tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10674339281277501012024-03-12T19:00:32.631-04:00Teaching and Learning With DisabilitiesLiving and working at the intersection of education, disability, and (neuro)diversity. Always learning. Hoping to teach something too.Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-35855287490013696652020-02-23T21:49:00.000-05:002020-02-23T21:49:44.351-05:00Reflection: Neurodivergent Teacher Trauma<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I know I’m a good teacher. I know I don’t have to control everything. Yet, I always feel a need to prove myself. I see every disagreement as a challenge to my knowledge and skill. (And that fear, which is what it is, is exacerbated when I know I have current research on my side.) I know full well that, to my frustration, I do not have the social skill to make people see my way of interpreting the evidence. Trauma and fear means I often give in to avoid the situation when the other person presents a reasoned argument. For years, I have marveled at the people who are able to say exactly the same thing I just said and get people to agree with them. It’s a skill I don’t have. Body language? Tone of voice? Social rapport building? Probably a combination. Whatever it is; I don’t know how to do it. That’s a problem when you have a social communication disability and you’re being evaluated on your ability to coordinate a cohesive team unit. The problem is even worse when not everyone is coming from the same background/approach. (And the problem is only exacerbated by the experience of administrators who invalidated my voice in the process, or who flat out told me they didn’t believe I could do it. I haven’t learned better strategies, only more fear.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I feel safest in a very silo-ed approach. I feel most comfortable if there is allowance for disagreement in approach among team members, but we all can do what we believe is best. I believe students benefit from multiple approaches, and that’s part of it. The other part is that because I don’t feel threatened, I’m able to work more cooperatively/productively with everyone on the team. But that model is not acceptable in modern special education. Consistency is the name of the game. We all must be on the same page, defined as taking the same approach to everything: lock stock and barrel. That makes me very uncomfortable. I’m neurodivergent; I simply don’t think the same way as everyone else. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I tried working in an ultra-“consistency-is-everything” environment back at the beginning of my career. That experience marks clearly the start my education-system related trauma. Back then I totally drank the kool-aid. I believed in the system completely. Unfortunately, that school quickly and explicitly showed me that my brain didn’t respond to stimulus the same way. Purely by virtue of being neurodivergent, I was physically unable to live up to their standard of consistency. That experience has colored my feelings and approach to the whole concept ever since. (I’m not sure I was explicitly aware of it until I just typed that sentence. I knew the trauma was effecting me emotionally, but I’m not sure I understood how it was effecting my work until now.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I’ve known for several years know that my trauma and my neurodivergence were causing most of my stress at work. I knew I was part of the problem (everyone has a role in a social interaction problem.) I knew my trauma stemmed from the reactions I’ve received over the years to my neurodivergence, but I always focused on the ableism in special education as the root cause. Special Education is incredibly ableist, but in reality I’m quite good at navigating that aspect of my chosen field. This trauma is pedagological. That’s why I have never been able to figure out how I could be successfully accommodated. I still don’t have an answer for how that can work in the future, but now at least I’ve started asking the right question.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-70449875019386270482019-12-01T21:06:00.000-05:002019-12-01T21:06:00.018-05:00A Part Time AAC Using Teacher in an AAC Classroom<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I’ve been using AAC a lot at home recently. It feels really good. It feels comfortable in a way that mouth words don’t. Mouth words are stressful even in non-stressful situations. They tend to tumble out of me unbidden and uncontrolled. Ensuring that the correct words come out in the correct order with the correct tone at the correct time.... I can usually manage most of that, but rarely all of it, and it’s a lot of work. And don’t ask me what I said. I rarely have a clue.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Still, although I often text across the classroom or across the building for communication access, I’ve never seen AAC as a viable communication tool in the classroom. What’s frustrating is that it’s not for any practical reason.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It’s feeling like I owe people explanations I don’t want to give for why I’m doing things differently than I used to. I don’t owe anybody any explanation I don’t want to give. “I can communicate clearer this way” is enough. I say that. I’m not sure I believe it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It’s feeling like I’m sending mixed messages or like I’m not providing a good model for my students and staff of the expectations for language modeling or AAC device use because even when I’m using AAC, I tend to mix it with mouth words. I’m a part time AAC user and that’s hard to explain. (It’s also different from my students who are primary AAC users or my students who use AAC for communication repair.) I understand the difference. I’m still afraid others won’t.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I know the answer, like all the accessibility tools I’ve tried incorporating into my classroom routines this year, is “try it and see how it works for you.” I don’t know why this one feels so different from using mobility aids. Maybe it’s because we teach students to use AAC and we don’t teach students to use canes? Really, that should be all the more reason to do it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Maybe I’ll try on Monday. Assuming we don’t get snowed out.</span></div>
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Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-50788197336652990222019-07-21T18:37:00.000-04:002019-07-21T18:37:32.294-04:00Communication Badges: A More Nuanced Approach<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://limitsnotincluded.blogspot.com/2016/09/do-you-have-minute_5.html" target="_blank">I’ve written about Autistic Communication Badges before.</a> My first attempt to implement them in the school environment was a total bust. (I couldn’t find a way to functionally implement it that was both safe and useful.) Quite similar to my first attempt at creating a classroom-wide communication accommodation actually. That one also failed spectacularly.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I’ve also written a lot about trying to teach self advocacy and body autonomy to students with significant needs. I’ve generally been impressed with what my students have been able to learn and demonstrate. But, by a chance of circumstances, I got to see what happened when one of those students left the environment where the staff was trained to respect body autonomy and to support self-advocacy. If those skills remained, they weren’t recognized or respected. I learned that my students did not have the skills to stand up to authority who tried to take away their rights. I also learned that they needed clear, unambiguous tools to use in their own defense.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So, when September starts, I am planning to reintroduce the Communication Badges, with one significant difference. This time, I’m creating a whole class set for teachers and students. For teachers: It will help students understand who is available to ask for help. It will help other teachers/specialists know who is available to talk to (or who needs help). For students: It will help teachers and peers know who is ready and who needs more time. It will let teachers know who needs more support and who needs to be left alone. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">These are skills we need to teach. One of the biggest challenges, especially when working with students who have difficulty with expressive communication and who express emotion in non-standard ways is to find a way to bridge that communication gap so students can find the support they need and reject the support that is unhelpful.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s not a cure, but communication badges might just be a start to helping bridge that communication gap in a way that respects all communication.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-69478607822770758372019-07-15T10:03:00.000-04:002019-07-15T10:03:04.959-04:00Queer Eye: A Problematic Relationship With Disability from the Start<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There’s a new episode in the upcoming season of Queer Eye that’s getting, well deserved, derision from the disability community for the title “Disabled But Not Really.” The primary frustration I’ve heard is that Queer Eye has steadfastly ignored the Disability community for so many seasons and episodes, and then chose this, extremely problematic, individual to highlight as their one “disabled makeover.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">My argument is simple. Queer Eye hasn’t been ignoring the disability community. They’ve had a problematic relationship with disability throughout the run of the show. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Many of the individuals they have made over have explicitly said during the episode that they currently have or previously had a diagnosis of depression. Depression is a real mental illness. It is a disability. But the way Queer Eye treats it, giving them a fresh start is the cure. (It’s not.) There’s a reason that the dramatic “after the makeover” parties that end the episode are videos of the day after the intervention, and not a week or month or year later. That kind of intervention is exciting and fresh, but doesn’t have long term effects. I’d love to see them do a “Queer Eye: One Year Later” special and prove me wrong, but without follow-up intervention, the research is on my side.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The other problem the show has with it’s approach to disability is Karamo and his entire approach to the makeover project. He’s a charismatic guy and it’s easy to see why people connect with him. But his fundamental problem is he’s a one trick pony. To look at him, it’s obvious he takes fitness seriously. So it’s no surprise that he uses physical activity to “get people out of their comfort zone” in almost every episode. I recognize that we need that “made for TV emotional moment” for viewership. But the show misses the opportunity, every single time, to acknowledge that the “aha” moment is just the beginning of a much longer process, and that process won’t happen automatically. Every time, the show misses a real opportunity to reduce stigma and provide awareness about mental health resources that could provide long term benefits not just for the individual on the episode but for all people living with mental illness.