classroom aide

May 22, 2006

Hello everyone,

Some of you may receive this a few times as I am cross-posting it on a few

different groups. My appologies to those that may read it three or four

time...)

is just finishing up first grade and our IEP meeting to plan for

next year will be on Thursday. I already know that her HI is increasing her

time with and I will be asking for speech services to include at least

one session individually. I'm also pretty sure which teacher we will get next

year. It may sound like I know what's going on and how to get it. Well, after

looking back at this year I realize that would probably benefit from

having an aide in the classroom. I know that some of you refer to this as a

paraprofessional. This was our first year in this district and they are very

" aggressive " in their teaching. This may great for a small class, or where many

of the students are at a higher level of achievement, but that is no longer the

case in our growing (rapidly) town. 's first grade class had 26 children

in it. They say there was an aide, but she was shared between the three first

grade classes and I don't think she every

really worked with the kids, at least this is what I get from the HI and

. They don't have a volunteer program at our school (don't even get me

started on that) so there wasn't anyone to help the teacher when/if the students

were having difficulites.

Some of you might remember that the personel at the school feel quite

strongly that 's " issues " this year were stemming from a lack of attention

or ADHD. Although some of it may have been, I'm sure that more of it had to do

with her hearing loss. I could cite several examples, but I won't bore you. (We

are getting her evaluated this summer for ADHD, so we will hopefully have an

answer before school begins in the fall). Anyways the reason I want a aide for

is not because I want someone to hold her hand. That would be bad for

her because she would take advantage of the situation. What I would like an

aide to do is to make sure that when she begins to work on an assignment, that

is on the right track. That she understands what is being asked of her.

She also needs some additional help with sentence structuring. I didn't realize

how large a writing component there was in first grade and I know it will be

more in second grade. It's not that she

can't do the work, it's just that she needs a few more prompts to get it done

correctly. IT was becoming very obvious to me that the teacher either didn't

have the time to do this, or thought that should be able to do this

alone.

On another note, it should be interesting to see what they do in gym for

second grade. You may remember me telling you that they put all first grade

classes together for gym. That means 79 children in a gym at one time with two

teachers. I'm not sure if got anything out of gym this year, but also I

wonder if she'll be expected to " learn " more in gym next year and not be able to

due to the circumstances.

So does this request seem reasonable? Anyone want to share pointers on how I

get this? I've casually dropped this into conversations with her team as I

could, but I usually got back " Oh that might not be good for her...she'd become

too dependent " or " hmmmmm, interesting " .

Debbie, mom to , 6, moderate SNHL and , 3, hearing

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were

and ask why not. G.B Shaw

---------------------------------

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May 22, 2006

79 children with 2 teachers in a gym sounds UNLAWFUL to me--please check

your state's laws on that. I don't think that would work here in NC.

Best of luck,

Robin T.

>

> Hello everyone,

> Some of you may receive this a few times as I am cross-posting it on

> a few different groups. My appologies to those that may read it three or

> four time...)

>

> is just finishing up first grade and our IEP meeting to plan

> for next year will be on Thursday. I already know that her HI is increasing

> her time with and I will be asking for speech services to include at

> least one session individually. I'm also pretty sure which teacher we will

> get next year. It may sound like I know what's going on and how to get it.

> Well, after looking back at this year I realize that would probably

> benefit from having an aide in the classroom. I know that some of you refer

> to this as a paraprofessional. This was our first year in this district and

> they are very " aggressive " in their teaching. This may great for a small

> class, or where many of the students are at a higher level of achievement,

> but that is no longer the case in our growing (rapidly) town. 's

> first grade class had 26 children in it. They say there was an aide, but

> she was shared between the three first grade classes and I don't think she

> every

> really worked with the kids, at least this is what I get from the HI and

> . They don't have a volunteer program at our school (don't even get

> me started on that) so there wasn't anyone to help the teacher when/if the

> students were having difficulites.

