first year with inclusion

Great question. You could tell them your kids are able to handle the reg. classroom in terms of their classroom behavior and curriculum. Hearing that would ease the reg. teacher’s mind.

If that can’t be promised or even if it can, ease their minds by telling them you want to know what’s happening and if there are problems, you’ll handle them. Just to let you know and you’ll take care of it-

I was surprised when I sent a few kiddos out into regular classes, who I had seen handle grade level material in my class well… FLOP.
The class size and reading and writing and homework demands, I suspect, were behind the failures — I *hope* your situation turns out differently. However, with that in mind, DON’T WAIT for them to tell you a week before grades com eout that yea, Kim is failing, hasn’t turned in any homwork, can’t pass the quizzes…. be proactive and have strategies & interventions ready to use (not sure what they’d be in your situation). Of course, they could have already decided not to fail anybody — in which case they’ll have fun sitting in the classes pretending to learn… but that’s a different problem.

I have seen this situation a lot. Being proactive is great advice. The regular ed teachers in school need to be accountable also. We email the teachers weekly and ask them what the student grades are for that week and if they are missing any assignments. We address these concerns at the ARD(IEP) because many teachers would allow students to miss in the double digits for assignments, then the student would fail. It needs to be a team effort centered around communication. Good Luck.

specedteach mentioned Teamwork….YES!!!! I believe the parent is part of the team as well. (not in a condisending way„but in the respect of responsibliliy for the education of thier child as well….no?)

Yes…I do work also. But i also manage..and goodness knows how„to be in the classroom as much as possible(I aim for 1x a week, at least) to “observer”.

Not the teachers teaching…but behaviors I see as well as sucking up as much of cues used in the teaching of material to use at home to re-enforce material.

Remember IEP’s?…that a team, including the parents……so should the education.

In the past, I’ve experience great difficulties with homework because I wasn’t in sync with the teachers. Granted„difficulties are still there..but when they do appear it’s usually because of retention or “pull-out” is needed for a particular topic.

Yes„,Inclusion has it’s draw backs….On this point, I feel some of my daughters difficulties are masked with alot of help from staff so her scores come in “good”…..but usually I can pick up on this and as soon as I call a meeting to bring this to the attention of the principle/LEA Rep….things are changed immediately. More or less„„,I see the same difficulties the teachers do..but when thier hands are somewhat “tied” I step up and try to get the support they need.

I’m not perfect but I try to be a productive member of the “team”. A example of this is material that was to be done everyday this summer…was it done…NO!!!!!! I know„,bad mommy. Not productive nor supportive…but yet I’m torn with the fighting to have materials finished that other children do not have and my daughter knows it…hence a huge fight. I figure…you know…I gotta fight with things 9mons out of the year..My daughter and I derserve the 3 month break. Not “cool” but that’s that.

Sometimes I honestly think Teachers, Parents and the children are the puppets and the government /adminstration is the Master of us Puppets.

take care. :wink: