Does anyone know anything about...

...Hippotherapy (aka Therapeutic Horse Riding Therapy)? At Julia's IEP meeting the other day, her team recommended that she do "something" over the summer to keep up a consistent schedule (which was really my main concern for her over the summer and why I was hoping she might get in to the summer program). For some reason the idea of horseback riding popped in to my head today while I was pondering ideas. The basic idea I left with at the meeting was that she would benefit from keeping up with some sort of a once or twice a week activity that would keep her on a "getting out of the house and being social activity." One of the main concerns her team has was her lack of independence as compared to others her age, and her constant need for prompting. She is not the kind of kid to just "jump right in" but it goes beyond that with her. She needs much more direction socially and otherwise than the "average" almost 4 year old.

My understanding of Hippotherapy is that it is an individualized program that is tailored to the child's specific needs, using speech, physical, and occupational therapists, as well as the horse to address concerns. It seems like it could be a wonderful thing for Julia who has concerns in all three of these areas.

Does anyone have any experience with this, or have you heard anything good, bad or otherwise about it?

NCLB Etc.

When, I ask you, are the higher ups going to get off their high horse and do away with the stupid law?

This article caught my attention this morning.

There are a couple of things that really set me off, first and foremost of course, is the money. It's wrong to expect the state and town to come up with the money for something the feds hand down. Take some responsibility for your actions (what am I thinking...responsibility and government don't even belong in the same paragraph). If you can't fund it, kill it.


Something else? If the federal government is the one handing down these silly laws, then why is it up to the state to set the standards which need to be met? I have said before that I don't think the feds should be involved in any form, but, if they have to be, they could at least support and stand behind their initiatives.

Speaking on behalf of my own town, as it stands now, we are only level funded from last year. Last year we were functioning (barely) on a budget that was drastically reduced (as in more than 30 positions cut). So all of the "bad stuff" going on last year will continue this year. Great. It's certainly better than being cut again but still? When are the kids going to get the support they deserve and need? And how the heck are we supposed to come up with the money to fund programs that will help us make AYP and other goals when we can't even hire a librarian to staff the media center in the elementary schools? An override? Maybe but even I don't think that's a good idea. I'd support one again because when faced with no other options what else can you do? The kids shouldn't suffer.

I'm telling you, I'd support and extended school day before I'd support NCLB and federal involvement in education.

Ugh.

I don't think...

...I have ever had a bad thing to say about the Middleboro Public School System but, I am appalled that I have not yet been officially informed that Emily has a long term (more than likely until the end of the year) sub in her classroom right now. Emily has informed me of this verbally but I think that it is crazy to expect a 10 year old to tell this to her parents and leave it at that. It is the school's job to inform parents for a major change in the classroom. I realize that there is only a month and a half of school left but it still seems like something I should be getting official word on.

Am I wrong here? I mean, maybe I am over reacting?

*UPDATE* Emily came home with a letter today! YAY! I knew the higher ups wouldn't disappoint!

Emily's 504 Plan: The Details

Emily is currently on a 504 Accommodation Plan based on her diagnosis of ADHD. Her plan is reviewed every March, and added to or changed if needed. Her current accommodations are as follows:

-Preferential seating
-Parent/teacher communication as needed
-Reminders to bring home important papers at the end of the day
-Frequent verbal cues prior to giving directions and transitioning
-Rules and expectations should be clear, explicit, and consistently reviewed for understanding
-Small group and alternate site for testing
-Checklists and graphic organizers
-Time lines for longer assignments
-Check agenda and material daily
-Study guides and outlines as needed