> Some of you might remember that the personel at the school feel quite

> strongly that 's " issues " this year were stemming from a lack of

> attention or ADHD. Although some of it may have been, I'm sure that more of

> it had to do with her hearing loss. I could cite several examples, but I

> won't bore you. (We are getting her evaluated this summer for ADHD, so we

> will hopefully have an answer before school begins in the fall). Anyways

> the reason I want a aide for is not because I want someone to hold

> her hand. That would be bad for her because she would take advantage of the

> situation. What I would like an aide to do is to make sure that when she

> begins to work on an assignment, that is on the right track. That

> she understands what is being asked of her. She also needs some additional

> help with sentence structuring. I didn't realize how large a writing

> component there was in first grade and I know it will be more in second

> grade. It's not that she

> can't do the work, it's just that she needs a few more prompts to get it

> done correctly. IT was becoming very obvious to me that the teacher either

> didn't have the time to do this, or thought that should be able to do

> this alone.

> On another note, it should be interesting to see what they do in gym

> for second grade. You may remember me telling you that they put all first

> grade classes together for gym. That means 79 children in a gym at one time

> with two teachers. I'm not sure if got anything out of gym this

> year, but also I wonder if she'll be expected to " learn " more in gym next

> year and not be able to due to the circumstances.

>

> So does this request seem reasonable? Anyone want to share pointers on

> how I get this? I've casually dropped this into conversations with her team

> as I could, but I usually got back " Oh that might not be good for

> her...she'd become too dependent " or " hmmmmm, interesting " .

>

> Debbie, mom to , 6, moderate SNHL and , 3, hearing

>

> Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that

> never were and ask why not. G.B Shaw

>

> ---------------------------------

> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+

> countries) for 2Â¢/min or less.

>

May 22, 2006

I wonder if a parapro would come out of special ed funds. If so, it might be

something the people in the actual school could take advantage of to have a full

time aide NOT paid out of their funding. So it might be something the people in

your actual school might be willing to get behind. Remind me if Nichole had an

FM this past year. With a large class that would be even more necessary. Is

the HI willing to be proactive about the " attention " concerns and tell them how

this is related to hearing?? Sounds like they need a good dose of Carol Flexer

- " we medicate children who can't listen!! "

May 22, 2006

Debbie wrote:

Anyways the reason I want a aide for is not because I want someone to

hold her hand. That would be bad for her because she would take advantage

of the situation. What I would like an aide to do is to make sure that when

she begins to work on an assignment, that is on the right track.

That she understands what is being asked of her. She also needs some

additional help with sentence structuring. I didn't realize how large a

writing component there was in first grade and I know it will be more in

second grade. It's not that she

can't do the work, it's just that she needs a few more prompts to get it

done correctly. IT was becoming very obvious to me that the teacher either

didn't have the time to do this, or thought that should be able to do

this alone.

So does this request seem reasonable? Anyone want to share pointers on

how I get this? I've casually dropped this into conversations with her team

as I could, but I usually got back " Oh that might not be good for

her...she'd become too dependent " or " hmmmmm, interesting " .

***

Debbie, this is exactly the type of " inclusion " services will be

getting next year, based on the fact that he flunked the school district

" standard writing test " for his grade level by one point (out of 20) this

year. The teacher coming in to help will be there 2 to 3 hours a week

solely for him (at a minimum), but she'll be coming to help other children

in the room as well, so he'll actually get more time with her. really

struggles with word-finding, and she's going to concentrate on helping him

develop a method to organize his thoughts so that they translate well into a

written document. She's also going to help him with breaking up his

week-long workplan (the list of works he needs to complete *at a minimum*

during a given week) into a set of daily goals that is easier for him to

manage, and she's going to keep an eye on him while she's in the room with

other students to make sure that he's actually on task (instead of spacing

out). We're hoping that having this, combined with his speech therapy, will

help him to overcome the language hurdles that he has right now - and we're

also hoping that he'll be able to wean himself from her presence within the

next couple of years.

I hope this helps.

