Week 2. Day 1.
 

Just. So. Tired.

:|

Me, too. Tired.

week 2 nears an end
 

Tired and hopeful.

I haven't taught all the math lessons I need to this week. Literacy is going way better than it is for everyone else. Writing is going well and looks like it could be fun.

I've done 1/2 my reading assessments, all 3 of the writing samples (for each kiddo) and beginning of year math assessment. We are doing well.

My class has quite a few behavioral challenges. I decided to use tokens to help. Thank goddess I did. What they won't do for a plastic counting chip and some free time. A much much better day.

Next week I will master math lessons. It is 2nd grade. It can't be that hard. ha ha. I am not a fan of the "everyday math" curriculum. But I do need to use it.

With behaviors under control we may get an instructional pace established. Feeling like a rock star with throbbing feet.

Life keeps teaching us lessons
 

So the entitled annoying demanding TFA intern?

She still is that. And she WAS raised privileged, so she has those assumptions and expectations in her bone marrow.

BUT at 19, her father had a catastrophic health problem, and her family lost pretty much everything, including their house. Her mother has become his 24/7 caretaker, and the TFA intern and her sister now pay their parents' rent. :|

It's true that she has all these other annoying qualities of a TFA intern, but wow. Just wow.

It was a lesson for me that there is ALWAYS more to the story than how people present. In fact, this woman is what she appears to be. But she is more, much more. She is courageous and strong. And a good daughter. She is disciplined. She had to work all the way through college. No big deal, but still. She did it. My view of her has so changed. Such a lesson.

It's also a lesson about how vulnerable the middle class has become, how easily people can lose everything. She was still able to finish college. But she did have to give up her goal of going to law school. And she did it AFTER she spent a year after college studying for the LSATs while working a semi-shitty job. After much consideration, she decided that the job market was too soft for lawyers to risk being out there with a gigantic debt load. Not when she has obligations. She watched her good friend, who she had studied for the LSATs with, go off to law school. This is not the same harsh reality that our students face everyday, but this girl started out with more privilege than I had as a youngster but has had fewer options than I did -- because of long-term economic changes.

God, life is tough for all of us. I do so need to recall that.

Seriously, being middle class is not what it used to be. When a privileged, healthy, well-educated, disciplined young person can not enter the halls of power because she is not privileged ENOUGH, think of how hard it is for the working class to get ahead. And the idea of the law profession as a whole being peopled only by the very elite or very lucky . . . that is scary.

So as a result of my guilt, I have given this girl a lot of time. Re some Special Ed stuff, I have seen the scales fall from her eyes. Re other things, she's still overwhelmed and won't get it till she gets it. That's typical. But she's all grateful and thinks I am wonderful. Little does she know how I was reacting to her at first. Gawd.

My boss still thinks she is a useless waste of space (an opinion arrived at independently of mine, thank the gods). But, fortunately, my boss will not be evaluating the interns this year. The other principal will be.

So I've gingerly started job hunting. Hate job hunting! Mind you, does anyone actually enjoy it?

Sent off about four feelers today (although I have to actually sit down and update my CV), including contacting an ex student of mine (adult) from Saudi to see if he has any contacts.

I'll let you know if I get any interesting nibbles.

If only I had a teaching license or at least my Master's completed.

Figured I would drop an intro here. Been working in education for near 15 years as a "school bus bouncer" (okay, the real title is far less fun to say...Bus Supervisor I). And I specifically work with Special Needs (Read: Sp-Ed, EBD, deaf, HOH and blind students). I think this year has by far been the toughest due to my school district beginning the year with a $2mil deficit as well as cuts to Title 4 and other federal funding. Sadly, the students are the ones who suffer as result...but I am sure I am "preaching to the choir" about that.

Anyhow, wanted to join the ranks here and wish my fellow educators a smooth year.

I hate my new job. My boss is insane (no seriously, I am willing to bet my annual salary she is or could be clinically diagnosed) My class is pretty OK but I am so afraid of my boss and her illegal antics that my medical issues are cropping up. It isn't pretty. I am in the process of considering a career change. It sucks.

