| First, let me remind the Precision Education | | | | should be executed. Armed with this newfound |
| Community that I was a special education | | | | knowledge, I took it upon myself to initiate the |
| teacher. I have the utmost respect for teachers. | | | | same types of meetings with the parents of all |
| They show up everyday to teach children and | | | | my students. |
| deal with the political system. I also admit that I | | | | Parents were amazed at how much information I |
| violated my student's rights, I BROKE THE LAW! | | | | was giving them and how I wanted them to be |
| I never read a student's IEP from front to back. I | | | | involved. Goals were not only being met, but |
| rarely charted goal progress. I only glanced at | | | | exceeded and IEP's needed to be rewritten by |
| modifications that needed to be done. I was told | | | | December. My administrator walked into the room |
| by my administration to "watch out" for a | | | | a few months later and my entire class was |
| problem parent whose child was assigned to my | | | | sitting at their desks. A reading exercise was on |
| classroom. Sure enough, the problem parent called | | | | the overhead and the aides were engaged in |
| and asked for a meeting before school started. | | | | assuring the lesson was adapted to each level as |
| The mom drilled me on teaching strategies, | | | | I directed from the front of the class. It was an |
| charting and reporting. The curriculum had to be | | | | unexplainable experience to have my superior |
| explained to her and the aides had to have | | | | stand speechless at the progress that was made |
| training. My world was turned upside down. | | | | simply by me doing my job according to the |
| I discussed the conversation with the | | | | Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). |
| administrator. She told me that I had to comply | | | | I ran into the parent who turned my world upside |
| with the Mom's requests because in the IEP it | | | | down last summer. I told her this story and she |
| was written to communicate everything she had | | | | had no idea that she had such an impact on not |
| been asking. What? Wait a minute, if this IEP was | | | | only her son's education, but also on me as a |
| written with accountability- what were the other | | | | professional and the other students who passed |
| ones written like? | | | | through my classroom. I went from an average |
| So I spent the weekend reading all my students | | | | teacher violating student rights, to a proud |
| IEP's and found out that this child's IEP really | | | | teacher of successful students all because of a |
| wasn't written much different than the others. | | | | parent who knew her son's rights and had the |
| The difference was that this Mom knew what | | | | strength to become a proactive member of her |
| was in her child's IEP and how her child's education | | | | child's education team. |