Veteran College Bound Population II

Last a few weeks ago I posted about my overall concern for Veterans returning to school and college campuses not being prepared for this sudden influx and the unique challenges which they face. Currently, the Veterans Administration has prepared for the influx of student veterans and the psychosocial challenges that they face in academic settings. VA public affairs has announced a new website for college counselors. This website gives essential information to college counselors and students for multiple concerns including PTSD and Suicide Prevention. These resources assist the counselors with tools to work with the student and gives them information so that they can have preventative services as well. Universities and other organizations are extending their services to meet the demands and needs which Veteran students have. For the short term these services are developing and in the days to come, with more quantitative and qualitative research for vocational rehabilitation for Veterans, we will see a marked expansion of services to help Veterans with technical education and training for career advance as well. Educational assistance will ensure that students who begin programs of higher learning will not only complete them but have more success in their fields of study for the long haul.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/127814/sdsu_veterans_face_challenges_of_going.html?cat=9

http://www.ur.umich.edu/0809/Feb16_09/38.php

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18532806

Student Veterans of America serves Veteran students across the nation both online and on campus with vital information and assistance to assist the veteran or Servicemember's through their college experience.

National Resource Directory has multiple links to various websites which facilitate educating Veterans and Services Members about the services and benefits which are available to them and their family members in different situations.

McKinney Vento Act

I like to stay on the edge and write about issues that can affect education in very subtle and damaging ways but must be addressed. Recently, I found out about Mckinney Vento Act which has a provision in it that addresses education issues with students who are facing homelessness. Depending on your state or county it could mean a host of services that are available for students who have lost permanent housing and attend school. The primary protection for students under this Act is that if they have lost permanent housing they do not have to lose permanent schooling. Usually, they stay in the school they were in before losing their housing. What this means is that if student moves around or gets in a shelter or has to live with relatives they have within the law, the provision that they don't have to change schools. This is will be in place for the continuing of the school year or when they gain permanent housing, which ever is most stable for the student. So if they gain permanent housing within the school year they don't have to switch until the next school year (sometimes it is reviewed even then). One of the other provisions within this Act is that if the students are in another area and the bus routes are not available to them for the school a route will be accommodated for them to get to school. The provision makes for students to be transported, at no cost to the parent, by the school district. If the student moves from the school district to another than both of them work together to get the student to school. If they decide to change schools to the new district they have more leniency in enrollment.

This provision protects the the education portion that used to get overlooked when a family was displaced. Now it takes into account the struggle that was in the system to keep students at the "home of record". With so many families losing their homes to foreclosure and so many having to double up, we need to be aware that these provisions are there to protect the student and their education.

As I began to look for resources for parents to advocate on behalf of their student, I was amazed at the resources and liaisons and support systems which are available. Interestingly, I or non of my social circle, who also have school aged students, had heard of any of these resources. Which led me to believe that many of the parents who desperately need the services knew about them either.

