Suspended.

Gotcha! Not one of my kids. Another student. Read on to find out why.

An important day in history is happening on Monday. One of my students, yes - an "ASD student," is going to travel to school on..... a BIG BUS!

His parents pushed the school district for their son to be allowed to join his peers on the regular school bus. He lives less than 2 miles from the school, yet spends 30 minutes on a special ed bus every morning. His brother doesn't leave the house until 30 minutes after him!

So, after many conferences, notes, letters, confrontations, and requests, they are getting what they want. (I am so happy). The school district was not exactly supportive of this change. They continued to say, "Part of the ASD program includes ASD transportation on the special ed bus." They have a hard time thinking outside the box. Sometimes I think they might be ASD students themselves (ASD student = ASD bus = ASD program, NOTHING DIFFERENT). This is a kid who is probably my highest functioning and is very socially aware. He is capable of walking from the bus into my classroom each morning. His parents asked me in the parent conference if I thought he was capable. I said yes. Apparently, that got me into trouble, because they used that in their plea bargaining to get the regular transportation (i.e. "Mrs. Smith told us he was capable.") I got caught in the middle of it all, because I speak the truth and advocate for my kids. I brushed it off because I knew it was for a good cause. I continued to tell them that I would meet him at the regular bus in the beginning, that he could come to my classroom early (before the bell), etc. They just don't think he can do it.

They have this vision in their heads that he's going to get off the bus and not know where to go. They might be forgetting that this is a kid with autism who, more than most kids at the school, is very capable of following the same routine each day. I've told them he'll be fine. I've told them that even if he does wander in the wrong direction, he'd eventually find my room. This is life that we're living here. There won't always be a special ed bus. This is a total breakthrough for my program: to know that the kids are capable of riding on the regular ed bus. The sad thing is, it will only happen if the parents push for it.

Well, apparently one of the "typical" (what is typical anyway?) kids on the regular ed bus heard that my little boy was starting on Monday. He told my student's brother that he was, "Going to beat up his dorky brother on the bus on Monday." Brother promptly told the assistant principal and said student is suspended for three days for making threats and bullying. Booyah.

Here's to successful trips on the big bus. Not only do we achieve success daily in the classroom, but now we've moved out to the real world: the big bus. I'll keep you posted.

Random Acts of Kindness, Patience, and Understanding

10-30-09

To Whom it May Concern:

I wanted to express my gratitude for an act of kindness, patience, and understanding that was displayed by one of your employees on Friday, October 30, 2009 at Burger King in [Name of Town]. I teach students with disabilities at [Name of School] in [Name of Town]. We have a very important part of our curriculum in which we participate in “Community Based Instruction.” This instruction includes trips to surrounding community locations to practice functional skills. My students participate in these trips because it gives them an opportunity to practice communication skills, social skills, appropriate community behavior, making purchases, waiting for change, cleaning up their table, and other skills that will last a lifetime.

Due to our special circumstances, we often take “a little longer” than the average customer at Burger King. A [Name of Company] employee was standing behind us in line and watching us as we facilitated the educational experience for our students. When my colleague and I tried to pay for our meal, as we were gathering the kids to sit down, this gentleman offered to pay for our meals. We declined, but he insisted. He said that we were, “Doing a wonderful thing.” He covered our meals and smiled.

It is not often that our class experiences such acceptance and patience from a complete stranger. We were touched by this generous gesture and we felt the need to recognize this small, but meaningful act of kindness.

Respectfully Yours,

Sarah Smith

[Name of School] Autism Program

Do you live here?

If you think about seeing the world through the kids' eyes... it makes sense. They walk into the classroom in the morning, and I am sitting at my desk. They leave in the afternoon, and I am wiping the tables, writing on the board, etc. For all they know, I could live there!

Today one of my boys said, "Mrs. Smith? Do you have a home? This is your home, right? Where do you sleep?" I thought that was pretty cute. It probably seems like I live there.

Haha. Contrary to popular belief, I do not live at middle school.

The Joys of Special Olympics

Tonight was the "Awards Ceremony" for Special Olympics Soccer. I've been actively volunteering with a local Special Olympics group for over a year now. I also did Special Olympics coaching in Texas (Bowling and Track and Field).

