Special Education

If I have learned anything, it’s that being a teacher involves a willingness to learn. The journey to becoming a good teacher is long and arduous, and dependent on the teacher’s commitment to professional development. When I was growing up I thought that teachers knew everything, they were trained and they just knew what to do. And then I got clued-up and realized that some teachers were better than others. I learned that some teachers made a commitment to the creation of stimulating and meaningful lessons, while others daydreamed about the summer holidays.
 
I will never forget Mr. Bond, my A Level English Literature teacher. Mr. Bond was an artsy, former hippy who loved to wear thick cardigans and run his fingers through his long wispy brown beard. He was passionate about Shakespeare and he taught me to love Shakespeare too. Mr. Bond along with Ms. Clifton-Kallon, my secondary school English teacher, are both responsible for my current love of reading. My teachers exposed me to the pleasures of reading and I am forever grateful to them. Naturally they had different ways of teaching- Mr. Bond used his sense of humor and his love of books to keep bums in seats. Ms. Clifton-Kallon used books which explored different cultures to help students connect with literature. Each teacher had their own way of doing things and each teacher was effective.

As I move forward with my career as a Special Educator, I continue to reach back to the teachers of my past, and pull from them what I can to make my lessons effective and fulfilling for my students. I hope to gain access to professional development opportunities and recognize that like my students, I have lots of learning to do.

Happy Teaching!

Most students love to watch movies, of course they differ in terms of the genres they prefer, but put them in front of a screen with lights and colors and action and you have some very happy students.

In their leisure time, many students love to spend time at the movies so why not combine literacy instruction with film? Of course, you don’t want to eat away at instructional time by showing students entire movies, but you can combine reading with short pieces of a movie to highlight aspects of the plot or theme.

Returning back to our exploration of learning styles, if we provide students who are visual learners with opportunities to watch film, animation, and other wonderful visual displays, then it is more likely that these students will retain novel concepts .

As teachers of students who are visual learners we must provide:

• Instructional materials that are sensitive to their needs - graphics, diagrams, flowcharts, photographs, pictures, and other visual cues

• Opportunities to demonstrate learning using visuals- for example, drawing pictures to show the sequence of story, designing an alternative front cover of a novel, visualizing key events in a story, and keeping track of foods consumed using a photo diary

• Exposure to technology- educational videos, websites, drawing using iPad apps (Doodle Buddy is one iPAD app that my students like to use, but there are loads more out there!)

In addition, there are some great websites where actors either read or tell stories. Check out:

1.    Storylineonline- members of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation read aloud books for children http://www.storylineonline.net/

2.   Oxford Owl- professional storytellers read a selection of books http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/StoryVideos

Storyteller Videos are a great way to engage students with reading.

Happy teaching!

                         

I have always been passionate about working with students with disabilities. Back in 2002 at the age of 18, I worked as a Teacher’s Assistant at a school in a poor neighborhood in London. The school was a secondary school for students between the ages of 11 and 16, and predominantly attended by typically developing students (by typically developing I mean students who progress through defined developmental stages within the time frame identified by scientists). The school had a small department, an Inclusion department, which offered instruction to students with disabilities in the classroom and during one-to-one pull out sessions.

 I was assigned to the Inclusion department in the role of Inclusive Support Assistant. As an Inclusive Support Assistant, I provided instruction in class and during one-to-one sessions. I found the role exhilarating and extremely rewarding. I enjoyed learning how to teach phonics and devising new ways to teach students who were having a tough time. I remember one student, we will call him Simon. He was a small boy who was uncomfortable being in the classroom, he especially hated math. When his math teacher started speaking he became fidgety and anxious. At 12 years old Simon was already fed up with life. The situation at home was difficult and unstable. His brother had also developed a bad reputation with his teachers.

As the teacher wrote on the blackboard behind her, you could tell Simon just wanted the ground to open up and suck him in. “I can’t do it,” he complained. Simon just didn’t understand why he was being forced to endure this hell. Why was he being forced to do math? Simon was resistant to having me around; he didn’t want help from an assistant. He didn’t want to be singled out as being “Special Needs.”

But there was one thing that Simon knew he could do. He was a talented artist, “I love drawing,” he told me, his whole face lighting up. “I’ve always loved art.” Simon felt empowered by his talent- knowing that he could draw better than the other students made him feel special in a good way.

And so, with my knowledge that he was an artist, I taught Simon how to make a bar graph using play dough. Simon jumped at the chance to be creative. His little fingers worked away at the dough and he formed bars of varying colors. I watched with pride as my student was visibly engaged in math. At the time, I didn’t know what I was doing, but as I moved through my studies I realized I had tapped into a key element of teaching. Instruction should be tailored to students’ learning styles.

Through my work with Simon, I learned that how a student learns is just as important as what a student learns, and as teachers it is our responsibility to discover how a student learns.