Thanks to all who sent love across the internets! It isn't lightly that I am discussing a complete career change (at middle age with a fairly young kid at home) and I thank you for your love and kindness. You, and all teachers, will always be in my thoughts and prayers even if I leave the ranks! {{{{{you}}}}}

Got the "School year cold #1" here too. Was hoping to maintain a perfect attendance for the first semester...but that didn't happen as that I took Friday off because of being sick :(.

Hope these little buggers don't have a new plague lined up for me waiting once I get over this one. :|

Wish my district has something like this:

I am on break and enjoying some of it. I am finishing up a move, which is no fun. Tomorrow will be hell. Anyway, I applied for a part-time job a couple months ago and didn't hear back. I did today. So I have to think about whether I want to work more. I could use the money, but . . . .

Last time I worked extra jobs, I stopped exercising and started gaining weight.

It would be OK interesting. It's Special Ed for kids in a virtual school. I guess I would tutor and test and run their IEP. Not sure.

But working extra jobs has not been a good thing in the past. I gotta figure out if it will be now.

a questions for our wonderful educators New York state has adopted the common core curriculum. Many may elementary school children are struggling with it especially in the math. homework every night and it is hard, my daughter is doing well very well but she always excelled but even she is frustrated and worried about her friends who are having a hard time. We also just got the test scores for the start of the year and she was very high in math and also in the english language arts but rated as meets standards this child who in the 4th grade reads at a 10th grade level and is currently on the second book of the hunger games. many parents are up in arms about this new common core kids not wanting or having stress over homework and kids hating school so what are your thoughts

Well, at this point in many states transitioning to Common Core, kids are getting tested on things they have not been taught. So scores will go down compared to when they were tested by state standards.

Common Core will mean spending more time on fewer subjects so students can learn at a deeper level. Skills are emphasized as well as content knowledge. Students will have to write and speak more -- they will be routinely required to explain how they arrived at an answer or a conclusion. There will also supposedly be more real world texts, problems, and projects, so kids will hopefully be more fully engaged. And in fact, it if it works, it will make them more prepared for college and the world, where you are expected to think, speak and write. All this is old hat to educators. But teaching to state standards has meant we have been forced to adopt the most backward and mind-numbing teaching strategies in order to raise standardized test scores.

Students have had to be taught so they could score well on multiple choice exams. For example, they'd learn that the Declaration of Independence expressed the philosophy of natural rights, but they'd never spend time with the text or be taught why it was so revolutionary at the time.

What happened was that the standards in most states were so broad and the consequences for not doing well on the exams so severe that school districts developed teaching strategies that were all about teaching to the test. We didn't actually teach the state standards. We taught the test. Our Districts gamed the state exams and gave us curriculum designed to raise scores. The whole purpose was to teach students tiny bits of what felt like unrelated knowledge while managing behavior when the understandably bored students were tempted to act up. So Common Core will be a real step up from that.

I have no doubt that Common Core is going to make a lot of textbook, tech and testing companies rich at the expense of school districts and taxpayers (and teachers and students). I imagine implementing it is going to be a mess until it's fine tuned by real practice and real feedback (which they should have gotten before implementation). I also think there is going to be more resistance than usual for a number of reasons. Even so, I do think it's a change in the right direction.

To answer your question, if it is implemented effectively, I think kids will hate school less although the later in their educational career they are, the more difficult it might seem. Kids should be less bored. In truth students -- humans -- like to learn, and they know when they've been stretched or when they've just been made to do something meaningless.

You also are referring to the fact that the reading level of texts is getting harder under Common Core, meaning books that used to be assigned in high school will now be taught in middle school. I don't have a problem with that. Kids need to struggle with hard text. And this is in English Language Arts only. Social Science and Science texts will still be at kids' instructional reading level.

Testing students to determine their instructional needs is one thing. Testing students to determine how a school is doing is another. As a parent I extremely dislike standardized testing that students do. If I could opt my kid out I would. I don't like the data mining, waste of instructional time and the money that is being spent on a sadistic way to torture children just so we know those schools are doing a good job. NCLB and Race to the top, and the Common Core have successfully brought about a more nationalized curriculum and helped testing and curriculum corporations make a lot of money.

Maybe it is time for a more nationalized curriculum. Less local control and such may be fine in the global world we live in now. However, the common core standards do emphasize deep understanding of concepts in math and language that may not be entirely appropriate developmentally.

