welcome to another episode of college crazy i'm not only datsun today's topic is about the transition for students with learning disabilities from high school to college today i'm here with my co host bella kale and mr haeckel a learning support teachers here at peter sonship high school so mr haeckel what is a normal day like for you like how do you help your students and like talk to their teachers and stop there really isn't a normal day things happen on the fly all the time but if the best normal day would be  just following a schedule i have students that i see every period i check power school see how their grades are see if they have any missing assignments i'll shoot an email to the teacher or remind the student if we've talked about it before that they need to see a teacher to get those assignments sometimes the teachers will send tests down to us and i have a folder with a student's name on i'll give the test to them then when they finish it return it to me and then i return it to the teacher so it's just a lot of communication and we really don't know how the day is going to pan out just depends on what students needs are that yeah what are the positives and negatives of being a night teacher well let's start with the negatives and that's the paperwork and i think every job has a lot of paperwork people don't like to do with i p s individual eyes the education plans it's a legal document and we have to make sure that we cover certain things in the it's a lot of research a lot of depth into what the student needs and that's the negative but it turns into a positive because then it identifies what kids need and then we're able to address that and i work with the teachers and the families so that's  positive thing working with kids and working with the families to address any needs and to help them be successful in school how did you get into like the job like what means you want to come almost like a family business my mother and father taught for forty years and my grandmother taught learning support for about thirty years and she got into the profession a little later after she raised the family but so i look i like that as a kid just from the time i was little i was always around the profession i would go on field trips with my grandmother help her and i just really like that and enjoyed it just seem like something i want to do my first love was social studies like a love history the geography  but then also just helping people helping kids especially what's the most like rewarding thing about it working with the kids we're at the end of the semester and it's pretty busy in my room and kids come in and yesterday and today a lot of high fives fist bumps because kids see their grades improve they had make up work to do they get it done and then they see that grade come up from a d to a b and they're pretty excited about it so that's the rewarding thing just seeing kids meet their potential and meet their goals it's pretty pretty awesome now what's the difference of having an ip in high school with college like what's the difference between the two well the college doesn't really have to follow everything specifically like we do in high school but colleges are and technical schools are pretty good at identifying a student's needs and then wanting that student to be successful they don't want you to common fail and they don't want to reject people they want people that are going to do well and if the need is identified in the ip and it's something that they can do and that student can be pretty successful they'll follow it so it's a big it carries over a little bit so do they like college board and college board will then look at the student's records they'll see the ip they'll see the evaluation and then they decide is this you know a valid accommodation and usually the only thing that they will do it will they'll do a couple thing yes they do extended time so they'll give a student if it's an hour test that might give them an hour and a half to complete it a small group instead of testing with maybe one hundred students you might test in a smaller room with five or ten other students if students wordprocessor don't have that available so there are minor modifications it's the same test it's just you get a little extra time again for smaller groups now there's this didn't have to use up all the extra ninety's at all well the college board will keep you there so if you get fifty percent extend the time you have to stay there because they want to make sure that you don't come back and say well you know i felt pressured to leave early but if you use all of accommodations and they can make it along if a student has one hundred percent extended time it makes for a long day so we you can use it but just know that if you get that you're going to stay for for the whole time that your you know how to handle it if you don't really outgrow disability but you can you know how to accommodate for it and overcome the challenges i have had students leave the program if it might be a mild learning disability that's identified young in the students work real hard let's say it's a math disability but they've got all the basic math facts down and maybe it was just those basic math facts but they're real good an algebra where they love geometry so we have had students way so it's just like a test that we've all taken in class standardized tests that they take and were identified that way do all i pay teachers have the same responsibilities pretty much we do but there also speech is a good you can get it ip simply for speech so their day is a little different but everybody in our department pretty much has the same schedule we we have our own directed studies where kids come in for tutoring to get extra help and then we all go out into a certain class so some of us it depends on your certification some of the learning support teachers push out into an english class i go out in the social studies classes we have a math person  class and the students there were there to help all kids not just the kids with the eyepiece but that's kind of our main focus we can check with them what's nice i go into and i'm an american history class and i don't see all the kids that have piece in that class but when they're in the direct study they know that i'm in a class like that so they can come to me for help or you know help with the assignment or they have make up work to do lasts seven a half hours and then after that you don't struggle when you're happy you just want to get out of school so seeing kids that they know what their disability is they know what their weaknesses