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Queer Eye has made a start in trying to be more inclusive. They have simply fallen prey to what most of media falls prey to. Lack of representation or consultation within the production team. They don’t know what they don’t know. Much like Karamo only really knows how to get people out of their comfort zone and get that emotional moment using physical tools to get that “aha” moment, the show only knows how to portray a snapshot/momentary intervention. I encourage the show to reach out and partner with groups like NAMI to provide resources and connections that have the power to truly change people’s lives. Queer Eye has the voice. They say their goal is to promote inclusion and acceptance. My hope is that they learn from the feedback they have gotten from the disability community, step up, and use that voice to promote the resources that will create inclusion and acceptance for ALL.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-16692814697116065552019-06-02T15:43:00.000-04:002019-06-02T18:32:53.288-04:00Sexuality in the Special Education Classroom<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There is no room for sexuality in the special education classroom. It’s a difficult and controversial topic in general education that gets largely ignored in special education. Students with disabilities are either viewed as non-sexual (eternal children) or hyper-sexual (sexual deviants). Those who fall into the first category don’t get sex ed at all. The second group do get sex ed, but it’s “sex ed for special education.” Sex Ed for Special Education covers: public and private - what you can do where, circles of friendship - appropriate behaviors around people you know more/less well (aka not everyone is your best friend), and hygiene.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">If you’re wondering where the actual “sex ed” is in that curriculum, that’s pretty much my point. Hygiene is as close as they come to “why my body is changing” and I’ve seen some pretty fascinating misconceptions about how the adult body works from my adult students as a result. But I only knew about it because I was supporting them in the residence in the evening when they were confused and overwhelmed and unable to express it. Most teachers don’t get that opportunity to interact with their students in that setting and most residential staff don’t have the time or training to provide the feedback to the educational staff. (And that’s assuming either side is willing to listen or do anything about it.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Somebody did ask, at a recent conference I attended on teaching sexuality to students with significant needs, about teaching about sexuality, safe sex, or dating. The presenter dismissed this as a non-issue for this population, stating “if a student expressed an interest in any of these areas we would address it on a 1:1 basis, but it hasn’t come up.” Of course it hasn’t come up. Most of our students don’t know how to ask. It certainly isn’t default vocabulary in anyone’s communication device. Typical students have extreme difficulty talking about it and finding someone who they trust enough to talk to. We are expecting students for whom basic communication can still be a challenge, and who may only have a few people in their lives with whom fluent communication is even possible, to initiate these conversations?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But that won’t change. Because that’s not the point of Sex Ed for Special Education. The goal, like the goal of most special education curriculum, is to get those uncomfortable box 2 students back into box 1 where they make their typical educators feel more comfortable. Without changing that paradigm, sexuality will never be allowed to exist in the special education classroom.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-48425558402494615802019-04-03T22:54:00.000-04:002019-04-03T22:54:55.344-04:00Teaching While Autistic<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To the outside world, I’ve had an incredibly successful 10 year career as a special education teacher. (You could argue 20 year career, if you count the time I spent working in residential services before getting my teaching certificate.) But under the surface lies a deeper struggle. A struggle not just with trying to reconcile my professional identity as a special education teacher with my personal identity as an autistic person, but to try to figure out how to survive as an autistic person in the incredibly ableist educational environment.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Part of my problem was, because I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 30, I had no experience requesting accommodations. And since most people still think “wheelchair” or maybe “blind person” when they hear “accommodations” my supervisors had no idea what to do either. (Even at schools for students with autism! Especially at schools for students with autism!)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And so my journey progressed from “how are you going to help yourself” to “We’ll help you” without any clear understanding on anybody’s part (mine included) as to what that “help” was going to look like, or exactly what I needed “help” with.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Should we be surprised that those positions didn’t work out?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So before I try again, it’s obvious there’s something I need to make clear to myself and to my prospective employers. I need to know, in concrete definable terms, exactly what I need from them in order to be successful in the position they are hiring me for. And if we cannot define clear, concrete supports that will make the position successful, either because what I would need to be successful is too abstract or because we are unclear on what would be required, then the position is not a good match for me and I shouldn’t apply.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I’m tired of hiding and trying to pretend there isn’t an issue here. I’m tired of supports that are really just attempts to recognize and fix things after the fact. I love what I do, and I’m not going to give up on my career. But it’s time to find a place where I can do it without pretending to be someone I’m not.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-71044377783855459342019-02-22T21:27:00.000-05:002019-02-22T21:27:16.477-05:00Coping Strategies<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of my personal projects recently has developing a system to track and analyze my energy regulation. I’ve been trying to figure out if I can predict and even out the highs and lows I’ve been having lately with more better self accommodation. The jury’s out on whether I’ve made any significant breakthrough (and that’s a different post) but as always it brought me back to the question of instruction.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I wrote about my emotion-based instructional curriculum a couple of years ago and what I’ve been doing hasn’t changed significantly in the intervening time. But thinking about it from this perspective, there’s an obvious piece missing. There’s an obvious ableism embedded in that curriculum that I didn’t even notice. Nothing there teaches students to recognize the coping strategies *that they are already using.* Nothing there teaches them to understand how they might need to modify their current coping strategies to function more effectively in a neurotypical society. (Which, like it or not, is the one we live in.) It assumed that the student didn’t have any coping strategy (not very likely for my older teen students!) and tried to teach them the ones that neurotypicals thought were a good idea. Yet we know that the best teaching is building on skills *that are already there* not trying to build new skills without a foundation.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It seems so obvious when I say it like that, doesn’t it? Time to put it into practice!</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-52155636375545637712019-02-10T21:41:00.000-05:002019-02-10T21:41:10.330-05:00Autistic Life Skills: Noise Blocking HeadphonesDisclaimer: I receive no financial incentive to write this post. I don’t generally post product links because I assume you know how to use google. Sometimes I do, just to make my point clearer. I don’t get any compensation if you make a purchase using those links. The point of this post, as with all of this blog, is simply to share my experience in the hope that it will make education better for the students who come next.<br />
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Probably the most common association with autism and sensory challenges are the over-ear noise blocking headphones that many children and adults wear due to extreme sounds sensitivity. I’m not generally sounds sensitive (which is a very good thing since to say my classroom is loud would qualify in the runnings for “understatement of the year.”) However, I do get sound sensitive when I have a migraine or when my anxiety is very triggered. So, after a bit of research on the difference between noise cancelling and noise blocking headphones (I found <a href="https://medium.com/musings-from-mars/headphones-f1b64cfae7d1" target="_blank">this article</a> particularly helpful) I decided to invest in a pair of Pro for Sho noise blocking headphones. (Primary positive attributes: under $20 price point and they came in purple!)<br />
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They worked exactly as advertised. My husband was able to watch Game of Thrones in the living room while I went about my life in the rest of the house without my being bothered by it in the least. (I may be the only person in the world, but I really don’t like Game of Thrones.) But they also had two other benefits that I didn’t expect, which are the point of this post.<br />
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The first was that wearing it seemed to have the effect of dampening all of my senses, not just my hearing. I assume that has to do with the way in which the sensory system is all interconnected. However, I was able to do several cleaning tasks, which are usually very draining due to the onslaught of tactile and olfactory input, and barely notice the effect.<br />
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The second, and this was the real surprise, is that I almost immediately started craving the input they gave. (I’m a very strong sensory seeker.) I wore them later in the evening when I was alone in the quiet house just because I liked the way they felt on my head and made the world sound.<br />
