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504/IEP

504/IEP

If your child has a 504 or IEP, please disclose that to your driver’s ed teacher.  Driver education is the black sheep of the education system.  We do not have access to your student’s record, since we do not work for the school district.  We are going out there on the road basically blind to the learning style of your kiddo unless you clue us in.  

We want to be supportive, and are big fans of individual learning, but we do not have a crystal ball.  I personally ask for information regarding learning style on my permission slip. I ask again when I ask parents to send an email on the first day to let me know about their kiddo.  I am very clear that I am open to any kind of communication at any time, often hanging out chatting with parents in the parking lot before/after driving hours.  I send progress report emails, and respond frequently to texts.  I let everyone know I also am certified as a school counselor with a background in psychology and teaching.  I do not know how to be more clear that I want to know how to support your student.  

In spite of all of this I still get emails the night before the final exam finally disclosing IEP’s or 504 plans, and asking for help.  I want to help, I really do.  How can I be of proper help the night before the final exam?  If you’re reading this, thinking, “Oh boy, she’s writing about me!”  You’re not the only one.  This has happened on multiple occasions, which is why I’m writing this.  Please don’t wait until the night before the final exam.  If you had let us know earlier, I could have talked to your student, and come up with a plan that suited everyone, or encouraged them through the process better.  I could have quizzed them more in the car as we drove around, or talked about effective studying styles that suit their individual learning style.  Without the knowledge that there is an issue, I cannot do much at the eleventh hour, which makes me about as sad and frustrated as the student must have been struggling through the whole class without the proper support.  

Some traditional accommodations cannot be honored in the driver education class.  We, (driver’s ed teachers,)  cannot allow extra time for a test, as the DMV will not. Also, traffic will not allow you extra time to process what is going on out on the road.  The only accommodation the DMV will make in our state is to do the final exam orally, so we can try to accommodate that option for you. But still, if we know that your kiddo has a hard time with a certain something, we can try to help.  Please, please let us know.  We are not being nosy, we will not gossip about them, and we have no judgment.  We only want to help.  

Sincerely, Driver’s Ed Teachers Everywhere. 

You’ve been honked at…

I was driving with Stuart doing exactly the speed limit in our drivers ed car with the big yellow sign on the roof, when someone behind us felt the need to honk at us. We were driving completely correctly, and honestly the speed limit is there for everyone, not just us. So, we have officially decided it is kind of a badge of honor to be honked at in the drivers ed car, as crazy as that sounds. We refuse to be made to feel like we are doing something wrong by driving correctly. So, Autumn, my class doodler took up the task of making me some amazing angry goose drawings that I had made into stickers. So now, if we get honked at for no apparent reason, my student gets a goose sticker on their folder. Gabe got the first one today for not pulling up to block an intersection even though the light was green. He stayed behind the barrier line, which was the correct thing to do, much to the dismay of the driver behind us. He got the first sticker!

We’ve lost a teenager

My town lost a teenager yesterday. I’m crushed. I didn’t know this boy, or his family, and I didn’t teach him to drive, but I know my town and I know teenage drivers. According to the police report it was a single vehicle crash with excessive speed. I drove through that same road half an hour earlier with my daughter, and we pulled over for the fire truck that was probably responding to the accident on our way home.

It wasn’t my kid but it could have been any of my students. It’s a skinny road with curves and hills and wildlife, and the corner of the crash is a blind intersection. I don’t know what happened. I do know that when teenagers have their license for a little while, sometimes they like to push the boundaries, and think that they know every turn of a road like that and can go fast. It wasn’t dark, it wasn’t bad weather, and the driver was alone with no one to show off for. These things really can happen anywhere, anytime. As a parent, and as a teacher this is so scary.

I know that our amazing high school, starting next week with one less senior, will respond with grief counselors, and the town will rally around the family with food and cards and anything we can think of to be supportive. Let’s please take a moment to think of this family, this whole community which will be affected, and think about what we can do. Let’s start changing the culture that says that faster is better, driving is a place where you can shave off a few minutes out of your busy day, and that people who go the speed limit are annoying. Hug your kids and remind them to drive carefully. Model safe driving and take care of each other.

-thedriversedlady

I feel so badly for the people stuck behind us…

That was my quote of the day the other day. My student was driving at 29 MPH in a 30 MPH zone, and she said, “I feel so badly for the people stuck behind us right now.” I won’t lie, this kind of made me upset.

How can it be wrong to go the speed limit? There is no reason to feel badly for people who have to go the speed limit. They are supposed to be going the speed limit too. The fact that cars get stacked up behind us going the speed limit means that they were clearly speeding, or they would not have caught up to us. Every one of them had to have been speeding.

The fact that this student has this thought, makes me think that in her car at home she routinely hears comments that make her think it is a mistake or a bad thing to hold up the people behind you, and that if you are going the speed limit you will annoy people. That it is somehow something to apologize for.

Why have we, as a society, decided that this is the one law that does not matter? That it is not just OK to speed, but that everyone does it, and therefore we should too? Why do people think that being behind a student driver who is going one MPH below the speed limit is doing so just to annoy them? My favorite is when people want to yell in our direction, “Learn how to drive!” I hate to tell you, but that’s what we are doing.

So please think about what we are teaching your kiddos. How impatient are you when other cars are driving slowly, and what is your definition of going slowly? The speed limit is there for the safety of everyone. You may disagree, but maybe you should take it up with the people who actually make the speed limits. The decisions are actually a factor of many things including how far you can see down the road, the average speed of 70% of traffic on that stretch of road, pavement grip, and previous accidents in that location. You may think you know what you would make the speed limit, but you do not have all the facts.

Try to be patient and grant a little grace to the kids trying to be rule followers and just get comfortable out on the roads. Let it be OK to go the speed limit. Try it yourself once in a while! Thanks.

Objects in the rear view mirror may be closer than they appear… but only if you look.

My daughter parked her car at a friends house the other day and then they took the friend’s car to go out to eat. While they were gone, the friend’s poor dad backed into my daughter’s car. Now, we can all picture this happening. In our own driveway, we tend to just be on auto-pilot and back up right where we always do without really thinking or looking behind us, secure in the knowledge that we know exactly what is supposed to be there.

Take that extra moment before throwing your car in reverse, and check your mirror. Always look behind you when backing up, even in your own driveway. It could be an animal wandering through, a tool left out, toys from munchkins, or even a person. Thankfully, everyone is fine, the car will be fixed, and life goes on. Sigh.