SO MANY ACRONYMS

This week was a very information filled week. We discussed 504s, IEPs, DEPs, BEPs, AIGs, ECs, MTSS, PBIS, RIT, and many, many more. Just looking at all those acronyms is overload for me. However, these are all terms we should be familiar with. Wednesday, we had a guest speaker, and it was awesome! She explained MTSS; how the 3 tiers work; and how to organize all this information into something a little bit more understandable. I took about 3+ pages worth of notes from her lecture.  It was very informational and helpful. Some things that I took from the TEDtalks we watched were some amazing quotes: "Teach to the heart; the mind will follow... Believe in them so that they can believe in themselves... Value stories that students bring to school and help refine them... "
One thing I liked was the Golden circle:

What do you do (teach students) (outside of the circle and what's easily identified and seen).

How do you do it (mission and vision statements) (in between what and why and also easily identified).

Why do you do what you do (purpose, cause, belief, exist, care) (center of circle and harder to identify).

People don’t buy what you do… they buy WHY you do it!

If you’re just delivering content, they won’t take it in. They have to be feel valued.

Harry Wong quote: In an effective classroom, students should not know what they’re doing, but why they’re doing it." One mission of the MTSS is goals/outcomes for students. Students need to know why and how what they are doing will help them for their future, which means we need to know everything we can about our students.

Learning about all of this meets many standards, but the one I want to focus on is standard 2 - Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students: Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs. Teachers collaborate with the range of support specialists to help meet the special needs of all students. Through inclusion and other models of effective practice, teachers engage students to ensure that their needs are met.
Teachers should: • Collaborate with specialists; and • Engage students and ensure they meet the needs of their students through inclusion and other models of effective practice.
With all of these acronyms and EC students, there are teams that help determine the accommodations, management, and differentiation needed to meet the needs of each student. It is important for all teachers to work together with these teams and specialists so that we can adapt our instruction to a level that all students can access it.

Some things I found while researching MTSS and the 3 tiers were the following:

https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/rti/at-a-glance-3-tiers-of-rti-support
https://www.pbis.org/school/mtss
I love the photos because they really show what needs to be done for each Tier and how many students will be in each. The websites break down what each Tier is and how they reach the students in each and how MTSS and PBIS help the students and include the help from parents, as well.

I hope to incorporate so many things into my future classroom. One of them being a respectful environment. Yes we're teaching kids, but we need to meet their needs first before they can learn. Whether that be hunger needs, being there for them needs, sleep deprivation needs, lack of money needs, concern for family needs... the list could go on. If they are focused on the fact that they haven't eaten in two days or the fact that they haven't slept in two days or the fact that their mommy just left the house and they don't know why, then they're not going to retain anything being taught to them. They've got to process through all this emotional waves before they can focus on learning. I hope to teach my kids that no matter what's going on in school or in their lives or in other people's lives, that we come together as a class and respect one another And listen to each other's stories and help each other out. We do not laugh. We do not whisper. We do not point fingers. Instead we listen. We help. We encourage.