‍My IEP, My Future

“I never let my education interfere with my learning.” - Mark Twain

So picture yourself. Middle school. No one would ever call you the “smart one.” Sometimes, you’re in a special classroom that you go to. No idea why, really. You already know that math is hard. Or, maybe the letters on a page are so jumbled when you look at them, reading is misery. Maybe, your thoughts get lost as you try to get them onto a page through your hands. Then imagine that there is this document that says exactly what you have to work on (as if you don’t know) and a bunch of other stuff seems to matter a lot, but no one really ever explained it to you. You ask yourself, “Am I just part of the education system or am I learning? How am I learning?” How are you supposed to improve and take ownership of your learning when so much of your learning journey is confined to this mysterious document?

When I was in middle school, my school had a program that allowed general education students to volunteer at one of their lunches, sitting with special education students. I was so excited for my day and was curious to see why these students were so different from me. To my surprise, they weren’t that different from me. They were simply students who needed additional support. Since then, my curiosity about people with disabilities grew into a passion that led me to helping them reach their goals. Throughout the years since, I have observed a large deficit in our education system where students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) have been treated differently or experienced different interactions than their fully general education peers. This created a noticeable gap. Part of the gap has been that students with IEPs historically have not had their IEP explained to them, nor were they told that its purpose was to help them succeed in school. Without knowing what they needed to work on and what tools they could use to help them, how are they supposed to succeed? Students rarely knew why they were in my classroom or what the goals of my class were. The project that I describe below was my answer to the problems I could not ignore. I designed this project to give students back autonomy in their learning and help them gain confidence in their ability to learn.

The goal for this project was for students to learn about the purpose of an IEP, understand their own goals and accommodations, and create a personalized portfolio to showcase their strengths, needs, and learning preferences. What followed was a deeply human, often emotional, and undeniably impactful learning journey for all.

The first stage of this journey involved building a classroom environment on the connections of trust and vulnerability. This was the most challenging part of this journey, as a majority of my students have experienced trauma. It began with me choosing to trust my students and be vulnerable with them. We would begin almost every class sitting in a circle and talking about real-life things, such as  different reactions to school breaks, things happening in life outside of the school walls, and the reality of what they need to do if there is an active shooter. I had to let my students into my life first. I had to break that barrier. I would tell my students when I was having a rough day and I would talk to them about things going on in my life outside of school. Doing this opened the door for students to be vulnerable and honest with me. They knew that I would be honest with them and support them without judgment. This was an ongoing process throughout the entire school year, but particularly emphasized during this project. The project exposed a lot of educational weaknesses that had been kept from the students themselves as a lot of IEPs are deficit based, focusing on where students are lacking educationally instead of showing them as whole humans. 

The second stage was an informational stage. We began with a driving question board. In groups, I challenged students to brainstorm as many questions as they could about the prompt: “How does my IEP help me succeed in school and prepare me for my future?” I was amazed at how many questions each group came up with and how authentic and deep they were. Next, I introduced students to their tracker for this project, showing them what the project would be. Then we dove into our IEPs. I was originally going to meet with each student individually to discuss their IEPs, but they wanted to learn together, in a circle, about their IEPs. Vulnerable. So, we sat in a circle with each student having their own IEP in their hands as we went through each section, explaining what it meant for them. To my surprise, the students asked each other for assistance and began asking me critical questions about their IEPs.

After that heavy stage, I took a moment to reconnect with my students to remind them that they are so much more than this document could ever capture about them. I typed and then hand-wrote individualized letters to every student and added a sticker to each student's note that reminded me of them. Some students received earthy stickers like mountains and flowers, while others received stickers relating to their sports, and some received stickers of animals that reminded me of them.  The impact of this was more than I possibly could have imagined. One major reaction - a student who recently went through a lot of trauma and whose IEP meeting we had the day before  - was when she started silently crying while reading hers. She then asked me for a hug and spent the remainder of class writing me a letter back that I will forever cherish.  Another magical moment was a group of students who decided to read theirs out loud to the circle. This was remarkable to witness. One of the students had cried while reading hers, but then was laughing while reading it out loud to her peers. They all loved hearing other people, and it helped them see each other through new lenses. Vulnerability. Connection. Courage!