I can tell you right now, only some of these are being adhered to. I really don't see it as much of a concern now (although I often wonder how much better she would be doing if she was more organized and together, which would be helped by following the above accommodations) but I am so concerned about next year (middle school) that I am practically having anxiety attacks about it. As it stands right now academically, she is doing well enough to succeed (mostly 3's which is Middleboro means at grade level standard). Could she be doing even better if she was more organized both mentally and physically? I think so. I haven't really worried to much about it because at grade level standard? That's not something to be concerned about really, is it? Unless of course (which my counselor pointed out and I have often thought), she is gifted. Then, at grade level standard might be a concern. What really worries me about next year though, is how much more organized she will need to be (compared to elementary school) just to get by, let alone get to grade level standards or beyond. While I hope some of the needed organization skills will come with maturity, I also know that some of this? It's just the "way she is." Did I mention she has a known abnormality (diagnosed via MRI during the whole Epilepsy diagnosis saga) in the frontal lobe of her brain (the very area which "controls" the so called executive functions of the brain, as well as planning and memory)? So yes, maturity may help, but I question how much it will help.

I feel like I have failed her in a way, not really taking the necessary steps to make sure her 504 plan accommodations are being met. I don't want to be known as "one of those parents" who constantly calls the school, demands services for their child, and in general is just a pain in the ass. Because really? I'm not. Also, authority figures that by the very nature of their job title and/or degree are supposed to know about these things and have a tendency to make you feel inferior, they scare me. Scare the hell out of me if I am being honest. For some reason I live in this world which I think , "If there's a plan in place, they must be following it because well, they're supposed to." After I bang my head on the desk though and come back to reality, I know that while the plan is there, it may not be being enforced and the only way it will be is if I make sure that it is. To that end, not only am I going to take some initiative and meet with the necessary people prior to next year even starting, I am going to request that the following accommodations be added to her existing plan:

-tap on desk or use some other code to bring child back in to focus.
-notify family immediately of any missing or late assignments by phone or email.
-provide Emily with a simple outline and/or notes for lectures.
-allow for expedient make up of late or incorrectly done homework. If deduction for lateness works to the curb problem, keep doing it. If not, recognize the problem as an uncorrectable disability.
-provide an extra set of books for home.

I think the addition of these accommodations, combined with maturity and medication, will really get Emily off on the right foot for the beginning of next year.

Thoughts On MCAS

I have made it well known I believe, here and elsewhere that I oppose MCAS as the single determining factor of a child's graduation from high school. I thought now would be a good time to elaborate further, as I was reminded by Emily that MCAS starts this week.

Decisions about student promotion or graduation should always be based on more information than can be gathered by a single test. Many students will be seriously harmed by this slim definition of what it means to succeed. A few examples:

-students who don't test well but in another setting know how to and can do successfully the material being covered on the test.

-special needs students who can not reach the standards required of other students and are labeled as "failing" despite hard worked for progress they may be making in general.

-transfer students who will not be taught the MA curriculum but will be expected to pass the MCAS to get a diploma.

-students in under-resourced schools who will be punished for something that is not in their control-their larger class sizes and overall lower level of resources available to them.


It seems to me that we are spending millions of dollars on a test that tells us what we already know: schools in our communities are under-resourced and need our help. Our resources should be spent directly on improving schools and classrooms, providing professional development for teachers, and on developing better ways to measure what students are learning. This can not be determined by a standardized, "across the board" test. To assume that it can, is not doing what we as parents and educators should be setting out to do in the first place: providing a well-rounded, multi-faceted program of education which spends more time on the individual student than the student body as a whole.

Going Green At School

Emily and Katherine came home today with three of the exact same notices. One was a reminder about Mardi Gras, one was a notice about a fundraiser sponsored by the high school Key Club, and another was about football registration. I have often thought that this was a waste. I don't need more than one copy of any single notice and, with the supply shortage in full effect, it would make sense that the notices come home to one student in the elementary school system, as opposed to all. The above mentioned notices may have been printed and copied by the involving parties, but, there have been plenty of notices from the school directly that have come home with both kids.

It might be involved, but it would seem to me that there would be a way of distributing notices to only one student in the system. Perhaps it would be the older student. It just seems like such a waste of paper and time and if a system was put in place, it could save both.

