15 August 2021 I’ve thought about giving an update on how school districts in our area are coping with the latest pandemic outbreak, but I’m going to take a bit of a swerve and discuss something a little different. Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE) is on the minds of a lot of educators, but the sort of PPE that is on MY mind is a bit different. It has nothing to do with protecting myself from a stubborn, highly infectious virus. No, the sort of protection I’m thinking about looks less like this: and more like this: Or maybe this: https://education-forum.ca/2016/05/03/protecting-ourselve ..read more

I have finally finished my first year teaching for the largest charter school in Georgia, which also happens to be part of a larger company that is the largest online K-12 school in the U.S. And it has been quite an adventure on so many levels! This past year, I was a special education teacher, co-teaching algebra 1 to mostly 9th grade students. This alone would have been a challenge for me in any setting, since math is not exactly my best subject. Unfortunately, this is true of most special educators as most teachers who have a talent for math end up teaching it regularly. And those with a ta ..read more

I have finally finished my first year teaching for the largest charter school in Georgia, which also happens to be part of a larger company that is the largest online K-12 school in the U.S. And it has been quite an adventure on so many levels! I am working on an article about being an online teacher but realized that I also needed to write something about being an online student since these go hand-in-hand. Since far more people will eventually be taking classes online than teaching them, I decided to lead off with this one.  All online teachers end up being online learners, so this is n ..read more

When I came across this in my facebook feed this evening, I knew I had some things to say.   First reaction– this should never EVER happen. No parent should EVER be blind-sided at their child’s IEP. Ever. This is a pet peeve of mine, but unfortunately many many school districts and their committees set this precise scenario in place, creating an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion. And it is SO easy to prevent! It’s as easy as gravity. It’s called communication and it happens before the notice of the meeting even goes home. Teachers, you have GOT to talk to the parents. The more you drea ..read more

My yearly post comes courtesy of some interesting discussions with my varied Facebook friends about economic policies and specifically about the minimum wage.  Having two teenage sons has definitely helped shed some light on the state of things as far as jobs and the economy as well as my own background, going back to the days on the farm.  I can try to talk about the economics of the minimum wage to my friends, but there might be more power in simply sharing a more personal (and maybe simple) example. Two years ago, I wrote a bit about efforts to get my oldest involved in beekeeping ..read more

When I first ran across this story earlier in the week, it sent a chill through me.  Even almost a week later, it still elicits a strong sense of frustration.  I’m prone to living a rather solitary life any way, not wanting to get out and visit, travel or socialize overly much.  And stories like this tend to reinforce a general view that there’s no place like home.   This is my nightmare on so many levels.   I imagine almost every parent of an autistic child or adult is horrified at just this sort of scenario.  As a person who takes autistic teens out i ..read more

As my oldest gets ready to complete his first year of high school, transitioning is a topic that weighs heavily on my mind.  It’s made more acute by the fact that in my business of being a special education teacher, I’m busy writing something called a “Summary of Performance” for all of my graduating seniors.  This is a document that is meant to capture all of what the student did in his/her high school years and then outline what resources might be available for those students when they transition into post-school life. Here’s a newsflash for other parents of students with autism: t ..read more

I promised in my last entry that I would blog a bit about the Atlanta Teacher scandal.  How little did I know how closely this thing would hit home for me, personally.  But you’ll have to hang on for a minute. As I wrote my last entry, I began looking deeper and deeper into that situation, watching and reading hours of testimony given by witnesses.  There were initially over 170 educators from 40 different schools named in the investigation.  As time went on, educators came forward, confessed and cooperated and in return they were given a sort of leniency.  But it was ..read more

I can see that this might be one of those multi-part posts where I talk about different aspects of one of my favorite topics: standardized testing. I’ve been grinding against this sort of testing  for a very, very, very long time.  Granted, most of it was about the alternate assessment because that is where I was living at the time.  Now I live in a vastly different universe.  Still exceptional in a world of exceptionalities! But I thought it might be informational and beneficial to talk a bit about the logistics involved with state testing for a virtual school that serves ..read more

I hope my co-teacher doesn’t see this.  But in case she does, I’ll say here what I’ve already told her and the other pre-calc teacher with whom I share (virtual) classroom space: They do a superb job at teaching students and accommodating my lack of mathematical prowess.  They are amazing teachers, and the most wonderful co-teachers anyone could ask for.  They are top notch people who love students and love what they teach.  Which is to say, they love math. I do not love math.  But I do give the math teachers that I have co-taught with high marks for moving me into a ..read more