The M&R teacher needs to have confidence that the principal expects program decisions will be supportive of students and that teachers will act to meet students’ needs.
M&R teachers reported that they often use informal means to update the principal. They may drop into the principal’s office from time to time or have discussions whenever they meet in the school. Others schedule formal meetings with the principal, and in some cases the guidance counsellor, on a weakly basis.
Out-of-Classroom Instruction
Very httle pull-out instruction is occurring in the schools of New Brunswick districts 28 and 29, and M&R teachers feel that very little out-of-class instruction is required. Most of them do very little of it, only twenty to thirty minutes a day, three or four days a week, according to the time-use survey (see page 149) . Only one teacher had a student out of regular class for longer — six-and-a-half hours out of a twenty-five-hour instructional week. Instead, small group instruction is often carried out in the regular classroom with the M&R teacher or teacher’s aide. Considerable use of peer-tutoring has lessened the need for pull-out or cut-of-class instruction.
Individual or small group instruction is most frequently needed for reading and other areas of language arts, or when a student is being easily distracted. Teachers described instances where the special needs student was distracting other students from their work and was taken from the class for a short period of time to get the behaviour under control before returning to the classroom.
Community-based instruction programs also involve time out of class. These include community access activities like going to the library, the bank, the post office, or going out to a restaurant with an adult. In most cases, a teacher’s aide accompanies the student.
Districts 28 and 29 policy discourages but does not prohibit pull-out instruction, requiring that the pull-out occur after other alternatives have been tried.
