The End is Near

Just a few more days and it will all be over. I actually made it through all of my annual reviews unscathed. I have a few more items of paperwork to complete, but I'm closing in on the end. Unfortunately, if it's the end of school that means the children are losing it. They are falling apart in record fashion. The kids with behavior issues are coming apart at the seams, and some of the well-behaving kids are having issues. It happens every year, but it always surprises me. There's something about the prospect of spending summer at home that causes turmoil within some kids. They can't handle the lack of structure for the entire summer. I feel for them. The ones that come from terrible homes get it the worst, because school is an escape. So for the next few days I expect to get a lot of requests for help.

BBC

Merit Pay for Teachers

This columnist makes a good point: merit pay can be disastrous in the wrong school. I think that mine fits that bill. http://bit.ly/16pECq

I see my staff becoming insanely jealous of any teacher that would earn the bonus. I can see some cheating happening, and worse, I think referrals would increase. Not only would we see an increase in teachers focusing their instruction solely on standardized tests, but more teachers would try (in vain) to have kids identified so they wouldn't be in their classes anymore. I'm not sure how that would work towards their yearly progress numbers. Furthermore, how would I become eligible for some merit pay? I'm pretty good at what I do, don't I deserve a bonus. Yeah, I don't see this working too well.

BBC

ED not only means Erectile Dysfunction

Recently I was part of my first evaluation for a student with Emotional Disturbance. As I told the parent that her son qualified for services under Emotional Disturbance, the words sounded really awful coming out of my mouth. The mental health field has made tremendous strides by changing mental retardation into intellectual disability. Why hasn't there been a similar change in Emotional Disturbance? The term sounds very negative and contributes to the stigma of being in special education. Hearing that a student is ED conjures up images of the worst kind of student in the classroom. No one hears ED and has pleasant thoughts.

The student was the subject of my last post, "Stuck in a Corner." He's definitely ED, no question. His inability to regulate his emotions prevent him from meeting success in the classroom. In the PPT I described him as having 3 sides, 1 side is jovial and compliant, 1 side requires constant prodding to motivate him to perform, and 1 side is completely non-compliant. I have seen these different sides of him during the evaluation and observations. Now that he has been identified I hope that his new program for next year will help him find success.

BBC