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I did not anticipate that this type of sensory support would have the same type of psychological benefits as stimming, but it does. I haven’t seen anyone writing or talking about that benefit before, and I think as parents and professional begin to understand the benefits on fidgeting and stimming on the neuro-atypical brain, we need to explain the other use of sensory interventions with that same model. I know it will be part of my explanatory arsenal going forward. (And those purple headphones are going to find a permanent home in my bag!)Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-40262955508152993262019-01-13T18:57:00.000-05:002019-01-13T18:57:17.727-05:00Autistic Life Skills: Toothbrushing<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Full Disclosure: I don’t get any money for telling you what products I use, like, or don’t like. My opinions are just that, my opinions. There are no product links on this page. I assume you know how to use google.</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">My goal, in this “Autistic Life Skills” series is simple. To, hopefully, provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities of developing skills that incorporate sensory challenges, so that other teachers and parents (and other autistics who struggle with those same skills) might find some guidance to approach the teaching of these skills with less frustration on everyone’s part. Hopefully, a way to end the episodes of “wrestling a crocodile” (as the parent of one of my students describes their nightly toothbrushing routine.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As a child, I was lucky that toothbrushing was never a battle my mother chose to pick. I thought I was very clever in the ways I hid the fact that I wouldn’t do it from her. I wasn’t; she just chose not to fight me about it. Through the luck of good genetics and floride in the water, I never got a cavity, but that luck certainly had nothing to do with my (lack of) toothbrushing.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I was in my 30s when I stopped getting nauseous and sometimes physically sick at the dentist, because I was able to advocate for myself to not get any flavored pastes (they make me sick) and to skip the floride treatment (the texture and taste - yes I can taste it!) makes me gag.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I was nearly 40 when I finally developed a tolerance for the electric toothbrushes that the dentist recommended. I still hate the Sonicare ones and won’t use them. But I worked my way up with the pulsar ones (the vibrating ones that look like manual toothbrushes) and now can use the Oral-B electric toothbrush (well, the CVS generic version!) They have a smaller brush head that means the vibrational input in my mouth is more localized, and the handle doesn’t vibrate as dramatically, so I get the input (and cleaning power) without my whole face, hand, and arm vibrating, which I never could stand. I’m still waiting for the dentist to tell me that my toothbrushing has gotten good enough that I can stop going every three months. Maybe next time?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Why do I tell that story? Because most of my students do not have the language to explain things as clearly as I just did. And yet, as verbal and generally self-aware as I am, look at how long it took for me to figure it out and find relief. I’m not saying that everyone with sensory challenges experiences dental hygiene the same way I did. I’m saying these are the places to start looking when a student struggles.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Especially when working with an older student, it’s important to recognize that there is likely a trauma component to the resistance to learning this skill. Do your research: what’s been tried in the past? How does the routine go at home? What are dental visits like? For many of our students, it’s a battle of wills with the parent at home, and either restraint or sedation at the dentist office. This is a breeding ground for trauma. You can’t start with sensory desensitization, or do sensory desensitization alone, and expect it to be effective. It might be effective in the classroom if they have a positive relationship with you, but it won’t transfer to the home environment. You have to work with the student and the parent to build trust around the routine and more positive associations.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What does that look like in practice?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We start by getting the student to hold the toothbrush.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Then we work on bringing to their face (any part accepted)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Slowly we work toward bringing to the lips.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Next is getting them to open their mouth.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Once they will hold it in their mouth for a count of 10 we can start putting it in each section of the mouth.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Then work toward top and bottom of each section.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Only after that do I introduce the “brushing” motion.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Some students can and will skip steps.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Some students do better starting with the vibration on.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The vibration scares some students away (like it did me.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">For some students we alternate: do each step without and then with vibration before moving on to the next step.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">That’s going to depend on their sensory profile, and also where their sensory regulation is that day. (I know I’m more sensory defensive when I’m anxious or tired.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Toothbrushing is a challenge, but it shouldn’t be a battle. Take on the challenge, work with your student, but know when to pick your battles and don’t make it a battle you choose to pick. </span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-33150866198277702282018-11-04T12:16:00.000-05:002018-11-04T12:16:11.092-05:00When We Were Alone: Teaching our (Current) History with Residential Schools<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The picture book study for this year’s Global Read Aloud was a pair of indigenous authors and illustrators. The use of language in the books was rich, and gave us ample opportunities to make connections to our own use of multiple communication strategies, as all of my students this year are multimodal AAC communicators. The themes fit beautifully into our social-emotional instruction, as we have been focusing on working together and what it means to be a community.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Then we reached the last book in the book study, “When We Were Alone” by Richard Anderson, illustrated by Julie Flett. The book makes great use of repetitive language that helps make the complex topic of indigenous residential schools more cognitively accessible. I have a student in my classroom who was previously placed at a residential school “far away from home” (as the story says) and who has a trauma history from that placement. I was initially a little apprehensive about reading this story with him. Would he understand it? Would he make the connection? From the first read-through, this student, who usually has difficulty sitting for lessons, sat with rapt attention for this story. His eyes were glued to every page as I read. It was clear the story had his interest. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I did not draw, or ask him to draw, explicit connections to his own residential school experience. What we did was make explicit comparisons between the meaning behind the rules in the story “to make everyone the same” and the rules in our classroom “to be safe” “to get our work done” and “so everyone can participate.” My students’ active participation in these activities reinforced our classroom values more than any explicit teaching could have done.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I will say it explicitly here: My student’s former placement was a residential ABA program. While the stories are different, at far too many programs the strategies and intentions are the same as the story we read. ABA-based strategies, applied to appropriate skills, are not, by themselves, the problem. It’s the values and intentions that drive them that are deeply problematic and lead to student trauma. For teachers looking to broach this controversial topic with their class, this book may be a great place to start.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-12360803561946664162018-08-27T21:37:00.000-04:002018-08-27T21:37:08.330-04:00My Curriculum Resources<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Disclaimer: I received no financial compensation for writing this post. I have no affiliation with any of the authors or publishers. I don’t even have an affiliate link with <a href="http://amazon.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">amazon.com</span></a>, so I won’t get any money if you buy anything through the links I didn’t put in this post. I’m just a teacher who wants to share what I’ve found works for me.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I’ve made somewhat of a name for myself for teaching content to students that other teachers had written off as “unreachable.” I frequently get asked is for advice on the best curriculum to use. (SPOILER ALERT: There isn’t one.) I’ve written before on the problems with pre-made curriculum (<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://limitsnotincluded.blogspot.com/2015/12/you-can-teach-self-determination-out-of.html" target="_blank">You Can’t Teach Self-Determination Out of a Box!</a></span>) but since I know the daunting idea of having to create everything from scratch and individually for each student is what keeps many teachers away from providing curriculum access to students with complex needs, I wanted to expand on that notion and maybe make it feel a little less daunting and a little more accessible for teachers just starting down this path.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I don’t use any one curriculum per se, but do think that there is a lot to be said for using off the shelf curriculum as a starting point or building block. Timothy Walker makes that point very compellingly in </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Teach Like Finland</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> (a very worthwhile read, but that’s a different post) and there are certain resources that I find I keep coming back to year after year as my curriculum building blocks despite the individual variability in my classroom student population.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To me, this one seems obvious, but I’m putting it here anyway. My first place to start is the state curriculum frameworks. (</span><a href="http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/alt/resources.html">http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/alt/resources.html</a>)<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11pt;"> I need them for assessment in ELA, Math, and Science, but I actually start with social studies, because that is the content that will drive my literature and give me an anchor for my science topics. My students are no where near meeting the standards as written, but MA provides what are called “access and entry points” for students who are not able to complete grade level work. I’ve written before about why I believe this grade level content access is so essential. (</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://limitsnotincluded.blogspot.com/2014/05/assessing-our-place.html" target="_blank">Assessing Our Place</a></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 11pt;">)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Math is always hard, especially as students get older. Traditional high school math feels light years away from students who are still struggling to master numbers and counting. Functional math like money and time can seem out of reach too. Yet music and movement are generally parts of all special education curriculum. If you look at them with an academic lens, what are they? Math.