Driving Thoughts from the SPED Director

Amended IEPs

Here's a short clip on amended IEPs. Please allow 45 seconds for it to begin. After you watch, make a comment below and let me know your thoughts. I hope this helps!

Special Ed in 5: Amended IEPs from Reggie Engebritson on Vimeo.

 

Pre-referral Interventions # 2

I've created another video clip using work completion as my concern prior to referring for special education. Take a look! (Please allow about 45 seconds for the video to start).

Special Ed in 5: Jan. 13, 2012 from Reggie Engebritson on Vimeo.

 

 

Pre-referral Interventions

This is a hot topic for folks in our coop this year and there are a lot of good questions being asked. I have created a video clip giving an example of a pre-referral intervention that I hope is helpful for child study teams, general ed and special ed teachers and principals. 

Check it out (allow about 45 seconds for it to begin):

 

 

Special Ed in 5: Jan. 6, 2012 from Reggie Engebritson on Vimeo.

Please post your comments or questions by clicking "Comments" below.

 

Check out my video clip!

It's my first video clip - check it out and let me know what you think! Please allow 45 seconds for the video to start after you click on the start (arrow) button.

SPED in 5 12.29.11 from Reggie Engebritson on Vimeo.

  

 

 

YouTube for Schools

We are getting some terrific feedback from folks about the use of iPads or Smartboards in my previous posts. I really appreciate the response. I hope that this blog can be a source for sharing ideas and thoughts as we work together here in the Coop.

Have you heard of "YouTube for Schools?"  Here is the link to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/schools

It's stated to be teacher-friendly. Only teachers and administrators can watch the videos and students can't log in.  

I've heard of YouTube for Teachers, but hadn't heard about this one. Let me know if you find some good videos to use in your specialized instruction with kids.

Check out this link

Here is a resource that helps you identify apps for kids in special ed: http://a4cwsn.com/

Check it out and let me know what you think. 

SMART board or iPad?

If you had to choose between an iPad or a SMART board, which one would you choose and why?  

Do you currently use one or both of them in your classroom? If you do, how do you use it for your specialized instruction? What tips or ideas would you give to your colleagues who might be getting one?

Please share your thoughts and ideas. 

 

I'm back (again)!!!

It's been almost two years to the day since I last posted on this blog. And it's almost been one year since I defended my dissertation on blogging. So, wouldn't you think that I would be blogging all the time? I'm not sure what happened. Maybe after working on my dissertation for over two years, I didn't want to think or read or write about one more blog. I don't know. Life got in the way, as they say. Anyway, I am determined to get this going again because I think it's a good way to reach many of you in this large special ed coop of ours. 

This year has been a very busy one, so far. After being monitored by MDE, last spring, we are still trying to make the corrections to our due process files (green files to most of you). Plus, we have added two Compliance Assistants to help you get your files in order. We really are determined to make sure our evaluation reports and IEPs are in good order so that as students move from one IEP manager to another, the new IEP manager doesn't have to do a lot of clean up. It seems like we have heard more and more, these past couple of years, about people getting "stuck" with a lot of files that are out of compliance and it's really not fair for the new IEP manager to have to clean things up or risk a complaint from MDE or a lawsuit for the district. Special ed paperwork is a huge responsibility and it can bury you if you don't stay on top of it. We are here to help and support all we can. But we do need you to make the first step and do the work that is required. And ask for help, if you aren't sure about something. 

We are also trying to make our website more user-friendly with forms and memos readily available to special ed teachers to help you with due process. We welcome suggestions on how to make it better, so feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us. 

That's it for now. I'm going to keep writing and sharing thoughts and ideas as we progress through the rest of the school year. I'd enjoy hearing what you think. Feel free to reply and share your thoughts or ideas!

Data in SpEd Forms

Our focus so far this year seems to be on the data that is in SpEd Forms.  We are making sure that the Student Lists in SpEd Forms are accurate, so that our Child Count is accurate.  When we find that IEPs and evaluation reports are outdated, we need to work with the IEP manager to make sure that we are not providing service to students with disabilities without the required due process paperwork. That is one layer. 

From there, we have been digging into caseloads and looking to see if goals and objectives are different each year.  To me, this is Special Education 101.  Goals and objectives cannot be same for two years in a row (or longer). When we find out that they are the same for over a year, we are meeting with teachers to show them which IEPs need to be changed.  When I talk to teachers about this, the response is usually something like this, "The student hasn't met the goal/objective, so that's why I kept it the same."  I get that this can happen.  But it's up to us, as the educators, to make changes into how we are working with the student, so that progress DOES occur and the student can achieve the goal/objective.  The purpose of the IEP is to write measurable goals and objectives that CAN be reached within a year's time.  That's why progress monitoring is so important.  How do you know, as the teacher, that the student is making progress?  Are you collecting data? 

We are trying to provide the support and training needed so that both new and experienced special ed teachers understand what is required of them.  We are sending memos out and including adminstrators.  We are saving those memos on our website, so teachers can look at them again.  We are working towards more training via the computer, given the distance this coop covers. 

We want to be a resource to support and train teachers so they know what is expected. Then they will feel better about the job they are doing, because they know they are doing it correctly. We also want to support the teachers who are doing what they need to do, yet are frustrated when due process paperwork comes their way from a colleague who is not doing it right and they then have to do "clean-up."  No one has extra time for that. 

We are all in this together.  This is not an easy job and the paperwork can be overwhelming.  But we are here to help you.  You just need to ask and we will get you what you need.

Busy week

This past week was a busy one.  On Tuesday evening, I attended a workshop for parents put on by PACER.  The workshop was to educate parents on special ed laws and due process.  I wanted to attend so I could hear what parents were being told.  Often, when we hear a parent say that they have contacted PACER, our anxiety level is raised and we think of them like law enforcement or some judge and we wonder what is going to happen.  The good news is that PACER is often saying many of the same things that we are saying from the Coop.  PACER doesn't paint us as always the "bad guy." They talk to parents about resolving differences, having good communication and being aware of what the process is, so that they are more knowledgeable. I have learned to welcome PACER to the table when parents have requested their presence. There have also been times when I have asked parents to contact PACER or a legal advocate to help them understand our obligations.  The workshop was 3 hours long and went past my bedtime, but I'm glad I attended.

The next three days were spent at a special ed director's conference.  The topic for this conference was on diversity and leadership.  There were some good breakout sessions and keynote speakers that helped me think about how we are meeting the diverse needs of our students and what we can do better.  Diverse needs doesn't have to be just about the color of our skin or the language we speak.  There is also diversity in how we learn, how we treat others based on the first impressions they make, our background knowledge we bring to the learning environment and how we teach.

I come away from those conferences with my head spinning of ideas of things to look into or try.  I have more books or articles on my list of things to read, and another list of things "to do." I hope to share more with you later.

Right now my focus is on Response to Intervention or RtI.  We need to move forward on building this framework in each district and school in order to make good educational teaching decisions for students.  Again, I'll talk more about that later.  Each district in our coop is at a different place with RtI and I am looking at helping to coordinate the process so we can learn from each other.