Natural Disasters blog #5

I am going to write about something very personal to me. Today at 2:30 central time, my aunt called me from California. She left me a very tearful message, "Sarah, I'm calling you to tell you that Aimee, Jason, and the kids are being evacuated from their home because of the wild fire that popped up near their house." When I talked to Aimee later in the afternoon, she told me that yes, they had packed up their cars and were told by a sheriffs officer that it was a mandatory evacuation and they should leave. They were still at home keeping it wet and when they see flames, they would be leaving to a friends house to stay until they can return safely. I asked her about their children. Ethan was already at the friends (she picked him up from school) and Faith was at home with her. Thinking about what I have in my house, I asked her what did she pack. All she said was pictures, our hard drive, cameras, important papers, and things that could not be replaced. I told her it would be very hard to determine what was important. All she said was that T.V's, beds, radios etc. could be bought again, but some things can't. This is a news clip of the fire. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/Wildfire-Breaks-Out-Near-Moorpark-60310767.html

She stated that the kids schools were safe and they would be going to school like nothing has happened. But something has happened, they are temporarily homeless even though they have a place to sleep, it is not their home. I wonder what their schools are going to provide for those children who had to leave their homes. Are they going to provide the psychological and emotional support that they need or are they going to say oh well, you are in school, your fine, and we have to learn.

I started to think about what my district provided for our students before, during, and after the spring flood. We knew that we were going to have a flood and that it was going to be a big one, but as a school, we did not do much to help our stressful children. I saw a change in behaviors of my students that lived on the river, they were very fidgety, had a difficult time paying attention, and more worried about things. They would ask me questions that I had a difficult time answering (i.e. when the flood comes, what will happen). They would tell me how their parents emptied their basements to the top floors and how it is difficult to move around. For our disaster, schools was closed during the flooding. Our district opened up some of our schools for the National Guard to use. When school returned, I had a mixture of emotions from my students. Some where excited because they went to school in another town and others were scared to leave their parents since they had to leave both their home and their parents for safety. I don't know what our school did to provide psychological and emotional support for our students when school returned. Yes, they could go see the school counselor, but with how many the flood touched, one person could not do it all by themselves. As a teacher, I felt under trained to help my students. Our counselor did send out an article on signs/symptoms to watch for in children, but we had not real training.

My own children were touched by the flood also. Our own house was safe, but their grandparents and great-grandparents house had to be sand bagged. I moved into my grandparents house to watch the pumps 24/7 while my children were suffeled between their aunts and other grandparents house. When everything was done and back at home, my children seem fine until one night my daughter came and asked me if we will have to leave again and started to cry (this was for the second crest). All I could say was I hoped not and give her a big hug.

With all the types of natural disasters (flooding, fire, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes), you would think that the school system would be better prepared to help their students. We practice drills (tornado, fire, lockdowns) and are prepared for them, but not how it will hurt our students emotionally and psychologically. The following link will bring you to a resource for parents, teachers, and anyone working with children called What Happened to MY World? Helping Children Cope with Natural Disaster and Catastrophe. http://www.brighthorizons.com/talktochildren/docs/What_Happened_to_MY_world.pdf

I still feel that schools should train their teachers on what to do and how to act with their students after a disaster occurs whether the school is directly affected or not. Ethan and Faith's schools are not directly in the path of the fires, but they have at least two student that are affected by it. I hope that they will be given some support to help them through this time and not just give their teachers a pamphlet. All children deal with their own stress differently, it is our job as well as their parents and others to help them work through their stress of what is happeneing.

Alternative Assessment # 4

It is that time a year, even though we just started school, when schools start to talk about state assessments. In North Dakota, they offer alternative assessment for special education students. The state offers two types of alternative assessment: NDAA 1 (North Dakota Alternative Assessment) and NDAA 2. NDAA 1 is offered to students with severe cognitive disabilities. They are assessed against alternative assessment standards. NDAA 2 is offered to students with persistent learning difficulties. They are assessed at grade level with modified achievement standards. I like the idea of special education students who are under the label SLD, MH, SMH to be able to take the state assessment that is written at a more realistic ability level. The following link is a resource used by parents, teachers, and administrators to provide special education students with the best education opportunities http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/speced/resource/alternate/brochure.pdf. Every year at the annual review of a student, the team decides if that student should take the regular state assessment, NDAA 1, NDAA2, or a combination of state assessment and NDAA 2 or NDAA 2 and NDAA 1.

With any type of assessment, they get changed over time, some more than others. Last year the NDAA 2 assessment was changed for the second time in two years. After deciding that a few of my students (the team decided at their annual review) will take the NDAA 2 and giving them the NDAA 2 was the proper form of assessment the next year, the assessment was changed. When the NDAA 2 was given to the same students the following year (after it was changed), it was shown not to be the proper assessment for them. That they should have been given the NDAA 1. The NDAA 2 was more difficult and asked questions that asked numerous questions that required knowledge (either background or taught in school) that the student did not have, for example: one Language Arts short paragraph asked the students about crayfish. Most of my students do not know what a crayfish is, for that matter, my own children would not know what a crayfish is if we did not go to the lakes every weekend. It was hard when the students would tell me that they did not know what a crayfish was and would ask what it was and I could not tell them. It is very difficult to know what assessment the student should take knowing that it may be fine for them one year, but not the next year. As a member of an IEP team, I had a difficult time saying that the NDAA 2 was appropriate for a student two years ago, but it was too difficult for them last year and know that we will have to decide which assessment they will appropriate to take this year.

I would like to know why states feel the need to change an assessment that in my opinion was fine, like the old saying ‘why reinvent the wheel.’ A few of my co-workers joined an alternative assessment task force with state officials to work on writing the alternative assessment. When they returned, they felt that what they had to say was listened to by the state officials, but that was all. Some felt it was a waste of time and the only reason they were there so the state could say that they listened to the teachers.

Do other states offer alternative assessment for special education students instead of their standardized state assessments? How do they decide who take it and who does not? How often do they change the assessment?

Are we sending kids to school to young?

After reading the both artilces (Mommy I know you and Trouble with boys), it made me think, are we sending out kids to school to young? I found this short article and I enjoyed this article. Here is the link. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6053413.ece



I don't know how others feel, but I do think that we are starting our kids, especially boys, in school to young. My only cousin's little boy started his pre-kindergarten school when he was just 4. According to her, it was not like pre-school that my children attended. He son did not take naps, he had all academic subjects, and was there from 8:30 in the morning to 2:30 the afternoon everyday. She told me that they are doing this so he is ready for school, so he has a edge on the other students, and so he can get into the better private school. It made me feel that is was doing an in service to my children by putting them in just pre-school where they did take naps, did work on some reading, writing, math, and social skills, but where allowed to be kids.



That was four years ago. She has confided with me that her son has had some issues at school. That they are working on focusing more at the task at hand, less fidgeting, less talking, and less movement. Her son is having the same problems that my son had in first and second grade. At times he still has these issues, but not to the same extent as he did in his earlier years of school. Does this make him or my son ADHD? I don't think so, I feel that it has to do with how mature they are.



Where does it stop? Pre-kindergarten at the age of 4 now, but where will it be in 10 year or even 5 years? Pre-pre-kindergarten at the age of 2, to get them ready for pre-kindergarten? Are we as a culture needing to get that extra step ahead of others that we stop letting our kids be kids? It is like my mom's quote to me when I was young and wanted something that someone else had; "we are not trying to keep up with the Jones."