Dealing with behaviors before you throw a party

I came across an article that talks about how to deal with behaviors that come about around the holidays and how to deal with them. "Before You Throw a Holiday Party"
By Terri Mauro, has a suggestion that I may not be able to use now, for I am not a parent, but I want to apply to my classroom.

She makes the point that your child may need his/her own "private" area to go to when people are there. This place is where no one else can go and where your child can have alone time with comforting items.

Relating this to my current job and a student I am struggling with behavior wise, a light went on. My student is autistic and very oppositional defiant....maybe just stubborn! However, he frequently likes to do his own thing and not interact with his peers. Using the idea of giving him his own private place, I am thinking this could help with some behaviors. If my student knows he has a place to go to when he starts to get frustrated, some of his behaviors might go away and he may feel more calm at school. I am blessed that I have 3 separate rooms at my disposal, and even a closet that he often likes to chase ghost out of. Maybe I could make that closet his place to go to, to be with his ghost and to talk to himself like he frequently does. I like the idea of a private place...I will have to work on setting this up.

(Sorry....this was a thinking aloud blog with me trying to make sense of what I was thinking!)

What to get your teacher for the holidays!

Of course the title caught my attention....."What's the best gift for a teacher?" I clicked on the link and realized it was a poll but I started reading the comments that others have made. My mind wondered...

I remember back in the days when I would go shopping with my mom to get something for my teacher for Christmas. Growing up, times were tough and we were never able to spend veyr much on gifts but my mom always made sure that my teacher got something. Now that I am a teacher, I realize that all those little gifts are passed on at "white elephant" parties or are thrown into the garbage can once the kids leave for the break. However, I also know that even though I do not want to keep many of the gifts that I get, I always remember them and they make me smile.

However, looking at comments others made, I agree with some of the posts that tell parents to focus on their child's education and invest in that, rather than getting the teacher a gift. Helping educate your student not only makes that current teacher's job easier, but it will also be the gift that gives every year in the future. I can go without the little candies that crack my teeth when I try to bite into them and I can go without another snow globe. Helping me educate your students will make my holiday that much better!

Creativity

In the article "Advice to New and Student Teachers: Hold Fast to Dreams" author Gaetan Pappalardo encourages new teachers and student teachers to keep the arts alive within the school.

When my father was growing up, he was not into the academic side of school. When I asked him why he did not do well in his gym class or his history class, he said it was because he could be found working with the woods teacher on projects or maintenance would ask him to help them fix something around the campus. My dad was their go to guy when something needed to be done correctly. My father's grades suffered drastically because of this but academics were not going to take him into the career he wanted anyways.

My father is a prime example of why the focus on math and science is not going to work for all. Don't get me wrong, education needs to be reformed in this country and there does need to be a focus put on the academics, but not for all. Many people are not going to be doctors or engineers. Some are going to be mechanics or artists which are both needed and are just as important to making the world what it is today. Education needs to focus on what is good for all, not just a few select and still continue to offer classes where creativity can grow and he shown.

The drop out rate is scary and with the art classes being cut back more, the drop out rate is only going to go up. No doubt, those who plan to go in the "academic" direction for a career, should be given the chance to take classes that will help them. Those that are choosing to take a different route, be it culinary or music, should also be given the opportunity to take classes that will help them achieve their career dreams. Education needs to take some lessons from special education maybe....a little individualizing might help out!

Being Part of Their Own Education Process

Reading the article "Equation of Success: Top Ten Responsibilites that Students Must Own" I started nodding my head. The according to the author, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, the following are what students need to "step up as a variable in their own equation of success:"

"Number One: Be your own advocate. Stake a claim in the classroom by making sure the teacher knows who you are...in a good way.

Number Two: Ask lots of questions....and show confusion appropriately.

Number Three: Communicate your struggles to your teachers. What is going on that affects your work?

Number Four: Think of school as your office in training. Are you a good co-worker?

Number Five: Dress for success, but don't panic, you don't have to wear a suit to be taken seriously.

Number Six: At least do the minimum so you aren't creating gaps that are harder to bridge later. Better yet, do more.

Number Seven: Sweat a little. School is your brain gym. You have to work out your muscles, make them a little sore, if you're going to lift a heavier load later on.

Number Eight: Find ways to relate to your reading and writing. What original thoughts and experiences can you bring to the lesson to make it come alive for yourself?

Number Nine: Be in class. Don't jeopardize your own training.

Number Ten: Surround yourself with other students who can help you. You don't have to be best friends with everyone you seek advice from, but find friends or acquaintances that are rooting for you, the best of you."

