My first year of teaching I was introduced to two students who were Autistic. Working with them brought a whole new light to my eyes and made my teaching job a little harder. As a small town girl I would always say funny little things like, "Let's go Joe". This upset my student though because their names were not Joe and they didn't understand. I had to learn to say what I had to say in a literal way.
Of course, I make some time during the day to introduce "Sarcasm" and "Cliche" because out in the "real world" my students will come upon these. However, I do not see the need to confuse my students with these while I'm trying to teach them a new lesson/assignment.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Learning and Instruction
When Jane's having one of those "I want to go home days", it's always one of the most challenging days because she does not want to do her assignments. It has turned into a game of what to try to get her to do her assignments. Whats been successful has always been hands on learning.
Because Jane is so smart, she gets bored with the instruction. When she's in the special education room, we always try to mix things up. Jane loves being the "teacher" in the classroom. I pretend I'm the student and she's the teacher. Jane stands at the chalk board and talks me through all her math problems. I write down the answers that she writes on the chalk board. What Jane doesn't realize, is that she is really doing the assignment. I think it's a great tool to use in the classroom. I get to ask her questions like, "why did you borrow from that number?" and ect.
Not only has this worked for my second grader, Jane, this has also worked for the high schoolers that I student taught. When they were having trouble sleeping during class, it helped them all stay awake when they say another student at the front of the class teaching! Love it!!
Because Jane is so smart, she gets bored with the instruction. When she's in the special education room, we always try to mix things up. Jane loves being the "teacher" in the classroom. I pretend I'm the student and she's the teacher. Jane stands at the chalk board and talks me through all her math problems. I write down the answers that she writes on the chalk board. What Jane doesn't realize, is that she is really doing the assignment. I think it's a great tool to use in the classroom. I get to ask her questions like, "why did you borrow from that number?" and ect.
Not only has this worked for my second grader, Jane, this has also worked for the high schoolers that I student taught. When they were having trouble sleeping during class, it helped them all stay awake when they say another student at the front of the class teaching! Love it!!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Self Regulating
Through a schedule that Jane gets to carry with her during the day, help Jane know how she has been. A star if she's had no problems, a smiley face if she had a problem but chose the right decision, a check mark if she had a problem and did not make the right decision.
Every time she finishes with a subject she puts down her mark that she earned. Then she can see whats coming next and prepare herself for it. At the end of each day she earns some iPad time if she has had a good day.
This schedule is also helpful for me to see what areas are not a problem for her and what are. I collect each schedule that she fills out and put them in her file. It helps me to see that her morning has not been an issue however her afternoons are sometimes. Now that we are trying to give her some more space, I know that they best time to practice this is during the morning.
I know I say this every time, but I am so amazed at how much she has changed. A year ago I would have never thought I would be talking with her aide about giving Jane space...
Every time she finishes with a subject she puts down her mark that she earned. Then she can see whats coming next and prepare herself for it. At the end of each day she earns some iPad time if she has had a good day.
This schedule is also helpful for me to see what areas are not a problem for her and what are. I collect each schedule that she fills out and put them in her file. It helps me to see that her morning has not been an issue however her afternoons are sometimes. Now that we are trying to give her some more space, I know that they best time to practice this is during the morning.
I know I say this every time, but I am so amazed at how much she has changed. A year ago I would have never thought I would be talking with her aide about giving Jane space...
Evolution of Jane in the Classroom
Now trying to finish up Jane's second year of school, it's nice to sit back and think of how far she has come/evolved, to be in the classroom.
She use to...
get up and run
speak out
throw tools
always want her way
always want to be the one called on
no idea what to do once her assignment was finished
uncontrollable during specials and recess
Now we have learned to...
Raise our hand
Express our feelings in an appropriate way
Learn to give others a chance first
Find something productive to do after her assignment was done
Learn how to behave and what to do during specials/recess
It all sounds perfect, but we still have a ways to go. There are days where she is like a "normal" student in the classroom, and days where she spend most of her time in my room because her behavior is back at square one. Either way I am still so proud of her and her mother because Jane is still in school and she is awesome!
We had to help her evolve into a student but that's how we all learn, with a little bit of help!
