Something to Talk About…Part II

February 10, 2011 at 2:39 PM 1 comment

Headmasters and their assistants need to know every child with an IEP. They need to carry on a continuing dialogue with the children about their strategies to overcome obstacles. Each child should come to expect that their principal will take a private moment to ask what goals they are working on, how it’s going, and what their back-up strategies are. And this could happen at any time, so they should always be ready. This is not a pop quiz, but a way to transfer ownership of the learning process back to the child. Knowing that school leaders value creative responses to learning challenges will motivate the children and their teachers to work together to find compensatory strategies. They will no longer be going through the motions of Special Education on a treadmill of lowered expectations.

The plan…

Take charge of the situation.
Provide professional development to ensure robust strategies are in place and readily articulated.
Open a dialogue directly with the children.
Ask for help from SPED teachers and the children as collaborators.
Streamline the IEP process and create data banks that track real progress over time.

There is no Get Out of SPED Free card. Children must know that they will have to work harder than their peers sometimes to overcome obstacles. They have to want it. And they have to know that there is a good chance of success. Having the head of their school recognize their plight and show interest in their progress takes the battle out of the closet and elevates the reward for accomplishment.

(to be continued…)