http://www.serve.org/nche/downloads/parentbrochure_eng.pdf

http://www.nche.org/ypc_resources.htm

http://www.serve.org/

Veteran College Bound Population

Today, I would like to point out something many educators probably over looked. It has been in the media, political speak and on the street. Just this year more money has been given to Veterans for educational purposes. The new GI Bill post 9/11. This bill is packed with cost of living, school tuition and fees up to the maximum for a private institution in pretty much any state. (California is having some issues) What this will mean is that an influx of the soldiers who served after 9/11 will have at least 10k a year to go back to school. What that has done in the last 30 days is that the VA has processed more than 25,000 applications for benefits in the last two weeks. This is huge what this says is that of course there will be more veterans going back to school and more students at schools, but what it doesn't talk about is a large influx of students coming to school who have very unique challenges to completing their education. Universities need to have a greater veteran college group presence on campus. Organizations which understand the diverse challenges that veterans students face will be instrumental in assisting with positive matriculation. Also, the need for counselors who are veterans is most definitely needed to help guide veterans through the quagmire of challenges that becoming a student, again, can cause. Don't throw into the mix any special needs like medical or physical disabilities which can really challenge a student. I know these things because I am a service connected disabled veteran and I understand there are some very unique challenges which most wouldn't begin to understand. Coordinating with the Veterans Administration for benefits or just going to the VA hospital or the CBOC (community bases outpatient clinic) can put a curl in your hair and require the use of most of a 8 hour day to get anything completed. Eligibility and actually receiving the benefits on time for payment of school fees will be an interesting achievement and coordinating programs eligibility will be another beast. Although it may not sound like it I am very hopeful and excited to see more student veterans on campus. I am very excited about this. This will help to build our defense ranks and our DoD civilian ranks with workers who are dedicated, fresh, and have initiative to get things done. With Troops to teachers in place it will also produce "can do soldiers" who will be "can do" teachers. This will require more master teachers to step up to the plate and help transition these "new educators" the ropes of education in k12 arena. This will also help to bring a fresh perspective to learning and more creative tools for the desperate times we are having in the education field. This will also produce more jobs for educators either part time or full time to train and educate these new learners and it will also require more administrative staff. This will bring more revenue to schools and help to create better communities. (when veterans go to brick and mortar schools)

All in all the next 5-10 years will be a tumultuous time but it will also be the best of times because we will have no shortage of talented people to strengthen our economy and no shortage of creativity to bring us back to the country we once were. I believe that this event, although it had very little coverage, will very quickly change some demographics in ways we never expected.

Learning and Special Education II

Last blog I stated I think that we should update our curricula to encompass teaching from a special education vantage point without regard to whether or not we have special education students in the class or not. Some of the practices actually strengthen learning for the students who are at "exceeds". I believe that every staff should have a ratio of teacher and teacher aides who are trained in special education and these teachers should also be at every grade level and at every subject. I say this because this year my daughter who had difficulty with reading and math had specialized time with teachers who were trained in this area and this was the first year which she began to have pride in her reading and math and began to look for opportunities to utilized the skills which she had learned. She passed her CRCT with flying colors and her self esteem has gone through the roof. We have been the SST route and after 3 years of trudging through the process, I literally gave up this year. I did not pursue the process. This year we moved to a new school district and amazingly they had a remediation plan in place already! Now, I know what the law says and I believe that you should go through the process but I do believe that if the teachers were already in place with this training there would be no need for the long drawn out paperwork, process etc. I also believe that it would be cost effective for for the US as a whole to institute this process to gain educational strength in our schools. I also believe this would change the state of learning in our institutions. Currently, we need more special education teachers and if we continue to have more students who need IEP it would be better to have prepared for this swing in our training of teachers than to run to catch up.

Learning and Special Education I

Last week I was questioning what happens to children who have medical illness but cannot attend school during their treatment. This week I would like to write about teaching special education students and highlight schools that specialize in special education for student learning.

First schools have inclusion so most k12 instructors have students with some form of disability either physical , mental, medical or learning in there classes, whether it is established and known or not. Students are only removed from general instruction ,in Georgia, if it has been assessed through a SST that they need a very specialized setting and attention. Otherwise, students are "mainstreamed" and by law can not be placed into a separate classroom based on their academic skills or learning ability unless a specific testing has been done and SST tried repeatedly and failed. After this lengthy process another assessment will be reviewed and an IEP will be put in place and this plan will be worked and adjusted as necessary. Now, I didn't understand this until I read the legal precedents for this requirement. For legal purposes educators want to try everything before labeling students, moving them from mainstream classes and starting an IEP. Because by law education should be available to disabled students and at the least restrictive availability. Now this plan is very specific in all areas of learning as they relate to the student.

