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So I am not sure exactly what I will say here but I just want a little space to ramble and maybe allow other people to ramble about the fear that is coming or has been present related to the coronavirus and how the spread is getting larger and larger, scarier and scarier.
I work in the public education system as a high school special education teacher. I help support classes that have students with Individual Education Plans, otherwise known as IEP's. So plans that say they get certain specialized services, supports, and modifications in their classes to help them access the least restrictive environment (LRE) with their same-aged peers. Sorry for that jargon, this is my life and I swear I know this spiel like the back of my hand.
Anyway, in the last week my district I work in has put all hands on deck in preparing for the fact that the district might have to close the doors for a certain amount of time. We have department meetings during lunch every Tuesday and this week we were trying to figure out how we offer services online, because it is really hard to figure out how we help meet student minutes for their IEP supports. In case this sounds a little confusing here is an example. Say there is a student who gets support in English for Reading Comprehension. The class is every other day for 90 minutes. They then have a support teacher in the class for that 90 minutes who helps break down, scaffold, and work through assignments to make sure the student is able to comprehend it.
SO what we are trying to figure out is how the heck do we track this and give this through online learning programs? Also the fact that a good chunk of our students do not have wifi at their homes so there is no way for them to access the content? The tech department is working hard to get hotspots rented out to those students but our school doors could be shutdown any day now.
Colleges in the area have either all switched to being online from now until mid-April, or simply switched to being online for the rest of the college semester. I was at a cafe and asked two college students near me (since I live right near a college campus) and the two girls told me that the semester is 100% online from this past Monday (03/09/20) to AT LEAST April 10th.
As someone who is awful with technology and needs face to face communication to explain information to my students, this has me so concerned. For most of the students with disabilities that I work with, you NEED to show visual and verbal content and NEED to be able to modify and accommodate materials as concerns arise throughout lessons.
I wish there was an easy answer to this, but there will never be an easy answer to going from 100% face to face in the general education classroom to 100% online with very little face to face interaction and teaching. Ugh.
I work in the public education system as a high school special education teacher. I help support classes that have students with Individual Education Plans, otherwise known as IEP's. So plans that say they get certain specialized services, supports, and modifications in their classes to help them access the least restrictive environment (LRE) with their same-aged peers. Sorry for that jargon, this is my life and I swear I know this spiel like the back of my hand.
Anyway, in the last week my district I work in has put all hands on deck in preparing for the fact that the district might have to close the doors for a certain amount of time. We have department meetings during lunch every Tuesday and this week we were trying to figure out how we offer services online, because it is really hard to figure out how we help meet student minutes for their IEP supports. In case this sounds a little confusing here is an example. Say there is a student who gets support in English for Reading Comprehension. The class is every other day for 90 minutes. They then have a support teacher in the class for that 90 minutes who helps break down, scaffold, and work through assignments to make sure the student is able to comprehend it.
SO what we are trying to figure out is how the heck do we track this and give this through online learning programs? Also the fact that a good chunk of our students do not have wifi at their homes so there is no way for them to access the content? The tech department is working hard to get hotspots rented out to those students but our school doors could be shutdown any day now.
Colleges in the area have either all switched to being online from now until mid-April, or simply switched to being online for the rest of the college semester. I was at a cafe and asked two college students near me (since I live right near a college campus) and the two girls told me that the semester is 100% online from this past Monday (03/09/20) to AT LEAST April 10th.
As someone who is awful with technology and needs face to face communication to explain information to my students, this has me so concerned. For most of the students with disabilities that I work with, you NEED to show visual and verbal content and NEED to be able to modify and accommodate materials as concerns arise throughout lessons.
I wish there was an easy answer to this, but there will never be an easy answer to going from 100% face to face in the general education classroom to 100% online with very little face to face interaction and teaching. Ugh.
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