This week I missed my first of six days I'll be out of school in Monday for professional development stuff. Thursday, the Pre-K teacher and I went to the annual Inclusion Conference for Delaware in Dover. It was very good. I think it was mostly special education teachers, but there were over 600 people there.
We don't formally do inclusion, but I'd say we have lots of students who would likely have a label of some sort in the public schools, and we educate them all in the regular classroom. So in some ways we do inclusion but without any of the supports or training. I was hoping to pick up on some tips for helping these students succeed behaviorally and academically in the regular classroom that we could actually use...so not things that involve a speech therapist or an occupational therapist or anything like that that we don't have.
There was a two hour keynote speaker in the morning (preceded by breakfast foods...score!). She was an advocate for inclusion and a great speaker. I thought she was very inspiring, and I liked how she presented inclusion as a social justice issue. I'm totally a sucker for social justice stuff. But I hadn't thought about it in that light really. And I found myself wondering if I had a child with severe autism or Down syndrome or who had a physical disability, how would I want them to be educated? It was definitely a flashback to college hearing terms like LRE and IEP, which was fun and made me feel kind of smart. Also, the speaker talked about having high (limitless) expectations, which we often think we do but maybe don't really. She talked about the movie The Miracle Worker and Annie Sullivan and how she was an amazing teacher not because of her training or special skills but because she never gave up. And that's a lesson I can apply during this last month of school.
After the keynote speaker, I went to a four hour workshop about helping students with challenging behavior succeed in the classroom. It was good. I think there's always a hope (for me at least, and I have talked to some other teachers who share this sentiment) that someday a classroom management workshop is actually going to tell you exactly what to do in every situation to effectively manage your classroom. That, of course, is impossible. Instead, you usually get general "try to say more positive things than negative" or "be consistent." This workshop was kind of like that with the added bonus of some really good stories of students with really challenging behaviors and baffled teachers. The presenter told a story about his first year of teaching at an inner city school that was right next to a train yard. One day one of his 4th graders flipped a desk, ran out the door, jumped a fence, and climbed on top of a departing train and rode away. Yikes. At least that hasn't happened to me! And he told a story about a teacher who completely lost it when a student talked back and walked away. She jumped on his back and bit him in the neck. So I guess when I lose my cool and yell or cry or use sarcasm, it could definitely be worse.
One thing I didn't like was that the speaker suggested using a token economy to manage the classroom. If a kid raises his hand, he gets 5 points. If he turns in his homework, he gets 20 points. If he talks out, he loses 5 points. If he hits someone, he loses 25 points. Then he can cash in his points for extra recess or a morning break or lunch with the teacher. This sort of thing never sits well with me. In my idealism, I want to believe that you don't have to do this to make children behave. In fact, you are actually doing kids a disservice by doing this because you are teaching them to listen and respect others so they can get extra recess, not because it's the right thing to do. But then again, he was suggesting this for use with students with ADD or learning disabilities or emotional disturbance, and I have a handful of students like that in my class. They need structure and sometimes some extra external motivation. So maybe they really do need something like that. Sigh. I don't know. I'll think about it later.
I need to go fold laundry, so I'll just mention this quickly and write more about it later: it sounds like my class was HORRIBLE for their substitute on Thursday, and I know it was not her fault. I was soooooo mad when I got her note Friday morning. She wrote that the students kept saying, "We never act like this for Miss Seefeldt." And let's be honest: they aren't exactly little well-behaved angels for me. So I'm sure it was really bad. Kids. Why do they do that? I really tried to prep them for me being away too. Hopefully when I'm out for two days this week, things will go much, much better.
We don't formally do inclusion, but I'd say we have lots of students who would likely have a label of some sort in the public schools, and we educate them all in the regular classroom. So in some ways we do inclusion but without any of the supports or training. I was hoping to pick up on some tips for helping these students succeed behaviorally and academically in the regular classroom that we could actually use...so not things that involve a speech therapist or an occupational therapist or anything like that that we don't have.
There was a two hour keynote speaker in the morning (preceded by breakfast foods...score!). She was an advocate for inclusion and a great speaker. I thought she was very inspiring, and I liked how she presented inclusion as a social justice issue. I'm totally a sucker for social justice stuff. But I hadn't thought about it in that light really. And I found myself wondering if I had a child with severe autism or Down syndrome or who had a physical disability, how would I want them to be educated? It was definitely a flashback to college hearing terms like LRE and IEP, which was fun and made me feel kind of smart. Also, the speaker talked about having high (limitless) expectations, which we often think we do but maybe don't really. She talked about the movie The Miracle Worker and Annie Sullivan and how she was an amazing teacher not because of her training or special skills but because she never gave up. And that's a lesson I can apply during this last month of school.
After the keynote speaker, I went to a four hour workshop about helping students with challenging behavior succeed in the classroom. It was good. I think there's always a hope (for me at least, and I have talked to some other teachers who share this sentiment) that someday a classroom management workshop is actually going to tell you exactly what to do in every situation to effectively manage your classroom. That, of course, is impossible. Instead, you usually get general "try to say more positive things than negative" or "be consistent." This workshop was kind of like that with the added bonus of some really good stories of students with really challenging behaviors and baffled teachers. The presenter told a story about his first year of teaching at an inner city school that was right next to a train yard. One day one of his 4th graders flipped a desk, ran out the door, jumped a fence, and climbed on top of a departing train and rode away. Yikes. At least that hasn't happened to me! And he told a story about a teacher who completely lost it when a student talked back and walked away. She jumped on his back and bit him in the neck. So I guess when I lose my cool and yell or cry or use sarcasm, it could definitely be worse.
One thing I didn't like was that the speaker suggested using a token economy to manage the classroom. If a kid raises his hand, he gets 5 points. If he turns in his homework, he gets 20 points. If he talks out, he loses 5 points. If he hits someone, he loses 25 points. Then he can cash in his points for extra recess or a morning break or lunch with the teacher. This sort of thing never sits well with me. In my idealism, I want to believe that you don't have to do this to make children behave. In fact, you are actually doing kids a disservice by doing this because you are teaching them to listen and respect others so they can get extra recess, not because it's the right thing to do. But then again, he was suggesting this for use with students with ADD or learning disabilities or emotional disturbance, and I have a handful of students like that in my class. They need structure and sometimes some extra external motivation. So maybe they really do need something like that. Sigh. I don't know. I'll think about it later.
I need to go fold laundry, so I'll just mention this quickly and write more about it later: it sounds like my class was HORRIBLE for their substitute on Thursday, and I know it was not her fault. I was soooooo mad when I got her note Friday morning. She wrote that the students kept saying, "We never act like this for Miss Seefeldt." And let's be honest: they aren't exactly little well-behaved angels for me. So I'm sure it was really bad. Kids. Why do they do that? I really tried to prep them for me being away too. Hopefully when I'm out for two days this week, things will go much, much better.
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