Special Olympics is, by far, the most spectacular organization out there. I'm telling you, these kids fall in love with sports. They deserve to participate in sports activities, but have never had the opportunity to! I coached the "Developmental Skills" program for Soccer. Basically, how to put cleats on, how to wear shin guards (and tolerate them), how to kick (ever so lightly), what a "goal" is, chasing after the ball, and basic following directions skills. These are the kids that are brand new to a sport with Special Olympics. I also coached Developmental Basketball Skills last year. That was so fun. I would hold the kids up on my shoulders so they could make a basket. It's not all fun and games - I also coached the junior team (8-12) and we won the Silver Medal in the State Games last year! They come running towards me, shout "Coach Sarah! Guess what?" They are a great group of kids.

People ask me, "You do that after a full day of your job?" Yeah, I do. I love it so much, that yes, I do! I was a little nervous in the beginning, that I had taken on too much. Or that I wouldn't be able to be fully there for the kids because I'd be so exhausted with my grad school work, job, other duties of being a 26 year old. I was wrong! Even on my most tiring days, to walk into the gym and have the kids run up to me, hug me, call me over to watch them shoot, it made it all worthwhile.

Tonight, the parents got flowers for the coaches. After all of the kids got their trophies and medals, the parents stood up to deliver "the coaches awards." They stood up and said great things. One mother said that I, "Have a passion for what I do and the kids know it, and the parents appreciate it." They gave me flowers. They said, "Thank you for all that you do for our kids." It felt so good. Not that I need to be recognized, but in my field, it's not a frequent thing!

As a side note, they presented an award to a little boy tonight. This kid is 13 years old and for his "Bar Mitzvah project" (?) he started up "Unified Sports" in this township's Special Olympics group. He got all of his friends to come and play soccer. It caught on, and more and more kids joined. We had a huge group of "typical" kids playing with our Special Olympics athletes. What a cool kid to take on a project like that and share it with his friends.

If you've never had a chance to check out Special Olympics and all of the wonderful things that happen, please do. Even if you just watch. The smiles will pull you in. There are often "day-events" that you can volunteer for, even if you know nothing about sports (filling out name-tags, being a "runner," to take athletes from one event to the next, scoring, ribbons, awards ceremony, passing out drinks, refilling water bottles, the works!)

I could see myself working for Special Olympics some day. I'd like to look into starting a Unified Sports team (probably basketball) at my school. That would be a great way to bridge the gap between my kiddos and the other kids. Maybe we could achieve success with sports, too!

Make a table.

So, we are in the middle of APA (Alternate Portfolio Assessment). For those of you who don't know, this is the "testing" that is mandated by the state. It's basically a huge waste of time. I think it's admirable that they want to hold teachers accountable for what they teach, but less than admirable to make students with significant cognitive disabilities achieve "grade level standards." I am ALL about exposure, don't get me wrong. However, the amount of time that is required to prepare these activities, as well as the amount of time getting the kids to "memorize" the information is ridiculous. I say "memorize" because in order to "learn" something, you have to acquire the pre-requisite skills. For example, in order to know the factorial of a number, you must know your numbers, as in: identify two when I say, "two." So, as I teach my kids what a factorial is, they are not actually learning the skill, they are memorizing the task (when my teacher hands me the cards, I must put them in this order). I am okay with that, though, because I recognize that this is clearly above their ability level and the furthest away from being a functional skill for them. We have to make a first round of activities that show the kids are "not proficient" and then make more activities by April to show that they've met the proficiency level expected. Yes, the teacher has to create each and every one of the eight activities per student (in my case, 40 activities X 2 entries). Tons of work.

Today's assessment was on "collecting data from a survey and creating a frequency table." Don't worry, if you just had to go google what a frequency table is, I also had to look it up as I was creating the tasks for the kids.

First, they had to ask their friends what their favorite season was. Then, they had to put tally marks next to the season as their friends responded. One kid wrote the seasons in the boxes in the data chart. The other kid made tally marks, but they weren't to the corresponding seasons. Almost!