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">My favorite resource is:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Math on the Move</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> by Malke Rosenfeld (<a href="http://limitsnotincluded.blogspot.com/2016/11/math-on-move-framework-for-teaching.html" target="_blank">I’ve blogged about this book before!</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And one I’m just adding to my repertoire:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">70 Play Activities for Better Thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning, and Behavior</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> by Lynne Kenney, Psy.D.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I heard her speak a couple years ago about integrating music and play into learning and really liked what I heard. I was somewhat disappointed that most of the activities in this book are much more linguistic than exploratory, but I love her early Musical Thinking ideas, and how she builds in teaching students about how their brains work (that all important self-awareness part of self-advocacy we so often overlook!)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I actually really like the often over-looked phonics and high frequency word curriculum materials from <a href="http://www.readingaz.com/" target="_blank">Reading A-Z</a> for teaching reading to AAC users. I’m not as much of a fan of their leveled readers for teaching reading, but I find they make great content textbooks. Level B, C, and D books are just about the right text level and text-to-picture ratio, and it saves me a lot of time creating my own content textbooks! (<b>Special Ed Teacher Hack!</b>) Plus, they often come with reading and vocabulary worksheets that I can adapt for unit vocabulary instruction. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Literacy:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of the first curriculum materials I was introduced to when I began my special education career over a decade ago was the <a href="https://mindwingconcepts.com/collections/story-grammar-marker" target="_blank">Story Grammar Marker</a>. I love the visual and tactile way it allows students to interact with the parts of a story. Literature and story has been one of the backbones of my instructional approach for as long as I’ve been teaching. For the research base for that instructional strategy, I point you at </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> by Kendall Haven.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">New to my instructional repertoire this year is </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Hacking School Culture</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> by Angela Stockman and Ellen Feig Gray (Published just this year, <a href="http://limitsnotincluded.blogspot.com/2018/07/hacking-classroom-culture-blueprint-for.html" target="_blank">I blogged about it not long after it came out</a>) It’s full of awesome teacher hacks, many of which I want to try and adapt for the classroom, but the one that really got my attention is the idea of empathy maps. The structure is very similar to that of Story Grammar Marker, and this year I’m looking forward to combining the two into a single classroom wide strategy for understanding what is going on around us. Which brings me to the next topic.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Probably the best thing I took with me from a previous school that was a very poor fit for my teaching style was their social skills curriculum:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Skillstreaming the Elementary School Child: A Guide for Teaching Prosocial Skills (Third Edition)</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> by Ellen McGinnis</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I like the way it breaks down skills into discrete steps (although I often have to edit the steps, either to be less linguistic or to be more neuro-inclusive.) I also like the way it divides skills into different areas of focus. Last year my students focused on Listening from the “Classroom Survival Skills” section, Introducing Yourself and Playing a Game from the “Friendship-Making Skills” section, and Knowing and Expressing Your Feelings from the “Skills for Dealing with Feelings” section. This year, with a slightly different group we’ll focus on “Asking for Help (Classroom Survival Skills); Using Self-Control (Skill Alternatives to Aggression); Dealing with Boredom and Relaxing (Skills for Dealing with Stress).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Science/Social Studies:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I make extensive use of google and my local library for instructional materials and related literature to match the frameworks-aligned curriculum. I don’t keep as good track of the resources I use as I probably should. (Though I’ve gotten better at citing the literature, so I can keep using the same books for the same units.) There is one specific website, however, that bears mentioning here. That is the <a href="http://www.perkinselearning.org/activity" target="_blank">Perkins School For the Blind</a>. Their website is a great repository of adapted lessons for students with visual impairments. I especially like using their science materials, as they do a great job making difficult concepts concrete and hands-on. Just because their lessons are modified doesn’t mean I don’t need to modify them, I do. (Most often, I need to supplement with before and after lessons to break down the concept further. Also, obviously, I need to create any related visual supports.) But they’re a great resource for teaching difficult concepts, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t include them here.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Obviously, the curriculum materials listed here, even with modification and suplementation, isn’t enough to create a well-rounded instructional day. It doesn’t even touch on the ADL and vocational instruction that are key parts of our academic day. These are tools I have found useful to support me in creating individualized instruction. Another way to think of them is as useful maps for the terrain. They’re not a GPS. You still need to plot your own course from September to June.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-91783745421659108052018-07-03T11:26:00.000-04:002018-07-03T11:26:45.575-04:00The Mask in My Teacher Toolkit<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I try very hard to create a classroom that is welcoming of students natural ways of moving, of interacting with the world, and of expressing themselves. In the adult autistic community, we talk a lot about masking, and the effects of it on self-esteem. And then I watch my neurotypical colleagues, completely unaware of what they’re doing, expect those masking behaviors. And I watch myself use them all the time as well. And in makes me wonder, am I doing a disservice to my students by not teaching those skills?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Masking is a skill. The more skills you have, the more opportunities are available to you. But what if our students grew up knowing, not just that masking exists, but that it is a choice? The social skills curriculums currently out there teach “this is what you have to do” but how different would the educational experience of the next generation of autistic children be if we taught it as “this is what the NT population does/expects.” What if our behavior expectations where “here is how to do it/fake it” and “here are reasons/times when you might want to.” </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I know full well that my ability to pass, and thus have control over disclosure, has given me opportunities I might not otherwise have gotten. (There’s a reason this blog is anonymous.) My students may never pass for NT due to other disabilities, but don’t I owe it to them to give them the skills to try if they want to? When I have struggled with social interactions, I’ve gotten instruction (I, personally, found Michelle Garcia Winner’s </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Social Thinking at Work</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> and Ian Ford’s </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Field Guide to Earthings</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> particularly useful.) Why shouldn’t they benefit from the same opportunities? As a special educator, isn’t that my job? To make the general education curriculum accessible to my students?</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-36633665751631970072018-07-01T11:42:00.000-04:002018-07-01T11:42:21.263-04:00Hacking Classroom Culture: A Blueprint for My Implimentation<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There’s a picture I took last spring of my students during their social skills group. They’re playing a matching game. The rules of the game are: chose a picture and ask your peer if he has it. Peer tells the first person he has the match and gives it to them. First person makes the match and puts it in the box. The students in the picture look absolutely pained, like this was the worst thing I could have possibly asked them to do.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s not the academic task. Matching was specifically chosen because it’s a mastered skill and the one they default to when they’re not sure what is being asked of them. No, what is paining my students, who are accustomed to doing their academic work 1:1 with a teacher, is that just answering the teacher they’re working with (who will provide prompting and reinforcement) isn’t enough to complete this activity. Interacting with a peer is a lot more work!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Enter </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Hacking Classroom Culture: Designing Compassionate Classrooms</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> by Angela Stockman and Ellen Feig Gray. I was struck by how their ideas would fit so sensibly into the outlines I already had in place. I loved how easily and sensibly they dovetailed with best practices in severe disabilities and prevocational training. Finally, someone had given me some tools to build a classroom community, instead of a class of students who happen to share the same room and teacher.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So what are we going to do?