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I work in an early childhood self-contained classroom and I believe my students should be integrated into the general education population. My position should be one of support; I should be supporting the general education preschool teachers. My students will leave my self-contained classroom of 10 and go to a general education kindergarten class of 30. To add to that the administration firmly believes that resource room support should not be put into their kindergarten transition IEPs because they want the students to attempt kindergarten without special education support.
I understand the need for self-contained classrooms and I understand that some students (a very small population) need to be pulled form their general education classroom but I feel a special education teacher's position should be one of support to general education teachers, keeping students in the general education setting.
I am curious how others feel about full integration of special education students, especially general education teachers, who have high need, special education students in their classroom.
I agree with your view on putting special education students into general education classes. This happens in my school district. Special education students go to regular classes for core subjects. In on of my classes, I co-teach with a special education teacher. I really like the situation. With two teachers in the classroom, students have a better opportunity to get one on one time with an instructor. Also, I can observe the special education teacher in action which helps me learn a lot of information I did not learn in college.
ReplyDeleteIn my previous position I co-taught with a general education teacher and really enjoyed the experience. We were so effective and efficient by having two teachers in a classroom working together.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, at my school special education classes are not integrated into the general ed classes. Our special education teachers use the same books as our core classes and align their curriculum with the core classes. It seems to work the way we are doing it even though it would be more beneficial for the students to be in our general ed class.
ReplyDeleteIn my district, our fourth and fifth grade teachers co-teach and it seems to be very effective. While the special needs students are in the Gen Ed class most of the day, the special education teacher pulls out to offer small group instruction.
ReplyDeleteMy district is doing something I just don't understand and no one else seems to understand as well. We are de-certifying students.I don't know if its because the powers that be only want a certain amount of students in the Special Ed program, but I am at a loss. There are a couple of instances when students are taken out of a CI program and placed into an LD program. They are failing miserably. The Gen Ed and Special Ed teacher are beside themselves but there hands are tied. Anyone want to shed some light on de-certification?
I believe in full integration, but to a point. If the classroom situation takes away from the learning of all students, then there needs to be some pull out services for part of the day. But if the learning environment is on a mostly postive note then full integration is what is best for all students involved.
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