My Boarding School Blog
09 21st, 2010 A Look on Special Education
Special Education is a collection of services provided by educational institutions to persons with disabilities between ages 3 to 21. The program is designed to guarantee that students with disabilities are provided with an effective teaching environment. People with disabilities ranging from physical disabilities like hearing impairment, deafness and blindness, mental disabilities like Autism and Down’s syndrome, behavioural deficits like attention deficit hyperactivity disorders; and those with cognitive disabilities like dyslexia.
In Canada, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHCA, PL 94-142) orders states to provide free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to all students with disabilities. Students will need to undergo a comprehensive screening from a medical team for identification and diagnosis. An Individual Educational Plan (IEP) will be provided for each student which specifies academic and behavioural goals to be met, services needed and the ongoing evaluation process. Institutions has the option develops their own IEP including a detailed assessment of the student’s strengths and areas of improvement.
In the US, Special Education was made mandatory by the Federal Government in 1975. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was created to address issues of discrimination against students with disabilities. The EHA was later made into Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The states in the US are funded to provide Special Education coherent with Federal Standards. Part of this act is the promotion of the least restrictive environment (LRE) for students with disabilities along with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). LRE is characterized as giving opportunity to the students with disabilities to learn and be educated with non-disabled peers. Generally students with disabilities should have access to resources, extracurricular activities, and programs available to non-disabled students.
To be qualified to participate in the special education provided by the IDEA, a student needs to have any one of these disabilities.
- Autism
- Developmental disability
- Specific learning disability
- Intellectual impairment
- Emotional or Behavioural disability
- Deafness and Language disability
- Blind or those with Visual Disturbance
- Physical Impairment
- Attention Deficit Disorder, Multiple disabilities and brain injury
It is very important that the state cares for providing education to people with disabilities. As part of the nation’s aim to push for the “No Child Left Behind” policy legislators and educators are mandated to provide these benefits to qualified applicants. Training for teachers of special education should be enhances to better equip them with the knowledge and expertise in helping these kids attain standard education fitting with their needs and disabilities.
read comments (1)09 9th, 2010 Employing Better Teachers
An improvement in student performance entails getting better teachers to teach the young minds effectively. Students can be difficult to teach and at other times even impossible to handle. Not even the most intelligent teacher can succeed if he doesn’t know classroom dynamics and how to impose discipline at some time.
The number of college students taking up Education and going into teaching is decreasing in numbers. There are various reasons why but the most stated cause is because it doesn’t pay enough to meet the daily demands of living. In a TIME magazine poll 76% of the participants said that most intelligent people don’t go into the profession of teaching because of low salary. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that an average public school teacher earns around $49,000. The lowest of the range earns around $32,000 while those belonging in the highest bracket earns up to $78,000. While others perceive that teachers get paid less than other blue collared job, this can be misleading and unreliable. The true reason behind the decreasing popularity of the noble profession is that it lacks the prestige it once had. In the past when one is asked about his profession and he answers, “I’m a teacher”. There is this certain awe that follows and respect is automatically given. Now teenage students don’t even care to look at a teacher with a small amount of respect to stop and greet them. Shouting and disrespect is common in the classroom when students feel rebellious.
A program called Teach for America (TFA) takes on the challenge of encouraging the brightest college students who graduated from prestigious schools to teach in public schools for two years before they pursue individual careers on to the corporate world. The task is not easy but the advocacy of changing the face of education is an invitation one cannot easily say no to especially if the future leaders of the nation will come from these students whom you’ll get a chance to teach. It works in 3 ways- you can donate to help the members in their advocacy, enlist to teach or refer a friend who would be interested to take part in the program’s aim and objective.
The US Department of Education foresees that around 1 million teachers are needed by 2014. Another challenge is how to make new teachers stay. Most new teachers get tired and exhausted which leads most of them to give up teaching in their 2nd year when they are just learning how to work a classroom. Exemplary teachers are not initially good at what they do the first year they enter into teaching. They undergo a process in which their experiences make them better teachers as the years go by. What they need is guidance and ongoing training to develop their skills to help them become effective teachers to their students. Programs that offer supplemental training and knowledge of teaching styles, methods and trends should be made available to teachers through programs initiated by the government. This will give the teachers a sense of fulfillment and importance as they see their professional career grow and flourish.
09 2nd, 2010 The Advantage of Technology in Education
For the past decade schools have been spending a huge amount of money on classroom technology, setting aside more than $5 billion in budget in upgrading to the latest software and gadgets that can potentially aid in the improvement of the level of education. Many educators and business people believe that supplementing education with state of the art technology will facilitate learning and improve student’s test scores. But the debates go on and arguments continue to arise if technology will really make a big difference in student’s performance in school and overall learning capability. According to John Bailey, the Director of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education, the number of research and studies supporting the claim that technology will make a dramatic difference in student’s academic performance is insufficient to draw a conclusion.
However recent studies are starting to come out that reflects considerable evidence that technology contributes positively in academic excellence. Organizations are conducting extensive research to prove that there is a constructive effect when technology is utilized in learning. Organizations like North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET) and Edutopia strives to provide the link between technology and education.
In Missouri a statewide program was implemented to help teachers integrate technology into their way of teaching. The program was called eMints
and it aims to help teachers use technology in providing a method of teaching that will stimulate and promote critical thinking and problem solving skills in students rather than just information acquisition. The programs does not advocate using technology to automate learning rather using technology as means to acquire the knowledge to solve a problem or learn something new.
The advantage of using technology does not rely in its availability in the classrooms whether an educational institution can afford high tech computers and software that enhances learning and aids students in their lessons and projects. The true significance of how technology can help academic performance is if training is conducted to teach both educators and students on how to use technology to provide students with complex work that promotes higher order of analytical thinking and problem solving. To enhance the teaching capability of an excellent educator in using technology as his medium to impart knowledge will really yield positive results. Given the right opportunity, technology can make a difference in enhancing academic achievement. Adequate utilization of technology will become a powerful tool in learning and educational success.