How Does Your School Do It?

So I just have a question since many of us are future diagnosticians.....I am a second year teacher and I don't know what they teach in the districts but I am currently working with people right now who are of the opinion that an ARD should not last longer than half an hour. When I go to an ARD, I am rushed right through the paperwork by the diagnostician, I am told that the goals should have already been sent home and discussed with parent, and that the ARD is not the place to ask questions or make decisions. I am told that all of that should be done prior to the ARD.

Does anyone else have any experience with this. I understand the need to save time, but I thought that in an ARD you were supposed to go through EACH PAGE of the ARD packet thoroughly, and that everyone had the right to ask questions and that at the ARD is where decisions are supposed to me made. Am I wrong?

Half of my parents sit there with a glassy look like they dont know what is going on and when I ask if they have any questions they say "no" but I get the impression that if they were encouraged more they would voice their concerns.

I hate feeling rushed at my ARDS and I do not agree that an ARD should not last longer than half an hour. So how do you do it at your school?

Hello All,
My name is Mary Cervantes and I live in Alpine. I wonder if I'm the only one still awake right now. In Alpine it is almost midnight and in El Paso it is almost 11:00 p.m. Maybe someone in El Paso is awake. Well, I am happy to be joining everyone in our ed. diag. class. I usually stay up late. This is usually my quiet time when I can catch up on things.I am a stay at home mom. I am also married and have three boys (a 10 yr.old, a 8 yr. old, and a 3 yr. old) who keep me on my toes, both physically and mentally.
But previously, I was an educator for 14 years. I love this profession even with it's constantly changing dynamics. There have been many positive professionals that I have been influenced by and have been fortunate to work with, especially in the area of special education. If I had to change professions, I would probably like to have my own business.
I also love learning. It's been a while since I took graduate courses but it feels so natural and good to be back. The only thing that is uncomfortable is learning about technology. I, like many of you, get a little nervous. I'm afraid of clicking on the wrong button and deleting everything! Once I was encouraged by friends to get a "facebook" page. So with peer pressure I did....however, I started seeing strange names of people I didn't know, who were appearing on my page and calling themselves "friends". Well this gave me the creeps so I ended my page. Until recently, I got an email from a much older friend of mine that was telling me about their facebook page. So that encouraged me to try it again. I thought if my friend who is at least 30 years older than me, can do it then so could I. We'll see how it goes this time. I think I followed the directions better this time. So Ms. Anderson, if you read this, I hope I have followed your directions better too!

Hello All

Hi,

I am so confused. I cannot get the hang of this blog thing. Somehow I added myself twice to the Followers list. Anyhow, I will figure it out and laugh at this later.

Well, I am from El Paso, I just finished my Master's in December, and I am ready to continue after a much needed break. I am married with two children, my son is 8 and my daughter is 7. My son plays baseball, my husband coaches his team, and my daughter is a cheerleader for the team. I just help with books and the financial end. My husband and I also play on a co-ed softball team on Sundays. Aside from baseball, I like to read, camp, bake, play with my kids, watch movies, and play sudoku. I also like playing on the Wii with my kids. I have been teaching for the past 5 years, special education, high school 9-12. Every year I have had a different teaching assignment so it has been a great learning experience for me. This year I am teaching all math. I have resource and ASC algebra, geometry, and math models. I has been interesting.

I have taken several courses online throughout my bachelor's and my master's. I have never taken a class that used blogs so I am freaking out, this is totally French to me. Anyway, I will learn and get the hang of it. I look forward to meeting you all and working with and learning from you. I live in El Paso so maybe I can swap information with those of you that are also here in El Paso so that we can help each other out. Also, My first name is Ana, but I prefer to go by my middle name, Sonia. Well, here goes, let's see if I posted this right.

Sonia, (Ana)

Hello(:

Hi, my name is Maria Camacho but my friends and family call me Lisa. So far, it has been some what confusing getting started since this is my first time blogging and taking a web-enhanced class. I am really excited and hope to learn alot. Ok, I am 40 years old. I taught students mainly diagnosed with autism for 8 years. In 2004, I got my master's in Ed/Sped. I was very lucky to get a position as Disabilities Prg. Mgr for Head Start where I worked with a group of wonderful hard working folks. In 2007, I got an opportunity to go back to my former district and begin working as a "Teacher on Special Assign." I am an In-home/Parent trainer and work with families and children with autism in El Paso. I have two kiddos. My son is 18 years old and just started his second semester in college. He is interested in becoming a Physical Therapist. My daughter is 15 years old and a freshmen in high school. Right now, she is interested in becoming a Math teacher when she grows up. My husband and I have been married for 20 years. He is really happy that I decided to pursue my Diagnostician certification. It was really nice reading your blogs.

