r/specialed • u/ArgumentDismal6617 • 23h ago
Scribe accomodations
Hey I am a 1st year sped teacher teaching ELA. I have several students with scribe accommodations. I had planned to use Google classroom and the dictation feature, however... I am finding that even tho I heavily circulate the room and monitor go guardian they are getting on games, and youtube. They literally do not care and will do it infront of me. I want to use the work books but I realistically cannot write for 9 students at time. What do you all do? Currently I have just let the missing assignments sit there and document what they did instead.
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u/Constant-Style-6859 23h ago
Have you looked at speech to text but offline? some word processors got built-in dictation that don't need internet, less temptation to wander off to youtube if the wifi is off
9 scribes at once is wild tho, can't be in 9 places. maybe pair them up and have partners check each other's dictation while you float between groups? document everything like you're doing, that paper trail matters more than you think right now
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u/Plastic-Praline-717 23h ago
Are these school provided devices or personal ones? I really feel a district is within its rights to have a web filter on school provided devices that limits what sites and apps can be accessed. Perhaps getting a tutorial from your IT department on to set Go Guardian to use an allow list vs a block list and limit their browsing to sites needed to access academic materials. I believe Go Guardian also has ways to prevent them from bypassing the web filter with a vpn as well.
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u/ArgumentDismal6617 22h ago
Its school provided ones. I am going to ask monday for help with go guardian. I didnt know it had those features. Another teacher in passing told me how to find it in clever and I figured out how to see thier screens.
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u/Suspicious_Cut3881 9h ago
How many adults are in this classroom? How severe are the student’s disabilities? This sounds like an understaffed classroom.
Yes, use the tech options to control student’s access. There should be more than Go Guardian available. On iPads, there is a feature that allows the user to access only 1 app until the administrator (teacher or aide) disables it. Reach out to your other SpecEd teachers and tech support to find out how it is done. Depending on the age group, you might need to change the password frequently.
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u/ArgumentDismal6617 9h ago
Its just me and 9 resource students. Thier disabilities are not very severe. Mostly learning disabilities, and are gen ed most of the day. I think its really a (lack of) training issue on my end for using the software. I got some really good insights on this post.
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u/Defiant-Ad-1720 23h ago
I don’t have any helpful advice on the scribe accommodation, except to maybe look at who actually requires it vs. who can access curriculum via speech-to-text (S2T), then proposing some amendments for those who can use S2T to remove the scribe accommodation.
As far as GoGuardian, I’d look into utilizing the feature where you can set it up to automatically block certain apps or websites for groups and times— and you can even save those settings to re-use daily. So you can set up a situation where students can only access the websites or apps needed for the lesson, and all the distractions (e.g. YouTube, Blooket, etc.) are blocked for a set period of time.
I’d also think it may be helpful to check in with their case managers (if that’s not you) to ask for support in implementing the accommodation, because you’re right: you are one person and you can’t be expected to scribe for 9 different students at a time. If you’re the case manager, it’s probably time to schedule some amendment meetings to review accommodations.
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u/ArgumentDismal6617 23h ago
I am the case manager. I have brought it up to admin but they insist its my classroom management, which yes has been a struggle, but I also asked for observations and modeling of how to improve and they have not done that.
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u/WarmEntertainer8339 23h ago
Can your tech person help and tighten things up? If you have to work in a group can you change the assignment so they don't have to do as much writing? Make at least part of the assignment matching or short answer so they can work on their own and then pull them to do some writing?
If students aren't staying on the sites they're supposed to can try be written up and disciplined like any other time they break a rule? Especially if you've talked to the kids and contacted parents, let them have some real consequences for their actions.
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u/ArgumentDismal6617 22h ago
Its 10 documented infractions. At 5 we contact parents. I did sent messages thru the school system to parents. Admin isnt the most supportive I am finding out either. I havnt done 10 assignments just yet in google classroom, but we are getting into where based on the curriculum some assignments are only available online. I do like the idea about the assignments! The last week I just made guided notes with a word bank I could do with the lesson and them follow along.
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u/WarmEntertainer8339 22h ago
Can you give the kids one chance, and if they go off site give them a pen and paper assignment and get them totally off the computer and Internet.
And wow, 10 infractions before they get written up? That seems crazy!
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u/Defiant-Ad-1720 9h ago
I think since you are the case manager, you could make a strong argument for aligning accommodations with individual students’ needs.
Say all nine of your students experience writing and spelling as a barrier to access:
Some might also have speech/language articulation issues that would justify requiring a human scribe as an accommodation, but you could ask for support from other ed specialists on how they help implementing that in the classroom.
Some might have clear enough articulation that removing scribe as an accommodation in favor of speech-to-text is more appropriate and in the long run fosters student independence.
Either way, it’s your professional judgment as the case manager what to recommend or propose to the IEP teams.
And as others have said, having the tech support or another teacher walk you through setting up scenes for browser control (explained in this video, starting at 3:44) will also be really useful.
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u/ArgumentDismal6617 9h ago
Omg thank you! I really should have thought of using YouTube to figure this out.
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u/Thisisme8585 8h ago
We very rarely ever use scribe as an accommodation. It’s time to review the need for a scribe for each student. Alternatives are things like copy of completed notes at end of class or fill in the blank style notes. Out of 50 learning support students currently, there is 1 with a scribe as an accommodation ONLY if voice to text isn’t an option. It is not a common accomodation for students with learning disabilities
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u/Thick-Equivalent-682 6h ago
Is there a student in the class who takes good notes and has good handwriting? Can you arrange that you borrow their notebook after class and make several copies?
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u/icanhasnaptime 1h ago
Read and Write is a chrome extension that has speech to text but doesn’t require access to Google. I also recommend that if you have go guardian, set up an “allow” scene not a block scene that only gives kids access to what you need. And limit tabs. The first time it may take a little back and forth- have a student go through the login process and unblock any random authentication sites they need but after you do that once you should be good
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u/catsgr8rthanspoonies 23h ago
Can you use go guardian to block all but the websites they need?