Cre8v IDEAs 4 ED,LD

This blog was a required project for a graduate course in computer applications for education. I finished the class over a year ago and haven’t used it since, but of course it’s still here, floating around abandoned in cyberspace. Good thing, though, because the last semester has shown me more concretely than ever before how important reflection time is to a teacher. Oh, I have my mentors who asked me questions or gave me forms to fill out to facilitate my reflection, but this is the 21st Century! Any really meaningful reflection happens online!

I started my first licensed (provisional) teaching job this past February, to fill in for an elementary LD teacher who decided in November that she was retiring on February 1st. The school had to find someone fast, and who really wanted to change schools midyear. Well, I was just eager enough to make the move from Instructional Assistant to Special Education Teacher to accept the job when it was offered to me. Now, I’m not about to use this blog as a b—h session, but suffice it to say the job came with more obstacles than a Marine Corp bootcamp! I finished the semester feeling like a complete failure. Except for one thing… Well, three things, counting the provisional license and pay increase!

Of the eight sixth-grade students on my caseload, only two seemed to genuinely feel regret at the likelihood of not seeing me again. The rest were just glad it was over. However, of these two, one boy actually said he’d miss me, to the point of asking if I could apply for a job at the middle school he’d be attending next fall!

This kid has problems. He had a documented mental processing deficit; although capable of functioning in most typical school situations, his logic circuits were crossed somehow, and the most basic math problems were confusing to him. He also had difficulties constructing complete sentences in writing, although you wouldn’t know it to talk to him. Most noticeably, he had poorly developed social skills, which made him unpopular among his peers.

My teaching over the four months I knew this boy didn’t make a dent in his academic understanding. However, I think I made him feel like he had an adult friend who accepted him with all of his quirks and believed in his ability to grow. My job was mainly to teach him reading comprehension and math. No real improvement in those areas, but he did start getting A’s in social studies. He made a point of showing me that he’d completed his homework, and asked me to help him study when he knew there was a test coming up. He found his strength, and he reveled in it!

You always hear teachers’ sayings about making a difference in just one child’s life. To the average principal, this is a nice sentiment, but not an acceptable comment on your job evaluation. However, that boy was the one person who made me feel like I had not failed my first semester as a teacher.

Reading this article on ascd.org, gave me a jolt of excitement for the future of education. The article, Reader Responsiveness is written by Monica Mohr and Jennifer Orr. Ms. Mohr is an assistant principal at the school where my son was relocated in fourth grade. At the time, Brookfield Elementary had a center for emotional disorders, which my son was identified to have, along with a possible learning disability because he wrote so little. By fifth grade, it was determined that he did not in fact have a learning disability, in fact he has always been quite bright. He just didn’t like to write. Once he learned to use a keyboard, he became an excellent writer almost overnight. I can attest from a personal perspective that blogging as it is described in the article by Ms. Mohr and Ms. Orr can certainly be a tremendous learning tool for students who have difficulty communicating their thoughts verbally, or even in pencil.

I also remember interactive “log books” in my AP English/Social Studies classes in high school. That same model is being used by third grade teachers in the school I work in today. It’s a slow, limited process shared between the student and the teacher, and for many students yields pages of scratches and erasures, tears and dogears, and looks like the very embodiment of frustration, from both parties involved. Mohr and Orr have hit the nail on the head with the solution to sparking viral learning, and enthusiasm for reading and expression regarding what they read. Looking around a third grade classroom today is a jumble of notebooks and folders, enough to confuse even the slightly challenged learning. Not only does the idea of blogging open discussions and give withdrawn students a safe outlet, it’s a “green” solution to improved classroom organization. I’m all about this literacy blogging!

This statement details an incident in which the teaching intern anticipated behavioral intervention in the course of this internship, thus eliminating inappropriate behavior for one student. The target behavior was the student’s difficulty with listening attentively to the teacher while sitting on the floor during group instruction time. The kindergarten student would touch the nearest person or objects almost constantly, causing distraction to himself and those around him. The intern hypothesized that a designated object for tactile gratification would help the student to focus attention on the teacher speaking, or at least minimalize distractions during this time. The first object to be considered was a handful of play putty, but this was not readily available. Instead, the intern acquired from the cooperating teacher (CT) a soft rubber apple for the student to hold during group discussion time. The CT agreed that the squeezing action would also help to increase the student’s hand muscles, which had been observed to operate with some weakness. The apple proved to be distracting when it was dropped or tossed, and the student complained that it was difficult to squeeze. An alternative object was then introduced in the form of a small robot figure molded from a slightly softer material. The student enjoys the robot toy, thus making it an effective reinforcer for quietly listening while keeping his hands to himself during group instruction time.

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