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Morning Meeting:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">First off, I moved the basic calendar and schedule work out of morning group. The students all need 1:1 support to complete this task and can do it at different speeds and independence levels, so it makes more sense to make it part of their arrival/unpacking routine.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">(You can view my trello board to see a full implementation of our morning meeting here: <a href="https://trello.com/b/383gGHvw"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">https://trello.com/b/383gGHvw</span></a>)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of the best practices in severe disabilities for eliciting attention and language is a mystery box. The idea is that you put an object in a box and the students have to use their senses/language to figure out what it is. Here, I’ve put a social language spin on the idea:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Place object of high interest to a specific student (or highly correlated with a specific person in the classroom/school) in a box.</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Students can take turns making guesses about what it will be like based on sound/touch or opening the box and describing/identifying it (scaffold for skill level)</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Once object is identified, students complete the activity it is used for (e.g. fill out attendance for secretary) and then identify/bring it to correct person (vocational delivery skill and social interaction skill integration)</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">An old tired idea you see in most special education classrooms is practicing greetings and personal information during morning meeting. Or the age-old variant of identifying who is at home/work/school. I’ve brought in some math instructional targets to keep it fresh (and keep us moving!) and brought back some good old-fashioned “show-and-tell” (with a new more social spin!):</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Organize students/have students organize themselves using personal information (e.g. height, birthday month, age, etc) - visual models of data.</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Each student has an opportunity to share a skill they are working on in class or something that happened at home with the rest of the class.</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>-Encourage community, not just what I did but who I did it with/who helped me do it and where I did it (what tools helped me be successful)</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>(Teachers can model too, but careful not to turn it into sharing on behalf of students!)</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12pt;"><i>*Both teachers and students (probably mostly teachers at first) have the opportunity to point out things they saw others do - that they thought was cool or they might want to try themselves.*</i> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The first idea I fell in love with when I read Angela and Ellen’s book was the idea of Empathy Mapping. I tweeted at the time, and I still think, that teaching Empathy Mapping in conjunction with Story Grammar Marker would be a powerful way to give students a structure and language to understand the social world around them. So I want to do exactly that. My students have been working on body parts and what they do. Our next step is to develop visual empathy maps. I want to use folders, with one side being the self, what I am seeing, hearing, saying, feeling, etc. The other side will have a pocket that can be a generic person (background) or you can place a picture or a specific person, and have the same options (what are they seeing, hearing, saying, feeling, etc.) The folder format will allow me to keep the visual supports for both sides in the center.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">* I’ve usually used the standard Story Grammar Marker imagery/materials when I teach that unit/skill. I’m wondering if it would make more sense to use the same imagery as the Empathy Maps for students to more clearly see the connection. Haven’t made a decision yet.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">* I’d love to invite some of our non-classroom school people to join us for morning meeting (I originally was calling it morning cafe for this reason) but I’m not sure if that will help or hinder the social connection of the objects that are related to them (if they are not in their expected context.) Maybe try and see what happens? Most won’t be able to come except once in a while anyway!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">My copy of </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;">Teach Like Finland</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> is supposed to arrive later today. Can’t wait to see what other ideas I find!</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-71970231662161974162018-06-29T15:10:00.000-04:002018-06-29T15:10:11.244-04:00But in Purple....<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">For years now, I have described myself as a “part time AAC user” but beyond my preference for communicating by text and email whenever possible, I’ve never taken any steps to communicate multi-modally outside the home. (At home, I use a combination of gesture, sign, objects, facial expression, and cat sounds in addition to speech. My husband has become an able translator over the years!)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I have the same communication software as my students use downloaded on my phone and tablet. (Ostensibly, I got it for school.) I’ve tried using it, but it’s way too slow to ever be functional for me. Also, I find myself simplifying my language in order to use the vocabulary that is available instead of choosing the exact words and sentence structures I want, which slows me down further and can obfuscate my meaning. And so, I do use it for school, but I don’t use it for me.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This past week, I finally purchased a text-based AAC app. I hadn’t been able to justify the expense to myself. After all, I talk. A lot. And I wasn’t really sure if I would ever use it outside the house. So I found one that had almost all the features I wanted and didn’t cost as much as the ones with all the bell and whistles. The first thing I noticed about it? I liked it a lot better once it was purple. In fact, when I set up my second device, getting the color right was higher priority for me than getting my vocabulary set up. That’s particularly interesting because I’m usually not a visual person at all. I tend to ignore avatars, backgrounds, etc. (My NLD exacerbates this tendency.) Yet, if it made that much difference to me, who usually doesn’t care about such things, how much do our students care? Our students who we bombard with color choices at every corner “to provide language opportunities?” How often do we even pay attention to the cosmetic aspects of their device? We use vocabulary color coding, but what about background colors? Case colors? Fonts? There are a lot of ways to personalize a device beyond content that we often overlook. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I hear a lot that “we have to motivate the student to use the device/to communicate (or they won’t.)” What difference might it make if the student was able to set up the device to be more visually pleasing (or interesting) to them? I haven’t used mine in the wild yet. I haven’t needed to. (It’s vacation week. I haven’t actually gone out much!) But I’m motivated to. I keep wanting to add vocabulary that might be useful. I haven’t had that before. I never would have thought that being purple would have made so much difference.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-22872989118818430612018-04-01T15:05:00.000-04:002018-04-01T15:05:51.890-04:00Emotions in the Autism Classroom<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I teach a social skills curriculum with a focus on recognizing and labeling emotions in self and others. We do a lot of work in that class around matching emotions to their associated behaviors, both the classic NT expressions, and students personal expressions of those emotions. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">A number of years ago, I was teaching in a very bad situation involving bulling and emotional abuse. I was too naive and oblivious at the time to be aware of much of what was happening until the situation got really bad, which is a familiar refrain for anyone who is or loves someone with significant social communication challenges. I thought I was handling it. I thought I had someone in my classroom I could trust. I was very wrong on both counts.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The instructional data from the class I was teaching at the time was very clear: the students could match feelings to behaviors given pictures, but when using video, or during role-play, they were unable to even identify how someone was feeling. Even when the actions were labeled for them (the same actions as the pictures they had memorized) they were unable to connect it to the feelings.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Yet, toward the end of my experience there, when things got really bad, my students made it very clear that they were very aware (more aware than I, myself, was) of the emotional situation in the room. One student, every time both staff were in the room, came up to me asking “Sad? Cry?” Long before I knew what was going on, another student, who had no history of aggression, began attacking the staff member who was the primary source of the abuse.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The instructional data is clear, these students did not understand emotions and their connections to behavior. But the evidence of what they did proves the data to be wrong, or at least incomplete. They couldn’t show their understanding in an academic or assessment context, but they did one better. They demonstrated them in real-world context with the people that mattered to them and had influence over their lives. Isn’t that the whole point of teaching the academic skills in the first place?</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-53087232536604018182018-03-30T10:54:00.000-04:002018-03-30T13:43:22.812-04:00Gender in the Autism Classroom<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I teach middle school, so it’s probably unsurprising that I have had many students over the years who “like young pretty girls” and show it through their behavior. While I’m no longer a young teacher, and I’ve never dressed particularly effeminate, I’ve always looked younger than I am. And none of those students have ever had those issues with me. In general, I’ve always been able to work with the students who have sexual issues around females. Partly, this is because the behavior just doesn’t bother me, but partly its because they don’t generally exhibit those behaviors toward me. For whatever reason, I don’t trigger “pretty girl” to them.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">You see, I present as female. A short, rather busty, female at that. I use she/her pronouns because they match my physical presentation and are really the only ones that make sense to me. But I’m agender. The whole concept of gender and gender distinctions really makes no sense to me. And, it seems, my students can tell.