“What DO You Do?”: ICT Prep

 Every now and again someone will ask me what I do.  I am the Integrated C0-Teaching (ICT) Cluster Teacher, but what does that mean? It’s time to clear up the confusion.

ICT classes used to be called CTT classes (Collaborative Team-Teaching); someone must get paid lots of money to sit around and make up new acronyms when the old ones were fine. I guess the Integrated part means that special education students are integrated into the general ed class, but isn’t that true of  children of all levels, including English Language Learners (ELLs)?  Anyway,  ICT classes always have one general ed and one special ed teacher.  When the teachers go on their preps, a prep teacher (aka “cluster” teacher) will teach the class for one period. This teacher is usually certified in the area they are teaching, such as music, art, gym, science or social studies. In my school the prep teachers teach music, dance, gym, science, and reader’s theater, and although these can be seen as enrichments, they are increasingly being used to promote literacy, scientific inquiry, concentration and body awareness and mastery, according to brain research, not to mention develop dance and musical talent.  And then there’s me, a certified special education teacher, with expertise in developmental psychology, emotional literacy and learning strategies and modifications. I am the constant in the life of an ICT class when they go out of the classroom to a prep, a time when classes of all kinds, out of the range of their classroom teachers and routines, typically go bananas until the prep routine takes over.  Sometimes what happens before the prep affects the behavior during the prep,  as when two kids snarl at each other in the gym over a conflict during lunch. I am the person who smoothes it out, or monitors  the situation, so the prep teacher can teach. In academic subjects, I will redirect students with attentional issues, and take small groups to teach those who benefit from it. Since I see each ICT class for one period (and sometimes two, depending on the grade assignment) each day, I know all their names, quirks, and who has an IEP or not and what for. That’s over 144 kids in total.  For the behaviorally challenged I keep anecdotal logs and behavior contracts. Depending on the teacher I am working with, I am the invisible teacher who seamlessly fits in, sometimes mistaken for a paraprofessional–or I am a  full co-teacher, keeping the kids on task, re-teaching lessons,  giving assessments and grades.  When I am not there, the students look for me; when an issue arises, the teachers look for me. 

Perhaps the best way to understand some of what I do is through a snapshot of a period:

The kindergarten ICT class has Mr. Z (not his real initial) for Music in the Brain, a keyboard music class, twice a week.  In this class is a little round-faced boy whom I’ll call Juan. Juan likes to hide in the boy’s bathroom, outside the music room. Sometimes he carries a toy, usually a truck, that becomes an alter ego, dancing or singing for him. He can be playful, or he can be obstinate. On this day, Juan was sent to his keyboard after a lesson, and instead of trying to play the song, a short, 3-finger exercise on the right hand, he was banging with abandon on the keys. I went over to redirect him, and to see how his classmates were playing.  Juan had the headphones (each keyboard comes with headphones) wrapped around his head backwards. When I asked him to wear them properly he spread them wider and swung them around so they covered his eyes. After 3 attempts to verbally gain compliance, I removed the phones and placed them on a shelf; he tried to push me away and pull at the wire to pull the headphone down. Afraid he’d pull the phones down on his head I steered him away from the keyboard; he stiffened up and threw himself backward. We both almost fell backward. He kept trying to push backward and I had visions of him cracking his head on the hard floor. I had to restrain him to prevent this. Finally he softened his body, and I was able to steer him outside the room, where his teachers came to pick up the class.  He tried to run down the stairwell, but another class was coming up.  I stopped him.  One of his teachers tried to console him while the other took the class back to their room. Then I had to leave for my next class.  Needless to say, I had to notify his teachers and all interested personnel.

The next day, however, Juan shared his toy with a friend in the gym, and all was well again. Until he asked to go to the bathroom….and wouldn’t come out.  I had to summon help.  And when it came, I went back to the gym, where I positioned myself next to a student who was getting ready to chase his friend, rather than particpate in the activity……

Some of it is kids being kids. And some of it is a little more.

And that is some of what I do.