Education Connection

Every year, I counsel between 5-10 students with special education designations on choosing the colleges that are right for them.  Many of the students will need ADA (American with Disabilities Act) services at their college of choice so sometimes that is a limiting factor.  A huge consideration for students and their parents is the cost of college and whether or not the student will succeed with less services/support than they received in high school.  My vice-principal and I will generally steer this group (needs services, questionable sustainability in college) in the direction of community colleges.  This allows for a number of things:

1. The student can live home and save on dorm/meal-plan cost (more than $10,000 at some schools).
2. The student can take less than the requisite full-credit load required at state universities to live on campus and more at my frugal blog (Saving Money Bug)…

Stumbled on this site tonight.  Excellent education resource:

Blue Web’n - Blue Web’n is an online library of 2158 outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (tools, references, lessons, hotlists, resources, tutorials, activities, projects). You can also browse by broad subject area (Content Areas) or specific sub-categories (Subject Area). See “About this Site” for a scoring rubric and answers to other burning questions!

Pros - Tons of excellent links, Search for sites based on a set of criteria, Great Resource

Cons - Some of the colors do not show up well (Quick links), Home page is too busy

Online Archives- Want to go to the library without stepping out of your house? Here’s where you can go to get free unabridged reference books, novels, audio books and other texts online.  I stumbled on this site tonight and thought I would share it with you.  Very cool resource that gives the user access to databases that contain thousands of books digitally.  From childrens to fiction to college level books, you can find it all here.  Also includes the classics, reference books and audio scripts.  Enjoy! 

Our high school implemented a program called ADP - I think it stands for Afterschool Detention Program.  I visited ADP today because one of my students was there and thought I would check up on how he was doing.  The monitor is a certified teacher that the district hired to work 4 days a week.  She has been sending us updates on how individual students are doing in the afternoon and what work is getting completed.  From what I see, the students there were working and getting the help they need to succeed.  The teacher really had the small group under control. 

ADP is 3 hours long and is generally given to students that skip saturday detention, teacher detention, have been disrespectful to staff and a number of other more serious infractions.  Skipping ADP gets a student 2 of them and then they lose certain privileges if it is skipped a second time.  Seniors lose the priviledge of walking at graduation and attending prom, for example. 

So far so good.  Discipline and lack of it has been a real issue of late.  New teachers have very little assistance and guidance when it comes to discipline and it seems that the administration is at a loss as to what to do with students.  Lack of respect is huge, teachers are sworn at on a regular basis and it seemed nothing was getting done.  When ADP was implemented the administration started calling the police as well on a number of students for disorderly conduct and other infractions.  Overall, the swearing is not really down but the number of disrespectful students towards teachers has improved.   

 I should mention that this is NOT an urban high school but rather a small suburban town that has very few business for a decent economic base.  Many families are not intact and have little financial resources.  The school itself has very few electives for students and are special services personnel is almost at bare bones.  To be continued…    

 I attended a special education staff meeting yesterday after school regarding students with special education needs taking mandated state testing.  A very promising meeting indeed. 

At this point in time, all Connecticut students are required to take the mandated state testing in grades 3-8 (Connecticut Mastery Tests or CMT’s) and grade 10 (Connecticut Aptitude Performance Test or CAPT) with very few exceptions.  Those that do not take the tests are generally those that have IQ scores that are extremely low (50’s).  In my 8 years of teaching I have had only 1 student qualify to go on a checklist instead of taking the paper test. 

In order for students to ‘reach proficiency’ on the CAPT in 10th grade and graduate they must get a 3 (out of 5) on the math portion and a 3 either in reading or writing.  Students do not have to pass the science section in order to graduate.  The goal for the school is a 4 in all areas.

Many students with the special education designation will never reach proficiency in regards to the CAPT test at the high school level and will have to take extra classes with the threat of not graduating hanging over their heads until their senior year.  This is very frustrating and upsetting to both the students and the teachers that are trying to help them.  Many will get through with a great deal of support and others will stay an extra year.     

The Director of Pupil Personnel (my boss and 2nd in charge of the district) explained that she was notified by the state that a new option was becoming available for students that fell between taking the full test and the checklist.  Their test would be a modified version.  No-one knows what this might look like yet but there are a number of hoops that the special education teachers and Planning and Placement Teams have to jump through before a child is eligible to take these tests.

Here are a couple of the hoops:

• A student must have standardized goals and objectives in math, reading and/or writing related to the State Curriculum Framework (basically state goals/objectives).
• Students must have a history of ‘failing’ standardized tests.  A student getting a 1 or 2 in 8th grade in any of the areas may be eligible to take the modified test in grade 10.
• The PPT must determine that the child is eligible and have it written in the notes.

 At this point, the test has not been created and we were not told anything else, I just hope they have in time for next March!

Just putting this at the top… 

This is a very off-topic post, however if you have your own blog this may be extremely valuable to you.  My blog has been advertised on numerous other sites bringing me hundreds of new visitors every week! 

If you are not familiar with Entrecard it is one of the fastest growing traffic-building websites on the internet.     Entrecard has only been around for about 3 months but has already surpassed 5,000 active users.  These users visit other sites, drop their ’Entrecard’ and have their own blogs shown to thousands on the internet through their ads. 

So, do you have a blog that need more readers (up to thousands) or are thinking about starting one?  Here is the perfect opportunity to join Entrecard.

The Largest Entrecard Giveaway Ever

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Why are the sponsors giving away their credits?  To encourage others to join Entrecard and get involved in the community.  In order to win you need to sign up with Entrecard and then leave a comment with your Entrecard username below to win.  Every time you leave a comment on a hosting blog you will receive an entry into the contest.  

The host list is at the bottom of this post.  Click on each one, comment, leave your entrecard name and voila you have an entry!

Contest details:

• All new Entrecard users signing up between March 15-April 15 will be eligible. 
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LD-ONLINE.ORG - LD OnLine seeks to help children and adults reach their full potential by providing accurate and up-to-date information and advice about learning disabilities and ADHD.  A leading website in learning disabilities.

NCLD.ORG - The National Center of Learning Disabilities is an online guide to essential information about learning disabilities, early literacy and learning resources, support for adolescents and adults with learning disabilities, public policy and advocacy tools.

Autism-Society-of-America -Information, educational opportunities, research, and support are available to all individuals with autism.

 My-Autistic-Child - Malaysian father has dedicated this blog to his child to teach others about Autism.  Very touching and informative (a few ads as well). 

SCIENCEEDRESOURCES - Excellent list of science resources available on the internet. 

ABOUTTHESUN - Exhaustive list of information and interesting facts about the sun.  This site has an educator area and student activities/labs.  See pictures of the sun from today!

PBSSCIENCETECH - Pick your age group and topic and PBS Teachers will give you lesson plans related to the subject.  Other subjects are available as well but the science section really stands out.

KIDSLAB - Provides practice for K-2 reading comprehension, phonics skills and vocabulary development. Parents are encouraged to work with their children while they complete the activities on this site.  Printable materials as well. 

CARLSCORNER - Free reproducible reading and writing materials for parents and teachers. Created by a language arts specialist to provide instructional materials for word building and phonics, early literacy, and more!

NCTM - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.  This site includes the most up-to-methods of teaching mathematics plus information on professional development, math at different levels, and math standards.

MATHFORUM - The Math Forum: Teachers’ Place.  This is a great site.  On the home page you click the area that you teach (or have a child in as a parent) and it brings up the forum, resources, activities, software and handouts that can be used for that grade level.

MATHPRACTICE Website to practice most math topics including pre-math through calculus.  A little weak on graphics but the ability to practice specific skills is invaluable.