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of my students this year is constantly labeling people (especially girls.) And for the first part of the year he kept asking me “girl?” (He wasn’t doing this to any of his other teachers.) And I kept saying “yes” because well, it seemed the simplest answer. But he kept asking. Finally, I changed my answer to “sometimes, on alternate Tuesdays when there is a blue moon.” And he hasn’t asked me since. He knew. I think all my kids have known. It’s why I’ve always been their exception to the gender rules around their sexual behavior. Because, somehow, they can tell my gender doesn’t follow those rules.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s just another of those things parents/teachers/professionals tend to assume our students “aren’t aware of.” My experience says they’re usually more aware than anyone else around.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-71065053417254811572018-02-17T08:34:00.003-05:002018-02-17T08:38:41.741-05:00(Neuro)Divergent: The Classroom<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s funny, I used to be called “the mean teacher” because I would insist on students doing everything they could independently, no matter how long it took, and not letting others “save” them. Because I insisted on teaching grade-level content to all my students, no matter their academic skill access level.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Now, I’ve changed schools. To the school that was closest aligned to my values that I could find in the state. And all of the sudden, I’ve developed a reputation as that teacher that is too permissive. You know the one, the one that lets her kids get away with everything and doesn’t actually teach? Yeah, that’s how I’m being perceived.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So what happened?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I could point to any number of things. I do have a really hard class this year. Certainly harder than I’ve had in a while. Groups don’t look very group-ish most of the time. And certainly, I’ve had more lessons fail than I had gotten used to. That’s only a problem when I’m okay with it and don’t learn from it. (And it’s the cause of my discomfort, not the school community perception.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">No, this reputation came about because I have found the hard edge of their tolerance for neurodiverisity. I knew it had to be there: schools are staffed by neurotypicals and even the respectful ones are limited by their perceptions of the world if they’re not listening to the voices of the neurodivergent community. And I noticed that from day one when I started at this school. It was far more respectful and understanding of the neurodivergent community than any place I had been before. But it was still an “us” and a “them” and the voices of the neurodivergent community were conspicuously missing from the conversation. (I left feedback saying as much on my evaluation. I doubt it made a difference.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">That’s what the perceived “permissiveness” is: I’m being too neurodiversity friendly. And, as often happens, it’s being perceived through neurotypical eyes as letting them get away with too much: because it makes them uncomfortable, because if they were me they would not let him do it. And so the “he needs to learn he can’t do that out in a job setting” argument gets invoked.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I literally got told that I’m really good at keeping kids calm and preventing them from getting upset so they can learn. And that that is a bad thing. Because they need to learn to handle being more uncomfortable. (Them being comfortable is making the staff around them uncomfortable.) We need to sacrifice their learning so they can accept more “appropriate boundaries.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And to some degree, of course, they’re right. Because outside my neurodivergent-friendly classroom, the cold neurotypical world won’t accept them for who they are. And they will be forced to accept arbitrary social rules in the name of “appropriate boundaries” in order to be successful. And we all want them to be successful.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So, where do we go from here?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I’ve got my work cut out for me changing the perception of myself at my students at my new school. But I think it’s worth it. Because this school really does have the right idea and the right values. It’s why I chose to work there. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Even when we have neurodiversity acceptance in our society I don’t think we’ll ever have neurodivergent-friendly classrooms the way we have neurotypical-friendly classrooms now. And that is what I was trying to create. And honestly, if I believe in inclusion, which I say I do, that shouldn’t be what I want. Our goal should be a neurodiveristy-friendly room. One that works for all of us, neurotypical and neurodivergent. They are right, I went too far to one side. It’s time to re-build the classroom that works for all of us, because that’s the classroom that is really going to prepare students for “the working world” after graduation.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;">*I know the research on reinforcers. I’ve read Punished by Rewards. I’ve read Mindset. But I work in a PBIS school that wants to increase its use of PBIS. That means using rewards. I have some ideas about how to make this work following the TTOG principles. I’d been trying it before everything fell apart in the last month or two and having some really awesome successes, even in the DTT context, that I hope to get to write up at some point.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-50926072296383705672017-12-03T11:35:00.000-05:002017-12-03T11:35:52.615-05:00The Gift of Flexibility<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The rules that make up our social structure can seem arbitrary when participation is not intuitive: Go here now but not later. Touch this but not that. Put this here but not there. When you look for an underlying logic in order to understand them, as many autistic children and adults do, it appears they change on a whim. “Go with the flow” requires recognizing and understanding, or at least being able to follow, the “flow” of society, which is based on social norms - the very skill that eludes so many people on the spectrum. It’s really no wonder so many cling to routine, structure, and sameness and get upset when it is violated. From that perspective, it’s actually surprising more folks on the spectrum don’t spend more time in “fight or flight” mode. It is a constant battle to figure out how to live in a world that often doesn't make very much sense.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Engaging with the norms and expectations of the school and classroom environment is particularly challenging for several of my students. In particular, they do not recognize the logic behind sitting and completing an academic task, moving to another area, and repeating the demand. Both sitting and moving are non-intuitive demands. Both have, historically, had intensive intervention aimed at compliance with these demands. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">They often demonstrate their lack of understanding by removing themselves from the demand to engage in preferred activities which are both highly interesting to the student and engage the teacher in an interaction, thereby drawing both of them away from the interaction they do not understand the logic behind. What concerned me was students who were getting bigger and older (I teach middle school) and more aggressive. And we were the cause. (Of the aggression, teenage boys are going to grow like weeds whether we want them to or not.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I met with the team and we got programs put in place to get everyone’s hands off the students unless there was a real immediate safety risk (e.g. about to be hit by a car!)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We got lots of alternative seating in place. More than enough for every student in the room. Ball chairs. Bouncy chairs. Rocking chairs. We stopped telling students to sit and started asking them where they wanted to sit.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We got some pretty ridiculous answers at first. On the table? On the heater? On the floor?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We said okay. We did our academic work there.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Sometimes students didn’t want to sit. They stood or leaned.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We said okay. We did our academic work there too.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It wasn’t perfect. Kids were still on the move a lot. Transitions were not flawless. But what changed almost immediately? The day we made this change, the aggression that was starting to become a problem disappeared overnight. We’re getting just as much work done as we did when we were following the compliance-based program with one difference: everyone, kids and staff, are happier. We’ve been at this for a couple of weeks now and an unexpected thing has happened: the kids are starting to sit. They are sitting in chairs and without being asked. The logic is simple really:</span></div>
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Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-12499329400384489592017-11-12T19:13:00.000-05:002017-11-12T19:13:58.336-05:00Starting to Explore Together<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s way too easy to fall into a rut of un-reflective discrete trial training (DTT) use. The data is hard to argue with: students work their way methodically to mastery of each item, and when you’re talking about basic identification skills they do master item after item. For many students, they fall into the same rut. It’s comfortably predictable: “I point to this, I get what I want.” Is it any wonder that so many students (and their teachers) have trouble “going beyond” DTT practices? It’s a monster of their own creation.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And so, the question remains: how can we give students that predictable instructional environment without feeding that monster? How can we encourage them to grow as learners while supporting their need for security and sameness in a world that, often, doesn’t make any sense to them? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The first answer is easy: let students stim. That’s a no-brainer. But the second isn’t that far behind: Build on the objects and properties that interest the student. Our students tend to notice and focus on properties no one else is paying attention to. It’s one of their strengths and it’s one of the reasons neurotypical teachers find them hard to reach. They’re busy focusing on how the object tastes or if it flies when the teacher wants them to count! Let students get to know all the properties of the objects you’re working on. (Yes, explore the textures, tastes, how far they fly, if they bounce, etc.) It might take longer to learn to count, but if you step into the learning, use your language learning strategies (e.g. aided language modeling), the student will actually come out ahead on the other side. More importantly, they will come out with their sense of self intact and validated. They will be ready to take on bigger and more complex learning challenges because they have the foundational skills and because they have the belief in themselves as learners. Even the best intended teacher-driven task memorization cannot accomplish that.