Checkin' out the IEP's

I’m really getting to know the kids now and have their names memorized, who they are, their personalities and a lot of their individualities figured out. It’s been really neat to have the ability to sit and analyze some of the kids during the class time. It’s been even cooler to be able to actually talk with them and get to know them because I’m there all day long. There are multiple kids that come into the classroom between their class periods to say hi to me. Love it. :)

It’s been so helpful to see the IEP’s after getting to know the students because I feel like I actually have the capability of understanding what they really need instead of just a couple of suggestions on a paper that say “let the student repeat assignments and give them preferential seating.” This is not to say by any means that I know more than the people who have evaluated these students earlier and written IEPS or other teachers who have been working with these kids for years. This is just to say that during our educational journey, our “IEP students” have always been this phantom people that have never been more than words on a page to me. I know that each student is much more complicated that what we see on their file, and what we are instructed with during TEL. It’s just been really interesting to me to work with the less severe learning disabled students and try to find the best way to subtly help them in a way that it’s not obvious that they’re in any way different from the rest of the class. I’m so glad that God has put a lot of different students with learning disabilities in my life over the years and I’ve been able to work with them and learn from each one of them. Finding the correct balance of instruction, individual help and subtlety will be an elaborate challenge that will be fun to learn.