Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

With the last few weeks of school approaching, I hope to have to change very little. Things are going quite smoothly over the last few weeks in my class and most of the students know exactly what to expect and are doing a pretty good job of meeting those expectations. One of the things we did at the end of last year and that we are planning to do again this year is a trip to the Arizona Science Center. My kids absolutely loved it last year and it gave them something to work toward and to keep them on track. We went the first week in May last year and I hope to do the same this year. This way, I only have to keep them motivated for 2 weeks afterward, during which time we will be doing quarterly testing and helping them finish up their elective classes.

As for the incentive program, we have a school-wide incentive program that has and continues to work very well. I will definitely tap into that whenever possible. And the good thing is that parents are already aware of the incentive program. The other thing that helps with that is that I have 9 IEP's to complete over the next 6 weeks. That will keep me in contact with over half my parents, in and of itself.

Everybody now!

One of the most difficult things I have struggled with in my two years of teaching is how to keep all the students engaged. Due to the cognitive difficulties, my students require almost individual attention in order to get work done and learn. And when there is only one teacher and usually only one IA, that can leave 9 or 10 kids twiddling their thumbs asking how to do this or that when the instruction is truly individualized, such as when we are working on IEP goals. And when there is whole class instruction, quite a few of my students just sit there and do nothing because of their receptive language difficulties and cognitive processing difficulties.

As a result, when I am doing whole class instruction in my math class, I have done two main things to keep student engagement high. First, when I put problems on the board, I tell the students to show me their answers on individual white boards or their calculators instead of just shouting out the answer. This allows everyone to participate at their own pace. Second, I try to ask engaging questions using words like 'everyone' and 'each student' in those questions instead of 'Can someone' or 'does anybody'. This hopefully helps my students realize that I want everyone at least thinking about how to find the answers.

The bottom line is that keeping my students engaged is a constant struggle for a few reasons - learned helplessness, genuine lack of understanding, and low self-esteem just to name a few. I hope that the biggest thing I do to keep my students engaged is to let them know that giving up and giving in are never options. I try to express belief in them at all times and let them know I love them and want them to be successful!

These good folks are awful handy!

I have developed a really good relationship with quite a few school counselors in my two years at Westwood High School. They are extremely good at what they do and very personable as well. Additionally, they have helped me numerous times with my students' crazy, jacked up schedules. Due to the alternate classes that my students participate in, the registrar has struggled to get things done correctly and timely. When this has happened, I have gone in to the counselors and they have been absolutely awesome! Every time, without fail, they helped me fix the problems and get the schedules correct.

Now, if all they did was schedules, AIMS testing, and help kids with post-high school plans, they would keep themselves tremendously busy. But, on top of all that, they also handle emergencies when students struggle with emotional or behavioral issues. I had a student who was expressing suicidal thoughts and stated that they had a plan for committing suicide. I followed our school's policy and sent them to the counselor on-call. The counselor was able to deescalate the child, help them express their feelings, contact their parents, and get them in touch with their therapist. There was excellent coordination of care and the student was able to get the help they needed.

The not so Common Core!

Just as common sense is not so common these days, the Common Core standards are not so common in my classroom. The biggest issue I have is that I still do not know how these new standards apply to my students. These new standards, as it relates to math, call for mathematical knowledge and performance standards that almost all of my students will never attain to in their lifetime. They are unable to because of their cognitive deficits and processing difficulties. And, thus far, there are no alternate standards to accompany the Common Core standards. This is my biggest concern and worry as it relates to implementation of the Common Core Standards.

Now, there is another side to the Common Core. I am really excited about the new standards and believe that, if implemented across the board by teachers, will improve learning and allow for students to grow and learn in unprecedented ways. These standards consistently push students to delve deeper, construct their own models for learning, and ultimately to learn how to learn.