HELP new resource teacher!

One point I’d make is to suggest that grading be the least of your concerns in a resource room. These kids are there to be helped - not judged.

I’d also say point systems get unwieldly and can create more problems than they solve. I see the best thing a resource room can do is remediating. As that can’t always be, then I’d see support for their work in regular classes as being the most important thing.

Good luck.

My son never had the token economy in rrbut up through middle school he would have worked as hard as he could for any small reward and actually they always came from reg. ed teachers. One teacher had a stuffed animal and the kid w the most stars at the end of the week took this silly thing home over the week-end. He had teachers hand out gum (and tell the kids not to tell others bcs they could get into trouble)- he would work miracles for this forbidden piece of gum!
Sara is right what they need is remediation. I also think they need an understanding teacher that can advocate for them and teach them how to advocate for themselves.
As far as grading, my child only got rr grades once in middle school and they seem arbitrary. They were never lower than a B+. I always thought the grading for this was silly and meaningless.

I teach a resource center class for 2-5 grades. I try to best match the class schedules that the classroom teachers have, although it is not always possible. I also believe that total remediation is not necessarily good for every child.It totally depends on the student.
I think that the majority of my kids have never been taught in a way that allows them to be successful outside of a special ed. environment, so using a variety of methods I teach them HOW to read and write. This takes time to figure out their learnming styles which is not always covered as well as it should be in IEPs. This, however, is worthwhile as it has proven extremely successful and many of my kids have gone back into the classroom without support form myself and no additional help from the teachers they have compared to the other students in their room. If I were to only have taken their classroom work and modified it, I do not believe that they would have been as successful in such a short period of time. The kids need to learn about their trouble bits and how to handle difficulties when they arise. Some kids are more involved, onviously, but these kids would not do well with a modified curriculum to begin with and would need intervention such as SRA or Wilson (both excellent programs). Really look into the all Kinds of Minds info on this site.
Do not be daunted by your task. It willtake time to find your way. Is there another Resource teacher or an LDTC in your school district (I am the only Resource teacher in my school) who can help you? See , while I like the idea of your behavior mod system, you may find that you don’t need something as involved. Start of with stars or something simple until you know your way better and after a few weeks you will see what behavior goals (may just be motivation difficulties) you want to focus on - if any! then you can use your checkbook idea which I think is really great ( uses math - yeah!). You will need something to help you motivate for sure. Do you have a fund to use? I don’t, and it gets really expensive, so be careful if you don’t. I advise starting off small then go big…good idea for everything.
Well, write back and let us know how you are doing.
Cat

This will be my 2nd year as a Resource Teacher for K-5. I was a teacher with 28 years experience who became frustrated watching children fall further and further behind each year because the reading curriculum (Cunningham) the district chose to use didn’t meet their needs. It is unknown what the previous resource teacher did with the children as many had made very little progress in the program. I returned to school for the new certification and began searching for support and ideas. This bulletin board was a great help even though I didn’t respond to messages I read them frequently. I knew reading whould be a big issue with these children and money was very low. I bought the book “Reading Reflex” before school started and used this for the first few weeks with all the children. I was surprised by the response from the children. They began to understand the code and reading and confidence improved. Each week I gave every teacher of my students a folder with a note attached for them to place any worksheets, reading story information, math work, etc. in the folder so I could be aware of what was expected of my students in the general classroom. No, I did not have my students complete all this work, but I used it to help me plan a general ed. assistance day each week. One day a week we read the class reading story and practiced the vocabulary. I also tried to work the Math skills into the weeks plan, however, most of our time was used to remediate skills missing. Most of the children had splinter skills that needed the holes filled to make the correct connections. I know this is long but I strongly feel our main purpose is to fill the gaps then to help the children become more successful in the regular classroom. If I was reading on a 2nd grade level in 5th grade and always made F’s on my papers I would quickly give up. It was not an easy year, but progress was made and this year I look forward to beginning the year more organized and with the regular ed. teachers more willing to help since they saw improvement also. One last note: one 5th grader who had had a bad attitude for years and was reading on 2nd grade level when school began made the honor roll 3rd nine weeks in the regular classroom. Once he was shown how sounds and words worked he was on his way. We used the accelerated reader program and I encouraged all the students to read and take the tests at their reading level. I bought tiny candy bars and promised 1 bar for each test passed at 85%. I owed some students 20 or more bars in a 2 week period. After the code was learned they improved reading by reading. What better way. I began reading ” One Mind at a Time” yesterday after hearing about it on this board. I wish all my teachers would read it. Kathye

Be careful with token systems… there are lots of other good ways to give structure that have less potential for eroding the development of intrinsic motivation.

I teach older students & put some ideas and teaching stuff up on my website (see the “older students’ section of www.resourceroom.net).

WOO HOO~!
I loved reading your post! We are like minds. Good to know you are out there!