I'm new to teaching in KY, but I'm not new to teaching. Our district is small (approx. 2300 students), but we seem to have an unusually large number of special education students (approx. 650). Is this the norm for a KY school district, or is this number significantly larger than other districts in KY?
Do you fill out your own PSD form (the form listing what classes you teach and how many students are in each class) or does someone else fill it out and send it to your central office without your seeing it?
On 9/29/02, no name teacher wrote: > Do you fill out your own PSD form (the form listing what > classes you teach and how many students are in each class) > or does someone else fill it out and send it to your > central office without your seeing it? We fill out or own PSD forms and they also have to have our signatures on them.
On 10/01/02, catbird wrote: > On 9/29/02, no name teacher wrote: >> Do you fill out your own PSD form (the form listing what >> classes you teach and how many students are in each class) >> or does someone else fill it out and send it to your >> central office without your seeing it? > We fill out or own PSD forms and they also have to have our > signatures on them. Have you filled out your PSD form for this school year? MY 1st two years of teaching in a KY school, the dept. chairperson filled out my form without my input and brought it to me on a clipboard and held it out and told me to sign it. After two years of that, I got suspicious that what I was actually teaching and the number of students perhaps were not correctly listed by this person. Sadly, I learned I was correct. This person was "cooking the books" and trying to make it look like my sp.ed. classes were not out of compliance. I've been waiting for the PSD form to appear this week, but so far, I've not seen one.
Help, is anyone out there in cyber special ed KY using SETs? I heard from a few people but I need more voices please. My administration is telling us that teachers across the state are using STI and SETs and not experiencing difficulties. Are we just real stupid or what in my district? Help please
Rick, It's good to hear from an intelligent KY administrator (retired-I don't blame you!). After teaching for 20+ years in a progressive, forward- thinking district in another state, I now find myself in culture shock here in Kentucky. The local building and district administrators generally are a defensive group who do not want teachers to think outside the box although they do pay lip service to the concept when writing their Comprehensive Improvement Plans. I'm just amazed at the ability of these local administrators to speak from both sides of their mouths. Whatever they think will tickle the ears of the hearers, is what they will tell them.
I suspect these administrators are quite insecure in their educational and experiential backgrounds, and they are unable to accept teachers who they perceive as intimidating by virtue of either knowledge and/or solid educational experience. I don't think it's my fault that they are intimidated by me. These good folks have tried their hardest to find something wrong with me and with others like me; however, they can find no fault with our teaching abilities and consistently give us outstanding evaluations. They now resort to baiting me with comments made in an attempt to get me angry and to dance to their tunes. I've refused to take the bait by just saying nothing when a huge red-faced administrator yells at me while standing over my desk. I've perfected a cool, calm facial expression that just drives these good-old-boys/girls up the wall.
We are a small district of approximately 2300 students; however, we have 660+ students classified as needing special education services. Is that the norm in the state? Should I believe that almost 29% of the students in this district are disabled, or should I believe that the district is heavily into overidentification of students with disabilities in order to bring in the big bucks from IDEA? We have an inordinately large number of special education students who have multiple disabilities (i.e. EBD/OHI, or LD/OHI). These kids bring in over $10,000 each to the district opposed to the regular education student's $3,000+ in SEEK funding. Is this an isolated incident in my district or is it a KY trend in planning the school budget?
My particular school has yet to have one IEP produced using SETS. The other district schools are using SETS; however, our sp.ed. building coordinator is not especially tech savvy so I suspect that our foot- dragging is because she's not comfortable with any computer software programs. Even when KDE placed the IEP templates on their website, she continued to just download the forms and complete them in handwriting.
