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I teach high school special ed. Occasionally I am asked to

cover another special ed. teacher's class during my prep

when he has an IEP meeting. Both times I have covered his

class, once he was showing "Life of Pi". There was no

assignment with the movie, and it was the second day hewas

showing it. (It is a pullout Language Arts class.) They

had not read the novel that goes with the movie.

About 2 weeks later, I was asked to cover the same class,

and the movie "Tommy" was being shown (rock drama from the

70's). The students were told by the teacher to write down

examples of "symbolism" in the film. However none of the

students were doing this just watching the movie. I wasn't

able to figure out the symbolism because it was the 2ndday

of the movie and I hadn't seen the beginning.

Ok fast forward to yesterday, about 2 weeks after that. I

popped into his room during the last 10 minutes to get a

paper from a student I needed signed. I heard through the

door and saw shades drawn that yet another movie was being

shown. I walked in and saw it was a 1970's James Bond

movie. I had a bit of conversation, the teacher told me it

was one of his favorite movies.

I am not seeing how these special education students are

gaining valuable skills in reading and writing from these

several days of Hollywood movies. It seems like he's just

showing movies. I have almost all of the same students in

my classroom for Math and I spend lots of time developing

lesson plans. I really want these kids to progress in

their skills in Math. I also teach special education

Health class, and am also working my butt off for that

class to make sure they gain the valuable knowledge needed

to lead a healthy life.

So..these kids are coming to my room, asking me why I don't

show movies like this other Sp. Ed. teacher does. I have

shown some educational health movies. I guess I'm feeling

I really care about these students' learning and this

teacher is just skating by showing movies all the time,
not really teaching. These kids need to improve their
skills in reading and writing desperately, that is the sad
thing.

Is there a way to talk to administration about this to

address this without being identified as the one who
turned him in? I would like to support him because I really
want these students to meet their IEP goals. I'm not seeing
how watching "Tommy" and "James Bond 007" is going to help
them learn to read and write.

I know some are thinking "This is none of your business,
stay out of it" but it is my business because many students
in Sp. Ed. classes tend to be unmotivated. So they are
thinking from this teacher that special ed. classes are
just a joke where the teacher just shows movies all the
time. They are coming to my classes with this same type of
attitude, that the class just isn't important and they
won't be held accountable for learning because it's just a
resource room class. This teacher is just making a joke
out of the special education program.

What do I do?

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