Blog # 7 Charter Schools in Alabama, Are you for them or against them?

How will the development of Alabama Charter Schools benefit both general education and special education students?

I decided to research charter schools since the State of Alabama is trying to adopt this type of schools. Here are some of the pros and cons for charter schools from different websites. Let me know what you think about charter schools.

 First I would like to know the definition of a charter school:

Wikipedia stated:

“Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money (and like other schools, may also receive private donations) but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter.^[1] Charter schools are opened and attended by choice.^[2] While charter schools provide an alternative to other public schools, they are part of the public education system and are not allowed to charge tuition. Where enrollment in a charter school is oversubscribed, admission is frequently allocated by lottery-based admissions systems. However, the lottery is open to all students.”

California Charter Schools defined charter schools as:

“Charter schools are independent public schools with rigorous curriculum programs and unique educational approaches. In exchange for operational freedom and flexibility, charter schools are subject to higher levels of accountability than traditional public schools. Charter schools, which are tuition-free and open to all students, offer quality and choice in the public education system.”

http://www.calcharters.org/understanding/what-are-charter-schools.html

California Charter schools are revisited after five years to determine if they are meeting the guidelines stated in the charter.

Here are the guidelines for California Charter schools:

The Charter Schools Act of 1992 states:

It is the intent of the Legislature...to provide opportunities for teachers, parents, pupils, and community members to establish and maintain schools that operate independently from the existing school district structure, as a method to accomplish all of the following:

(a) Improve pupil learning.

(b) Increase learning opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanded learning experiences for pupils who are identified as academically low achieving.

(c) Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods.

(d) Create new professional opportunities for teachers, including the opportunity to be responsible for the learning program at the school site.

(e) Provide parents and pupils with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities that are available within the public school system.

(f) Hold the schools established under this part accountable for meeting measurable pupil outcomes, and provide the schools with a method to change from rule-based to performance-based accountability systems.

(g) Provide vigorous competition within the public school system to stimulate continual improvements in all public schools. Ed. Code §4760

According to California charter schools have made a difference in the education of their students.

Alabama Policy Institute Charter Schools Proposal definition:

“Charter schools are independent public schools authorized through a charter agreement with a sponsor, —usually a school district, state governmental body, or university. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are overseen by a governing board of parents and members of the local community. Charter schools have greater autonomy over daily operations, academic programs, and human resources than do traditional district schools. For example, charter schools can select their own philosophy, pedagogy, curricula, textbooks, and supporting materials. They have considerable freedom over how they hire, train, evaluate, compensate, and retain employees. Charter schools oversee their own budgets including capital construction and maintenance costs. And, like other public schools, charter schools must adhere to state and federal laws regarding civil rights, students with disabilities, testing, reporting and other state accountability measures, and building and safety codes.” http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/charter-schools-in-alabama

As I read through several of the websites related to charter schools, most say that charter schools are for all students regardless of the student’s needs. However, I could not find the guidelines for Alabama charter schools like the California have their guidelines posted as a public document. I tried to pull up state guidelines for Alabama but the PDF would not open up. So what is behind Governor Robert Bentley and our state legislatures wanting charter schools for Alabama, will it help or harm our students. Also will special education students be able to attend these schools if they want to? I am not entirely convinced that charter schools will help to improve the education of our students or if this is some type of political statement to try to pull education funds from our general education budget. Our public schools have a hard time trying to come up with funds to better our student’s education without part of the funds going to charter schools. What will happen when we have several hundred charter schools and our public schools are still struggling to get funding for the latest technology innovations? I am really worried about how charter schools will affect public education. What are your thoughts on charter schools?

 I found a website that is promoting charter schools. It states the common myths about charter schools: http://www.alcharterschoolfacts.com/?gclid=CNa6pp34yK8CFQW0nQodzi2KaQ . Some of the myths include:

1.       Charter schools are not public schools

2.       Charter schools take money away from local public schools

3.       Charter schools don’t work

4.       Charter schools selectively pick only the brightest students

5.       Charter schools do not serve special needs students

6.       Charter schools only exist to line the pockets of corporations and executives

7.       Proponents of charter schools believe that charter schools are “cure-alls”, “panaceas”, or “silver bullets”

Are we really going to have charter schools in Alabama? How will this affect teachers? But the most important issue is how will it AFFECT THE STUDENTS? There are so many different opinions on the Internet, which ones are true and which ones should we believe.

The following is a video from CBS News on YouTube uploaded on September 23, 2010 Davis Guggenheim talks about charter schools and “how they have revolutionized education in America.” 

What is Charter Schools? 

Charter schools vs Public schools video:

Please give me your opinion about Charter schools. Will our students benefit from them? Will it really help students with special needs? There are so many questions which should be considered. I hope I have given you a information from both sides about charter schools. I really do not know if they will help special needs students or not.

Education Week is another great resources which you can subscribe to for continuing blogs about charter schools: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/04/13/28catalyst_charters.h31.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school

Blog # 6 Behavior Problems and ARMT testing, Boy What a week!

