Sep 18

As a rather timid co-teacher (or I was in the past), it's interesting to see how the special educator I'm working with has made the class "hers," perhaps even more so than the gened teacher. The classroom actually "belongs" to the general educator, so this is some feat. Even though these teachers don't seem to collaborate much, except with the schedule (they have totally different philosophies and teaching styles, and occasionally seem a bit suspicious of each other), the special educator says to the students, "I want to see ___." She uses "I" a lot, which I suppose could be "we," but it works to her advantage, in that students definitely see her as an equal in the classroom. There's really no ask-the-"real"-teacher discussion going on; they know there are two teachers and that's that.

I also was party to an interesting conversation between classes. A general ed teacher was talking to the special educator about a particular student and noting the need for a parent conference. The general consensus was there was no way he'd make it through sixth grade with the same passive behavior that had been allowed before. The general ed teacher said it was impossible to give him the one-on-one he needs to keep him on task in a classroom of 30. We have 25, 6 adults, and we can't give him the attention he needs either. Because most of his behaviors appear to be directed at himself rather than at others, I'm guessing he's slipped under the radar for years. I've mentioned this student to the school psych before; he shows behaviors that definitely don't really fit under his LD or ADHD label, such as flapping arms, talking to himself, occasional lack of eye contact, talking too loudly, other odd verbal behaviors. I'd say "aspergers" but of course I'm not quaified! We say that too quickly anyway.

At any rate, the consensus was that he's not doing his work because he's never been "made" to do his work, just allowed to do his own thing. In my opinion, that could be part or all of it, but we're not really asking why he doesn't do his work. Last psych eval noted some odd behaviors and verbalizations during testing, but it was never followed up. What good would it do, though, to have another label? It might give us a reason for the behaviors, but what difference would it make in his educational plan? I think we have to ask this before going for labels. Of course, maybe it's something the doctors would like to "fix" through pharmacology. That's certainly not uncommon. But to what end? I'm not sure there's a right answer here, but at least the teachers are bringing in the parent to discuss. I'm afraid we're going to look more punitive than anything.