At my schools, special ed students are mainstreamed for music. That means that a class of special education students (about 15) come to music at the same time as a regular class (32) in my little tiny classroom. My first year, they were just sent with an aid. After discussions with the principal, union reps, and others, we determined that their teacher needed to be present as well. It's still a very frustrating situation.
The worst part for me is the behavior. It's really difficult to manage the behavior of that many students in that small a space at one time. The special ed teacher doesn't do much to help, either. At first, I was hoping she would do all the management of her class since I don't know as much about their disabilities. That didn't work because she doesn't seem to monitor their behavior. So I teach all these students while monitoring and correcting behavior.
Here's what I've tried: Communicating with the teacher so that she'll be more involved with the lesson. Unfortunately, she seems really dingy and either interrupts me and the flow of teaching or just sits off to the side.
I've proposed giving them their own class time (can't because their IEPs specify mainstreaming them in music) or having just a few of them in many different music classes with an aid (the teacher wasn't willing to part with an aid for that much time).
I've tried having the teacher work with them in small groups while I do a whole-class activity with the rest. This doesn't work well when singing, and the time we did this while they were doing group activities, her group totally missed the objective, even though they were just writing what she told them to.
Has anyone had similar frustrations? Are there any suggestions you have? I love all of my students, but the current plan is just not conducive to learning.
3 Super Simple Systems for Stress- Free Music Teaching
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It doesn’t matter what area of music we’re teaching- instruments, theory,
curriculum or something new- there is a non-negotiable that is essential
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3 years ago
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*Rolls Up Sleeves*
ReplyDeleteOkay, I've been on a roller-coaster ride with special ed. ever since I started teaching. Administrators & counselors tend to think that music classes are the *perfect* place to mainstream special needs students (don't get me started on that).
It's not that I want to refuse working with special ed. students... I just don't think that special ed. students should be mainstreamed regardless of their disability or behavior patterns. A lot of the students have been wonderful, and I was happy to include them in the experience. Some have been rather inert, and do little but sit and stare at the walls (maybe they got something out of just being in the room... I don't know... they didn't do any damage, but I had no idea how to "grade" them) A few have been so disruptive that I had to campaign to get them out of the class.
Anyway, back to your situation. It sounds like the special ed. teacher isn't doing her job. If the consensus of the grand council was that she be present during your class, then I would think the assumption would be that she actively monitored her students so that you didn't have to. Now obviously, you still have to monitor them somewhat, but if they are getting a severely unbalanced portion of your efforts in class, then I think it is fair to say that the mainstreaming effort occurs at the expense of the regular students. Compromise is one thing, but sacrifice is unacceptable. When that happens, the class stops being about music and simply becomes a vehicle for mainstreaming. (I've used this argument before.)
Keep in touch with your admins and union reps. I would report to them regularly (successes and failures) Be a squeaky wheel. Don't let them continue to think that everything will just be okay, and that eventually you'll figure out how to deal with it.
As far as dealing with special ed kids, here's what I learned (directly from the department chair herself.)
* SE kids are often slicker than they let on. In mainstream classes, they can try to pull the "poor little retarded kid" routine to get away with behaviors that the SE teacher would NEVER put up with. It's okay to call them on it.
* As much of a pain in the butt it may be, doing a little research about various disorders can help (especially with things like autism).
* I have older kids, and this works for me, but I don't know if you can do the same - I sometimes enlist the regular students to help the SE kids. They can help monitor behavior. IMPORTANT: this is always voluntary. I never 'assign' a student as a stand-in aide... and I always keep half an eye on them. After all, the students have far less training than we do.
* Coming up with strategies that work can be like inventing a flying machine. You design the concept, build the model, test it, watch it fail, and start over. Sometimes I don't succeed until 2/3 through the year.