Looking forward to meeting you all!

Who am I?

Hello--my name is Glenna Dulaney and I live in Carbon (don't blink you will miss it). I graduated from Fort Stockton High School many, many, many years ago. I decided to return to college and complete my degree after my youngest child started school. I graduated from UTPB in 1991 with a degree in Education 1-8 self-contained, and History 1-8. I taught fifth grade at the Intermediate School in Fort Stockton for seventeen years. In 2008 I decided that I wanted to teach children in special education and became certificated to teach Special Education EC-12. I am presently working on becoming an educational diagnostician and hope to graduate in Dec. 2010.



I am presently living with my daughter in Carbon and teaching resource English at Eastland High School in Eastland, TX. My daughter had a baby on July 24th, 2008 at which time her husband left to go to work in Arkansas. I decided to live with my daughter and help her with my two granddaughters. Living with my daughter and granddaughters has been one of the most wonderful and enjoyable experiences of my life. I also have two more wonderful grandchildren who live in Lubbock, TX.



I am so looking forward to this class. I think this class will determine if I am truly diagnostic material. Nitra this is also my second try at this blogging--hope it works this time. I am also looking forward to meeting everyone at the first class. See you all then.

A Little About Me

Hello Everyone. Well, my name is Denise Alvarez. I am 27 years old and am currently in my 6th year of teaching. Currently, I am working as a Special Ed teacher in a collaborative Kindergarten classroom here in El Paso. I just recently got married in November and we have a baby boy (or so the Dr. says since he's only 80% sure it's a boy) on the way. I'm expected to deliver in May so I am really hoping to have all my work and finals done before the baby gets here and hopefully pick up summer school in June. Alot of people say I'm crazy, but I really want to finish school so a quick recovery is in my prayers =) since I just need a few more classes. Aside from my famiy, teaching is definitely my passion so I am also certified and teach defensive driving and drivers ed whenever I can. I'm trying to enjoy it now knowing once our baby gets here, I will probably not have much time for it. I honestly couldn't imagine myself doing anything differently so leaving the classroom to become a diagnostician will also be a hard move for me and take me a while. God willing, I am hoping to get a position as a resource teacher which has always been my ideal teaching goal and then apply for a diagnostician's position. Guess we'll see.

Did it Work? Number 2

I must admit, this blogging is a lot harder than what I had expected it to be. But I am glad I am learning how to do this now before it gets later on in the semester and I have no idea what I am doing? Which will probably happen anyway.

Hi, my name is Ritanitra Woods but Nitra is fine. I'm 23 and I teach at Marathon Independent School District. Marathon is a very small town so I commute everyday from Alpine to Marathon in order to get to work. This is my second year in teaching there and it seems like its all repetition for me and I could probably drive that road with my eyes closed. I teach Physical Education and Reading Pre-K-12 so I get a chance to see all of the kids in action every single day. I enjoy teaching there and I'm happy I was blessed to get that job because I know that it will help me out tremendously for when I want to re locate or become a better teacher. I don't have any kids or a husband but I do have a dog named Karol which is like taking care of a kid anyway.

I'm very excited about this class and the blogging eventhough we got off on the wrong foot. Hopefully I will get the hang of it and with the help of my classmates and teacher, I can get things done :)

Hi Everyone!!

Cinda here! It's been a nice break this past month, but it's time to get busy again. For those of you who I haven't met, I am a LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor), with a private practice in Marfa, Alpine, and Ft. Stockton. With any luck at all, I will be finished with my certification as a Diagnostician at the end of summer session 1.

I decided to get my certification as a Diag. in anticipation of an eventual move. When that happens, I'm hoping to go back to the school system to finish out retirement and as a way of networking in the new community. Eventually I'm hoping to be able to do independent testing along with my private counseling practice.

My husband and I live on a ranch about 20 miles from Marfa. We have a fairly unique lifestyle and I've been maintaining a blog for a few years now. I love blogging as a way of communicating with family and friends. Those of you who are interested can go to www.muenchbunchnews.blogspot.com and you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about me!

