Nobody likes labels. Labels always bring with them certain connotations. As a special education teacher, I have personally struggled with what to call myself and I often find myself tailoring it to meet the needs of my audience (is it a fellow educator or a parent of an intervention student?). Some of the "labels" I have given myself over the past 5 years include:
Intervention Specialist
Special Education Teacher
Cross-Categorical Teacher
Multiple Disabilities/MD Teacher
Resource Room Teacher
Honestly, it doesn't matter to me what label I am given as long as I get to work with my special kiddos each day!
However, labels can be a very tricky thing when it comes to my students. Typically in special ed, a label defines all the things that child cannot do... He cannot see. She cannot hear. They cannot sit still.
Since they have moved all of our "MD" classrooms (which were labeled Cross-Categorical classrooms until they were conveniently relabeled this year for the move), they have began to restrict which students can receive our services. In the past, I have worked with a wide variety of kids and I have LOVED it! Kids with more severe needs were with me all day in the self-contained classroom (they would be included for specials and lunch/recess) while kids who just needed intensive academic intervention would come to my room for pull out. It is challenging for sure but it provides my students with experiences with peers with a range of abilities. It has allowed my kids with lower IQs the opportunity to see skills modeled by peers with higher IQs and it has allowed my kids with higher IQs the opportunity to be leaders (which they would have not been able to do in the typical classroom). But now they want to limit us to only serving students with the educational disability of "Multiple Disabilities". In my classroom of 9 last year only 4 of them were labeled MD. The rest had a CD or Autism label. Of my kids labeled CD and Autism, half of them were non-verbal and all of them were 1-2 years (if not more) behind grade level. Where are these kids supposed to go? We have ISs in the other buildings but they are generally doing all inclusion. Additionally, of my kids with an MD label, half of them were only with me for pull out and not all day.
Since they have moved all of our "MD" classrooms (which were labeled Cross-Categorical classrooms until they were conveniently relabeled this year for the move), they have began to restrict which students can receive our services. In the past, I have worked with a wide variety of kids and I have LOVED it! Kids with more severe needs were with me all day in the self-contained classroom (they would be included for specials and lunch/recess) while kids who just needed intensive academic intervention would come to my room for pull out. It is challenging for sure but it provides my students with experiences with peers with a range of abilities. It has allowed my kids with lower IQs the opportunity to see skills modeled by peers with higher IQs and it has allowed my kids with higher IQs the opportunity to be leaders (which they would have not been able to do in the typical classroom). But now they want to limit us to only serving students with the educational disability of "Multiple Disabilities". In my classroom of 9 last year only 4 of them were labeled MD. The rest had a CD or Autism label. Of my kids labeled CD and Autism, half of them were non-verbal and all of them were 1-2 years (if not more) behind grade level. Where are these kids supposed to go? We have ISs in the other buildings but they are generally doing all inclusion. Additionally, of my kids with an MD label, half of them were only with me for pull out and not all day.
Fellow special educators and parent readers, how does your district meet the needs of identified students? Do you like the system your district uses?
