Teachable Moments

One of my students, we will call him Trey, came to me after recess to ask me for help. Trey* is a boy who has had a rough road in his eight years of life. Divorced family, physical and verbal abuse, and just plane cruelty. On top of that he has had to stand up for his younger siblings and help to prevent them from being on the receiving end of an angry man, stepping forward to take the blame so his siblings were safe. He had all of his toys broken or disappear while he was at school, returning to emptiness. He became very good at hiding one toy, his dominoes, which he treats as his secret treasure. Trey has learned to be reactive, which has become an automatic response to any situation that is uncomfortable. Needless to say, Trey has become very near and dear to me. He is an amazing little boy who needs someone to love him no matter what he does wrong.

Yesterday in my social skills group, I began a new curriculum- Stop & Think. Up to this point we have spent our time together in this group identifying our level of emotions on a scale of one to five and what each level means. Now, we get to Stop & Think about our levels. Step 1- Stop & Think. Step 2 - Am I going to make a good choice or a bad choice? Step 3 - What are my choices or step? Step 4 - Do it! Step 5- Pat yourself on the back and say GOOD JOB! OK, that may sound like over kill but with kids that struggle with social skills you have to start from the beginning. Anyway, I took a bottle of water and a bottle of coke and as I began talking to the students (Trey is in the group of course) about the steps of Stop and Think I also began to slowly shake the two bottles. As I grew closer and closer to step 5 I was shaking very fast. I asked each and every student which bottle they want to open. Hmmm.... the water bottle really? Nah, I think I will open the coke bottle! I sat the water bottle down and acted as if I was going to open it. You can imagine the looks and gasps of horror and well honestly some were begging me not to open it. So I asked them why I should open the water bottle instead. Oh, because nothing will happen and if I open the coke bottle I will get covered in pop? They were able to connect that stop and think is like the water bottle and that reacting to a situation without stopping to think is like the coke bottle, you can explode!


I say all this because today, Trey asked me for help right? He knew he had gone a little too far at recess. He had called some girls a few names, used words he shouldn't have and he didn't understand why he couldn't just walk away. I was very proud of him for wanting help. I decided that I needed to see for myself what was going on at recess so I went outside at his second (shorter) recess. He decided to play wall ball which he grew tired of because the line was very long. He quickly discovered that four square was moving fast and joined that game. He was doing well until a boy called him out. I knew he wasn't out because I was watching, but I did not intervene; I wanted to see how he would react. He began by trying to explain but the boy just cut him off saying he is out. Trey screamed at the boy, I hate you and then stormed off throwing his hat, kicking his hat, screaming in frustration, and trying not to cry. He put himself in a time out over on the grass. I walked slowly over to him, pulled up a piece of grass next to him and said, well that didn't work out so well did it? We talked about how he was the soda pop and we went through the steps of how he can become the water bottle. He then was able to go apologize to the boy and I asked the boy to please listen to the explanation. Trey told him why he wasn't out and then the game continued with a smile on Trey's face. Now that is what I call a teachable moment. There is no way I could have recreated that in the classroom. Looks like I will get a daily recess now!

**** Side note ****** For those of you wondering, Trey is living in a much better situation. He is happy and healthy. He just has some bad learned behavior. In time he will learn to be a the water bottle!

Secret Word

Two days in a row?!?!?! My 4th grade writing group is large, considering they all should be getting specially designed instruction. Ten students in a resource room group is a pretty good size group- believe it or not! For the second day in a row this group has been on task and excited about writing! Today they spent about 15 minutes of writing their middle paragraph, where they are introducing the conflict of the story. During this 15 minutes I did not have to redirect one student. On a typical day I redirect students as little as 10 times in a 15 minute span but it is usually more like 15 to 20 times. What am I doing differently?

As I sit here reflecting on the success of this group I am drawn towards my Secret Word of the week. Last year, as I was in my Friday morning book study I was reading about how to motivate your students. I took the information in that chapter and morphed it to meet my needs and thus Secret Word of the week was born! Every Monday, I put a series of lines on the top of my white board. Each line represents a place for a letter (much like hangman). I usually choose words that correspond with the week, month, or season. I have even used the challenge spelling word of the week as my secret word. I will start by filling in one letter on Monday. Tuesday brings clue one. Wednesday is another letter or two (depending on the length of the word). Thursday is the second clue and Friday I put up another letter. Students earn a Secret Word card when they are caught doing something good such as extra effort on an assignment or saying something nice to another student. When a student earns a card they get to take a guess at what the word might be. If they do not have a guess they can keep the card and try later. The caveat is that they can't get a new card until they have filled in the one they have. After school on Friday, I draw one pink card (4th grade) and one blue card (3rd grade). If the word is spelled right they get to choose two friends to come have lunch with my assistant and I the following week. And thus the cycle continues to repeat itself.

