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Ah, this is exactly WHY No Child Left Behind came into being
and the pendulum swung way the other way to "Full Inclusion" --
because in self-contained special education classes, it was so
often "teacher choice" on curriculum, materials, homework or
not, assessment etc. etc. AND there was little or no oversight.
I feel our pain as a teacher who is working to do right by
these students as I always expected an appropriate, sequential
curriculum, especially in language arts, for my daughter and
her EMR classmates. I was the only educated parent so you can
imagine how popular I was with some of the lazy ones........but
too bad. However,my interest was as a parent and not as a
coworker so do be careful.

If you are new and do not have tenure, then I would be very,
very careful about what you do if any thing. If you have
tenure, then could you speak in confidence to your special
education director - who is outside of the building - about
what you observe in the school with the suggestion that he/she
might want to get the appropriate building level administrator
to come and just drop by a couple of times. I would hope the
administrator would then start asking to see the teacher's
curriculum planning/lesson plans etc. Again, it is not as if
you were "snooping," but you were put in this setting, and
these issues were put in front of your face. It is too bad
that the kids do not have parents keeping on top of what is
happening............

On 11/16/13, what do I do? wrote:
> 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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