Becoming a Teacher in NoVA

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

There are "levels" of mainstreaming in middle school. There are self contained classrooms capped at ~10 students where they cover the same material but in a smaller, less distracting environment with more accommodations, and probably less in-depth....

...there aren't any people who can't count taking algebra, or students that can't string together a sentence in regular English.

Warning. Rant follows.

Yes, that may be true of math and English classes, but if you teach middle school science or social studies then you get all the kids, including those who can't read at all or understand enough math to figure out anything about a graph. In the school I just left, not only did I have them all, I often had them all by myself - no co-teacher, no aide. I made it work but it is so unfair to all involved. It did hold the rest of the students back, no matter what anyone claims. That was bad enough but this year they mainstreamed ALL the EBD students in a thing called PASS program. Having a kid crap his pants at least once a week in class is extraordinarily disruptive. So is a kid who stabs other kids with his pencil everytime you turn your back. Or one who eats boogers.

If you tell me this isn't what happens in Fairfax County/Virginia, where we are getting ready to move, I might continue teaching after all. My plans were to switch careers, after over 10 years, because of how frustrating this year was.

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by Oldhag1

If you tell me this isn't what happens in Fairfax County/Virginia, where we are getting ready to move, I might continue teaching after all. My plans were to switch careers, after over 10 years, because of how frustrating this year was.

I'm sure every school is different, but I haven't see anything to the extent you describe at my current school.

Don't get me wrong, I have booger eaters and pencil stabbers in my algebra classes (yes, even at 13-14 years old...), but most of the time they aren't special ed kids. They're just the obnoxious ones.