Mastering IEP Development with Catherine Whitcher (Part 2)

In this captivating continuation of the Fast 15 podcast, we delve deeper into the world of special education with the remarkable Catherine Whitcher, a passionate advocate with over two decades of experience. Catherine sheds light on the transformative concept of Master IEP Coach®, a groundbreaking program designed to facilitate collaboration among parents, teachers, administrators, and therapists in crafting effective Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Through engaging discussion, Catherine underscores the vital role of teamwork in special education and unveils the wealth of mentorship opportunities available through the Master IEP Coach® program, including a comprehensive online course, monthly group coaching sessions, and personalized guidance directly from Catherine herself.

Key Takeaways:

• Deep Dive into Master IEP Coach Mentorship: Discover the comprehensive mentorship program designed to empower educators, parents, and therapists in creating impactful IEPs.
• Interactive Learning and Personalized Support: Explore the dynamic learning experiences and individualized support offered through the Master IEP Coach program.
• The IEP Development Assessment Wheel: A Game-Changer: Learn about Catherine's innovative tool for streamlining the IEP process and maximizing effectiveness.

In addition to our enlightening discussion with Catherine, we also take a moment to acknowledge the invaluable support of Specially Designed Education Services (SDES) and their forthcoming Functional Academics program, poised to revolutionize special education classrooms.

Episode Highlights:

• Welcome & Introduction to Catherine Whitcher's Journey
• Deep Dive into Master IEP Coach Mentorship
• Interactive Learning and Personalized Support
• The IEP Development Assessment Wheel: A Game-Changer
• Sponsor Break: SDES's Functional Academics Program
• The Power of Knowledge: Avoiding Common IEP Mistakes
• Empowering Educators and Parents in the IEP Process
• Final Thoughts and Advice for First-Year Teachers
• Closing Remarks and Sponsor Acknowledgment

Transcript

Barb Beck: 0:02

Welcome to the Fast 15. Today we're continuing our conversation with Catherine Whitcher. For over 20 years Catherine has been sitting at IEP tables helping parents, teachers and teams, walking them through courses and mentoring champion in the field of special education. If you missed part one last week, be sure to catch up on that first episode. But today you're in for a treat. Let's pick up where we left off and continue our enlightening discussion with Catherine. I really wanted our listeners to know about in the first episode if you didn't catch it, make sure you do listen to the kind of the background, the story and some of the really impactful situations that, Catherine, you've been involved with with families through many years and just helping them through the Master IEP Coach. But I wanted a chance for our listeners to know more specifics about your team, how you approach, maybe from start, all the way through. What's the format?

Barb Beck: 1:09

and some of the key components of what you're doing.

Catherine Whitcher: 1:12

Yeah, yeah, I think I'll answer some of the quick questions that I know I'm going to get. So, just like people don't have to say, wait, I wonder if okay. So first thing is people ask can I call myself a master IP coach? Like, do you have a program, Catherine? We're like yes, that's exactly what this is. This is where you get to become a master IEP coach. Now some become a master IEP coach because they want to help themselves at the IEP table.

Catherine Whitcher: 1:35

Remember, I said in the first episode that master IEP coach is all about parents, teachers, admins and therapists working together. It's all about them learning together, working together, developing IEPs together, which means that the Master IEP Coach Mentorship, which is our core place where you want to be is inside the mentorship. That's where parents, teachers, admins and therapists become a Master IEP Coach for themselves. And they're like I just want to level up my leadership at the IEP table for my own child or for my own students, or for my own team. Or you want to do this not just for your own family or your own students, but you want to help others too.

Catherine Whitcher: 2:15

And, yes, teachers, if you're listening to this and you're like can I really be a master IP coach and keep my job? Yes, absolutely. We've schools that enroll their teachers to become a master, I think, because they want this in their school and they're not sad about you going out and helping families do things collaboratively. The more collaborative voices we have, the better, and so we have parents, teachers, admin therapists for yourself or to go and help other people the format of it Now. I'm a teacher by nature, right, and I grew up in the disability community, which means that this is built for the busiest people. I know who needs information, but you need to have it in the way that works best for you.

Barb Beck: 2:53

A hundred percent.

Catherine Whitcher: 2:54

Yes, right, like you just have to have it. It has to fit into your life. This shouldn't be something extra. This should be something that you do that actually gives you more space in your life, a value add. Yes, yes, absolutely so. There's an online course that's all self-paced. I actually give you 25 years of all of my tools, strategies, methods, all of those things and I put them into an online course. I'll share a few of the kind of highlights in there in a minute, but it's just know like I can log in and I can just start learning. Awesome. I also have for you monthly group live coaching, so I'm always updating. So those replays then go into the course of you know, let's do a collaborative writing session on how you can write effective letters and emails between the IEP team, because written communication, that's where it's at right. All the time we got to get it right.