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-38363239108984987452017-09-23T16:37:00.000-04:002017-12-16T20:55:21.102-05:00Building Learning Habits<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of the earliest ways we build positive learning habits is by pairing learning with the activities the student would prefer to be doing. For some students, that’s a first/then activity board, for others, that’s using high interest manipulatives. For students with significant anxiety or trauma around learning, that means pairing instructional demands with preferred activities (non-contingent reinforcement). In my current classroom, I have students using all three strategies. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Using edibles for reinforcement, even non-continently, isn’t my preferred instructional strategy. But it’s a stepping stone to building learning habits. I have a student who, when school started less than a month ago, would tantrum every time we said it was time to do anything he perceived as “work.” He spent much of the day trying to get snacks out of his snack bag. We began pairing snacks from his snack bag with actively participating in academic work. Multiple times this week, I observed him to come independently to the table when told it was time for an academic task and sit with his snack bag expectantly waiting for the task. He is beginning to develop a new mental model and expectation of what school means. He is developing learning habits.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The next step has traditionally been hard for many of my students. These are students who are able to join learning activities, but do not persist in task completion. If the task becomes challenging (or boring) these students will mentally (or physically) “check out.” They do not (yet) have the learning habit of “seeing it through” probably because nobody has ever explained to them what the goal is that they are trying to accomplish. Unfortunately though perhaps unsurprisingly, most interventions (that should be a red flag right there!) for students who struggle with this learning behavior is compliance-based. The answer to “why should I have to do/finish this should never be “because I said so.” Targeted instruction in my classroom is focusing on teaching students about their goals and how to measure their own progress (short and long term). Creating progress monitoring habits will help students to persist in task completion without relying on compliance or building staff dependency.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">More than content, teachers strive to instill a love of learning in students, especially those who do not see themselves as learners or who have not had positive experiences with school in the past. We do that by building relationships with our students and creating a culture of trust and risk-taking. We do that by teaching and fostering positive learning habits. Learning is about much more than ABC and 123.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-89814620990970068572017-09-09T10:05:00.000-04:002017-09-09T10:05:48.449-04:00What Is Behavior?<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The operational definition for an educational context that I’ve always heard for “behavior” is: something you can observe the student doing.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">When I googled the definition I got “The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially toward others” or “The way in which an animal or person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Almost anything a student does is observable. It is the social context, as put forth in the first definition, that determines whether it is a behavior (conducting oneself in relation toward others.) </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To put that in a behavior tracking context: We can observe anyone breathing, but for most students there is no reason to track that as a behavior. For a student who is severely respiratory compromised, for whom continued ability to maintain consciousness (and therefore maintain any relationship with others) is a concern, it is a very appropriate behavior to track.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The problem comes, I think, not when we try to define the behavior (defining observable behavior is a skill, but is one that can be mastered with practice.) Where we struggle is in defining the social context. When the norm is typically developing age-peers, almost everything a student with high support needs does will be considered a behavior, because the things they do successfully and independently often look very different from their peers: indistinguishability does not allow for the beauty of neurodiversity. However, when the norm is peers with high support needs, we are often setting ourselves on a slippery slope of low expectations: “this is the best they can hope for so we just have to accept it.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The justification I so often see for tracking indistinguishability behaviors (stimming, eye contact, etc) is that that kind of behavior will not be accepted “in the real world.” There are certainly neurodiverse individuals out there spending a lot of energy practicing indistinguishability behaviors in order to be successful “in the real world” right now. What would it take so they, and our students, didn’t have to?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In the classroom, we have near-complete control over the social context. And the social context that students learn in school is the one they will bring with them into the adult community and workplace. If we build a classroom community that values neurodiversity over indistinguishability, that is the social context that students will learn. It has worked for successful businesses like Google and Apple. It will work in our classrooms too. And it just might change the world for the better.</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-68211106237911079812017-09-02T11:49:00.000-04:002017-09-02T11:49:04.242-04:00The Limits That Make Us Soar<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">A former student of mine just transitioned into a new classroom. Her new teacher has set limits for her that make me uncomfortable from a philosophical and pedagogical perspective. Some of these are limits that I literally spent years working with staff to get them to understand why they were completely unacceptable in my classroom. It’s taking all of my willpower not to say something to her. But the thing of it is, that student is happy. She is happier than she was toward the end of her time in my classroom. She is happy and she is engaged in learning in a way that she and I had struggled with over that last year or so.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">With a little perspective, it’s clear to see what has happened. In my quest to create a student-centered classroom, I lost too much of the structure and boundaries that make the classroom effective. If I’m honest with myself, I knew that. My data on student progress and student behavior over the second half of last year showed it pretty clearly.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It shouldn’t surprise me. I’ve known, as I’ve gone through this process, that I’ve consistently struggled to implement one of the most key pieces of a student-centered classroom: feedback. My students need to know what is expected of them, and how they are doing in meeting their goals and expectations. I need a way to show them. For progress on student goals, I’m thinking about creating visual goal monitoring pages in their program data books. Using picture supports, students can track by independence level or accuracy level increases (we take data on both) and can choose what they want to make public: progress, achievements, or nothing. I’ll try and post one to twitter when I get them made, hopefully next week, and will try to edit this post. (Blogger doesn’t seem to like image posting anymore.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In order to provide more effective behavior feedback, I need to first re-examine for myself where the behavior limits should be in my room. The feedback I got from my students last year was that I didn’t give them enough limits, and that they found learning difficult in that environment.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What matters?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Student choice:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Students should be able to choose: where they work (learning station - may sometimes have to be restricted choice, depending on activity), who they are working with, which activity they are doing (from list of activities for that academic block)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Student safety (individual target behaviors)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I can see how this could easily be represented to students using an interval data visual:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Location</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">5 minute interval safety tokens +++++</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">5 minute interval participation tokens +++++</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">(Again, I’ll try to post an image-based one to twitter when I have it, Blogger doesn’t play nice.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The similarity between the behavior feedback visual I’m proposing and a traditional token chart is not escaping me. In fact, during the difficult time we had last spring due to the weakening structure associated with the school closing, one of the things I did for one of my students was pull out a token board he hadn’t used in over a year. He needed the visual to know how much work he was expected to do in order to help him stay regulated. Many of the tools in the ABA toolkit are very useful tools. Tools, by themselves, are not positive or negative, it is how they are used. Behavior tools must always be used to support student choice, self-advocacy, and body autonomy not to create compliance or restrict a student’s natural expression/movement in the name of “normalizing” behavior. The line of teaching “socially appropriate” behavior is a very thin one and must be walked with extreme caution and much input from the Autistic Adult community. We do not always fully comprehend the power of the tools we use. We need to listen to those who have had those tools used on them, just as we look at the results and reviews of any other new curriculum and program that we wish to adopt into practice (or material we chose to use with our home and family.) But to quote Levar Burton “You don’t have to take my word for it…” (ask another Actually Autistic person!)