Individualized Education Programs For All

I am in my classroom for two full class periods and the beginning of the third. The first class is a regular education class with average students. The second class is a lower level class with kids that have IEP's. The third is an Honor's class. The difference between the three is eye opening. The teacher must plan three separate lessons around one main topic for each day because she has to adjust for each class. I never realized what a difference there is between the classes and how as teacher's it is our responcibility to make sure we challenge our students. Then I thought about this. If the lower level kids have to have IEP why don't the Honor's students? I know this may sound harsh but instead of NCLB, it should say "No Child Get's Ahead". No offense, but we aren't advancing our future teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers. We're advancing the students who will do the menial tasks no matter how hard we try as teachers.

Another thing I've noticed is that the students do the same thing every day. The students go to class, copy out of their agenda, listen to the teacher lecture, do a worksheet, gets in groups if they are struggling with the worksheet, and they do home and do another worksheet. What are we trying to do as teachers? That's awlful, I would hate being a student in this class because I would be bored. The catch is, my teacher is one of the nicest people I've met and she is helpful when the students pursue her help. She wants students to be engaged, but it's like she has no idea how to do that other than to give them words of encouragement. I love talking to her though because she gives me very different points of view and she gives me ideas of how to interact with students. Although she is great for students in a social regard, I wish her classroom activities were more engaging. She admitted to that she never makes/uses lesson plans either...interesting.