Feds Invest in Special Educators

With an eye on improving services for students with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education is funneling millions into programs to train new special educators.

The Education Department said this week that it is granting $12.8 million to university programs coast to coast to address anticipated shortages in the field.

Autism, Parents and Teachers: Bridging the Communication Gap

SFGate.com autism advocate blogger Laura Shumaker touches another critical issue.

I was talking to a group of teachers last week, something I do frequently, about my experience raising a child with autism. My favorite part of these talks is the Q and A. “You can ask me anything,” I say, “and I will answer to the best of my ability.”
I get a lot of juicy questions, but there is one that I am asked most frequently:

I could do a better job if I could communicate more with parents. How can I get them to talk to me?

I flash back to the year that I was that parent, and how his teacher bridged the communication gap.

Exploring Untraditional Teaching Methods

Boys in Ginny Stevens' third-grade classroom spent the school year without desks. It wasn't because of budget cuts -- it was action research.
Stevens and about 80 other Clark County School District educators displayed their findings after months of unorthodox teaching practices May 13 as part of the fifth annual Best Practices Action Research Data Fair at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd.
Stevens' class of 22 boys had small, portable desktops to work on, but how they positioned themselves and where they sat, or lay, was up to them.
"Furniture really does get in the way," Stevens said. "They like free seating, and it offered a lot of flexibility. Boys need more space than girls. They like to stretch out."

Displaced Special Educator Speaks Up

The feeling of telling someone you lost your job is difficult task to undertake. I didn't really lose my job though; I had it taken from me by New York Governor Cuomo with his budget cuts to education and by NYSUT, the union I belong to, whose support of an inane "Last in, First out" rule has prevented me from continuing my work with my high school students.
I have been on a nine-year journey through two graduate schools, three one-year teaching positions between New York and Florida and countless days of substitute teaching in the hopes that I would be more marketable to a district in the process. The 'Last in, First out' rule cost me and thousands of others around the state this year and it is destroying the institution of teaching.
As a nation, we do not give support to teachers and educators: instead, politicians and parents alike condemn teachers when students do not succeed and decide to make drastic budget cuts that make educating the next generation less appealing as a career. Where are the priorities of this once great nation? Governor Cuomo says that districts should have better fiscal management: "Manage the school system. Reduce the waste. Reduce the fraud. Reduce the abuse."
Well, which one am I Governor Cuomo? A waste? A fraud? An abuse of the system? Was my hiring a poor choice for a resource room for students with Asperger's Syndrome despite my expertise with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders? Are you really in a position to make a call like that?