Teaching Special Needs Students in a Technology Education Classroom

1. Teaching Special Needs Students in a Technology Education Classroom

2. Dr. Robert T. Howell Technology Studies Fort Hays State University Hays, Kansas 785-628-4306 bhowell@fhsu.edu

3. In The Beginning 1974 first teaching job in middle school (woodworking) In the back of the school next to the special education room. Took in students, not knowing how to teach them. Laws were requiring special education students be mainstreamed into regular classrooms. We still get them today, why?

4. What has changed sense 1975 I left teaching in 1979. Teaching special needs students was still new, not much help available . What changed in almost 20 years? Let’s take a look to see all the changes in 20 years.

5. Some important Laws The Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 Higher Education Act of 1965 The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 The Education of the Handicapped Act of 1974 PL 94-142 Disabilities Education Act Amendments 1983 Carl Perkins Vocational Act of 1990

6. Who are Special Needs Students ? Individuals with Disabilities Economically disadvantaged-including foster children Displaced homemakers Limited English Speaking Deaf, deaf-blind, visually handicapped, hearing impaired, mentally retarded, orthopedically impaired.

7. Special needs students “cont” Seriously emotionally disturbed, speech learning disabled, specific learning impaired, multi-handicapped, autistic and traumatic brain injured. Did I leave anyone out? I would say that all students have special needs.

8. Now we know the students, let’s see what teachers have gained To answer this question I developed a study to find out how technology education teachers felt about including special needs students into their classrooms and what training they have or feel they need.

9. Questions Asked 1. What are the attitudes technology teachers have towards including special needs students into their classrooms? 2. What training have they received? 3. What support do they receive or need?

10. The results Question 1 Teachers feel they do a good job, have the skills necessary to modify lesson plans, write IEP’s. Question 2 Received very little post-secondary training, in-service being the most widely used method.

11. Questions “cont” Question 3 Support in the future would need to come from community services, administrators, and parents. Conclusions Teachers feel that special needs students should be included in their class but they do not have enough training to properly do the job.

12. Let’s start with an IEP Should be based on assessment information. Intended to put focus on intervention of student needs

13. IEP “cont” Participants in IEP meetings School representative who can provide services Teacher, (SpEd, GenED) One or both parents Student, when appropriate Others at the discretion of the parent or school

14. Let’s start with reading.How do you read? Everyone learns to read differently (how do you read) Labels, government has mandated labels, to protect us. We must learn how to interpret this information. Acronyms and Abbreviations, do not contain typical clues, writers assume reader knows this. Instructions, health and safety, directions, and short sentences.

15. Reading Schedules; guide us, what, when, where. Help us organize our lives. Business Documents; rules, regulations, procedures, and formal agreements. Brochures/newsletters; advertise products, services, places, and events. Catalogues/Order forms; shopping from home is new.

16. Reading Electronic Communication E-mail, instant message, discussion board, blogging, and chat room. Indexes and Directories, phone book, book index, information directory. World Wide Web, foundational reading skills. Junk Mail and Spam, persuasive tests, make good decisions.

17. CWPTClasswide Peer Tutoring Weekly competing teams Highly structured teaching procedures Daily earning of points for work accurately completed and public posting of points Direct practice of functional academic skills.

18. Constant Time DelayCTD Increments of time introduced between stimulus. Anticipate correct response before the prompt. Teach Skills, functional sight words. Abbreviations and pictures

19. Classroom management tips Remove distractions Small office to work in Special tests Picking students to answer questions Positive feed back to all Gain attention. Do nothing Chair

20. Teaching Tips Ice Breakers, get students to know each other Guided notes Repeat everything 3 times Flash cards Use what they give you Backward chaining

21. Behavior Management Forward Focused This is the hardest thing to do. Look for what they are doing right. Do not talk about what was done wrong. How hard can this be?

22. Behavior Management Why did you do that? The horse made me do it. The horse is strong and powerful, it always wins. The horse is mean and cruel. The rider doesn’t have a chance. What can we do about the horse?

23. Resistance You can not make someone do anything they do not want to do. You can do a lot of things to them but you can not make them do something they don’t want to do. The best way to overcome resistance is to agree with it. Power is a teacher thing.

24. Correcting Behavior Stranger Test Could anyone monitor the behavior, have someone else monitor the behavior “attitude” So What Test (choose your battles wisely) Is this really something that needs correcting? Is the behavior harmful to the student or others, their social, physical, emotional, or academic well-being.

25. Correcting Behavior “cont” Fair Pair If you take something away give them back something that will strengthen a positive behavior. Dead mans Test Can a dead man do it? If so it isn’t a fair pair.

26. What’s needed in the Future 75% of the students with disabilities hardly ever see a computer. 47% never use them for word processing. 42% hardly ever use the internet. New computer software, we need some for Technology education. Computers with colored keys. Voice activated

27. KISS Principle

28. Don’t ask me what I can’t do ask me what I can do.