leadership in high schools

We have interviewed and identified two teachers of special education who will join our ranks in the Southern Region of Erie 2 CC BOCES.  This identification process was spurred by the need to open a new high school classroom grades 9-11 geared primarily for students in need of a self-contained classroom setting.  With the requirements of NCLB and the highly qualified/certified teacher status required of all teacher candidates, this greatly narrowed the pool of candidates. 

Teachers who are elligible for this posting gained K-12 special ed. teacher certification prior to 2006 and have accrued content area credit at university level in each of the four core academic areas.  Other elligible candidates are those who since 2006 have graduated with a grades 7-12 content area specialty within special education.  The K-12 teacher certified candidate must have taught content grades 7-12  since 2006 and ideally will be  highly qualified to teach all four content areas – Math, Science, English and Social Studies. 

This scope of this teacher posting is by design and scope limited in that students within this classroom need to be taught grade level content material in a self-contained setting.  This is because the students identified for this classroom, need to have limited distractions and possibilties of challenging social situations.  The needs of these students preclude them from partaking in a general education lunch setting;  stressful situations and acting out behaviors are caused by rotating classroom schedules, social interactions in hallways and classrooms with peers who are academically higher performing than they are. 

This is a class project I read about  which currently involves three countries Australia, China and Turkey.  The object of this exercise using a power point presentation is to have students select their favorite foods.  I thought of the universal appeal to all students for this kind of input which is both gratifying and immediate.  Food and and the development of epicurean tastes!  In addtion the ability to bridge a global area of interest.  I see the value of this exercise across several subject areas and an experiment that can be introduced to students of all age groups.   On coming across the blog post I was surprised that America is not yet a part of this experiment, so in an effort to join our teaching colleagues in Australia and share our  students passion for food with their global counterparts please check out this slideshare presentation.   

This is a power point presentation contained in the blog http://hawkesdale.globalstudent.org.au. However it is not always accessible.  You may also go to the actual slideshare presentation at http://lunchboxproject.wikispaces.com and add your own uniques features to this classroom project.  Whereas it is listed Kindergarten through 3rd grade you can easily adapt this project to any grade level with your own teacher input and creativity. 

If we could all collaborate on this expeiment I believe we shall expand the horizons of our web 2.0 reach as well as teach our students a variety of skills.