Student voted out of classroom!!!

Originally Posted by ASUADPi

Honestly, when you have kids, don't send them to public schools then. They will be expected to work together (whether it is with a special needs child or a student they don't particularly like). I am teaching these children that people are different, that it is a fact of life and that they have to work together. There is a big difference between having the kids rotate who works with the special needs student and having one person always work with that child.

I can say that the only time I have had to seperate a sped child away from another student it had nothing to do with his disability or his abilities, it was because their personalities didn't mesh and the sped child was violent (due to his dislike) to the other child (when I say violent I mean he would deliberately hit this child). I obviously couldn't have that happening in the room, so they were completely seperated in the room and in line. Once they were seperated from each other, my class ran fine and was smooth.

I know for myself and in my classroom, the students rotated on who they worked with. I was constantly changing groups. I didn't want them to become complacent in one group and think they didn't have to do anything. Plus, I would mix up the ability levels (like I wouldn't put all the sped kiddos in one group and all my gifted in another). Yes, some children would work with my sped kiddos a bit more, but I would ask them "hey do you mind working with this child" and they would say yes. Mainly because these two little girls really liked to be the "center of attention", which working with one of the sped kiddos and having to explain the assignment in child like terms and kind of being the "boss" something that gave them an ego boost. (They probably didn't think I knew this but I did).

Here's to you then, super teacher.

Seriously though, that's awesome that you have a SPED cert, spent 2 years as a resource teacher and then are going to fly in here and be judgemental on a guy like me. As a first year teacher, I get handed the kids mods and had our SPED coordinator essentially tell me, "Good Luck".

To be honest, I've tried the group thing, I put him into a lot of different groups, rotated them throughout the fall semester. The common theme? He was a drain on each group of kids I put him with (He didn't bounce from group to group, I reassigned them each time). His group members had to go above and beyond the amount of work the rest of the students did, to make up for his part. That's not fair to them.

And do I expect all my kids to be normal? No I don't. I understand some kids will be slower than others, or have trouble with certain assignments. Hell, I teach at a school that's 60% Hispanic and has numerous LEP/ESL kids, and I seem to do fine by them.

Kitso
KS 361