Barb Beck: 3:44

Well, we have to. I mean, we need to get it right for sure on paper, any written communication that can be used to support the work that you're doing, and also, if there are questions and legalities, that has to stand in a really solid way and in positive light.

Catherine Whitcher: 4:02

Absolutely so. That's, for example, one of the live sessions that I'll run is this you know, kind of like we're co-writing together and I'm sharing with you how to do all of these things as a teacher, as a parent, and put all of this together so you get this live group coaching. You can ask me questions while we're live group coaching. But my favorite part I'm going to be honest about my favorite, favorite favorite part Do it no-transcript where I want to make sure that you are getting exactly what you need from this mentorship. I have a real struggle with generic IEP trainings. If you can Google it, that's okay. Right, Like I don't need more than Google. So this is the mentorship and all the master IP coach things, and this is where I'm going to share one of my favorite pieces. That's inside of the course. I developed a tool that's called the IEP development assessment wheel.

Speaker 3: 5:17

Okay, let's hear about that for a while.

Catherine Whitcher: 5:20

You're like give me a tool, right, give me a tool that I can use. So what happens is teachers are given IEP software right, like here, like check the boxes, fill in the things. This is what you need to do. Parents are given legal books, google, facebook groups that give out not so great advice. They're given this kind of eclectic material, kind of thrown at them of this is how you develop an IEP. So what I did is I took the entire IEP process and I broke it down into eight sections. It's in the shape of a wheel, okay, and I've given you five checkpoints in each session, each section, which means that you get to go look at, for example, iep goals and look at five key parts of IEP goals and say does this meet the standard of? This? Is a good IEP? Because we don't know as teachers, especially when we're beginning our careers, we have no idea what a good IEP is.

Barb Beck: 6:23

Well, listeners, if you're like me, when I started teaching, I knew next to nothing about IEPs how to gather the right data around goals and do established reports to help my IEP team have a clear vision and effectively engage in progress monitoring. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor, sdes. They are coming out with an incredibly valuable data collection tool to support us in the IEP process. Have you heard of Functional Academics by SDES? Their collaborative efforts with educators and families are paving the way for a more inclusive and supportive learning environment. Stay tuned for more details. In this brief word from our sponsors.

Speaker 3: 7:09

Functional Academics by SDES's collaborative work with educators and families, just like you, provides an in-depth understanding of your needs in the community we serve. You've asked, we listen, it's coming. Stay tuned with more to come at SDESWorkscom.

Barb Beck: 7:28

Thank you, SDES, for your continued commitment to innovative approaches to building functional academics in our special education classrooms and for your support of our FAST-15 champions. Now let's get back to this episode and our conversation.

Catherine Whitcher: 7:45

Parents don't know what a good IEP is, but I've been doing this for 25 years and there's been definitely kind of I'm going to call them almost like repeat offenders right Up, like you're like this is still missing and this is still missing again and we still need to do this. And I'm like yeah, yeah, I'm like it's still happening, it's still happening. So if we can just take these repeat mistakes and say let's just break them all down into a system that says if you have this, you're doing good, if not, this is a mistake we can fix, right, right. And that's where, all of a sudden, teachers are like oh my gosh, I didn't even realize, like how much more I could have done. And it's done in a way where they're like this is exciting, because I knew I was second guessing myself, I knew I was missing something, but this is how it's always been done and that's what I call the repeat, because that's what we do in special ed. We just keep doing things the way they've been done and we need to switch that up.

Barb Beck: 8:37

Exactly. It mirrors the specially designed aspect of what we're doing with students. Let's specially design that. Whatever you're, you know the way that you're coaching up and mentoring teachers is specially designed to fit them. And then also, what I love about that is that it takes away the shame of it right? I've been in the same space too, where I've sat there with an administrator and they're taking me to task on what has been written in the IEP. When you don't have the time and you are so overwhelmed and you're just trying to do like you said, check the boxes, If there's a tool that you can anchor to and go. Oh, I just, I was too busy, I didn't think of the thing. But here it is. It's helpful, it's supportive, it's a scaffold for the teacher.

Catherine Whitcher: 9:25

Right, that's exactly what it is. And, like I said, there's all of these things that keep on happening and I knew that I was making those mistakes back when I was a teacher. Actually, I didn't know when I was making them, but I didn't look back and say I made those mistakes right, and coach teachers and I'm like listen, you don't know what, you don't know. Like I totally get that. This is how it's always been done.

