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Eric Riggs
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 33 Location: Surry County
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Most everyone agrees that it is best to group students with a mixture of abilities. Research shows how effective this is. My question is this. When it comes down to resources and you have such a large number of EC childrne that need to be served and a very limited staff, how do you group? By law, students with labels must be served. While doing scheduling last summer, I realized it is very difficult, if not impossible, to prevent grouping a larger number of EC children in one team due to the fact the EC teacher is in such high demand. What is the proper way to disperse the children when your personnel is in short supply?
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Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:22 pm |
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brent long
Semi-pro
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 28
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We all understand the demand for ec teachers, and we know that nclb is geared toward the low need child. I can't answer your question other than we have to follow the law and make sure the ec childs needs are met. What about the upper end child that once they meet goals, how do we challenge them?
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:58 am |
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John Parsons
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 30
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Eric,
We are having the same problem at our school. It is difficult to have a true mixture of abilities when there is a shortage of personnel. The research clearly shows that mixing abilities does produce better students but we are bound by our limitations. It is just like the NCLB, there are demands made upon the school system but there is no funding to really put the program in place. We will have to continue to push for funding and stand up for what is best for our students. This is going to be a very long and difficult struggle.
_________________ John Parsons
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Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:15 am |
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kristine kelley
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:41 pm Posts: 40 Location: Wilkes Central High School
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We too are having this problem. We have onlyone EC teacher for science and need to have her in three different subjects per day. additionally she has been asked to team teach. This means she should prep for all three and teach 50% of the time. This seems so unfair to her.
_________________ Kristine Kelley
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Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:28 pm |
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Kathy Wagoner
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 32
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The demand for EC help is present even at the little school Sharon and I work at. Just ask Sharon! On any given day you can see her working with group after group all day long. She often rushes through lunch to get to the next group. Students in my room visit her twice a day at different times so she can get in the required hours on their IEP. Inclusion is a wonderful technique to help EC students and teachers. However, with so many children needing to be served it is almost impossible. My hat goes off to all the EC teachers.
_________________ Kathy Wagoner
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Fri Feb 18, 2005 8:14 pm |
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Eric Riggs
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 33 Location: Surry County
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Along these same lines, I was wondering what you guys thought about all EC students being in the same team. My school has three teams per grade level. The EC teacher would like to stay with one team throughout the day. The English teacher on that team, desires the same. The ratio for the class is pretty small. There would be about 20 EC children compared with the 55 regular ed. I would like some feedback.
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Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:15 pm |
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ShawnClemons
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 32 Location: Bunker Hill High School
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Eric...I think that if all the EC were put on the same team, it would become known as the "dumb" team. The students will give themselves that name. That happened to my team when I taught middle school. While it's easier on the regular ed. and EC teachers, I don't think it's beneficial to the EC students. Their motivation and self-confidence plummets. When this happens, it's hard to get anything through to them.
_________________ Shawn Clemons
Assistant Principal
Bunker Hill High School
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Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:09 pm |
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Sharon Shoupe
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 30 Location: Roaring River Elementary
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Eric.
Being an EC teacher I know how hard scheduling can be. Sometimes, it's almost impossible, or it seems that way. It is much easier if you can group by ability so it would make it simplier for me to make my schedule. You have to do what's best for children. In the 5th grade we have not, there are about 12 EC kids out of 40 some kids. I would have liked to have put all of them in Kathy Wagoner's class and gone into her class for inclusion, but that is asking a lot of a regular classroom teacher. We ended up spliting them up into 3 different classrooms, making inclusion very hard due to the fact I'm the only EC teacher serving the rest of the school. It's a hard call.
_________________ Sharon Shoupe
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Sun Feb 27, 2005 3:51 pm |
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Chris Sardler
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 36
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Eric,
What would you do if you were principal? Anne Wheelock is one to read as well as articles from the National Association of School Psychologist. The jury may still be out on this issue.
_________________ Chris Sardler
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Sun Feb 27, 2005 6:34 pm |
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Val Myers
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:41 pm Posts: 36
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hi Eric,
I think you have to ask what is the best and most appropriate placement for the student. To group according to what is easiest for the teachers would be a disservice to the student and yet the time restraints and personell hamper your best intentions. Keep the needs of the students at the forefront.
The demands on EC teachers are overwhelming. The paperwork alone will cause a person to lose their sanity.
_________________ Val Myers
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Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:26 pm |
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Eric Riggs
All-star
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:40 pm Posts: 33 Location: Surry County
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I too have had the misfortune to be grouped on a two teacher team that had every EC child in the grade. Our team was looked at as "that team". The kids heard comments made during classes such as PE where everyone was grouped together. The problem my principal faced was how to accomodate all the needs legally with the staff he was given. I don't know of a different way than what he did.
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:47 pm |
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