Conferences & IEPs [Special Education from the General Education Eye]

Today I sat in on my first initial Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. It was also the first IEP meeting in which my name was on the actual IEP and I was able to sign-in. We had referred one of the girls in our class for special education under the category of learning disability. It was very interesting to observe an initial IEP, because I was able to hear all of the assessment results from the school psychologist. He actually led a majority of the meeting and then turned it over to the special education teacher. The meeting was quick and the parent, whom we know very well as she volunteers in the school, was very compliant and understanding. I was very excited because I really felt as though I knew everything that was going on and could predict what would happen next. It is so nice to finally be taking all of the knowledge that I have gained over the past three years and putting it into practice. With this placement it is also very beneficial to me that I am able to see special education from the general education perspective.

For example, we are currently in the process of referring two of our other students to special education and I have been able to see their performance in the general education setting and how their disability (or probable disability) affects their performance within the general education setting and with the general education curriculum. I have also been able to witness the referral process from this side and have been able to watch the conversations that my mentor teacher and the school psychologist had to have with the parents, informing them of the referral and asking for their permission for further testing. Luckily, in both cases, the parents were very accepting and open to any type of testing and/or programs that could help their son/daughter to receive the help that he/she needs. I think this was a very beneficial thing for me to witness, especially being a special education major, because for the most part I will be seeing these students once they have already been tested and referred for services. I enjoy having experiences in which I can both learn about and experience the events that take place before a student begins special education services.

Smart Pens & Smart Kids :)

So, I recently introduced a new technology into my classroom which I will be using with my students in order to conduct research for a couple of Hope College professors. I volunteered for the project because I love technology and this seemed like a really innovative tool. As a participant, I was given three pens along with notebooks and am required to use them with three students in math. I am incorporating my pens into one math lesson per week and my three students were randomly selected. During the guided practice portion of my lesson, my students use the smart pens and the smart notebooks to complete the same problems that the other students are completing in their math workbooks. Now, about these smart pens...

 

 Using these pens and the special notebook that comes with them, the user can write while speaking into the pen and the pen will record both what the user has written and what he/she has said. The pen can then be plugged into the computer where it will upload the writing and the voice. It can then play back the writing and the voice at the same time, displaying the words one letter at a time, therefore displaying it just as if someone were actually writing and talking right then on the computer screen. Talk about technology!

 Now, the purpose of using this technology as far as our research goes, is to determine if the use of the pen increases a student's meta-cognition in mathematics. It should also (hopefully) increase the student's mathematical fluency.

Today was our first day actually using the pens during a lesson and my two students who used the pen (my third student was absent) did a spectacular job. They completed the guided practice problems just like everyone else, but they worked in their own notebooks to record the answers. First, they had to press the record button at the bottom of the page, and then they had to solve the story problem, talking through the steps as they worked through them. I was then able to plug each pen into the computer and bring up the work that the student had completed. The whole class would then watch and listen to the student work through the problem as displayed through the computer and onto the projection screen. This helped my students who worked with the pens because we could talk through which steps were correct and which were incorrect. We could also see exactly where mistakes were made and correct them on the spot. Additionally, my other students could hear someone else talk through the problem, which is another method of representation of the information. Having the information come from a peer makes it that much more valuable. In all, the lesson went very well, the students loved it (even the ones who did not get to directly use the pen), and I'm hoping that this will continue to be a positive tool in our classroom.

For more information regarding the Livescribe Smartpen, visit this website: http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/ 

I will be posting more updates on the success of the pens as we go along! :)