"According to Section 300.138 of the IDEA regulations, each state must demonstrate that children with disabilities are included in general state and districtwide assessment programs, with appropriate accommodations and modifications if necessary. States must also develop guidelines for the participation of children with disabilities in alternative assessments for those children who cannot participate in those state and districtwide assessment programs."

If these plans or so very detailed and help students who have documented disabilities. What does this do for the student whose disability hasn't been diagnosed or documented or for the student who has a documented disability and is still going through the SST program. They miss out on a tremendous area of learning that is not geared to them at all. Also, if the number of students which have specifically learning disabilities has jumped significantly in the last 6-7 years and we have inclusion then why isn't there more funding for all teachers to have training in special education for classroom instruction?

In my state I have noticed that more schools which specialize in educating students with disabilities have sprung up and those with established curricula have broadened their base or grown in enrollment and now with the state giving vouchers for IEP students to go to private schools enrollment has jumped significantly for these schools. I am still very concerned for the student whose parents do not know how to advocate on their behalf and circumnavigate the system to get their child the help that they need. What good is a program if it is not really available to all that need it. How are we helping students who need the services if we never know they need the services. For the parent who does not know that the law says that their child can not be "moved" from a regular class to a remediated class without a SST and eventually an IEP. I think all students deserve a true opportunity to achieve greatness and I believe that we should be teaching more from special education vantage point with our curricula than we do.

http://www.strongamericanschools.org/policy-pillars

http://www.thebedfordschool.org/

http://privateschool.about.com/od/schoolsneeds/Special_Needs_Schools_Online.htm

http://www.atlantaspeechschool.org/

No Pain No gain

One of the many sayings that we have to "help" someone when they are going through a difficult task is "no pain no gain". I was thinking about how much of that we relate to teaching and learning. With the CRCT test scores looming I wonder could the same test scores have been extrapolated and analyzed for the students in 3, 5, 8, grades etc if they used MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) for the testing? Could navigating and answering questions through timed tasks in virtual world similar to Second life have given the same information while having the element of fun? Could a game to prepare students to test for the SAT be more beneficial than that of the weekend study classes or general online study. I think so. I believe that our students could learn and test better if we used these forms of learning to enhance lecture time. Now, I don't underestimate students going onto the internet and getting the cheat codes and texting moves to their friends but I am saying that I do believe that instruction time would be more engaging if the teacher went in as a master player and instructed through one of these games. I also believe that we would more effectively gage learning and learning gaps through some of these tools. You be the judge though.

http://www.grockit.com/

http://news.filefront.com/mmorpg-learning-games-real-life-job-skills/

Hope for Educating the Chronically Ill

Earlier today, I as I was sipping my tea, taking another round of meds and deciding if I needed to grab the trash can before I stared this blog, I started thinking about students (k12) who are chronically sick or have acute illnesses which take them out of school for extended periods of time. I know that in the early 90's when my daughter was in the hospital going another round with a "crisis" we coordinated with the school (private) to make sure that she would not miss a day of work. Now, because of web 2.0 tools students have greater opportunities to stay connected with their teachers and their classmates. It seems that hospitals, education systems and parents are working better, together, using the internet and other tools to keep students abreast of work and even participate in recess with their class mates. I thought that was amazing! I noticed after googling that the US has a lot of catching up. The UK has this as one of the areas that is very heated especially for students with chronic diseases- for instance chronic fatigue. This made me think about how difficult it is for parents to circumnavigate the education system and the medical system to gain their child the best medical care and education possible. From review there are very limited organizations which will help you with both. Here in Atlanta Children's Medical have many resources available to the children and family including education resources and even on staff chaplains. Gaining an education with the tools that we have gives us access to so many opportunities which would be out of reach. So, when looking at what could you do check the hospitals you may find an engaging education opportunity there.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/18/earlyshow/main4457049.shtml

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/virtual-school-to-educate-sick-children-via-the-internet-1164924.html

http://www.actapress.com/PaperInfo.aspx?PaperID=34679&reason=500