Aug

30

It Was One of Those Weird Things.

Filed Under Special Education | 2 Comments

It was one of those weird things. What can I say! During the summer, I like to go for a walk early in the morning before it gets too hot. Although come to think of it, this late in August it doesn’t get too hot. Today’s high was going to be 24 degrees. Not bad at all. Anyway, I was walking along enjoying the late summer sunshine and admiring the gardens in the front yards of the homes I passed (I’m not a fast walker) and was thinking about next week. School starts next week, and I would be back working with my special needs students.


For the last few days, I had been thinking about what I could do to help teachers better understand the learning disabled kids that would be sitting in front of them. I don’t want the teachers to think that these kids are stupid and/or lazy. Sometimes the kids come across this way if you don’t understand the nature of this special group of students. Learning disabled kids aren’t stupid or lazy- well, maybe sometimes they’re unmotivated, but then who isn’t unmotivated sometimes. As I was saying, these kids aren’t stupid. In fact they have average or above average intelligence. The thing is, these kids’ brains are “wired” differently causing them to learn differently. It’s my job as a special education teacher to support these students and their teachers by making their teachers aware of the students’ specific learning disabilities and the accommodations the teachers need to make so that the kids can perform to their potential.

Back to my walk. I was walking along thinking, wondering and admiring when suddenly this elderly woman crossed the street and came towards me. As she got next to me, she stopped and said, “Hello, how are you?” I, of course, said, “Hello, I fine.” I was wondering what was going on. What did she want? Suddenly she thrust a magazine in my direction and asked me if I had seen last Saturday’s Toronto Star. I had. That’s when I realized she was a Jehovah’s Witness and wanted to give me a copy of their magazine, Awake! So, for a few minutes we had a pleasant conversation about swindlers and the unfortunate state of the world. She was a very charming lady. When I moved to resume my walk, she offered me the magazine. I took it and continued my walk.

When I got home, I noticed that she had given two magazines, not just one. I had just noticed the one magazine, the one about the swindlers. But, there was another one tucked into the first one. I pulled it out, and much to my amazement it was about children with learning disabilities. I am a special education teacher who works with learning disabled kids. The nice lady wouldn’t have known this, and yet… Go figure.

Aug

29

Twenty-five Cents for a Pencil! I’ll Bring My Own!

Filed Under Organization | 5 Comments

I’m still chuckling when I think about what he said that day in class. A while ago, I got fed up with my students coming to class unprepared- no paper, no pencils, no books etc. (What else is new?) Usually, I’ll lend my students something if they give me collateral- a MP3 player for a pencil, a watch for a calculator etc. One day, I got fed up with taking care of all the collateral I had collected in my desk drawer. Often, the students would forget their collateral and leave my classroom with my pencil or whatever. I didn’t want the responsibility of taking care of their watches, MP# players, cell phones etc. Things “disappeared” from my classroom. So the next time a student came up to my desk to borrow a pencil, I told him and the rest of the class that I would no longer be lending pencils. I would be happy to sell them a pencil for twenty-five cents and donate the proceeds to charity at the end of the semester. Well, he was indigent. “Twenty-five cents,” he said, “I’m not going to pay twenty-five cents for a pencil. I’ll bring my own pencil from now on.” And, he did.

Aug

25

Just a Minute, Well Actually Just Two Minutes

Filed Under Learning Strategies, Organization | 1 Comment

Knowing how to organize a notebook and doing it are two very different things, as any teacher can tell you. I can’t begin count how many absolutely wonderful handouts I’ve given my students telling them how to organize their notebooks. They know how to do it. I’ve got their quiz results to prove it. So what are all those crumpled pages doing at the bottom of their backpacks- or worse yet on the floor under their desks? What is a frustrated teacher to do?

Well, I certainly don’t need to give them another handout telling them how to organize their notebooks, and I’m not going to organize their notebooks for them. What I need to do is help them develop the habit of being organized, or more specifically of organizing as they go along. Thanks to a posting in Senia’s blog, I think I’ve found an almost painless way to help them develop this habit. The two minute rule.

The two minute rule. I like the sound of it- although some of my kids might not like the rule part of it. I think my students will buy into it. At least that’s my impression. When they ask me if they can leave my class before the bell rings at the end class and I tell them to wait for the bell, they tell me ” Come on Miss, it’s only two minutes”. It’s only two minutes. I like that. So starting September 5, I’ll be telling them “Come on, it’s only two minutes”. Don’t ya just love it!

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