This school year, I did not start the Secret Word until last week. Looking back, I see a gradual increase of positive behavior and a decrease in the negative behavior. Both yesterday and today every student in this particular writing group earned a Secret Word Card. Could this extrinsic reward system be the reason they are working so hard? I think that is part of part. I would also like to think that part of the credit should be given to my superior behavior management (can you hear the sarcasm?) and the intrinsic reward for each student knowing they have given the writing their best effort! In reality I think it is a little bit of everything but I do know that the Secret Word of the week is here to stay!

Full Steam Ahead

Today ran smoothly. The students are settling into their routines. Each student in my classroom had their own unique schedule. Students are coming and going all day. Some students come to me for only one 30 minute block of time, others come for several different blocks, while others only come a couple time a weeks. I am still working on the intricacies of my schedule a fine tuning the last kinks that are there, but for the most part, things are "full steam ahead."




So far this year I have given 24 individual reading assessments. Each assessment takes as little as 15 minutes but can take upwards of 60 minutes per student. I was also given several new curriculum's and had to conduct assessments in order to place students are their learning level. The beginning of the year is always full of assessments and it feels like it takes way to long to get into the curriculum. My students have been into the reading curriculum (reading mastery) for about 2 weeks and they are excited about completing the lessons. The math curriculum has had several glitches so the earliest I will be able to get into that will be next week. Thank goodness my cupboards are full of learning tools and the lessons choices in my mind are plentiful!

Today was a GREAT teaching day!

Well Oiled Machine

My first group of the day is a writing group with 10 students. On an average day I get through maybe half of what I had planned for the short 30 minute block that I have these students. I constantly find myself redirecting, beginning with non-verbal cues and ending up with many, many, MANY verbal cues. On a good day, I find this group challenging and on a bad day? I find this group close to unmanageable!

Today this group ran like a well oiled machine! It took less than 5 minutes to get through their spelling review which usually takes at least 10 minutes. I gave maybe 2 non-verbal cues to redirect a students attention. We moved on to sharing about the story web they created the previous time we met. After we had finished sharing, I sent two of my students over to my assistant's table so they could catch-up. The two girl (twin sisters) had been absent due to being sick. The remaining students listened and watched as I talked about how to begin their rough draft. Not one redirection happened during this time and the students were able to get started on their beginning paragraph. One student RAISED THEIR HAND (which is unheard of with this group) and asked me a question about what it means to "set the scene". I explained it and gave examples. Another student RAISED THEIR HAND and asked if they could share an idea of what it means to set the scene to help out. Why, yes! Yes, you most certainly can share your idea. And so went the rest of the 30 minutes.

As the students were packing up, I was praising their efforts, hard work, and focus today. This is when my assistant, Phyllis, looks over at me with the all telling look - "Guess who is not here today?" her eyes were asking. Olivia! Can one student have that much of an impact on a small group of students and their learning? I need to continue to work at finding new ways to help Olivia be a part of our group without disrupting the learning of so many other students. I will probably only have Olivia in my class through the end of October but I will continue to help her and provide her with the right tool set for her learning and the learning of others.

Why Not?

And I say, "BLOG GONE IT!" What better day to start my blog?  I was inspired to start a blog because one of my dearest friends invited me to view her blog.  I was so honored! I truly enjoy reading her blog and I got to thinking - Why not? So, here I am completing my first entry. 

Today was a challenging day for me.  One of my students, who has extreme behavior, was having "one of those days" again.  She is a child who I truly like and enjoy having her in my class.  At 9, she has seen some hardships in her life, and just does not have the skill set to manage the behavior on her own.  I feel for her and am doing my best at giving her the tools she needs.  With 25 other students to attend to, I have to make some very critical decisions.  Do I stop teaching my group lesson and address the behavior in that moment, leaving these other students to fend for themselves until I can return my attention to them?  On the other hand, do I ignore the behavior and continue with my group, leaving (we will call her Olivia) Olivia without the tools she needs to learn the right behavior?  Today, Olivia made that choice easy for me.  I had to turn my attention to her.  I feel guilty that the other students do not get the attention they deserve from me.  Is it wrong that I look forward to getting Olivia in the right placement (which means leaving this school) so I am able to focus my energy back on my other students?  As a special education teacher I have learned that often, there are no easy answers! To this I say, "BLOG GONE IT!"