As a teacher I am thrilled to work harder to teach deeper understanding to students. I see the kids I work with as very capable. However I think that can be done while remembering they are children. That their minds need to breath as well as learn. And the number of standardized tests required are too freaking much! There are ways of knowing the students needs without all the worry.

I agree with Martina.... an engaged student is less distracting to the learning environment. Keeping everyone engaged at their level and then more for a challenge is an art for sure. :) And it is good for kids to be challenged. I think we just need to get better at acknowledging them for rising to the challenge with out trivializing their successes.

Education lessons from around the world

American students routinely score low compared to other industrialized countries on problem-solving tests in math, science and reading. What are we doing wrong and are there lessons we can learn from schools around the globe? To get to the bottom of these questions, journalist AMANDA RIPLEY followed three U.S. exchange students into classrooms in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, some of the top education systems in the world. She writes about their observations in her book The Smartest Kids in the World – and How They Got That Way. Marty talks to Ripley and one of the exchange students about what education ideas we should borrow from abroad - See more at: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2013/....3QzelZf6.dpuf

South Korea one of the top education systems in the world? :| How on earth did they come up with that?

I had a casual meeting with the Principal of a new international school near where I've been living for the past year. The school has only been open this year. I was supposed to go and visit the school this week but didn't so really must make an effort next week.

I think the Principal likes me. :D

Best Education In The World: Finland, South Korea Top Country Rankings, U.S. Rated Average

The United States places 17th in the developed world for education, according to a global report by education firm Pearson.

Finland and South Korea, not surprisingly, top the list of 40 developed countries with the best education systems. Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore follow. The rankings are calculated based on various measures, including international test scores, graduation rates between 2006 and 2010, and the prevalence of higher education seekers. (See the list of top 20 countries in the slideshow below)

Pearson's chief education adviser Sir Michael Barber tells BBC that the high ranking countries tend to offer teachers higher status in society and have a "culture" of education.

The study notes that while funding is an important factor in strong education systems, cultures supportive of learning is even more critical -- as evidenced by the highly ranked Asian countries, where education is highly valued and parents have grand expectation. While Finland and South Korea differ greatly in methods of teaching and learning, they hold the top spots because of a shared social belief in the importance of education and its "underlying moral purpose."

The study aims to help policymakers and school leaders identify key factors that lead to successful educational outcomes. The research draws on literacy data as well as figures in government spending on education, school entrance age, teacher salaries and degree of school choice. Researchers also measured socioeconomic outcomes like national unemployment rates, GDP, life expectancy and prison population.

The report also notes the importance of high-quality teachers and improving strong educator recruitment. The rankings show, however, that there is no clear correlation between higher pay and better performance. The bottom line findings:

There are no magic bullets: The small number of correlations found in the study shows the poverty of simplistic solutions. Throwing money at education by itself rarely produces results, and individual changes to education systems, however sensible, rarely do much on their own. Education requires long-term, coherent and focussed system-wide attention to achieve improvement.


Respect teachers: Good teachers are essential to high-quality education. Finding and retaining them is not necessarily a question of high pay. Instead, teachers need to be treated as the valuable professionals they are, not as technicians in a huge, educational machine.

Culture can be changed: The cultural assumptions and values surrounding an education system do more to support or undermine it than the system can do on its own. Using the positive elements of this culture and, where necessary, seeking to change the negative ones, are important to promoting successful outcomes.

Parents are neither impediments to nor saviours of education: Parents want their children to have a good education; pressure from them for change should not be seen as a sign of hostility but as an indication of something possibly amiss in provision. On the other hand, parental input and choice do not constitute a panacea. Education systems should strive to keep parents informed and work with them.

Educate for the future, not just the present: Many of today's job titles, and the skills needed to fill them, simply did not exist 20 years ago. Education systems need to consider what skills today's students will need in future and teach accordingly.

To be sure, South Korea's top spot doesn't come without a price. Stories of families divided in the name of education are all too common, to the extent that the phenomenon has bequeathes those families with a title of their own -- kirogi kajok, or goose families, because they must migrate to reunite.

But America's average ranking doesn't come as a surprise. A report recently published by Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance found that students in Latvia, Chile and Brazil are making gains in academics three times faster than American students, while those in Portugal, Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Colombia and Lithuania are improving at twice the rate. Researchers estimate that gains made by students in those 11 countries equate to about two years of learning.