I believe, especially in my school district, that the curriculum has been watered down making it easier for students to slack and not have to step up to the plate. I feel that we are setting students up for future failures as the work place does the opposite; giving more responsibilites with less time to accomplish tasks and little instruction or guidance. When a parent calls in to complain that their child did poorly in a class, it is always the teacher's fault, never the student's. However, if the student took repsonsibility for his own learning, the phone call wouldn't even need to be made. These 10 responsibilities are exactly what students should be expected to do in school and in life in general. I have these expectations for my students with special needs and they do step up to the plate. There is no reason that all students shouldn't then be able to follow these responsbilities.

Part of my job as a special educator has always been to advocate for my students, but to also educate those who are not in my room about what my students really are capable of doing. Reading the article "Social and Emotional Learning: Taking a Stand for What You Believe In," I started thinking back to what I stand for as a teacher of students with special needs.

Three years ago I took over the girls' varsity soccer program as head coach. Knowing that very few of my soccer players were actually going to play soccer beyond their high school years, I thought that my job wasn't just to coach these girls, but to also make them better people in general. So last year, I had my girls go to a group home for young ladies with special needs. There, the girls played games, ate a BBQ and hung out with the ladies that lived there. They got a good idea that just because someone has a special need, does not mean they are not human, that they do have feelings and they love to laugh and have a good time as much as they do. Then this year, my team went and played soccer with young children who have various special needs. The girls jumped right in and had a great time. When my players were out there, they asked questions about the kids with special needs and had lots of questions about what it meant to be "autistic" or have "down syndrome." I loved it because the girls really wanted to know about the kids and really wanted to make sure each kid had fun, no matter how "withdrawn" some of the kids actually were. They took the time to get to understand several of the kids and built a friendship! Now when they see my students on campus, they are more willing to chat with my students and to make an effort to invite my students to come hang out with them too.

The article discusses the idea of schools implementing a curriculum that also focuses on the social and emotional needs of students. I agree that this should become part of what students learn about throughout their high school. I do my part for the 20 ladies that play on my soccer team each year, but it would be great to see a larger number of students learn these lessons.

Replacing Text Books with Laptops???

Looking on Edutopia, I came across the question, "Should laptops replace textbooks?" My first thought was instantly no, textbooks are definitely needed in the classroom. Then I read what others' opinions were and started really thinking about what laptops can bring that textbooks can't, along with why are textbooks still needed too. Textbooks have many benefits especially in an era where students are reading less than they used to and libraries are frequented very rarely. Computers are great and any information that you need can be at your finger tips within seconds. The bad thing about computers if that students can easily be distracted away from the work they are supposed to be doing and be playing games, or looking up information that is not on topic. I am also concerned with the amount of time that kids already spend on computers and in front of the TV already, let along adding it at school too. Computers can be useful but we really would have to crack down on how they are being used and that could take away from the time we actually teach.

My Classroom is more like Home

Granted, my world of teaching is very different than many other classrooms. First of all, my room is split into two seperate rooms. One of the rooms is an apartment. Then there is a classroom part, which is not used nearly as much as the apartment but we still use it. When it came to decorating, obviously the apartment was going to look like a home where people lived but my classroom, that was another story.

Thinking back to my college classes, I remember one of my classmates, who was getting her emergency certification in Special Education, stating that her students hated to go home on the weekends. The students would say that the best part of the weekend was Monday morning when they got to come back to school. With this in my head, I started thinking about how I wanted my classroom to look and how I wanted it to make my students feel. Bulletin boards with cute designs and student work was always neat to see in elementary classes, but dealing with high school students who do very little paperwork, I was stumped! So I thought back to what my classmate had said, students hated to go home on the weekends and realized that I wanted my classroom to be a home, a good and happy home where students took pride in it but also felt that it was welcoming. So this year, when I moved to my third classroom, I had a clean slate and could do what I always wanted to do. I set out to make my classroom that place where my students wanted to be.

The first week of school, I worked with all 9 of my special needs students to paint the walls. Granted, I did a great deal of the painting, but each one of my students still had some place on the wall that they had each painted. Then I hung art work that was inspirational rather than something you would hear from a teacher. I wrote my kids a positive letter on a large piece of poster board, framed it and made sure it was located somewhere where they could see it often. I made my room that place that my students wanted to be.

I strongly believe that my students feel welcome in my classroom and they see it as their second home...maybe as their first home for some...but I do believe that my room is a place they enjoy. They made it their room, but they also see the sayings on the walls that are there to encourage them and make them feel loved.

My room may not be the same as the teacher's room in the article "How Classroom Environment Can Ignite Learning and Cultivate Caring" but my room does have the same sort of throught put into it.

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-career-technical-education-student-success-david-garibaldi-video?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29&utm_content=Google+Reader