FAQ

What is your job?

Many special educators get this question. The answer varies between each teacher. I have a Special Education Teaching license in Massachusetts. I tend to work primarily with students on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) who may need extra support in or out of class.
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What is an IEP?

An Individualized Education Program (sometimes called an Education Plan or IEP) is a legal document that helps people working with a student identified with a disability (known as the TEAM). The TEAM sets goals that the student works on for the year. These goals may be to help the student improve in academics, social skills, motor skills, etc. See my link to the government website for more details.
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What makes your teaching different from the classroom teacher?

Classroom teachers have training in elementary education. My training is in Special Education. It includes learning about different disabilities, how the disability changes the way students learn, and how to address those barriers. My focus tends to be on essential skills and using systematic, direct instruction. Some students may learn new things just by exposure in class alone, but others may need to further explanation of what they are seeing and what is happening and a chance for additional support and practice. I may teach small groups or individuals in a setting outside the classroom.

I often collaborate with teachers on methods that may be help in the classroom, provide them with materials to supplement their lessons based on individual students' goals, and assist teachers in implementing accommodations in the classroom.

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What are the cartoon pictures I see around the school?

These are icons from a computer program called Boardmaker (see links page). Many words found in the dictionary also have a picture that help students visualize it.

These simple pictures help students remember, categorize, and understand what these words mean, without the pressure of decoding (reading). Icons also help students who haven't learned to read yet.

Think of how helpful pictures are in your everyday life: Bathroom signs, Stop signs, Railroad, Stairs, Dangerous Curve, etc.

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What is a Response to Intervention?
(answer taken directly from Burlington Public Schools website)
http://www.burlington.mec.edu/rti/index.htm

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an overall integrated system of service delivery, which consists of providing high quality instruction matched to the student’s needs, using the learning rate over time and level of performance to make important educational decisions. RTI has two components: explicit instruction and progress monitoring.

With explicit instruction, a trained school staff member implements interventions and teaches the student.

Progress monitoring first establishes the baseline of where the student is prior to implementing the intervention then provides the means for data to be collected while the intervention is implemented. The data collected in progress monitoring determines the effects of the intervention. Response to Intervention is a data based decision making process.