She use to...
get up and run
speak out
throw tools
always want her way
always want to be the one called on
no idea what to do once her assignment was finished
uncontrollable during specials and recess
Now we have learned to...
Raise our hand
Express our feelings in an appropriate way
Learn to give others a chance first
Find something productive to do after her assignment was done
Learn how to behave and what to do during specials/recess
It all sounds perfect, but we still have a ways to go. There are days where she is like a "normal" student in the classroom, and days where she spend most of her time in my room because her behavior is back at square one. Either way I am still so proud of her and her mother because Jane is still in school and she is awesome!
We had to help her evolve into a student but that's how we all learn, with a little bit of help!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Cognitive Development...
Since my first year of being in the Special Education program at college, I learned fast that not everyone totally understands special education. So many people out there do not see a disability but a suborn/lazy child. It's hard to want to look past those ideas and look into the child's history and see what could be the problem.
With Jane reeking havoc in the first grade classroom, that is what so many parents were doing also! Jane did not have an IEP and no one could figure her out. Finally I got to come into the picture to help her. Those were longs days of running back and forth from the first grade classroom to my students in my special education room. I'm not sure if that was the hardets part or hearing what the parents had to say about the student was... No parents even tried to explain to their child that Jane could have a disability... Parents were calling into the school and complaing that she should be out of the school because she is causing so many distruptions.
After getting to spend some time with her I was not totally convinced that she has Aspergers but there were definitely signs there. Eventually we got the forms filled out to have her tested and we were correct! Jane was another child living with Aspergers! She was not use to this classroom setting, the schedule and structure and we as teachers were not ready for her learning styles!
Luckily teachers began to want to understand her more and what would work best for her in the classroom. After we made some changes to her routine and ect. she began to be the student who knew so much about different subjects and was the interesting one to question and go off of.
Though there are still those day to day issues with her behavior... the school teachers she works with are finally understanding her cognitive development and how we can use it to her and the classroom advantage!!
With Jane reeking havoc in the first grade classroom, that is what so many parents were doing also! Jane did not have an IEP and no one could figure her out. Finally I got to come into the picture to help her. Those were longs days of running back and forth from the first grade classroom to my students in my special education room. I'm not sure if that was the hardets part or hearing what the parents had to say about the student was... No parents even tried to explain to their child that Jane could have a disability... Parents were calling into the school and complaing that she should be out of the school because she is causing so many distruptions.
After getting to spend some time with her I was not totally convinced that she has Aspergers but there were definitely signs there. Eventually we got the forms filled out to have her tested and we were correct! Jane was another child living with Aspergers! She was not use to this classroom setting, the schedule and structure and we as teachers were not ready for her learning styles!
Luckily teachers began to want to understand her more and what would work best for her in the classroom. After we made some changes to her routine and ect. she began to be the student who knew so much about different subjects and was the interesting one to question and go off of.
Though there are still those day to day issues with her behavior... the school teachers she works with are finally understanding her cognitive development and how we can use it to her and the classroom advantage!!
Jane and her learning...
Since having Jane on my caseload for a year and a half now, I am just finally starting to feel like I understand her and how she learns. Everything is almost too simple for her. It's a job in it's self to make learning interesting for her everyday!!
When introducing Jane to some graphic organizers, this opened up a whole new light to learning for her. They helped her organize what was running through her head. Learning for her was never an issue... her grades were always A's and B's. However, now she had fun learning and doing her assignments!! They were more organized and made sense for her!!
Another thing that has EXTREMELY HELPED Jane survive school has been the structure we made sure would be there everyday! It relaxes Jane to know that after the pledge we will be doing morning calendar and then math and so on. Who would have thought that giving her an agenda of her whole day would help her feel more comfortable in this environment! Though we still have those moments when we are not sure whats going to happen next. Lunch Recess and P.E. are normally difficult but we are trying to help pint those down so we can have a smooth flowing day!!
Any ideas for lunch recess and P.E.??
When introducing Jane to some graphic organizers, this opened up a whole new light to learning for her. They helped her organize what was running through her head. Learning for her was never an issue... her grades were always A's and B's. However, now she had fun learning and doing her assignments!! They were more organized and made sense for her!!