The project exposed a lot of educational weaknesses that had been kept from the students themselves as a lot of IEPs are deficit based, focusing on where students are lacking educationally instead of showing them as whole humans. 

With the sense of community growing rapidly in the classroom, I had students change my room to how they wanted it. They chose to push all the tables together, creating a huge rectangle so that they could work with each other, and our room would have better space for circles. We then went to work on the bulk of this project as a team. Students explored their different learning preferences to figure out what they need to successfully learn. After that, we created S.M.A.R.T. goals as a class before I challenged students to make their own S.M.A.R.T. goals.  This familiarizes them with the format in which their IEP goals are written. To my amazement, all four classes brainstormed ways to support each other as their class goal. One of the students that I had a difficult time connecting with led the discussion for his group, wanting them to be kinder towards each other because, “You never know what kind of day someone is having.” The individual S.M.A.R.T. goals students made gifted me with a glimpse into their hopes and dreams. They had individual goals involving sports they play, new skills they want to learn, and things they want to accomplish in their lives. One student was really excited to improve their swimming skills. Another student wanted to do better in band class by learning the new song before their concert. He accomplished his goal before his final presentation. 

Seeing a stronger sense of self-confidence in my students - the inevitable offspring of courageous vulnerability - the students dove deeper into their IEPs. Specifically, students focused on the goals and accommodations sections. Students asked an abundance of thoughtful questions during this stage. They asked why they had X accommodation instead of Y, what their goals meant, and a vast majority of the students asked, “Why wasn’t I at my IEP meeting?” They were starting to advocate for themselves in my room, but I wanted them to feel confident self-advocating throughout the school. So, we talked about self-advocacy and practiced what it would look like to ask for their accommodations disrespectfully vs respectfully. This led to a deeper conversation about what to do if a teacher doesn't provide them with their accommodations, even after they asked. We decided that if that ever happened, they wouldn’t fight the teacher in class, but would come to me as soon as they could after to tell me about it so I could address the teacher to figure out what is needed for us as a team to support the student.  

Finally, students worked on and presented their project. The phenomenal part was observing the students as they encouraged each other. Even my nervous students presented confidently. They excelled with their presentations. One student went above and beyond adding background music to his project. I only wish that I had been able to give them more time so they could personalize their presentations more. We wrapped up this project with students writing a letter to their teachers for next year, explaining their IEP and their learning preferences. 

A key challenge of this project was to introduce IEPs and areas of need to students without it negatively impacting their self-confidence. I had a few students reacting poorly to their IEPs, mainly from finding out what qualified them. For those students, I was more intentional about building back up their self-confidence and reminding them that they are so much more than their IEP. The letters that I wrote brought up big emotions in a few students, which was another challenge. I had two students shut down after receiving their letters. In the following weeks, I checked in with them more frequently and eventually asked them what they needed from me. For both of them, they had thought that adults had given up on them. They were trying to push me away. A larger challenge was absences and field trips. Since I only saw these students twice a week, missing a class period made it hard to recover. This made the project feel rushed as it was being done in the last quarter of the school year. We also had multiple class periods where there were more pressing issues to get to, making the circles last for a majority of the class period. While this was great for the classroom community, it did take away from the time students had to work on their project. 

This journey was overflowing with growth for students and me. Relinquishing so much control and trust to my students allowed me to see them as the wonderful humans they are. They encouraged me to become not only a better teacher, but a better person. I watched as my students took ownership of their learning and became a community with each other. They supported one another. My favorite things that students said they learned are: “Stopping to think about myself,” “Learning about my goals and how I can reach them,” and “My friends were there to help me throughout the project.” My students are the true heroes of this project. 

To my students, this could not have happened without your bravery and creativity. You consistently were open with me, giving me feedback throughout the entire project. You amazed me. I am in awe of you all. Thank you for persevering and creating the blueprint with me. Together, we took this wild idea and built it into something great.