are and they're able to overcome that and be successful  and see a sense of pride with them so working with the kids it's just it's an awesome experience now when they're applying for colleges are like college is more like easy because a i know i can't say they're easier but what they will do i have a lot of admissions offices that will call me because i write and i paid so if a student has good grades a's and b s they have a lot of extra curricular activities that worked outside of school but they didn't do well on the s a t the college will still look at the whole student and they want to talk to look at their letters of recommendation and they'll want to know you know why didn't they do so well on the s a t s and then my response for some kids would be well they don't do it do well in testing environments they get nervous they like to take their time so i don't know that a college is any more lenient but they're more willing to understand that you know if your g p a isn't where it needs to be if it's just a little bit shorter a little bit you're falling short or if the test scores on the s a t s are a little lower though the let you in anyway but sometimes you go on academic probation of head kids do that they start out on probation just making sure that they are serious and they will do well so how many students do you have specifically and like how do you keep it all organized well we all of us have a caseload of about i see those thirty but that's not the only thirty we all work with everybody's caseload so if i have a student on one of my colleagues caseload but they're in my study hall i still work with them but i make sure that case manager knows if something's going on i can eat mail or talk to them say hey they're really struggling in science we've tried to set up tutoring just to let the case manager and so at any given day could be one hundred students passing through my the this early fall a girl graduated i don't know maybe five or six years ago and she asked me for a letter she's applying to a community college in south carolina so she contacted me asked if i would  for thirty years and i have a lot of kids in the past that the are either taught or coached and they contact through social media email phone calls but i still keep in touch with a lot of them will still ask for letters of recommendation even though it's been several years since i've had them yeah so how do you help a student transition to college like well we provide a copy of the ip i usually do letters of recommendation sometimes the admissions office will call and then we always tell know your weaknesses know your strengths so that when you do that admission interview the college or once you're accepted that you'll know most colleges universities and even the technical schools will have an office that they call office of student services or office with student disability and a student should know their weaknesses go there and advocate for themself and say hey i had an i p i needed extended time on tests or i needed a copy of the teacher's notes so that i could you know digest a little bit better rather than just hearing rapid fire lecture yeah so if they know that we tell them you know your i p go and speak for yourself and get the help you need now do you have to like like help them like or they organize with that whole process or do they get off track or well through the ip meeting we want kids the calm and we want them to kind of run the show by the senior year the student should know everything that's in their ip they should be able to speak to it and a lot of the kids are good at that they'll let me know or lead teacher know hey i'm supposed to get a study guide or i don't need to sit so close i'd like set off to the side you know i'm less distracted if i'm in the front or in the back or whatever so yeah they're pretty good at it you know knowing what what they need and  get the same advantages like you know now it's individual so based on your needs and that's you know a lot of people say well that's not fair they get extended time well it is fair it's just not equal some kids learn at a lower pace or they read a bit slower pace so they need a little extra time to read through a test or write gather their thoughts of it's an essay question so it's really based on you know how you tested at that psychological examination and what your needs are and then all those individual needs go into the i p and that's why it's difficult for teachers because if you have three or four ips in the class doesn't mean they're all the same doesn't mean they all get the same thing so you have to know your kids pretty well and know what their needs are  did you like work with the teachers like overcome the difficulties like in the classroom well for teachers and all teachers are very flexible when you when you go into this job you have to be ready for a your day's not going to be just an average sit behind the desk and spit out the information you have things are going to change on the fly and the teacher or teacher may email me and say hey we have a problem so and so owes me three assignments they didn't get here they promised me this and didn't get in on time so we have to adapt with the teachers or are very very helpful here they're very understanding they go out of their way to help the kids nobody says i said tuesday it needs to be here they understand now do we hold kids accountable yes if you say tuesday and nothing has happened we need to get you to finish this test up by tuesday they're held accountable for but teachers are very flexible things come up because a lot of times kids will get overwhelmed especially at the end of the semester have a lot of things to do and they're running out of time so the teachers will you know give them a break and let them take a little extra time to finish things up now have you ever had like a kid come to you with a problem of them like being bullied because of their ip yes that happens and that's there's no easy answer for that you know i don't know what to say to them at that time other than to try to ignore that or do you explain that try to sit down with that student or do peer mediation but that's tough no matter what kids can be bullied because they're tall the short you know they're longer now that they have an or they don't have an ip so that's just an ongoing issue that i think it's just the kid thing and it's unfortunate that it happens but i don't hear that much to say peters township is very accepting the kids here are phenomenal they are very accepting for the most part i can't say one hundred percent but you know