RTI: An Update

My district decided to roll out RTI at all elementary schools this year for grades K-2. It decided to do this by having a 2 hours inservice with every k-2 teacher, elementary special education teacher elementary school psychologist, social worker and speech pathologist. It was a packed room with a bunch of confused people. There was too much information and not enough explanation on why RTI is a different concept. That's my main gripe: So far, only special ed people have been talking about RTI. Regular ed teachers haven't been talking about it. So when they sat in the inservice, most of them had no idea what the presenters were talking about. Each school should have had its own day to discuss this. The teachers need a new frame of reference. Many times I heard teachers still using terms as "referral" and "pre-referral" and they just didn't get it.

Unfortunately, my principal is to blame for the teachers from my school misunderstanding RTI. She erroneously told them that RTI was just like our broken pre-referral system. Therefore, the teachers didn't bother to pay attention. She is in denial, and we need her to get a grip and realize that this is a paradigm shift. The old way is dead. RTI is now.

The literacy specialists are inviting a teacher from a school that ran a pilot RTI program. We hope to learn how they adjusted and what role each person played. That's the main concern from the support staff: How do we fit into RTI? If our principal isn't taking the lead, then we need to be proactive and figure out how we fit before someone tries to use us as before.

BBC

First Day

Another first day has come and gone. I asked my principal how first days affected her. She told me that she has nightmares about them. I haven't gotten to that point. My role on the first day is to be supportive, and since the first day is all about learning the rules and routines, I'm not needed as much. I spent the majority of my day working on scheduling meetings and tracking down information on new special ed students. Eleven new special ed students and I only have information on half of them. My school has so many new students, yet so many have left. There is a constant struggle with residency issues, and we suspect that there are still a few families that try to break the rules and send their children to school. The first few days are spent waiting for students to enroll because of late vacations, not being aware of when school started, or pending residency confirmations.

The day was uneventful, but my principal did pose an interesting question. As I passed by her office, she called me into her office. She asked, "What do you call those small bags that marijuana is sold in? (pause) Dime bags." She answered her own question. The odd thing was that she was busy typing something as she asked me the question. Now I'm wondering who she was typing this for. I simply remarked, "I'm not going to ask," and walked off.

BBC

RTI: The Experiment

"It's just like stuff we've already been doing." That's what my principal said in response to teachers asking "what's RTI?", when she informed them that there was a professional development day that would focus on it. Yeah, this year is going to be great. (sarcasm alert) When she said that I looked across the room to a couple of special ed. teachers and chuckled. This is going to be a mess. Where to begin? First, there is nothing happening in my school that is related to RTI. For some reason my principal thinks that it's better to introduce it as something that has been done before, but it's not. This is a huge shift from everything we've been doing. Our pre-referral process is a nightmare, and it needed something major to fix it. This is a start if it's implemented well. Second, the fact that teachers haven't heard of RTI is a major concern, but it has always been my concern. This is supposed to be a regular ed initiative, but regular ed people haven't been talking about it. This should be interesting.

BBC

Corporal Punishment

There are 20 states that still allow corporal punishment in schools. Click the link for the New York Times article http://bit.ly/NAKlJ I grew up in one of those states, and luckily live in a state that doesn't allow this practice. One would think that special ed students would be exempt from this form of punishment, but that would make too much sense. I hoped in 2009 that most states had moved away from this and it would be an interesting, antiquated story from my childhood. Unfortunately, more people will be able to share stories of paddlings for years to come.

BBC

Interpersonal Relationships

My principal has this ongoing joke that I should go back to school and get my doctorate, and my dissertation should be a study on the interpersonal relationships of teachers within my school. She always mentions this when she has a story for me about warring teachers and their juvenile antics. Today I was passing by her office and she called me in. She waved a letter at me and told me that she had more data for my doctorate. She handed me the paper and I tried to read it, but it didn't make sense. A teacher had written a note asking my principal to intervene with a conflict she was having with a fellow teacher. They were bickering about wall decorations and use of a personal refrigerator. It was ridiculous because they are supposed to be adults and should have been able to handle this on their own, but they wanted "mom" to intervene. She forced them to work it out amongst themselves during planning, but she informed them that she would be present during their planning time.

I had a more pressing issue that required my attention, so I sought her advice while I was there. I was approached by one of the special ed teachers who was concerned about one of her students. She told me that this particular student didn't feel welcome in his homeroom class. He's has a learning disability and really struggles with reading. The special ed teacher told me that the student often showed up at her door during off hours because his teacher sent him out of the room. It sounds like there was no inclusion in the classroom. He's starting to feel ostracized and unwanted, and we aren't sure if the teacher is doing this consciously. So the special ed teacher wanted to talk to the homeroom teacher but she wanted to a) use the right words so that she could convey a convincing message and b) do it when she wasn't so emotional about it. I commended her on recognizing how emotional she could be if she approached the teacher now. Other than that, I was kind of clueless about what advice to give to the teacher. My principal gave me some pointers. The teacher should focus on saying how she was uncomfortable with what was happening and that she wanted to know how she could help the teacher. If the teacher focused on her discomfort, then the focus wouldn't be on the actions of the other teacher. It made sense, and luckily it was exactly what the special ed teacher wanted to hear. In the end, I felt like I was able to help in some way. I'll see what happens once she actually approaches the homeroom teacher.