I thought you were suppose to learn that...

Back in college, one of my professors once told me that there are two things in special education that you need to remember...There are things that are right and there are things that are real. I got a taste of what is real, even though it may not be right. In my classroom I have 7 of my 12 students on IEPs for various reasons, many of them severe emotional disturbance, a few learning disabilities, a couple mentally retarded, and then we have other health impairment. Today I saw one of the worst examples of other health impairment that I had no idea fit that category. Lack of organizational skills. I don't get that, there are a lot of people with that but I do not think it would require that you be placed full time in a resource room. I am not seeing the correlation. The girl is fine to me, maybe I am missing something.

I also have seen some fine examples of what not to do on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) such as not proof reading, over wording, and just plain stupidity. Little Johnny (not his real name) is suppose to show respect of others and not act aggressively 3 out of 4 times, so like the 4th time he can flip the heck out. It just made me laugh while I was typing up our SPED reports, but it isn't my job to rewrite it, it is my job to help teachers learn implement it or take our best guess at what they mean. Some of them are so broad and general that something as simple as handing the student a tissue would be able to count for making progress. Okay, so it isn't that bad, but it is still pretty bad.