What gains U.S. students posted in recent years are "hardly remarkable by world standards," according to the report. Although the U.S. is not one of the nine countries that lost academic ground for the 14-year period between 1995 and 2009, more countries were improving at a rate significantly faster than that of the U.S. Researchers looked at data for 49 countries.

The study's findings echo years of rankings that show foreign students outpacing their American peers academically. Students in Shanghai who recently took international exams for the first time outscored every other school system in the world. In the same test, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading.

A 2009 study found that U.S. students ranked 25th among 34 countries in math and science, behind nations like China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland. Figures like these have groups like StudentsFirst, headed by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, concerned and calling for reforms to "our education system [that] can't compete with the rest of the world."

Just 6 percent of U.S. students performed at the advanced level on an international exam administered in 56 countries in 2006. That proportion is lower than those achieved by students in 30 other countries. American students' low performance and slow progress in math could also threaten the country's economic growth, experts have said.


---------------
Center on International Education Benchmarking:
Learn about the world’s best performing education systems and what sets them apart.

------------
Globe and Mail:
Seven characteristics of great education systems

As children return to the classroom, this is a good time to consider what makes a great school system.

In her recent book The Smartest Kids in the World, the American journalist Amanda Ripley delves into the highly reputed education systems in countries such as Finland, South Korea and Poland, and surveys the latest literature on why kids learn or don’t.

The book contains many fascinating revelations and a number of prescriptions that can be boiled down to seven key lessons for educators, parents and students.

Mathematics is vital. Math is even more important than we knew. Math skills correlate highly with future income, and with academic success, research shows. Most academic superpowers forbid elementary and high school students from using calculators. They also tend to offer a far more challenging curriculum than schools in North America. The best education systems in the world focus tightly on key concepts, teach them in depth at an early age, and ensure that students master the basics from which to build.

Teachers should be highly prized. It should be difficult to become a teacher, and the job should be socially prestigious. In Finland, admission to an education program is as demanding as medical school; graduates must earn a master’s degree and conduct original research to obtain it. Students, parents and bureaucrats respect teachers, because they know how hard it is to become one.

Classroom technology is a waste of money. There’s no indication that fancy pedagogical doodads such as electronic whiteboards and tablets have a tangible effect on student performance. Rather, the systems that spend their money on teachers and curriculum development tend to do better.

School should be about school. Rigour is key, and the standards must be high. The best systems take learning extremely seriously, an attitude that is reflected in the broader society. In Finland, there are few extracurricular activities; if children play sports, they do it on their own time. In Poland, students wear their best suits and dresses to their annual exams. In Korea, police issue tickets to drivers who honk outside test centres and kids spend their evenings in private study facilities. Top countries also make it clear to students that learning can sometimes be hard, and includes drudgery.

Extra help is widely available. There’s a recognition that students often need specialized assistance. Roughly half of all Finnish students receive some level of remedial or special education by the time they turn 17, whether it’s extra attention from teachers or a specialized curriculum aimed at improving language, reading or math skills or overcoming learning difficulties, which are treated as temporary. The extra help is almost always provided in-school, and generally takes up only a portion of the day.

Critical thinking is emphasized. That means essay questions rather than multiple-choice exams, explanations rather than straight answers, and students working collaboratively on problem solving.

No system is perfect. There are union squabbles, dissatisfied parents, policy shortcomings and rampant inefficiencies in even the highest-performing education systems.

Canadian parents should be reassured that Canada’s education system is actually quite good by international standards, and performs at a much higher level than that of the U.S.

But there’s always room for improvement.

I heard Amanda Ripley talk about the book on NPR, and she said no one would recommend how South Korea does it, including South Korea, but they have had results. So she looked at them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bard (Post 850270) a questions for our wonderful educators New York state has adopted the common core curriculum. Many may elementary school children are struggling with it especially in the math. homework every night and it is hard, my daughter is doing well very well but she always excelled but even she is frustrated and worried about her friends who are having a hard time. We also just got the test scores for the start of the year and she was very high in math and also in the english language arts but rated as meets standards this child who in the 4th grade reads at a 10th grade level and is currently on the second book of the hunger games. many parents are up in arms about this new common core kids not wanting or having stress over homework and kids hating school so what are your thoughts