We are just supposed to let the kids respond without assistance, and mark their score at the end. I kept telling them they were doing a good job, because this was so above their heads.

The next step was to put the "data" that they collected into the frequency table. I read the directions, "Put your numbers into a frequency table." This means they had to write the seasons and put a number as to how many people chose that season as their favorite.

This is what one of my kids did:

I'd say that's an "A" for effort. He made a table. Bless his heart. Take that, State of New Jersey! This is higher level thinking at it's best. The data is "in" the "table."

Nice work, bud.

The only hope is that we are proficient at making a frequency table by April. And I don't mean a table with chairs.

Birthday Club!

How great does it feel when a group of people comes to sing you, "Happy Birthday" on your special day? It's even better when that group is a class of kids with autism, with the greatest smiles, singing at the top of their lungs.

After a few different people getting the opportunity to experience the ASD class belting out Happy Birthday and delivering handmade cards during a grand serenade, I discovered what a great way it was to "get my kids out there." The adults love having kids sing to them. My kids are just a perfect example of pure joy. How can you not smile after something like that?

I decided that I am going to start a Birthday Club. I will have teachers sign up and write what period is their prep period. We will have a master list of staff birthdays (not just teachers!) We will make a huge batch of generic Birthday cards, and on Birthday Club members' birthdays, we'll make a personal delivery with a song.

It's okay that they don't know the real words and only sing matching syllables and sounds to the ever-so-famous "Happy Birthday" tune. It's okay that they shout the song at the top of their lungs, sometimes to the point where other teachers come in the room to make sure everything is okay. It's okay that we're not in the choir. It's okay that I have to say, "Hands up" in the middle of the song to the kid who is putting hands where they don't belong (gross). The fact of the matter is, we're spreading birthday cheer. The kids are getting major social skills out of the experience. They feel good about themselves because it's something they are confident in being able to do. Not only that, but we get to leave the classroom, which doesn't happen very often. People have talked about our birthday songs WEEKS after they've happened. I just want to be sure that we share the joy with everyone.

Pretty soon, people are going to be lining up to be in the Birthday Club. Wouldn't you?

Dinner with Obama? Wow!

We've been practicing the question, "Who is our president?" A few of the kids picked it up after a week or two, but the others just recently started to consistently and correctly answer the question. Our big batch of library books this week are all about Obama. They're from the "juvenile" section rather than the kids section, so they're higher level books. The kids have still enjoyed them and looked through the pictures. One of the books is about Michelle Obama - and I've recently added the question, "Who is our first lady?" to our bag of tricks. The kids picked up on it very quickly! They are now answering both questions correctly!

We have also been focusing on "wh questions" (who, what, when, where). These are very challenging for my guys. It is not unheard of for one of them to respond "pizza" to "who did you see last night?" It is very common for them to only listen to part of the question (such as "last night") and impulsively answer the first thing that comes to their mind (such as, pizza). They are also so used to hearing the same questions over and over, that they start to just spit out answers in hopes that the one they impulsively give me will be the right one.

Today was a perfect example of mixing up questions and answers. Yes, we know our president. Yes, we know that when you answer a "who" question, you have to name a person.

This morning, I asked one of the boys one of our daily wh- questions, "Who did you eat dinner with last night?" He immediately and impulsively shouted, "Ba-racka O-bama." Man, am I proud of them for knowing that Barack Obama is our president. But, I highly doubt that he had dinner with the president. I smiled from ear to ear and bent over, "YOU ate dinner with BARACK OBAMA?" He looked me straight in the eye and giggled, saying, "yep." I replied with, "Boy, are you lucky! Who else was there?"

"Michelle Obama."

Gotta give the kid credit for making up a pretty funny story and all of the pieces fitting together. We all laughed and clapped, "He had dinner with the president and first lady!" Any time a visitor came into our room (which happens fairly frequently), I would tell him, "Tell Mrs. ___ who came to your house for dinner last night!" He would pull out his Barack Obama card from his notebook and point to it while laughing hysterically. The kids got a huge kick out of it and that was the "joke" for the rest of the day.

We might not be eating dinner with President Obama, but we can finally say his name. And now we know his wife's name too. How's that for achieving success?