About strategies & tips for teachers – transcript
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The IEP process in secondary schools
About strategies and tips for teacher
Some strategies and tips for teachers who have a key role in ensuring a successful IEP process.
Panel of contributors:
- Mary McDonald, Specialist Teacher Garin College, Nelson
- Rachelle Stratton, HOD Learning Needs Tauranga Boys’ College
- Jocelyn Springthorpe, HOD Learning Support (2012) Queens College, Dunedin
Strategies for supporting all students
Getting ready for the IEP meeting – survey staff and ask for their questions
Mary McDonald:
When I’m thinking of questions for the survey, one of the questions I’ve been asking recently is, please write your own question. And you get some really good ideas from the teacher that leads to some feedback you hadn’t expected, or suggestions for goals that can be in the next IEP.
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Ask the students about their preferences for IEP goals
Jocelyn Springthorpe:
Prior to the IEP meeting, I’d also meet with the student so she had a chance to have input into her goals that we could bring to the meeting. Because sometimes when the students sit there with their teachers, they are overcome with shyness, or they forget what it is that has really been on their minds. So, because we’ve had a conversation beforehand, I can promptly say “oh, remember when we met you mentioned this and that?” That’s a good way to make sure that they are able to say what they want to say.
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At the IEP meeting – portfolio of learning experiences with photos and videos.
Rachelle Stratton:
There’s one thing that we do, as well as having written information, is that we have a portfolio with photos and learning experiences. And we bring that out in the IEP because the parents love to see what their kids have been doing. And many students, in particular boys, don’t say much about what happens at school. So here’s the visual of what happens, and parents love seeing that. In particular the social aspect, a student does have difficulty socialising. And the videos and the pictures, the photos, can capture, there he is having a conversation.
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Strategies for supporting all students – ask families and whānau for tips and advice.
Mary McDonald:
The people who know your student best are the parents, and that’s a really good place to start if you’re looking for strategies to overcome issues or problems that you might be encountering. And they can give you a lot of advice to prevent any issues that might arise.
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A document titled 'Teacher Support Notes for Stephen (2012)'.
This is an example of teacher support notes written by a boy’s parents for the teachers at the school. And they cover an overview, his likes, dislikes, strengths, difficulties around verbal communication. And lots of suggestions around ways of avoiding stress in his life and preventing problems occurring.
Rachelle Stratton:
The other thing that I do is I will always say to parents in a transition meeting, “These are the email addresses of the individual teachers. I would really encourage you to touch base with that teacher and open up the lines of communication.” Because then as a coordinator, you don’t become the third wheel. If something’s happening within that classroom, the teacher and the parent can have that straight direct contact. And that comes out of a document like that.
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Watch more from our panel
Mary, Rachelle, and Jocelyn talk in more detail about how their school manages and coordinates the IEP process in separate video presentations available from the same page as this one.
The videos are:
- Strategies & tips from Garin College, Richmond (6:30 minutes)
- Strategies & tips from Tauranga Boys’ College (4:45 minutes)
- Strategies & tips from Queens’ High School, Dunedin (3:00 minutes)
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Download documents
A copy of each of the following documents is available to download from the same page as the video presentation.
Documents include:
- Information sheet – Supporting the IEP process through information sharing
- Something to consider – Stephen’s teacher support notes
- Keeping teachers informed – Student profile examples and Teaching tips for students with hearing loss
- Ways of working – IEP process, IEP cover track sheet, Pre-IEP Information Gathering, IEP Template (Queens’ High School)
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