Hi Bard, I've been teaching in NYC for over 16 yrs and believe I have seen it all! lol To me, this is just another 'new' thing. I will survive! I don't mean to sound jaded, but this has been the cycle of education since the 1950s. I am a good teacher; I know, my students know, and my administrators know I'm a good teacher. So, I just bear with every new fad that comes along. In a nutshell, here's the dish in NYC
http://www.uft.org/news/comedy-error...table-material

On another note, has anyone seen The American Teacher? [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzvD9v7CbEE"]AMERICAN TEACHER: Official Trailer - YouTube[/nomedia] It is on Netflix and Hulu. I thought it was amazing. I wonder what other educators think.

a wee bump ...
 

The countdown begins ... I started my new job the beginning of December at a new international school. I'm working on schemes of work ... well, sort of.

On the other hand, teaching art, music and pe on top of the core subjects should be a scream. I can't even draw half decent stick figures! From 6th January I shall be tormenting poor unsuspecting 5-6 year olds for the year.

I'm not an educator, o222Good, but I liked reading your post this morning. By coincidence, I happened to learn about a documentary that was playing at an independent house of films, just last week, called: At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman). Here's an excerpt from a recent article about Wiseman's documentary on particular aspects about Berkeley:

"Frederick Wiseman’s new documentary, “At Berkeley,” isn’t the movie for anyone who still has nightmares (as I do) about college classes missed and exams unprepared for. The movie centers on the University of California at Berkeley during an ongoing state of economic siege resulting from a decrease in state-government funding. The film, like most of Wiseman’s films, is about the life of an institution: the rules, principles, and ideas that constitute an institution, and their connection to the lives of people who realize it, manage it, and depend on it. “At Berkeley” is also an uninhibited love poem to the idea of the university—or, rather, to a particular side of university life. Wiseman’s portraiture is analytical, but his analyses are oriented and organized by a governing principle: in this case, the way that universities foster dissent and protest and, in the process, defang that dissent and protest," ~ Richard Brody, The Paradox of a Great University, in The New Yorker - November 15th, 2013 (Link to article).

Thanks for sharing about The American Teacher (will share about your film with my small circle of friends, here at home).

End of semester grades turn me into him every year -- :grinch:

They're bbbaaaacccckkkkkkkkk!
 

It's break, and I need it. I have been running so hard that I don't know how to stop. Seven weeks after we come back from break, it will be summer vacation. But it will be a long, hard seven weeks. I have quite a few IEPs left to do. And it's time to make sure all the seniors have everything done in order to graduate (very stressful). And there's paperwork, reams and reams of paperwork, due at the end of the year. My mother was an elementary school teacher, a Reading Specialist, and she tells me what they had to go through at the end of the year in the pre-computer days. I guess I should be grateful. But there is one spreadsheet I haven't kept up, and thinking about doing that . . . well, it makes me nauseated. And then there are the grades. :(

All hell has broken loose on the HR side at work. My Assistant Principal was fired (unfairly). The Director of Special Education was also fired (she deserved it). That happened a while ago, but they told her she could stay till June. I guess they changed their minds because they walked her and her personal belongings out the door last Tuesday. There's only one person at the manager level over there (normally there are two). There are not enough Program Specialists (the third level down and the folks we deal with the most). One gave them two days notice and moved to another state. Another went out on medical leave, and I think they were down one to start with. So no one picks up the phone or answers emails. I had one Program Specialist come over for an IEP (in and of itself a miracle), but she was a nervous wreck. She was so out of it that she didn't seem to understand what was going on. Stress, I am sure.

In my instructional unit (a weird conglomeration of alt ed sites), most of the teachers are unhappy with our Principal (in part for firing the Assistant Principal, but also for other -- good -- reasons.) We had a secret meeting with the union president to try to figure out what can be done. I am ordinarily a rabble-rouser, but I had nothing to do with organizing this although I attended and cheered them on.

Admin and Special Ed moved a much-liked colleague -- who was a big part of my daily life at work -- to another site and gave me her caseload, which made me both sad and overworked. She still stops by and visits (bless her).

The students seem to be having more problems right now too. Just coincidence, I guess. Except for the four who are stressed about graduating, the causes are completely different.