Another thing that has EXTREMELY HELPED Jane survive school has been the structure we made sure would be there everyday! It relaxes Jane to know that after the pledge we will be doing morning calendar and then math and so on. Who would have thought that giving her an agenda of her whole day would help her feel more comfortable in this environment! Though we still have those moments when we are not sure whats going to happen next. Lunch Recess and P.E. are normally difficult but we are trying to help pint those down so we can have a smooth flowing day!!
Any ideas for lunch recess and P.E.??
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Jane's Recent Events...
This past week was a difficult week all around. Jane started talking more and more about her real mom and also about her dad (great grandpa) passing away. We could tell that this was really causing a lot of anger for her by her new actions in the classroom. "Everyone dies... I don't need to do my work.. I'll die someday anyways!" "No one wants me, I'm just going to run away!" It was so hard to understand because she has really started to do so much better in second grade than we could have every thought seeing her in first grade.
We would of course get her calmed down and then finally talked about why she was saying what she was saying. Also, how her words hurt others because we all cared so much about her. We did fun activities like inviting a friend to play inside recess with her and ect. Everything was going better until P.E. one day.
Jane has been great at P.E. because she loves playing hockey! Like most students who are autistic, she has a had time taking turns. Every class she wants to be the one who picks teams and since last class was her chance we had to take a turn at someone else choosing this time. Of course her friend didn't get on her team so she was screaming and yelling at the P.E. teacher. Her classroom aide tried to get her to calm down and understand the situation when... WHACK! Jane smacked her across the face and then broke to the floor in tears.
I was in a meet but as soon as I got out I heard about everything. Jane just wanted her classroom aide to back away from her and not stand so close. Instead of using her words though she smacked her away. Jane felt very bad about it and apologizes numerous times. Though, I thought it was very mature of her to apologize and not want to go home, because of your school rules she had to go home and not come back for two days.
I have mixed feelings about this... On one hand I think she should go home so she sees that there are consequences to our actions.... On the other hand, I'm not sure that she will see/understand that... also you always run into the issues of what are the parents doing at home, punishment or fun time?
Finally she got to come back to school and of course it was challenging to get her to do her work and not want to play all day... can you guess what mom let her do at home while she was gone from school???
In my second year of teaching I am slowing picking up on the fact that every day is going to be different. What worked yesterday might not work today. I am constantly having to be creative and think of a "fun" behavior plan for the classroom. Thank God we recently got a rabbit because she has been doing wonders. My students respond so well to doing whatever I ask so they can earn time to get the rabbit out of her cage. It's been a lot of fun and very helpful. The students also like to talk to her when they are upset and feel no one else would understand. :O)
We would of course get her calmed down and then finally talked about why she was saying what she was saying. Also, how her words hurt others because we all cared so much about her. We did fun activities like inviting a friend to play inside recess with her and ect. Everything was going better until P.E. one day.
Jane has been great at P.E. because she loves playing hockey! Like most students who are autistic, she has a had time taking turns. Every class she wants to be the one who picks teams and since last class was her chance we had to take a turn at someone else choosing this time. Of course her friend didn't get on her team so she was screaming and yelling at the P.E. teacher. Her classroom aide tried to get her to calm down and understand the situation when... WHACK! Jane smacked her across the face and then broke to the floor in tears.
I was in a meet but as soon as I got out I heard about everything. Jane just wanted her classroom aide to back away from her and not stand so close. Instead of using her words though she smacked her away. Jane felt very bad about it and apologizes numerous times. Though, I thought it was very mature of her to apologize and not want to go home, because of your school rules she had to go home and not come back for two days.
I have mixed feelings about this... On one hand I think she should go home so she sees that there are consequences to our actions.... On the other hand, I'm not sure that she will see/understand that... also you always run into the issues of what are the parents doing at home, punishment or fun time?
Finally she got to come back to school and of course it was challenging to get her to do her work and not want to play all day... can you guess what mom let her do at home while she was gone from school???
In my second year of teaching I am slowing picking up on the fact that every day is going to be different. What worked yesterday might not work today. I am constantly having to be creative and think of a "fun" behavior plan for the classroom. Thank God we recently got a rabbit because she has been doing wonders. My students respond so well to doing whatever I ask so they can earn time to get the rabbit out of her cage. It's been a lot of fun and very helpful. The students also like to talk to her when they are upset and feel no one else would understand. :O)
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