This week’s blog concerns behavior problems and taking the Alabama, Reading, and Math Tests (ARMT). As I watch my special needs students try to take the ARMT test, I notice that they are very agitated; usually they will speak in low tones and act normal, as in talking to themselves, or pantomiming with an imaginary friend. We have been practicing taking the ARMT test for several weeks now, to get them familiar with the testing procedures.

ARMT tests are supposed to give teachers and state officials the annual yearly progress (AYP) of students. This also helps to tell us teachers how well we have taught our students, however it does not tell us what happens to our students who have behavior problems. This is not part of the ARMT testing. My question is: “How well will special needs students do on these ARMT test? Does it affect their behavior?”

I have witnessed these special students trying to sit still during these tests. They try so hard, but they do not understand what we want them to do. Their minds cannot relate facts or how to answer the open-ended questions. My Autism student looks at me like: “What am I suppose to be doing?” He is very good at math problems, but when it comes to explaining how he got his answers, he just sits there. He does not want to skip the question, so we sit for about five minutes without answering the question. We finally get him to write down something, so he will go to the next question.

Why does the state make special needs students take these test? It really distracts them from their normal routine and is very hard for them to get back on task. To me, it seems like we are punishing them. By making them take the test. We push them harder than regular education students because if we let up they will not retain any of the learning strategies which we have taught them. This non-structured routine during the week and a half can lead to behavior problems for the remainder of the year. The following week after the ARMT tests have been difficult keeping the student with Autism on task.

Behavior problems happen with all of our students at times, but we have more behavior problems with some of our special needs students. We have students who have been diagnosed with manic depressive disorder and Bi-Polar and Schizophrenic disorders. There are also general education students who have behavior problems because they have not been taught to behave in class. Today’s children are not as disciplined at home enough. This responsibility is left up to the teachers. If we try to discipline them such as paddle them, then their parents sign the “no paddle list.” So how are we supposed to handle behavior problems at school? I know we should give positive reinforcement when we can, but how do you give positive reinforcement when a student continually gets into fights.

Behavior problems are a daily occurrence especially in special education but also in the general education population. Some of the behavior problems include not listening, taking care of other’s business, tattling, accusing others of cheating, not following directions, and continually talking, and not completing their work. This makes the general education hold back the general education students to keep the special education students together. This is hurting her general education students by not challenging them. They sit in class and then they have behavior problems because they are bored and finish their work early.

As I sit in the general education classroom and observe my special education students interaction with the general population, I notice a lot of movement, students talking, and this is very distracting for everyone. I really cannot explain why today is different from any other day except that yesterday we finished the ARMT test.  All of the teachers have noticed the difference in the students today, they are more prone to be disruptive and do not want to complete their work.

Here are a couple of websites which have great information about behavior problems. http://specialchildren.about.com/od/behavioranddiscipline/qt/stopbehavior.htm Five ways to stop school behavior problems for parents.

Here is a website that gives 8 tips to prepare students for high-stakes tests: http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/behave/academic/testtips.html. I wished that I would have known about this website before my students took the ARMT test. It has some great tips. I used part of them before the test by practicing it.

The following video is one I believe you will enjoy. Think about the questions at the end and what your answers would be.

Delicious Blog # 5 EllisonT

            Trying to find resources for my social bookmarking site—Delicious was very interesting. I used most of the websites from my annotated bibliography, but I had a problem at first trying to get my description placed on Delicious. I found that I could only use 1000 characters in the description part on Delicious. I tried several times to copy and paste my description from the annotated bibliography, but it would not take. I finally pressed the enter key after I copy and pasted it and it took, but it would only hold 1000 characters, so I had to take out part of my explanation.

In two other classes from previous semesters I had found several great websites but I did not use them because I need not add tags on them. However, I am going to share with the class my old websites from Delicious. There are so many great websites for teachers, students and educators which are for special education, Web 2.0, 21^st Century technology, Autism and many more. This is the link for my Delicious links for the other classes: http://www.delicious.com/terrycellison. I have found them very helpful, please add them to your Delicious list. 

One of the websites which I used for research was Charlielove.org, A Social Network for Education: http://charlielove.org/?p=123. This website has great resources, lesson plans, curriculum design, innovation and games. Teachers can blog other teachers and Charlie to find games which will engage students and also help to teach different strategies. It will help teachers to prepare great lesson plans to keep students engaged. It helps teachers to be up to date with innovative designs and technology for education. Another great website is Sir Ken Robinson’s website http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html because he is a great educational speaker. Sir Robinson is very specific about how 21^st Century Technology will enhance student learning and help students to retain life-long learning skills. One other great website http://www.coolmath-games.com/  that I use for my students who have exceeded my expectations during the week is to reward them by playing math games on Cool-Math. This website is great for all students, even my special needs students. It develops student’s strategies and helps them to comprehend spelling and math activities.  It also has geography and reading activities.