ninety percent of the kids except everybody in the class they don't pick on people when somebody moves into the district they're usually it's embarrassing because i cry over graduation sometimes we cry before graduation in the classroom when the kids come in and my seniors will leave a week before everybody else does because they go to the graduation practice and things like that and they're always coming in and you know hug and tears and you know it's tough you get to know kids better than there are in the regular classroom teacher they see you for a period and you're gone and they might have you twice in those four years but i see you know kids get to know their families so it's tough when they leave it's a great feeling but it's also sad to see them leave but i wouldn't trade it for anything so you say you have a good relationship with all your students you know yes i do have my help and i try different for me i don't give assignments i don't give tests i don't grade the kids so they see me a little differently i never have to discipline anybody and i have to hold their feet to the fire until hey you need to get this done or you need to quit fooling around and get to work that kind of thing but my  different they see me as more of a teammate i'm on their side i've had the people get called to the office they were in trouble and i go in there just to i can't get you out of trouble and i can be there with you while you're going through because it's not a pleasant thing going into the office when you've done something wrong and you have a principle you know giving you some kind of discipline so i can go in and just just help you get through it we can decompress and process it and then just worker with through so when they go off to college there's like college offer like a like a tutoring program for them or like that's why kids need to know what's in their ip need to know what they need where their weaknesses are  so that they can say that in every school is different some may have the most all colleges and technical schools have have tutors available for you but some may have a special testing area they may provide professors notes to you if that's something you need and that's why they have to go and find out that of that office of student services find out everything that's available to them take advantage of what the school is giving you because the school wants you to succeed they don't want you to represent them well that's what they get the test in a separate room to their pets depends on the school and pens on what they have available you know there are so many universities out there that i couldn't speak to how each one works but some do have special rooms some make you take it right there but that will give you extended time so it just depends on the the school when the student yeah do they get the same like s a t's like is do the roles the same rules apply  to the same rules apply the only difference is if you apply for accommodations you can take it in a small group or get extended but it's the same standardized test that everybody else gets what kind of documentation is necessary for like the students into college yeah well that want their i paid a lot of schools will want a reevaluation done which just means it's a review of records and they want to see you know how you've progressed these four years someone actually want a new psychoeducational evaluation done to see that you still qualify see that it's a true disability and so the want that kind of documentation  just to you know just to refresh to make sure that these are still things you need are there special programs they can apply for because like i know over yarza thing the office of occasional rehabilitation is that's of a government program we work with them but once a student leaves us like we were done with them and they still need some help so what ovi are does over your picks up where we leave off and they can help you with applying to college and again they'll look at the individual student and see what that student needs sometimes they need financial aid over your can help there sometimes they'll need transportation  that aren't going to college and maybe want to look at a career path over your can work with them and do occasional training vocational testing and see where they would fit in if they don't want to go to college it's not a problem they can go somewhere else or just go right into the is there like another program like where they can go off to like a community college for like a day or so we have three c c ac and over your college for a day the students leave i think it's a six week program and the students will leave one day a week to go to a classroom at c c a see where they tell you what to do to prepare be prepared for college what college is going to be like how to advocate for yourself when you go to the office of student so it's a good class a called a class it's a good program that they run for kids that may be a little leery may not know what to expect in this you know kind of relieve some of that cac for going through it it's so that's your reward but it's not demanding program it's it's more informational than you know how it's a helpful program rather than here's something else you have to do more homework and more test helping kids in the end i've heard it it had kids come back and say well i'm not really going to college so it wasn't good for me but the kids that are going to college the ball said it's a good program and they enjoy it so it's it's good t o do you think that like college right for all students are like would you recommend not i would not recommend missing the opportunity to go to college it's what's in your heart what's in your mind if you want to pursue a career that needs a college education by all means go for it i was still students i'm not my mother and father were math teachers i'm not good at math but it doesn't mean i couldn't be successful in college and be successful teacher that's just social studies english were what were better for me than math so and colleges recognize that if a person struggles in one area doesn't mean they're not going to do well in another area and when you go to college it's not like high school where we assign you all the classes you have to take certain classes so that you're well rounded in college you can specialize more if you like psychology and you might be taking twenty four credits in psychology and if you don't like math well maybe just take one math class one accounting class so i recommend that if if that's what a student wants to do pursue your dreams go after them find success