On the home front, the maintenance required light went on in my car. I took it in, and it will be a five hundred dollar repair. And I can't drive it far till my Thursday appt to get it fixed. So my mini-trip to visit a friend is off. Spending money on the car instead of fun sucks.

Oh, and I am on a diet because my arthritis is worse, and restricting some foods really does help.

AND I am working on a short paper for an online course. Normally, I might actually enjoy that, but not right now. Right now, I just feel *grrrrrrr*

There's actually more. Lots more. God, I do not love the couple of months before the end of the school year.

I need at least two weeks of this before I even think of doing anything else --

http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Pr..._of_summer.jpg

One more day and still there's paperwork. They say that many teachers leave the field because of the paperwork. I can understand it. I have two huge closing files to put together tomorrow. About four hours of the kind of work that causes me to throw pens across the room. Seriously. And THEN I can close up the room and leave.

My paperwork looks messy, but it's all done. And it's for real. A first-year teacher told me today that she had not graded her students' math homework all year. She only teaches one math class, thank god. She just marks the work done and enters it in the online gradebook. I can imagine alternating, grading every other assignment and marking the alternate one done. But to grade nothing? All year. She discovered at the end of the year that one student had simply copied the problems without doing them -- all year. But this teacher had all her grades entered in the computer on time, etc. Everything looked good. I do empathize with her. She's first year and is in grad school at night. I have seen her work with kids. She's fine. But damn.

Another teacher, a very experienced teacher, hadn't done a single IEP all year until about a month ago. She hadn't even done one from the 12/13 school year. So I helped her. She also screwed up some stuff and nearly caused a kid not to be able to walk at graduation. She didn't double check. Man, I quadruple check where graduation is concerned. I drive those poor clericals crazy. I actually caught her error -- accidentally. And she was so oppressed and passive when I called her up that I redid the paperwork for her and called everyone and his uncle and got the kid's diploma printed and so on. He wasn't in the program, and his gown was laughably too short (a leftover one not used last year). But, his parents saw him walk.

The thing is that her area is always neat as a pin. Perfect. She LOOKS like she's got it all under control. But the curriculum she uses is the crap that has been in the files for YEARS. She doesn't create anything new herself. And then she does stuff like this. There are other examples. She forgot to enter a kids' grades for an entire semester -- like two years ago. The kid kept complaining that he should have more credits. So finally I looked at his transcript, saw a missing semester, and asked her if he had attended that semester. She fixed it then. But she made the error -- I don't blame her for that -- and then didn't pay attention to the kid. (I look at my students' transcripts all the time. I have to to keep them in the right classes -- not give them too many credits in one subject and too few in another. It gives me chills to think she is not looking at transcripts very often.) ANYWAY, these are just the things that somehow came to my attention, so how much more must there be?

I like both of these teachers fine as people and think they are good with kids. But seriously? I mean, seriously? What honks me off is that my paperwork is raggedy ass and gets the raised eyebrow from the coordinator, but it's graded for god's sake. And it's all there. And my IEPs are done, and my graduates walk. Seriously, if I hadn't seen that kid's name on a list that implied his enrollment was ongoing and then asked about it, he would have had a sad shock. The teacher hadn't even looked at that list. Oh well.

I sound more self-righteous than I feel. But I don't know who the people we are supposed to aspire to be are. Are they the folks who are still at school at 11pm every night? I can't do that. There aren't too many of those folks either. Is everyone else who looks good like these other two teachers, faking it in one way or another? I wonder.

Because, in fact, it's too much. No one can do this much stuff and make it look good unless they are super-teacher. I am not. I guess I'd rather be raggedy ass and legit. I do not know how the other ones live with themselves.

Martina,

I appauld you for doing it the right way (even though all this paperwork can drive us more than bonkers). In the case of the child copied the answers to all the math problems, this is not going to serve him in the long run because he will go onto another level of math unprepared.

But you are a professional. I know many teachers on the college level who wait to grade (sometimes even assign papers that should have been assigned all semester) at the last minute. It amazes me how they think this is teaching. It takes a lot of work to adjust curriculum (I don't do IEP's but I know how much a pain in the ass they are but they are legal documents and sometimes the accommodations on them help the child get what the need (very sometimes if they are actually provided) to be successful.

Have a great summer and enjoy yourself