As I continued to work on my bookmarking site, I found it was a great way to organize my websites into different categories so it would make it easier to locate later on. For example, a category for education, 21^st Century Tools, teachers, students, special education, science, math, language arts just to name a few. I did try out Diigo, but I could not determine how to use it, so Delicious was the social bookmarking site was for me. I have really enjoyed researching the different websites for special education, Autism, technology and 21^st Century Tools and have learned a lot about this great topic. The Delicious website will be a valuable resource in the future because of the many different website resources that I was able to add to it.

My first reaction to using digital technology such as Delicious, Twitter and Facebook was that I really did not want to use them. However after I have used the social networks and bookmarks, it has made life easier for me. You can share your resources with your classmates and they can share with you. This creates an unlimited websites for teachers and educators and administrators to use. One great advantage in using Delicious or Diigo is it allows you to add tags and a description of each resource you add. It is very easy to share with others. I have really enjoyed learning about Delicious, Twitter and Facebook, because my students knew more about these sites than I did. I wanted to improve my technology skills and be able to communicate with my students as they were discussing Twitter and Facebook. They really had some great ideas about using these social networks for a class project. Learning is an ever day affair. It is never too late to learn something new. Here is my link for my Delicious websites:

http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/DlhrgO

Blog 4 Self-Contained Special Education Classrooms

In my previous blog, I spent time researching the difference between Full Inclusion classrooms and self-contained classrooms. Just a small reminder, full inclusion classrooms are where special needs students are in the regular education classroom for most of the day if not all of the day. In self-contained classrooms, students are in one classroom with a special education teacher. The students are removed from the regular education classrooms and have little or no activity with other students. However, there are those self-contained classrooms where the special needs students may participate with the general student population at lunch or at P. E., but most of their academic class time is spent in the self-contained classrooms.

My question last week was which classroom works best for the student? There are many pros and cons for self-contained classrooms as well as full inclusion classrooms. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the student should be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment to his or her learning. There are benefits for both types of rooms. Many students are better situated in the self-contained classroom for a couple of years, especially in elementary school. They learn to become independent and learn how to use strategies to study the content subjects. Self-contained classroom offer structure, routine and consistency throughout the day, where full inclusion classrooms may be distracting to the special needs students.  But if special needs students are placed in self-contained classrooms, they are separated away from their peers and do not get to have social interaction which can help to stimulate them. Sometimes just watching other students helps the special needs students to develop social skills and interaction.

In the school that I teach at, we have both self-contained and full inclusion classrooms. We have a severe special needs self-contained classroom, a self-contained classroom due to the students’ academic level of learning and several full inclusion classrooms. These special needs students have been placed in the Least Restrictive Environment. All three types of special education classrooms have worked out very well in this school. The students have progressed academically and emotionally in these types of environments. Each student has his or her own Individual Education Plan (IEP). Both general education and special education teachers follow each student’s IEP for accommodation, social interaction, occupational therapy, speech therapy and academic education. These teachers are working very hard to provide the best education for the special needs students in the least restrictive environment

I guess that I could answer my own question about which type of classroom is better for the student. The answer would be that it depends on the individual student. Teachers must learn their students and identify ways to help them achieve their education goals. It is time for teachers to step up to the plate and learn how to teach all types of students, not just the ones who get straight A’s but also learn how to teach students who are struggling to learn simple everyday tasks. I found a great video explaining what makes a great special education paraprofessional, although it is like an advertisement for Baker College the meaning behind the makings of a special education paraprofessional is worth watching. 

The Teacher’s Corner websites give pros and cons for both full inclusion and self-contained special education classrooms from members on their Blog pages. http://forums.theteacherscorner.net/showthread.php?7551-inclusion-vs.-self-contained-classrooms

 Here is a couple of comments from member’s blog:

“M3cia responded:

Inclusive classrooms:
Pros:
·         lowers the stigma of being labeled as a person with a disability

·         brings into fulfillment one of the goals of special education—to mainstream learners with exceptionalities into the big world

Cons:
·         learners MAY not be given the specific needs and assistance they need.

Self-contained:

Pros:

·         -more attention is given to the learner with exceptionalities

Cons:
·         learners may be met with shock once they have to face the world where those with and without exceptionalities walk the same road”

Another member Lynn Bambusch said: “This really needs to be decided on an individual basis. Some students do well in an inclusion setting, regardless of disability. There is also an upside for regular education students being exposed to students with disabilities. Empathy and understanding are two such advantages. Although we do not live in a Special Education world, we do not live in a world where everyone has the same abilities either. I tell my students that their right to act inappropriately ends with other student’s right to learn. I do think this generation is much more tolerant because of exposure to differences.”

As I read the blogs from the Teacher’s Corner, I realized each school is different and each student is different, so we as teachers need to give these special needs students the educational knowledge that is best fitted for them. It really does not matter where or how we teach them as long as we give them our best and know that we have tried to accommodate them.