Improvement

I must apologize to my avid readers for my long absence from the blog spot, but the holidays came along and comandeered all of my "spare" time. The three snow days we enjoyed in there were a beautifully timed blessing, and the two weeks of Winter Break could not have been more welcome.

But, school is back in session and the stories just keep getting better!

The post-holiday rainstorms that flooded much of the southern part of King County also took their toll on my portable. The water seeped in under the off-kilter door, all the way to my desk, where it spoiled just a few of the books I had stacked on the floor there. *sigh* At last, the work order that our custodian put in weeks before the break was filled and a gentleman with a large white truck and huge pliers came out to fix the door. It took him all of five minutes. We haven't had enough rain to really put the seal to the test, but I'm hoping that our flooding problem will be solved at last (although I do still worry about the dry-rot that MUST be going on under there!)

The improvements to the overall structure of my portable are not the only changes being made around my school, I can assure you! On the contrary, the structural improvments are merely an aside to the total overhaul going on with one formerly-talented and prized Special Education teacher! Can you guess who I mean?

Apparently, a Master's degree in Special Education, five years of experience in Idaho, numerous professional development classes and rave reviews from everyone I've ever worked with, or for, carry little or no weight in this district. And so, hence cometh the Plan of Improvement. A four-page document of the things I am NOT doing was given to me just prior to the holiday break. (Merry Christmas!) Naturally, very little has accompanied it as to HOW these things I am currently not doing should be done in a classroom such as mine. And of course, the Plan was not couched in the terms typically used by those in the educational field (i.e. "You're doing great in these areas, but we need to work on these things....") but rather, it was a laundry list of "you really should know all this" and "we are concerned that these things are not apparent in your classroom" or, my personal favourite "your expectations seem to be extremely low, and you create activities designed to keep your students performing at a very low level." And, curiously, nothing in the plan indicated that I was teaching a special needs class.

Now, I don't want to seem...conceited or superior here, but last time I checked, special education teachers were in some level of demand. In fact, we in the profession could easily find work in just about any district in any state in the country. So it does seem...confusing that this particular district does so little to retain the few teachers it's managed to attract. I have an inkling that it may not be a district-wide mentality, but it is certainly in evidence at my school, which is even more of a contradiction, as they went the entirety of last school year with a special education position open! A situation which they seem determined to repeat.

So, my Plan. "Improvement" seems to mean, in large part, "prepare students for state tests so high above their instructional level that you can guarantee serious classroom management issues for an entire month as the students attempt to take them." Improvement also means, near as I can tell, the flagrant diregard of all of the issues that put students in the category of "special needs" in the first place. I am, it seems, not supposed to use the IEP to design instruction. Nor am I supposed to use special education evaluation information to determine the students' areas of need. (I'm supposed to use those tests--remember, the ones they can't even read? Yes, those are the tools by which I am to determine what students are and are not capable of.) I am supposed to...streamline...goals and objectives. (Translated: make them all the same.) So, the GEP--it can't really be called an "I"EP if it's not Individualized, can it?--is merely a pile of paperwork that I must by all means keep current and compliant just so it can sit in the back of a file cabinet being current, compliant and completely useless.

I'm not sure I care to improve this much.

Attempting to embrace moments in life like this as learning opportunities, however, I have been trying to learn how to plan like a general education professional. My activities are not individualized at all, but rather, differentiated. I am not doing anything that might be accessible to kinesthetic, visual or artistic learners because, and I have to quote this, "You aren't an art teacher!" I am not teaching life skills, I am teaching reading, writing and math.

I am not teaching students, I'm teaching standards.

They keep using this word "improvement." I do not think it means what they think it means.