</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-62987072779131047462017-08-24T10:16:00.000-04:002017-08-24T10:16:51.482-04:00Structured Feedback: #ObserveMe<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As an educator, I value feedback, especially from other professionals who share my core teaching beliefs. I joined the faculty of my current school because of the mission based around student-centered teaching focusing on self-advocacy and meaningful independence for every student regardless of perceived intellectual ability. Because of negative experiences I’ve had with observers in my room at other schools, having visitors in my room makes me anxious. I feel judged. I automatically see the behaviors, the missing symbol supports, the student(s) not fully engaged in an academic activity at that exact moment: all the things I would have been criticized for at other placements. And I want to say, “I know all that! We’re working on it! Here’s what I *actually* want feedback on…” And that’s when I heard about #ObserveMe.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">#ObserveMe was started by Robert Kaplinsky last year. (<a href="http://robertkaplinsky.com/observeme/" target="_blank">I think this is the original post here.</a>) I first saw it on twitter. (Of course, it’s where I find everything new and cool in education!) The idea is simple: post a note on your classroom door inviting your colleagues in to observe and telling them what areas you would like feedback on. It feels to me like exactly the answer I’ve been looking for. The visuals I put on my door already tell someone entering a lot about what I value as a teacher: that’s intentional. My hope is that adding this sign will help to structure those interactions so I can finally get the feedback I am looking for to grow my practice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The text of my #ObserveMe sign is below:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are all learners in Room 1. Please come in and observe me. I would like constructive feedback on the following goals:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Student voice:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Are students making authentic choices?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Are we honoring all student communication (not just symbolic language)?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Instructional Process:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Are teacher demands clearly rooted in meaningful instructional context?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How could we change the instructional demand to increase learner independence?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Feedback:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Are we giving clear feedback to students that gives them a clear picture of the progress they are making toward their goal?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How can we make student goals and the path to achieve them more concrete and visual for our learners to understand?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Please #ObserveMe and help our learning community grow!</span></div>
Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-69624407283273857662017-07-29T14:50:00.000-04:002017-07-29T14:50:21.778-04:00Finding Inclusion in a Separate Day School <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This has been a hard post to write. But, as an inclusion-minded special educator, I wanted to tell the story of why I have decided to take a teaching position at a separate day school for students with disabilities. It’s not what I expected when I started looking, but I believe I have made the right decision for myself and for my students.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">During my job search, I visited some schools that, though amazing educational institutions, would not be accessible to me given my own disabilities. These were places where I know I would not have been successful teaching because my access needs would have gotten in the way: classrooms that were too large, socially set up, or in an environment that I found far too distracting to focus. I also visited places that met my access needs but where I could not envision providing instruction that adequately met the needs of the enrolled students due to the space, the ratios, the technology access, or a combination of factors. I found both of these challenges to be present across settings: public, collaborative, and private. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Going beyond physical access, I knew I needed an environment that backs up its statements about building independence and self-advocacy with real action. I needed stay away from environments that prioritize the ideal of “safe and happy” over meaningful instruction. I found each of these types of environments across settings as well, but I found the ones that most shared my teaching values in the separate day school setting.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Separate day schools don’t provide the access to rigorous grade-level instructional environment that can be found in a public school setting (if you have a teacher with the knowledge and mindset to provide access to that instruction.) However, just being in a public school doesn’t imply access, and all of the classrooms I visited operated on an “integration” not an “inclusion” model. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Over the past two years, I have developed an instructional model that incorporates global learning opportunities to give students access to connection and collaboration with students beyond their local school community. Using this model, I am able to provide access to the grade-level classroom without sacrificing the intensive instructional supports of the self-contained environment. You can’t get that combination in a traditional public school’s grade-level classroom.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I worried about the social nature of these small close-nit institutions. Places with a strong focus on social norms can be inaccessible or even dangerous for me. But I learned this past year to value the sense of community that can be found in these environments when they are staffed by professionals who share the same commitment I do to high quality instructional access and building independence and self advocacy.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The school and classroom where I accepted a position are both small. Smaller than I found almost anywhere else. (One of many reasons why I will never name the school I work at on my blog or social media.) The reason that they had an opening at all was because they found that the students in this class were not being successful in a larger class, so they broke it up to give the students who needed it a more intensive instructional environment. We spoke about the idea of teaching vs. helping (a frequent problem in severe/multiple disabilities.) Instead of the “and how do you address that” question, I was told the story of how the school had made that mindset shift and hired staff who believe in teaching. The school values of building independence and self-advocacy really came through in both word and action.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I went into this job search looking for a placement in a public middle school. But I also went into it with a very clear understanding of what my teaching values are and where I was and was not willing to compromise. I know how to recognize an environment where it will be accessible for me to be the best teacher I can be for my students. I found those values and that environment in a separate day school. I didn’t find it at any of the other schools I visited. So, despite (or maybe because of) my belief in an inclusive environment for all learners, I have taken a position in a separate day school. Inclusion, after all, is a mindset not a placement.</span></div>
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Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1067433928127750101.post-9431555661248735842017-07-13T11:31:00.000-04:002017-07-13T11:31:48.005-04:00Asking for Help<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Asking for help is</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> one of the first functional communication skills we teach, especially to students who exhibit challenging behavior due to frustration (at not being able to accomplish something independently) which is a lot of our students. It's also one of the skills we're least successful at teaching. I don't mean the kids don't learn it. They learn the sign/word/picture. What most of them don't learn is when and how to use it. They either never ask and we end up saying "ask for help if you need it" when we see them struggle, or they're constantly asking and we find ourselves in a never-ending cycle of "try it yourself first ..." It's clearly not a skill we're teaching very effectively.</span></div>
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It's something I've been aware of for a while now, and I've been trying to make an effort to model it in the classroom. But there's a qualitative difference between "Do you know where the stapler went?" and "Please help me tie my shoes." And, for obvious reasons, the more urgent situations in the classroom are not appropriate times for modeling.</div>
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As I see it there are 2 key skills that need to be taught along with requesting help. </div>
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<li>Making an effort to do it on your own first. This means we need to make sure we are paying attention to partial successes (and failed efforts) as important and successful steps toward the larger goal.</li>
<li>Multiple solutions to the problem. I believe that problem solving is, quite possibly, the most important skill that we can teach students, and this is a key part of it. Students need to have an understading that there is more than one approach to chose from and the mental flexibility to try a different approach if the first one is unsuccessful.</li>
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We do talk in my classroom a lot about how "help" doesn't mean I'm going to do it for you. But isn't that exactly what adults usually mean when we ask for help? Sometimes, certainly. If I ask for help because I can't get the glue open, I don't expect you to put your hand over mine and that we're going to push it open together. No, I expect to hand the glue to you, and you will open it for me. Because the expectation is that I have already tried and found my skills lacking, so now I'm asking you to give it a go. But sometimes that's exactly what I mean. When I helped my coworker email an attachment for the first time I sat down next to her and verbally walked her through each step. If I'd taken the mouse from her and done it myself, it wouldn't have helped either of us. I'm not sure, though, how one knows (except by social experience/nonverbal context) what kind of help is appropriate/expected in a given situation. And so I'm asking for your help. What is the distinction? And, more importantly, how can we teach it to our kids?</div>
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Disabled Teacher, ASDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06107235243908022912noreply@blogger.com5