Kris

Mom to (7 y.o., Profound/Complete SNL, Left Ear) and Ethan (6 y.o.,

hearing)

May 23, 2006

<

>

I think you're going to need to come up with a longer list of things the aide

will need to do. We just had Neal's IEP and the thing I was most worried about

was that they would take his aide away. I do want her gone eventually because I

want him to handle things on his own, but the transition from K to 1st is a big

one, and for a kid with transition issues already, I thought it would be plain

foolish to start without her. They approved her full day through November in

the end (after tossing around the idea of having her come just for recess and

transitions), and we will reconvene then to decide on the rest of the year. I

think you might benefit from playing up the ADHD concerns. Even if you don't

agree with them, they have said it is causing her problems, so going from an

angle that you know they already agree with seems like a good start. Talk about

how you are concerned with her attention and plan to have her evaluated over the

summer. Tell them that you don't think she will be able to handle 2nd grade

with her attention issues combined with the hearing impairment unless she has an

aide. She needs someone there to get her focused or redirect her as needed, and

to make sure she has heard the directions. If she has transition issues that

cause behavior problems by any chance, then talk about how she really needs an

aid to help her through those times. Neal's aide does sensory diet exercises

and such with him to get him back on track after recess for example. Mention

that you don't want to take up all of the teacher's time and make the

other kids lose teacher attention. My husband said last year and this year at

the IEP meeting that he wanted an aide for Neal more for the teacher than for

Neal.. He said he didn't want the teacher spending 90% of her time on dealing

with Neal (My husband is a 2nd grade teacher at Neal's school), and for some

reason, both times that seemed to make a light click in the team members'

heads. If you can get this year's teacher on board for the need, that would be

great. If she would be willing to say that had taken up a

disproportionate amount of her time and that having an aide would benefit both

, the teacher and the other students, that would be helpful. What Neal's

teacher said this year was that there were many time when she didn't need Neal's

aide, but that when she did need her, there was no way she could have done it

without her. That was pretty truthful and helpful.

Rhonda Savage

Mom to Audrey, 9, hearing; and Neal, 6 1/2, CII at 2.9 years

" Hard does not mean impossible. "

May 23, 2006

Hi there,

Yes, had an FM system this year. She's had it since she was in

preschool.

I'm not sure how proactive the HI will/can be. She's been working with

since started preschool at 3 years old. She has seen how much better

has gotten over the years in her ability to not bounce around constantly,

but she feels that maybe there is something else there too. What I think is odd

is that I had expressed this concern to her preschool teacher and the HI a few

years ago and they all said that it was " enthusiasim for life " that kept

her so happy and active. Even last year, it never really came up. But this

year we are back in our home district and now everyone wants to say that it's

ADHD or ADD. They don't see how the hearing loss can affect her. There was an

example the other day that her HI related to me. As the HI brought

back to class, asked her teacher where the kids were. Her teacher

replied that they were at recess. started out the door and then asked

again where the kids were. Her teacher once

again replied that they were outside at recess. So went out with the

kids. The teacher then looked at the HI and said, " See, she just doesn't pay

attention " . The HI looked at her and told her " No, that's not what it is.

Usually when and I come back to class, the class is in music. Today you

told her recess. She heard you, but she didn't understand why there was a

change, so she asked for clarification " . As the HI was telling me this I was

screaming inside!

Since there are only 2 teaching days left, I'm not even going to waste my

time setting her teacher straight (something I thought I had done a few times

this year). But I definately want to make sure that this kind of stuff doesn't

happen next year. Sooooo, what Carol Flexer book is that from?

Debbie, mom to , 6, moderate SNHL and , 3, hearing

pcknott@... wrote:

Is the HI willing to be proactive about the " attention " concerns and tell

them how this is related to hearing?? Sounds like they need a good dose of

Carol Flexer - " we medicate children who can't listen!! "

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were

and ask why not. G.B Shaw

---------------------------------

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

May 23, 2006

Kris,

This would be the ideal situation for . We don't have a standard

writing test in first grade (or at least I'm not aware of it), but based on the

grades that has gotten in language related things, I'm sure she wouldn't

have passed it.

Maybe I can see if they have someone like this that can fill this need.

Thanks for sharing.

Debbie

EskiLvr eskilvr@...> wrote: