good luck. i have many of the same issues with chelseas school. We send letters call everything and most of the time it does no good. I wish that i had some good words to help you but i think a lot of us have the same issues. and i would love to hear if anyone does no what to do
My son Connor is in mainstream kindergarten with a 1:1 aide. We get a daily behavior chart sent home. It has 4 columns and 10 rows. One row is filled out for each activity during the day. The typical chart that comes home has 6 rows filled in.
The 4 columns are:
- activity (for example: computer, math game, speech, library, PE, OT, story time)
- amount of independence (min / mod / max)
- support needed (VS = visual, VB = verbal)
- comments (typically one sentence such as "did a good job but used loud voice and needed visual reminder to reinforce appropriate voice tone")
Connor's "team" meets every Monday from 8:00 - 8:30. I am invited to sit in on these meetings and I frequently do. The team consists of classroom teacher, school principal, speech therapist, occupational therapist, learning specialist, social worker and Connor's 1:1 aide. After each meeting, they complete a form entitled "Individual Meeting Team Notes" and a copy is sent home to me in Connor's folder. Included on the form are a list of attendees and comments from each on Connor's progress, as well as plans for the coming week. These meetings are great - it helps me to hear the team talk about what is working, what isn't and what kind of activities are coming up in the classroom that they might need to assist Connor with.
In addition to the daily charts and the weekly meetings, we have the 2 - 3 times per year conferences/IEP meetings.
An easy way that I've found to communicate with parents has been to develop a behavior chart that rates any given behaviors (usually on a 0-2 scale). For example, the parent and I decide at the start of the year what behaviors they want to be notified of on a daily basis. For example, I have a student who is rated on staying on task, making appropriate conversation to peers/adults, and completing work. Each of these behaviors is rated hourly or daily with a 0 (unacceptable), 1 (average), or 2 (great behavior). I've found it's much easier to circle a number than write a narrative about behavior and the parent is still getting what they want. It's a given assumption that if anything important and/or an emergency occurs, they'll be called, emailed, or a longer note written. If I wrote a narrative about how well each child had done every day, there would be NO WAY I'd ever be able to teach anything. I've found that most of my parents want more communication the first year I teach their child, but I usually keep them three years, and by the second year or so, we usually have a good level of trust and they know that I'll be in touch with them if necessary.OK......as a parent I read the notebook everyday when John comes home. That being said, I know it is important but also keep in perspective how many kids the teachers have and if I had to write a full page detailed report on each of my 7 students everyday I wouldn't have time to be interacting and teaching them. I know how critical it is for parents to know and I think the idea of using a form is great or getting a more detailed report once is week is great. Believe me I would love to be able to give a really thorough account of the day....but it just isn't possible sometimes!!!! Sometimes it just means sitting down with the teacher and coming up with a system that will work for both of you! KWIM?Sounds good to me. I get a report everyday from Payne's school...notebook, email or a phone call. I have not been getting any updates on my son's progress at school and have thought of sending the following email to my son's Resource teacher. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!How old is Alex? I am guessing from the info. in the post he is in elementary school. I have to agree with Tzoya- any type of pre printed form that could make this an easy task would be helpful for the school. You should be getting progress notes on the IEP goals at least as frequently as the rest of the school gets report cards or progress reports. Beyond that, I have to say that as a teacher, I do not have time to write notes on all of my students every day. In my case, if I wrote two minutes of notes on every child I would spend 20 minutes of my day while the students are present just writing. My caseload is particularly low because I have my students with me all day. A typical resource teacher in my district has anywhere from 24-36 kids on the caseload. She could easily spend and HOUR just writing a two minute note on each child each day. This becomes problematic when our minutes for providing direct instruction are already pared to the absolute minimum.
I agree the school must do a better job of communicating with you. What if you requested a weekly log (you are only asking to see it once a week anyway) and ask that each service provider makes one weekly entry? You might get a more positive and consistent response. Just a thought from someone who works in that environment every day.
I recently read that Resource Room teachers are supposed to have a caseload that does not exceed 20. As usual, I forget if I read that in the NY laws or in IDEA 2004, but that is easy to check. I really believe it was in IDEA. Off topic, I know, but important.I did a small spiral notebook with Sarah but it was so sporadic and I got bored with the same tired responses so I stopped it, I so wanted her first year of kindergarten to be more open with teachers being grateful and actually wanting to help Sarah as a great opportunity for them as they have never had a child with autism. I also gave the teacher in the beginning a black folder containing about 15 pages of online free resources for teachers-free downloads & information on ASD children(just a nice jester). I guess I was expecting too much..Sarah liking her teacher so much and actually wanting to go to school each morning is the only reason I don't yank her out and put her in private school! I do get a moment here and there when I pick her up ...but jeez! Not much info when you have cars behind you waiting for you to leave so they can go too. I requested small emails when she is not too busy just to ease my mind..I never got one or even a reply most times when I emailed her..usually wanting to know if Sarah is talking or interacting..I hate her school. I was spoiled by our therapists doing daily data and graphs everyday where I could actually see what is worked on and where she was progressing and what needed work on.. those days are gone:( She is just in kindergarten and I don't want a bad reputation so soon before she has barely begun her long journey in public school.! It makes me sick though how little they do for her!
Blessings,
Shelley
bumpTzoya, I agree a VERY important point. I am guessing NY law (which I am less familiar with) but our district exceeds caseloads anyway, and next year the proposal is to cut 50 teachers.
It is so sad that something as simple as a daily note home- even from a teacher who might want very much to do that, is driven by money. Frustrating.
I haven't been around for quite a few days and am trying to check up on things. I hope that the communication log got put into place for you. You can always call on IEP and have it incorporated into the IEP so the teacher's are bound to doing it. Therefore, it isn't a chioce.
Tzoya, What you said about caseloads for a resource teacher is true, I think for all places. I have to say that my teaching position now is the ONLY place in 8 years that has met this standard. I had 35+ in one county and 75 at another school in the same district that I work in now. I only have 14 currently. BUT this doesn't apply to how many children I can work with during the day or week. This only applies to how many files I can be the caseload of. I can and do work with many children daily, some not even special ed. But as far as record keeping goes, state law says that I am suppose to only have 20 on my caseload as a resource teacher.
Interestingly enough, I just had to read a report put out by the education association in my state that also broke it down as to how many regular ed students should be placed in a class with kids for different disabilities. In looking at it compared to my school, which was the assignment that went along with reading the report, my school is way out of compliance. For example, having one child with ASD on a class roll is suppose to equal having 3 typical children on the class roll. So one teacher might have 20 kids, but none with disabilities while the other teacher (in the same grade level) might only have 17 because one of her's has ASD. That way, children with disabilities are placed in rooms where the student teacher ratio is not as great. The more severe the disability the more having that one student in a class counted as equaling so many children. Children with SLI only counted the same as any other student, chidren with SLD counted as 2, OHI as 2, MR as 3, autism a 3, etc.
I know that was off topic for this thread but I wanted to respong to what Tzoya had said about this. Sorry.
Thank you all for your input. I did end up sending a revised version of the email and have since talked with his resource teacher. We are in the process of getting something worked out. I did tell her I didn't need a lot of information but just needed something to see if we needed to make any adjustments with meds, etc. I will let you all know what we come up with.