Today I was going to blog
about visuals and this awesome product I've been using at home, but instead I
want to blog about something that made my heart happy today and the reason I do
what I do!
This year I am in a new
role as an inclusion coach. This is new to the district so we are
working out some kinks but I have found some great success and teachers who are
so welcoming to this position and to me!
We have a student in our
special education classroom who spends the majority of his time in the resource
room: except lunch, recess and specials. I have been with this student
since he was 2 years 9 months and he is now in fifth grade, I am invested!!! So
my goal this year is to get him in the general education classroom more than
what he was getting. This morning, at 8am, I met with the resource room
teacher and we decided that we would find more opportunities to get him into
the classroom. So I then went to his teacher at 9am and asked when would be
a good time to bring the student in. Most teachers would be frazzled and
worried what they would do with the student and how this would affect their
teacher evaluation. Not this teacher! Not only did she say we could come in at
10 am today and then come back today at 1:20 pm, she also looked at her groups
and made sure he'd be in a group with a specific student who has formed a great
friendship with him! WOW this made my heart happy but what came next made my
heart explode!
This student has had some
difficulties with appropriate behavior when he is with his same aged peers in
the past, so this could have gone one way or another, we didn't know, but this
student deserves a chance! So his aide and I went and waited for classes to
switch and then found his seat! Right next to the student who requested he be
seated near him just in case he comes into the room! (Such a sweet kid!)
We entered the classroom
mid unit on force and motion! (I've got a lot of learning to do!) The
student sat during the explanation of the lessons, copied down the question of
the day and listened to the directions, this all took about 20 minutes or
more....these fifth graders have a great attention span! All the time the
student was visually checking in with us for a thumbs up or checking with his
friend! When the teacher said "put your hands on your head." He did!
When the teacher said "raise your hand." He did!! This teacher is so
enthusiastic, which really helped keep his attention, but the one thing that
really made me happy and hit me hard was she recognized him for doing the right
thing, not after all the others but FIRST! Unknowingly, or knowingly, she
realized this kid needed praise and she gave it to him before anyone else
in the class! She gave him praise as she would any other child in her room!
Then we moved onto the
experiment part of the lesson and again, this could go one way or the other!
There was a group of four boys total and they were experimenting with force and
motion and friction. They were meant to make a list, make predictions,
graph their answers and defend their answers. This student's work book is
pictured below!
 |
| The student received some support for spelling and what exact numbers to write but he did sound out the word bumpy on the bottom himself! |
My favorite part is one of the
students would do the experiment and then give it to this child to complete.
The student completed six different experiments and each time the group would
always choose to go with his answer! His classmates were so welcoming and
encouraging to him and included him in everything they did! One girl asked me
"Why's (students name) in here today?" I said "He will be
joining you for science now." I was worried about the response I would get
but she said "Great I'm so happy he's here!" I wanted to cry! This
child was beaming from ear to ear with everything he did! He smiled and got in line
and waited (quietly and hands to himself!) to show the teacher his work! This
was an amazing day for this child! Our goal was to start small and give
him just a little bit of time in that classroom but he blew us away and made it
50 minutes!!!! Remember this is a child who was in resource room for
everything!! He did awesome!
What I love
is that this teacher holds all the students accountable and to high
expectations and she expected none less from this student! YES this teacher
gets it! This child's aide is also amazing and did a great job giving him his
space in the room but helping when needed and giving him visual and verbal
reminders of what a great job he was doing! Will everyday be perfect just like
today? Probably not, but we will sure do our best to keep him in that classroom
and push in more and more!
