This week’s reading was very interesting because I am very interested in special education and assistive technology. I liked how the article laid everything out very simply. From what LRE is to charting the different levels to detailing specific assistive technologies like word prediction software and multimedia environments.
My school has recently switched to the RTI method of identifying special needs students. The apparently is a great system to make sure students are not over identified with learning and other disabilities. But as a classroom teacher, at least for right now, it appears that it is a system to make sure students do not get the help they need. It is frustrating to be able to clearly see that a student of yours has a clear disability that if caught now he/she may not need services in the future but this new of doing things just makes it very difficult for classroom teachers to prove what they are doing for early interventions. Having many different assistive technologies in the classroom would make it easier to show all of the things we have done. It would not make it easy but it certainly would help the process.
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Kym,
ReplyDeleteWhile interning at a school in VA, I witnessed how a special needs teacher accompanied a needy student to a math class. She really was quite a disruption to the class. The student seemed fine but the special needs teacher continually interrupted the math teacher. I am just not sure this is the best way for all students.
marty kaz
I do think LRE is very important and students should be accommodated as much as is possible. I do agree with you that we should make sure our general ed students are "hurt" because of inclusion students. In most cases I would say inclusion students add to the class and are well received by the classroom. Last year I had a severely autistic boy come to my class for 15 minutes a day during our morning meeting. This was good for him to be exposed to the classroom and good for the general ed. students to learn how to me nice and relate to a person with special needs. When LRE is used properly it is good for everyone.
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