless you.
220041
I teach a self-contained special ed. class and have been teaching SPED for 24 years....and no, I don't make any more than the regular ed. teachers even though my paperwork load is ALOT more, I have no textbooks and I have to make my own teaching materials, and I have to spend hours and hours more time in meetings and deal with horrible, demanding parents who expect me to "cure" their child.....I couldn't imagine doing anything else though   :)
587921
In the Philippines, all I can do is offer you this website as a place to start:\n\nhttp://www1.worldbank.org/devoutreach/july05/textonly.asp?id=318\n\nIn the United States, special education is struggling between trying to maximize what is best for each individual student, with funding concerns and a lack of understanding from people not working directly with special needs students.\n\nhttp://www.wrightslaw.com/\n\n\nElsewhere, I know Britain failed to use inclusion successfully because the teachers weren't trained correctly.\n\nhttp://www.bcodp.org.uk/\n\nOther than that, I don't know.
266381
The cardinal rule for special ed. is to follow the IEP. We special ed. teachers live, breathe and stress over this point the most. Mainstreaming and inclusion are only brought into the child's day IF it is included in the IEP. It used to be that mainstreaming was the "hot issue", but was proved not always to be the best strategy for all disabled kids.
493351
I'm an instructor at a community college. I wish I had more students like you. Here are some of the conclusions I have come to. First, many of the students are there for reasons other than learning. Many of my younger students are there because their parents have issued ultimatums making them choose to work or go to school. For some reason they think school is easier and choose that option. Second, too many students come out of high school under prepared for college. They don't know how to organize their time, study effectively, or take notes. Third, our society has moved away from the idea of personal responsibility. Everyone is so worried about blaming others for their faults or believing that everyone else is responsible for their learning. They don't understand that the only person responsible for them is them. I am a facilitator of learning but I do not have the power to just give them knowledge. From talking to my friends at other colleges (4 year state and private) they are seeing the same trends albeit not on the same scale.
342557
I became a special education teacher because I grew up with a sister who has a significant developmental disability.  Now that we are both adults, I am her conservator, because our father is deceased and our mother is in poor health.  So I can relate to both sides of this equation.\n\nAs a family member, I know how important it is to know that my loved one is getting the concern and attention she needs and deserves.  I do get annoyed when the adult program she is now in doesn't communicate with me, especially when it is an issue that could have more easily been resolved had they been in touch with me as soon as the problem arose.\n\nAs a teacher, I make a sincere effort to communicate with the families of my students.  In addition to the classroom phone number,  I give everyone my email address and my voice mail number, and I send a communication notebook home with each child.  Ideally, I would be able to jot a quick note daily, but in reality, I have 10 students, and if I spend even 3 minutes writing to each person, that's 30 minutes a day.  I don't have a planning period like the general ed teachers do, and because of the special needs of my students, I cannot just send them out to recess or to the cafeteria;  I need to be present with them.  So I am literally on duty from the moment the kids arrive until they leave in the afternoon.  I only use the restroom after checking that my assistant is OK with managing things for 4 or 5 minutes.   Our kids need assistance with toileting, and about half are not toilet trained or have accidents.  About half my students do not communicate verbally, and nearly as many have significant behavioral issues, including physical aggression. And then there is the need to work on the specific IEP goals of each student;  with 10 students, we are responsible for implementing activities and collecting data on anywhere from 60 to 100+ objectives.   It's an incredibly intense and busy day, and if you haven't lived it, you really can't appreciate it.  \n\nAnd as I said, I have the legal responsibility for a sibling with a disability, as well as taking care of a mother who is in severe decline mentally and physically.  And I have a husband and children who need my attention and care.  And now and again, I would just like to have a couple of hours where I could just think about myself.  But I spend between 50 and 75 hours per week on classroom related activity, because I LOVE my job and I LOVE my students. \n\nSo - as far as your particular situation is concerned, knowing first hand the stresses of both family and of teachers - I would not make a judgment.  As I said, if I even take 3 minutes of time during the school day to write a note to each parent, I have spent 30 minutes of my instructional day, which is 30 minutes that I am not teaching anyone.  (And time yourself - you can't write much in 3 minutes, especially if you are supervising 10 kids with special needs at the same time.) \n\nI do try to give the benefit of the doubt to the families of my students when they are not exactly considerate or politically correct in their communications with me.  I also try to do the same when the residential and adult programs involved with my sister communicate.  We are all human, with lives outside the immediate moment, and none of us is without fault.  So perhaps, when you are able to communicate in a calm and unemotional way, you could ask the teacher to clarify what she meant.  Try something along the lines of "I understood you to say that I shouldn't make waves because my son's IEP was nearly taken away.  Is that a correct interpretation, or did I misunderstand?"  And please be open to the possibility that you did not understand what she meant.  Life is full of miscommunication, even between people who know each other well;  communication is a two-way street, and both sides need to keep the roads open.