Good Effort

Yesterday we had a "Student of the Marking Period" assembly. All of the students in sixth grade are invited to this event. Each of the team teachers (Language Arts, Math, etc.) get together and nominate a "Student of the Marking Period" to receive each award. The awards were: "Most Improved," "Good Effort," "Good Citizenship," "Academic Honors" and "Overall Student of the Marking Period."

You bet I nominated my kids for the awards. They were at a little bit of an advantage over the 150 other 6th graders, because in my classroom there was one teacher making nominations for each of the five awards. I have five students. They really did deserve them, though! The other teachers were very nice and let me stand in front of the auditorium with them as they called off their short list of names. I even asked that they intersperse my kids within theirs, so we didn't stand out so much (i.e. The ASD teacher reading off each of the ASD kids in a row).

You'd have thought it was the Academy Awards or something. These little sixth graders were cheering and whistling as each of their friends got called. The principal would call the student's name, the crowd would roar, and the student would slowly make it to the stage to claim their certificate, bumper sticker, and two Rutgers basketball tickets. Then came my first student to be announced. The room was uncomfortably silent. I put my hands together and looked into the crowd, hoping they'd follow... we got some "mini claps" from the nice kids in the back. It didn't really matter to my kids though, they were just stoked to be in the front of a crowd getting an award! The next time a student was called, the crowd got a little louder. There were a few more claps with each name being called. Finally, my one and only non-verbal student was called. She has a 1:1 aide who walked with her to the front of the auditorium to get her award. She did a little donkey kick out of excitement. She looked into the audience (which sounds silly, but this is huge for her to notice that there are other people around her...) - got her award, smiled, and walked back to sit down. She was so very proud. She didn't know why people were clapping for her, but she knew it felt good.

I wrote in all of the kids Communication Notebooks that they had been nominated for "Student of the Marking Period" for various awards. I said that they were recognized in a ceremony in front of the entire sixth grade, they each won two Rutgers basketball tickets, as well as an "Honor Student" Bumper Sticker. They are technically on the Honor Roll because they only receive grades in PE and Art. Haha. But, that's OK!

All of the parents wrote back to me today. They said they were happy their children are doing so well, Thank you for working so hard with them, etc. There was one note that was extra special, however. It read:

"Hi Mrs. Smith,

We were so proud ___ has been named "Honor Student," I will proudly place the sticker on my car. ____ has never been honored before, and my family thanks you for making this possible.

Thank you,

Mrs. _____."

It just so happens that this is my student who came to me at eleven years of age, completely non-verbal, non-communicative, zero pre-academic skills, and in pull-ups. She so deserves this "Student of the Marking Period" award for Good Effort, because that's exactly what she's had. Good effort. It doesn't matter if you can talk, recognize your numbers, read, or even say hello to others by waving or smiling, you can still put in old fashioned good effort.

I am happy to report that with her effort, she truly deserves the title of "ASD Honor Student." She is now completely toilet trained and wears a "bathroom tag" (with a picture of a toilet velcroed to a badge tag). She hands the toilet picture to whoever she is with when she needs to go to the bathroom. She is also climbed the ladder to Phase IV of the Picture Exchange Communication System. She's able to discriminate pictures of various items to request them. She uses the pictures to communicate with us. We've got a long road ahead, but she's able to complete 4-6 piece puzzles, sequence the rings on a ring stacker, imitate actions with and without objects, and is learning more and more receptive instructions each day ("Throw this away," "Stand up," "Sit down," "Touch your mouth," etc.) She is acquiring new skills at an incredible rate. Sometimes, she will come tap our shoulders to get our attention, a skill that we explicitly taught over a period of two months. She even looks at us when we say "hi" to her. Now THAT is achieving success daily.

Bus Update

I've had a few inquiries as to how the regular ed bus is going for my little guy. Let's just say that he blew everyone away. I knew he could do it. This is why I worked hard to get him on the regular bus! The first few days, they sent someone to "shadow" him from the bus to the classroom. They informed me that, for safety reasons, they'd be doing this for at least a month. It only lasted a few days, because he navigated his way so independently. He no longer requires a "shadow" and is able to walk from the bus to the classroom each morning. Alright!

He is now riding the bus in the afternoon as well. He walks out with the group, the aides take the other kids to their special ed buses, and he will find his bus in the bus line. If you've been following this blog from day 1, you know about my color coding in the classroom. I put a yellow circle in the window of the bus and he's able to look down the line of buses and know exactly which one is his!

I couldn't be more proud. I've had several teachers comment, "He rides the regular bus?" and "Does he know where he's going?" Yes, he knows exactly where he's going. And he is so proud of that!

The ASD program is so new to this school. They have a "cookie cutter" thought of how things should look (i.e. ALL ASD KIDS ride the Special Ed bus). We're achieving success daily... by riding the big bus.

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.