Extended Learning Time: My Take

I have been researching the expanded school year initiative that seems to be taking form across the country, perhaps with more intensity then a person with just a mild interest would. While all areas of public education are of great interest to me, this particular piece has recently become the cornerstone of my research, due in part to the fact that my town has been awarded a grant to study the possibility of implementing an expanded learning time plan in one of the elementary schools, as well as the middle school.

The reason behind the initiative is simple. It would seem that more time in school would result in more learning and better student performance. What I have learned through my reading is that it is not quite that easy. Other factors, like improving the quality of the instructional time have been shown to be equally beneficial, in particular to certain groups of students (such as low income and others who may have limited time for learning outside of school). Other considerations of course, are the money and politics behind expanding learning time, as well as others (aside from the obvious students, teachers and parents) who may be affected by a change in school time. These people would include employers, and many other industries who are dependent on the traditional school day and year.

As anyone who has paid any attention to the current situation in public education knows, educators face never before seen pressures to raise student achievement. Federal and local mandates are handed down and schools are in effect, "threatened" if the requirements aren't meant. The concern behind the increased pressure is that in today's high tech world, students who are not adequately prepared, will not not succeed in this environment. While there may be some truth behind that in specific cases, it seems to me that one thing is being overlooked. The very people who had a hand in inventing, or at least bringing to the forefront some of the technological advances we see today, were educated on a 6 1/2 hour, 180 day school year. This of course is not true of those in other countries, some of which are in school year round, or for longer periods of time on a day to day basis. Still? We (we being anyone who has been educated in the United States public education sector for the past 100 years or so) are doing ok, aren't we? I mean, I'm getting down to the bare basics here, but isn't part of life, learning as you go? We didn't know how to, for example use the Internet when we were in school because, for most of us, it may have been "invented" but it wasn't as mainstream as it is today. There certainly weren't any classes we could take to learn the ins and outs of the Internet, email, or even computers in general. We just learned as we went. And, some of us, on perhaps a broader level, had a hand in pioneering some of these things, even though we were only educated for 6 1/2 hours per day. So why, I ask, is this extended day necessary? Is the current generation incapable of doing just what we did as the world continues to advance?

That being said, if such things are a concern on a national level, more focus should be on those who actually need the extended time. While this could open all kinds of doors for lawsuits and discrimination claims (speaking of current trends), it seems unfair for a student who is successful in this age of high stakes testing to be forced in to an extended day or year. It stands to reason that these tests are a reflection of what students are expected to know in order to succeed in the world. Moreover, while it seems true that a more affluent student may have more access to educational resources outside of school than a poor or minority student, it would be inappropriate to include all poor, minority or even special needs students in the group of students deemed in need of an extended learning day, based on that fact alone (i.e., it should not be assumed that all poor, minority or special needs students will not succeed without the extended time because, some, in fact will, and some more affluent students will not). Each decision should be on a case by case basis, and, in the best possible scenario, it should be a student's (with the help of a parent in the case of younger students) choice to participate in such a program.

I have long thought that homework was a waste of time, but, if this extended learning time plan is implemented, it should be eliminated completely from the curriculum. The idea behind homework is to torture the parent and child reinforce what was taught during the day. Extending the day really should provide more time to "reinforce" while there, with hands on learning, field trips, and other "reinforcing" type activities. Taking in to consideration also, everything else that needs to be done when school is out (extra curricular activities, dinner, showers, quality time with the family), extending the day and including homework, would not only seem like overkill, but also not in any way beneficial. The whole thing would be rushed and just done in a manner reflective of getting to the next thing on the list, which truthfully, in this house is how it gets done now, without the added pressure of a longer day.

When it comes down to it, what matters most is those moments, which seem far and few between right now, in which students are engaged in activities that are adequately challenging, and at the same time, allow them to experience success. It seems to me that this type of learning could be achieved without the consequence of adding hours or days to the existing school year. It would be behoove those "in charge" to prepare a study in which the current way time is used in schools is studied intensely, improved upon within the current structure, and further evaluated after, to see if in fact, extending the day is the way to go.