Education Kids

Archive for September, 2011

Many parents have an extra responsibility when it comes to their children’s education. Every year these parents attend their child’s Planning and Placement Team meeting. Any child with a designation within the special education spectrum has one of these meetings every year. These designations include learning and intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, autism, other health impairments (ADD/ADHD, etc) and many others. Attending these meetings can be daunting and intimidating to non-educational members of the team. It doesn’t have to be though. If a parent is prepared for the meeting and knows the ‘drill’ it should be much less difficult.

Annual PPT’s are held every year at the same time. Legally there must be a meeting every year within 365 days and a triennial every 3 years. The triennial is a meeting to determine if a child is still eligible for special education. I am jumping ahead here a little, let’s start at the beginning.

If your child has never had a special education designation, a member of the school community, yourself or your doctor may suggest that your child is tested to determine if he or she needs extra support. Sometimes it is obvious (your child may have autism, down’s syndrome, or a physical disability) and other times additional testing needs to be completed to determine eligibility.

The first step is for you or school personnel to start the process. If you initiate the process (through a written letter – example to be shown) the school must hold an initial meeting called a Planning and Placement Team (PPT) meeting. At this meeting a number of individuals may be present. This will include a building administrator, special education teacher, a regular education teacher, the school psychologist, guidance counselor, school nurse, transition coordinator and anyone else deemed necessary. Your child’s strengths and weaknesses will be discussed and you will be asked for your input and what your concerns are. You must also sign a permission to test form. Withholding permission will stop the process. The school district may determine that legal mediation is necessary at this time. A multi-disciplinary will be conducted to determine eligibility and must be completed within 45 of the initiation of services. Therefore, a full evaluation must be completed from the date the school receives your letter (or is internally referred by school personnel) within 45 school days. Weekends and vacations do not count. At the 2nd meeting it will be determined whether or not your child qualifies for special education services. For placement in special education, you must give your written consent. This can be withdrawn but you should seek the advice of an educational lawyer or advocate if you plan to do this. If it is determined that your child does not qualify for special education services, ask about a qualification under a 504 designation. You can disagree with any of the decisions made and have it noted in the Individual Education Plan (IEP). The IEP is the map that school personnel will use to guide them in servicing your child’s educational needs. You also have the option of disputing your position through the courts. The school district I work in tries to work with parents and avoid this altogether. If you win your case, the school district must pay your legal bills. It is suggested that you bring another individual with you (spouse, friend, pastor) for positive support. You should write down the concerns you have: strengths, what your child needs the most help with, goals that you want your child to succeed. If you child will be transitioning from high school to college or the world of work, a transition plan must be developed as well. Be prepared to discuss what you see for your child. Your teen will also be at this meeting (starts attending around 8th grade) and be asked what their interests and dreams are. You can help him or her in discussing this beforehand. Standardized testing will be discussed and it will be determined whether your child needs extra time, special setting or a reader (or any other number of accommodations). A modification page will be in the Individual Education Plan; you should ask for a copy of this page and make suggestions that you think are necessary for your child to succeed without enabling him/her. The number of hours your child will be serviced by special education personnel, counseling staff, etc. will be determined. Goals and objectives will be written for any areas that your child needs additional help in. This can include reading, math, writing, general academics, behavior, self-help skills, communication and other areas as necessary. Make sure to ask questions if you have them and get the name and number of at least one member of the team that you can talk to if you have any concerns or questions about your child, the IEP or PPT meeting. IEP’s generally go into effect 5 days after the meeting or sooner if agreed to by the team. The school is obligated to get you a copy of the IEP within 5 days of the PPT meeting. Any questions you have (or disagreements with the plan) should be directed to a member of the team (usually a special education teacher or administrator). Relax, relax, relax. The more often you attend PPT’s the more comfortable and knowledgeable you will become.

GREAT GAME

Wheel of fortune

A useful tool to have for playing educational games in the classroom is a Sticky Ball. A Sticky Ball is a small plastic ball that is covered with miniature suction cups. These balls are ideal for playing target games on your classroom boards.

Wheel of Fortune is just one of the many fun games a teacher can play with their students to review concepts taught in class.

1) Divide the class into two teams.

2) Draw a giant wheel on the board and divide it up into 6-8 pie slices.

3) Make half the pie slices worth points (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4)

4) The other sections are what add fun to the game. How you label them is up to you. However, here are some of the fan favourites.

- Bankrupt (Team loses all their points)

- Switch (Teams switch point totals)

- Cha-cha (Team must do the Cha-cha dance)

- Bow (Team must bow to their opponents)

- Kiss the Pig (Team must blow a kiss to a pig drawn on the board)

5) Begin play by choosing a player from each team and asking them a question from the lesson.

6) Once students have answered their question they go to the toss line and toss the Sticky Ball toward the target.

7) The game continues as long as you want and the team with the most point at the end of the last round is victorious.

If you want to make the game more competitive and move along more quickly only ask one question to the pair of students and allow the student who answers first to toss from a closer toss line.

Let me start with a quote I used to come across in my everyday life, “Kids are always Kids, and should remain kids”. Very true, would you like to see a kid who is very serious about his life or would be rather happier looking at a kid who is joyfully playing with his toys and his video games. Research has proved that kids are at their perceiving best when they enjoy what they do.

Well, we have come across many parents who yell at their kids for not studying and just lazing around their time playing video games. But I would like to thank the developers who thought of an idea which helped in integrating video games to educate a kid. These are called educational games, and are designed specifically to teach a kid the in-depth concept of a certain subject. This is probably a revolution in the education sector in educating small kids. Moreover I feel, now even the parents are bothered to look for educational games for their dear little ones.

Educational games are known for stimulating the overall growth of a kid. It generally promotes the physical, social and emotional growth among the kids. Some of the benefits of educational games:

• It provides a medium that promotes an immediate and challenging visual feedback within a fun safe virtual environment.
• Research has proved that kids exposed to educational software games developed many skills like Logical Reasoning skills and decision making.
• Educational games also help the kids to interact with the other kids of their age to solve a particular puzzle or a problem.

There are different classes of educational games that help the kids to fine tune their skills. Let us have a sneak peek at what the parents go for to take off their kid’s trouble facing in Maths? Well it is an edutainment software called the Manga High. This is a math game for higher elementary and lower middle school students, created by the top brains at Oxford University.

If you are ever wondering it is very difficult for you to shop educational software game to your dear little ones, there exists a solution for everything. Thanks to the internet. Yes, the internet also offers a variety of online games to play with for the kids of all age groups. All these online educational games are designed in such a way that they’ll be enhancing the learning process continuously while the games are being played.

But it is the first and foremost responsibility of the parents or elders to try and find the right website for the kids. The site should be first analysed on how helpful it can be in enhancing the learning process of a kid and also needs to justify the ways it can make the kids enjoy a particular game. At present, there are a huge number of web portals offering educational games. And ‘m very sure that these educational game performance will have a place in your kid’s report card in the near future. Watch out!!!