 23 students, 23 'classes' Erin O'Grady feels lucky — her training prepared her well for challenge of special ed
By Holly Yettick News Staff Writer
Erin O'Grady teaches one third-grade class. But during math time on a recent December afternoon, it is almost as if she is teaching 23 classes — one for each of the children in Ebert Elementary Room 121. First, O'Grady praises a boy who voluntarily fetches a chair for a classmate who has a headache. Next, she stoops to hug a special-education student who's having a bad day. Finally, she smiles and uses basic English to help a recent Mexican immigrant write a number on the class's probability graph. Six special-education students. Three more in the process of being referred to special ed. Two children who pay weekly visits to the school psychologist. One child who is just learning English. O'Grady's class has more than its share of special needs. Only half of Colorado teachers rated their preparation in working with special-education students a 5 or above on a scale of 1 to 10, according to an annual state survey of first- and third-year teachers. But when it comes to special-education preparation, O'Grady gives high marks to the University of Denver teacher-education program she completed last spring. DU offers teacher candidates two sources of preparation for dealing with special needs. There is a formal course. Then there are seminars that help students learn about topics including special education during 100 required hours of student-teaching and classroom observation. O'Grady says the formal course taught her to identify students with disabilities, then record evidence of their problems and brainstorm teaching solutions. Even more helpful were requirements that called for O'Grady to analyze other teachers' case studies and, ultimately, to write her own. While student-teaching at southeast Denver's Cory Elementary, O'Grady wrote in-depth reports on a struggling reader and a child with behavior problems. She met with the children's teachers. She wrote pages of observations about their problems and progress. She administered tests. Then she came up with ideas about how to better meet their needs. "This is exactly what teachers are asked to do with students they think may benefit from special education," O'Grady wrote in an essay about her teacher-preparation program. In Colorado, prospective teachers can minor in education but they must major in another field. O'Grady chose psychology — a subject that has also provided insight into her students' problems. When a problem comes up beyond the scope of her experience, she turns to the school's in-house experts. Special-education staff members visit her classroom every day. The school psychologist started holding weekly social-skills sessions after O'Grady fielded two suicide threats at the beginning of the school year. "The nice thing about this school is, if I call for help, they will come and take care of that kid for me," O'Grady said. Parent Diana Herrara says O'Grady is doing a great job seeking special-education services for Herrara's son. "She knows he needs help, that he's lacking in some of his subjects," Herrara said. "She'll sit down and help him. She spends a lot of time with him. She's a good listener. . . . Other teachers, they wouldn't sit there and listen, and he'd get frustrated because he couldn't get his point across." "Long, long term," O'Grady says, she has even considered working full time with students with special needs — returning to school to learn how to be a school psychologist. She has a special place in her heart for inner-city children — who tend to be overrepresented among special-needs populations. "I love these kids," she said. "I wouldn't want to work with any other population."
Rosa rolls the dice. "Seven!" she calls out to her partner, Amber, who records the number as part of a probability exercise for math. Rosa rolls again. "Eight!" These small tosses represent big gains for O'Grady's only student who started school not speaking English. O'Grady is an "English Language Acquisition E" teacher who uses English, combined with special instructional strategies, to teach English-language learners. But she only had time to complete 15 of her 150 required hours of ELA-E training before school started, demanding her energy and time. "I brought very little background knowledge to the course, so it was difficult to get much out of it," O'Grady said. According to Denver Public Schools ELA chief Jose Perea, ELA teachers have one year from the time they're hired to complete their 150 training hours. But Perea said there are no consequences for teachers who don't complete the training in that time. Before being hired at Ebert, O'Grady says she learned little about second-language learners from her classes at DU. DU teacher-education program Director Jennifer Whitcombe says there is no one course devoted to non-English speakers, though it is touched upon in several different seminars and classes. That was OK with O'Grady, who said many of the techniques that help second-language learners are the same techniques she learned to use when helping struggling English speakers. "I think the place I'm lacking the most is, I don't speak Spanish," said O'Grady, who's considering going on a mission in Mexico this summer. "Ideally, I feel a Spanish-speaking teacher for Rosa would be better." No traditional teacher-ed program teaches ELA, a court-ordered program unique to Denver Public Schools. ELA has its own set of courses administered only through the district. DPS faces a shortage of trained teachers as schools struggle to keep up with the demands of an English-language-learner population that has grown 20 percent, to 16,430, in the past four years. O'Grady is not Rosa's only resource. A bilingual ELA teacher works with Rosa 45 minutes a day. Rosa also gets an additional 45 minutes of one-on-one English instruction either from O'Grady or a teacher's aide, plus three hours a week with volunteer Ray Traudt. When Rosa writes essays in Spanish, O'Grady consults the bilingual teacher, or reads the work with help from a Spanish-speaking friend. Rosa often seemed lost at the beginning of the school year, fidgeting and studying the ceiling as she listened to lessons she couldn't understand. For a while, a bilingual child translated. But the child's parents grew concerned that their daughter would fall behind in her own work and asked O'Grady to put a stop to that. Then the family moved back to Mexico. But before they left, another bilingual girl joined the class. Her name was Amber. Amber was Rosa's partner in math. She was Rosa's voice in class. Sometimes, when no one was looking, she even completed Rosa's work. Then, slowly but surely, Rosa didn't need Amber as much anymore. Rosa started reading entire English books. She answered math questions in English. After Christmas break, Amber never came back. Rosa's parents declined to be interviewed for this story. But according to Ebert Principal Joan Wamsley, they are pleased with her progress. So is O'Grady. "Working with her has been very rewarding," she said. Contact Holly Yettick at (303) 892-5082 or yettickh@RockyMountainNews.com.
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Age: 23