For those of you who don't have the inclination to go to my blogsite, I'll tell you a bit about my family. I have 3 grown children. My oldest daughter is a newly graduated nurse with 2 adorable children (can you tell that I love being a grandmother!). My middle son and his wife are horse trainers. My youngest son lives near Denton and is training horses and going to college. Last, but definitely not least in my family, is my husband, the sweetest man on earth, we've been happily married for almost 30 years!

My experience teaching is limited to tiny country schools! My primary teaching job was special ed teacher / coordinator. Because it's necessary to be a jack-of-all-trades when you work in a tiny school system, I also worked as music teacher, counselor, and coach.

The picture is of me and my donkey Mi Hijo. He's 3 years old, and I've trained him to pick things up for me, smile, kiss me, pull a cart, and lay down. I'll be training him to be my 'saddle donk' this spring. Outside of my family, he is the light of my life! When I have spare time, and the day is pretty, you can bet that I'm outside playing with my little Mi Hijo!

First time blogger user

My name is Selma Falcon and I live in Andrews. I teach at a PreK-1st grade campus as a Bilingual Resource Teacher. I began teaching in 1987 in a PreK classroom. I did that for 2 years before I moved to a 2nd grade Bilingual classroom. I taught 2nd grade for 12 years then I moved over to Bilingual Resource and I have been here ever since. I recently received my Master's in Counseling from SRSU and if everything goes well I will complete my Diag. certification this summer.
My husband and I have two sons (25, 21) and one daughter (18). My oldest son is a civil engineer and attending graduate school at UT San Antonio. His wife is a lawyer from Paris, France and she is working on her law degree here in the states at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Our second son is a junior political science major at Texas Tech. Our daughter will be graduating from Andrews High
this May and hopefully get picked up by some college or university to play softball.
We are told that we will have to wait for grandchildren so in the mean time my husband and I entertain ourselves with three chihuahua's and one blue healer and three cats.
I look forward to this semester and learning more about the assessment process. Last, semester was tough learning all the new terminology and procedures. This semester I plan on building my confidence in report writing and in administering the various achievement tests.

I Hope I am Doing This Right

Ok so yesterday I was able to get on the blog as a follower. Today after watching the video I saw that I needed to create my Google account to actually be a contributor to the Blog. I am not sure if now I need to go back to my Follower profile and somehow link it with my contributor profile......If I have confused you at this point it's ok because I am a little confused also. Plus it is Sunday morning and my brain is not awake.

My name is Amy Egger Perez and I am a special education teacher at an elementary school in El Paso, Texas. I work in a self-contained unit called PPCD, which is a unit for preschool children with disabilities.  Last year I was a resource teacher at the same elementary school, so things have changed quite a bit for me. I feel like I am a first year teacher instead of a second year teacher. I am working to become an educational diagnostician, which is why I am taking this course. I have two children, ages 7 and 1 who are my life. I am recently divorced which has been a very difficult and painful obstacle for me, but I am proud to say I have emerged from this darkness confident and strong. 

I have some questions regarding the class.  First of all would this even be the place to post questions? I am not sure so I will wait. I am looking so forward to this class and all it has to teach me.  This Blog thing is pretty cool.

About Me...

I am your instructor for this course at Sul Ross State University. I was born in Alpine and have two beautiful children (10,6)that I enjoy raising in a safe, small town.

I have worked for several different school districts in Texas. I started my educational career as a special education teacher and a coach. After I had my children, the coaching lifestyle proved to be too demanding. I became the special education coordinator and then I decided to become an Educational Diagnostician. I missed the students and my classroom tremendously but soon I couldn't imagine doing anything other than being a diagnostician.

I returned to school in 2007 to work on my doctorate. I am in the last semester of my course work and will begin my dissertation in the summer. It has been the biggest challenge I have faced yet. I have quite a communte (10 hours each way) and leave every weekend. (Glenna, I'm still coming through Eastland so I can meet any weekend if needed!). Needless to say, I am looking forward to finishing up!

I truly have a passion for special education and proper diagnosis and placement. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and espcially working with you to develop and sharpen your assessment knowledge and skills.

Best of luck!

Welcome

Welcome to the first ever Educational Diagnosticians In Action blog. This will serve as a great place for us all to share our experiences through this course. Feel free to post as often as you want and reply to other posts as well.