Catherine Whitcher: 9:47

For example, esy is not just for regression. That's a big thing, right. So we say and people are like what do you mean? My district has said ESY is for regression only. Or parents have said I was told this and I'm like we're missing a piece. Let me show you exactly where to look. Like I didn't make this up. I'm not a lawyer. I can't give you legal advice, but I absolutely can show you what the law says about ESY. And all of a sudden that mistake does not get made again because now the parents and the teachers have the knowledge to have that neutral conversation of the fact is like here's the thing. I don't want to argue over regression. What I want to look at is ESY appropriate to support faith inside this IEP and have all the criteria have been considered. Sounds real like oh, this is systematic. Yeah, this is not an opinion, this is something that just needs to get done.

Barb Beck: 10:45

Right, right. And I think, too, you mentioned the power for administrators as well, helping to take that pressure off. Let's not just focus on compliance, right, let's focus on are we approaching these relationships through the IEP process in the most comprehensive, thorough and dynamic way possible? Yeah, right, where? Where everybody's winning, but especially the student.

Catherine Whitcher: 11:13

Yes, and that's where admins get really excited when parents don't have complaints. If you follow this process inside the Math for IB Coach Mentorship, the very first section talks all about parent input, and I designed parent input in a way that it becomes the guiding piece inside the IEPs. Teachers can be in compliance, they can meet state standards, they can do everything that their district is making them do and they can meet the needs of what is the priority of the family. And that goes way back to my roots that we talked about in the first episode. I called up the parents and I was like, hey, how do we need to make this happen? And to this day, 25 years later, I'm still teaching people to do that. Because what you see is the just the anxiety, the stress, the tension. You see it start to melt away, and that doesn't mean that everybody gets exactly what they want at the table. It's not sunshine, unicorns and rainbows, right Like. That's not what we're talking about.

Barb Beck: 12:18

It's not going to be.

Catherine Whitcher: 12:19

About this process that makes it possible to make decisions based on facts versus feelings, because parents have a lot of feelings, teachers have a lot of feelings, and it's time for us to, at one point, to say okay, I feel this way, do you feel that way? What do the facts say and how do we move forward from here?

Barb Beck: 12:43

Oh, wow, you just said that so well and it makes me want to. I want to take your course, I want to be coached in that way as well, and and then also to be met a mentor for some of the teachers that I get to work with and, yeah, so amazing. I love just highlighting the master IEP coach. We're going to make sure that all of the links to what people would need to learn more are in the show notes. So if you're listening, make sure you do take a look at the show notes to learn more.

Barb Beck: 13:15

But I want to come to the last question that I have for you, and we could continue to talk on and on, because you really are so inspiring to me and I love what you're doing with your consulting and your coaching and mentoring. Last question if you can go back to the very start, when you've had the experience with your family and the upbringing and you're just getting into the field right, and you're just getting into the field right, what would you tell yourself or first year teachers that are just getting started? Is there any word of advice or your words of wisdom that you would tell yourself and a first year teacher?

Catherine Whitcher: 13:53

Yeah, especially for the first year teachers, and I can think back to all of the feelings that I had walking in as a first year teacher and kind of the rollercoaster of emotions that I had during those first couple of years just in special education as a professional. Um, don't let the system steal your joy. Oh yeah, you know what. You became a teacher because your heart wanted to do something to make things better. And the system is broken. You are not broken as a teacher. Parents, you are not broken. Children are not broken. Our school system is broken.

Catherine Whitcher: 14:37

Yes, master, iep coach, we don't focus on fixing the system. We work together on helping everybody function in this broken system, because I don't have time to fix the system, but I have time to help people. And I wish if, again, if the system tried to steal my joy and I had this, I don't even know if I can be in education. I don't even know if I can do this. You know what? Find your role that lets you keep your joy so you can make the difference that you want to.

Barb Beck: 15:11

Wow, yes, I love that. Thank you so much for your time today, both this episode and our first episode, and we just really appreciate the time that you gave up here with us and we just wish you all the best. I want to stay connected for sure in our work that we're doing outside of just this podcast, so we'll stay connected and I hope to connect with you again soon. No, thank you so much for having me. Thank you ensue.

Speaker 4: 15:44

No, thank you so much for having me. Thank you, a heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors, specially Designed Education Services, publishers of the Functional Academics Program, please take a moment to learn more about the only true comprehensive functional academics program that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data-driven, evidence-based results. Visit wwwsdesworkscom to learn more.