what do you think about this one?

August 22, 2008

Hi All,

We started back to school on Tuesday... a transition year, and it's

going to be interesting. Team decided on the most appropriate 5th grade

teacher for . Well, come to find out, she's now part of a 4/5

combo, along with another 4/5 combo class, and they will be switching

around all day... 5th graders to one teacher for math, while 4th graders

go to the other for math, etc. Uuuuuurrrrrr... I hate combos. So, they

have developed their weekly schedules, and the number of days/times they

will be swapping kids, etc., which I recognize is a challenge. So, then

the RSP tries to fit everything in 's IEP in with this, and

she's incredibly over-caseloaded.... she sees over 30 kids, many who are

now at 49% time.... it's really impossible for her (but that's a letter

I'm drafting to Special Ed!)

Anyway, at our " beginning of the year " meeting yesterday, we were

chatting about when E will go to Resource, when Resource will push in

(yeah, our first push in!) So, I ask " what will she be missing when

she's down at Resource " which has always been the subject she's doing in

Resource (usually math) and they said " Social Studies. " Huh???? So,

bottom line, E would have NO social studies all year because " well, it's

difficult to schedule, and something's got to give. "

So, I quickly recovered and said " No, that's not OK, one of 's

strengths is memorization, which is a lot of social studies this year

(American History up to the Revolution), which is positive for her, plus

a lot of social studies stuff is in small groups, and socially it gives

her a chance to excel in an area, with her peers noticing and cheering

her on....why would we drop that??? It's easy to modify, and she did

really well last year, even did unmodified work successfully. " Why

couldn't she miss something else, like Science, which is 4 days a week

rather than 2 days of social studies. ARe you ready........

" Well, we do Science 4 days a week, but we have to take the STAR tests

in science in 5th grade. She won't be tested in social studies. "

Bang head against wall on 3rd day of school :-) Fortunately, the RSP

coud tell immediately that this wasn't going to work for me (I'm sure

she knew that as soon as they scheduled it!) and starts to juggle

things, adding 15 minutes to this day, etc., and although it's going to

be more work for her and will be doing some math with the

Resource aide (who is a great instructor, and it will be 1:1) But, the

amazing thing is, I said " what about the other 5th graders who also go

to Resource in that math group.... will they all get no social studies

too? " and they said " Yes. " I wonder how many of those parents have any

idea?

My eyes got opened a bit wider, that they could and would completely

omit a subject from my child's day without even mentioning it.... had I

not asked, I'm sure it would have not been brought up. Can they really

do this?????????? Can a child completely miss a " real " subject (I'm

sure they could miss art or music, but social studies???????)

, mom to (12), (10 DS) and Sammy (8)

August 22, 2008

HI

I will be attending Sara's triennial IEP meeting to discuss further testing very

soon ....... lol guessing this will be a short meeting and I'm going to bring up

Sara's new 10th grade schedule too, I noticed no SS for Sara either. Sara is

pulled out for Math, Edmark reading and reading (phonics, we have a

reading specialist wrote into her IEP) but her reg ed classes are Keyboarding

........ love that, Science/Biology like that she's in science but biology hmmmm

and ENGLISH now I think with 2 language arts pull outs she doesn't really need

another even though it is in the reg ed classroom, surely there is a SS class

that would be appropriate for her. Also she has Health and another off the wall

class. Anyway we will discuss this, I'm kind of surprised we didn't meet and

write her schedule together, since moving here to this county we usually do

this. This is the county I had to push for pull outs, I'm really focused on

improving Sara's functional math and reading skills since we are in HS (not

positive this can be accomplished in the reg ed setting)

Oh well we will see