When my youngest child finishes school here in a couple of years, I plan to say "good-bye" to the field of KY education. I figure there's an easier way for me to fill my waking hours--perhaps, web design or consulting. I'd love to be a Highly Skilled Educator (I heard them referred to as Hussie's recently) and be assigned to a district similar to the one where I'm now employed. What fun! Bluegrass
On 11/05/02, Bluegrass wrote: > Rick, > It's good to hear from an intelligent KY administrator (retired-I don't > blame you!). After teaching for 20+ years in a progressive, forward- > thinking district in another state, I now find myself in culture shock > here in Kentucky. The local building and district administrators > generally are a defensive group who do not want teachers to think > outside the box although they do pay lip service to the concept when > writing their Comprehensive Improvement Plans. I'm just amazed at the > ability of these local administrators to speak from both sides of their > mouths. Whatever they think will tickle the ears of the hearers, is > what they will tell them. > > I suspect these administrators are quite insecure in their educational > and experiential backgrounds, and they are unable to accept teachers > who they perceive as intimidating by virtue of either knowledge and/or > solid educational experience. I don't think it's my fault that they are > intimidated by me. These good folks have tried their hardest to find > something wrong with me and with others like me; however, they can find > no fault with our teaching abilities and consistently give us > outstanding evaluations. They now resort to baiting me with comments > made in an attempt to get me angry and to dance to their tunes. I've > refused to take the bait by just saying nothing when a huge red-faced > administrator yells at me while standing over my desk. I've perfected a > cool, calm facial expression that just drives these good-old-boys/girls > up the wall. > > We are a small district of approximately 2300 students; however, we > have 660+ students classified as needing special education services. Is > that the norm in the state? Should I believe that almost 29&37; of the > students in this district are disabled, or should I believe that the > district is heavily into overidentification of students with > disabilities in order to bring in the big bucks from IDEA? We have an > inordinately large number of special education students who have > multiple disabilities (i.e. EBD/OHI, or LD/OHI). These kids bring in > over $10,000 each to the district opposed to the regular education > student's $3,000+ in SEEK funding. Is this an isolated incident in my > district or is it a KY trend in planning the school budget? > > My particular school has yet to have one IEP produced using SETS. The > other district schools are using SETS; however, our sp.ed. building > coordinator is not especially tech savvy so I suspect that our foot- > dragging is because she's not comfortable with any computer software > programs. Even when KDE placed the IEP templates on their website, she > continued to just download the forms and complete them in handwriting. > > When my youngest child finishes school here in a couple of years, I > plan to say "good-bye" to the field of KY education. I figure there's > an easier way for me to fill my waking hours--perhaps, web design or > consulting. I'd love to be a Highly Skilled Educator (I heard them > referred to as Hussie's recently) and be assigned to a district similar > to the one where I'm now employed. What fun! > Bluegrass
Hey Bluegrass and Rick! This one is for you! At the most recent administrators meeting it was announced by the special education director that my school was the only school to have no errors kicked back by the state dept of ed exceptional children division. Furthermore if this school can accomplish this goal all of the schools should be able to! Guess what guys? Yep! We have no errors because we don't use the program! Duh!
I would like to share a pronunciation program that is co- branded by ETS and the Chauncey Group. It is the only one I can find on the net that is something worth looking at. It is a multi-media program that improves pronunciation skills for students and professionals at the intermediate level and above. This program provides a unique focus on how to identify and use the most important elements of pronunciation - stress intonation rhythm. It has over 68 interactive lessons & practices - All on just one CD-ROM with ten different languages - German, French, Italian, Chinese - Simplified, Chinese - Traditional, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Portugese - Brazil, Spanish. It has video Presentations to introduce the concepts, audio Lessons to model the pronunciation, written activities to reinforce the practices, Record and Playback options for practice/self correction. It has a workbook - printable versions of all lessons and practices. Pre and Post assessment - audio files saved for comparison.
On 9/29/02, no name teacher wrote:
> Do you fill out your own PSD form (the form listing what
> classes you teach and how many students are in each class)
> or does someone else fill it out and send it to your
> central office without your seeing it?
We fill out or own PSD forms and they also ...See More