Therefore, every school year, I meet with teachers and discuss what I know about the incoming students. At the end of the previous school year, I met with the 7th grade resource teacher to get an idea of what the students are like. I sat in on her classes and briefly talked to the students. She also made "cheat sheets" for her students that I could provide to the teachers, highlighting the disability categor(y/ies), accommodations needed, and strengths/weaknesses. Seeing what she did, I now do the same thing. While I could hand out the "IEP At a Glance" that is provided by the IEP software, this contains so much information that it is not feasible for each teacher to read through the goals, transition services, and accommodations.
I have over 30 students on my caseload. With the two eighth grade teams, it has usually been split about 50/50 on where the IEP students will go. I don't want to burden each teacher with 15-17 IEPs to read through. Therefore, creating these "cheat sheets" will go a long way to helping the teachers understand the basics about the students.
Back to accommodations. Like I said, so many of these accommodations will be up to the general education teachers to provide. I can prompt them as many times as I want until I'm blue in the face, but some of these are hard to implement, and I can understand that. I have one instructional assistant and he can't be in 10 different classes at once. So, by breaking down the accommodations and discussing how these can be provided is necessary to begin with at the beginning of the year.
It's not just the teachers that I need to meet with at the beginning of the year, but I also talk to the students at the beginning of the year about their accommodations. Students in middle school need to be aware of what can be provided for them in the classroom so that they can advocate for themselves when they need something. That's the big thing in middle school: self-advocating. That is what I push for and that is what I expect from the students by the end of the year.
The basic run-down of this post is to discuss accommodations. Don't get me wrong, I know the teachers are doing their absolute best to reach all learners and level the playing field; however, I think a discussion of accommodations and how these can be provided in the classroom will go a long way for their growth and the students' growth.
Thanks for reading,
Kelli
(Agenda on the board for what students need to work on, what is due for the day, and what is coming up in the next week or so)
