Back in the Classroom Again

I'm Back in the Classroom, Again!

Can't help by hear that to a country melody - you know, "back in the saddle again...." and classroom even has the same number of syllable :).

Anyway, people are a complex mixture of neurons and characteristics. I have been serving at LMA as Executive Director for the past three years which took me out of the classroom pretty much and in The Admin seat. I love our school, I love what I do; I also love my family and though I don't love it, have to take care of myself. That darn fibro and awesome kids - nah, I don't really need to take over the world anyway! Why am I seeming to babble? Because I'm back - in the classroom that is. Our school and program has grown and I could take on no more. I am happily handing over the reins to a new energy. Happily, because I still get to stay on board with some of the admin stuff and being back in with the kids which means more time for my own at home too. I filled a need at the right time and the next right time is now. I'm excited for what that will bring, knowing that transition can never be all roses and rainbows, but through appropriate challenges comes learning and I LOVE learning.

That said - that's why I've been away for quite a while. My classroom duties now are Math Labs primarily which are small group remediation, skill support, concept development and/or enrichment. Naturally, I have my students thinking about their work and their learning and we are sharing some of that (to give them an authentic and valid venue). Check our Blog: The Math Laboratory :)

Random Educations Questions for the Week

How can you determine the difference between sensory regulation and laziness in older kids?
When do you give up on a kid?
How can we appropriately support and refresh teachers who give their all every day?
When do you balance the needs of the child with the curriculum dictates?
What is the balance between neurodevelopment, social development, memory development and curriculum?
Which is truly the goal of a good education: learning to learn or learning specific content?
How do you measure learning to learn?

Teaching Kids Rather Than Grades: Is that Possible?

Found some interesting commentary and link on a fellow blogger's site, regarding teaching to the development of the learner rather than grade placement based on age.

The End of Grade Levels
I believe there are solid pluses to this idea, which are some of the same reasons multi-age classes can be powerfully successful: less stigmatism for meeting, or not, some benchmark that has been placed on that grade level; the opportunity for students to learn more from each other; and teach kids to learn and truly work with others rather than segregate based on age. A discussion I started to have frequently this spring with some of our students was that only during your school years will you be surrounded by people your own age. In the workplace, or even college, you will have folks of all ages in your classes or environment and it is better to learn how to deal with both the positive and negatives of that, than it would be for me to not schedule freshmen in the juniors' classes when needed.

And, as with anything, there are certainly some negatives to prepare for: the stigma of not "keeping up" with peers will remain depending on how actual groupings are created; the the application of the concept so that slower learners are challenged and don't end up floating through an even bigger black hole of education.

Done correctly, we can instill a solid love of learning and build self-esteem which only benefits everyone. Many private LD schools have achieved this for quite some time. The challenge is how to set the expectations, implement them AND have people feel comfortable trusting that system.

Change is challenge and excitement all rolled together!!!

Inquiry, Inquiry, Inquiry

I read a Teacher Leaders Network article at TeacherMagazine and I was not only laughing when I was done (the author has a very enjoyable style) but inspired. This teacher is writing to new teachers, but uses some very clear examples for simple strategies for being successful in teaching. It's not really curriculum focused, but there is more to surviving than curriculum like finding supplies, physical environment, attitude and incorporating life skills. To read more, check out Teaching Secrets: Thriving in the Science Classroom by Anne Jolly

"Going with the Flow"

(photo taken by Will, 8th grade, 2008)

Our teachers report for in-service tomorrow and a friend sent me a book excerpt that I am going to use to focus our direction for this school year. I went to Flickr and set as A Fave a bunch of pictures that illustrated this passage and then made a slideshow at bighugelabs. I thought I'd post the passage and the slideshow here an an example of how I'm using things I've learned in this class. The passage is kind of long, but I liked how it reminds us that we have to balance the destination with the experience.

I am not sure that I cited the author of the pictures well enough, but live and learn I suppose......

Slide Show

From The Not So Big Life by Sarah Susanka

Going With the Flow

“Think of leaves on the surface of a stream. They’re floating along, carried by the current. Some drift from one side to the other as the stream flows along, whereas others appear to be floating more or less down the central channel. If you follow one particular leaf with your eyes, however, you’ll discover that a leaf that’s moving fast at one minute will be aimlessly sidelined a few minutes later, and a leaf that is slow moving at this minute will become speedy the next. Every leaf has its natural passage downstream, but if you were to try to write a script for each leaf and coordinate it with the scripts for all the other leaves, you would have a monumental task on your hands. If, in addition, you thought you were responsible for getting each leaf to its proper destination and if you believed that your not doing so would result in all the leaves bumping into one another and blocking their collective progress downstream, you’d be thinking like a typical micromanager, a ‘time obsesser”. If, on the other hand, you believed that no leaf should be forced to flow if it didn’t want to and that it was up to you to hold back the flow so that each leaf could exercise its free will, you’d be thinking like a “time resister”.

Neither approach is tenable. The river and the leaves will move and flow just the same, and all you’d be doing by obsessing or resisting would be burning yourself out.

At my Minneapolis architectural firm, we developed a personnel and project-management system that was based more on the dynamics of an unrestricted leaf flow than on time management. Although we were often met with raised eyebrows from colleagues in other companies when we described the system, it worked beautifully and continues to do so to this day. In most firms, the task of scheduling personnel typically falls on a single individual – usually one of the partners. With larger projects, where a number of people work on a single assignment for months at a time, this works well, but for a firm like ours, with many projects with unpredictable ebbs and flows, the normal management model for architectural firms was highly inefficient. So ours was a system invented out of necessity.

As the staff grew from two to five to ten and up to around forty-five by 1999, when I left, it became clear that if all of us – principals included – wanted to continue to engage in the activity we love most, designing, we’d have to develop a system that allowed for individuals to communicate easily and regularly with one another about their workloads, personnel needs, and time commitments. Trying to track and orchestrate personnel requirements for all the projects we had going at any one time would have been more than a full-time job, and not one that any of us would have relished.

By the time we were about ten people strong, the typical approach to scheduling wasn’t working well, so we decided to implement a weekly lunch meeting for all employees, at which we would share our current work needs and obligations. They beauty of the system was that it allowed all of us to identify our needs from our particular perspective and permitted the firm as a whole to responds. So a draftsman was able to let all of us know that in two weeks he’s be available to work on a new project because his current work was coming to an end. A project architect was able to indicate that she needed an architecture student with good model-making and drawing skills to help with two remodeling projects. Another project architect could let us know that one of his biggest projects had been put on hold that he needed more work ASAP.

As each person spoke, others around the table could indicate their availability or their ability to provide work for someone else. And without any apparent effort, matters always seemed to work out. The meetings allowed us to see into the near future without making complex charts, and they kept us from attempting to fix and make concrete a flow that was constantly moving and changing…..

What most of us don’t fully understand but this system acknowledges, more or less by accident, is that when things are allowed to flow, they get resolved. They resolve themselves in the moment and not through planning or trying to take control of the process. When leaves are allowed to move freely, as our workload lunch meetings proved time after time, they find their way downstream almost effortlessly. In so doing, for purposes of this metaphor, , they are perfectly present in their activity of floating. They are doing what’s in front of them to do – moving with the current – and in the process, as a by-product of their engagement, they’re moving downstream. The objective of each leaf is not movement downstream, but engagement with the current, which results in the experience of floating.

It’s when we try to make a script to follow exactly or when we ignore the passage of time entirely that we get into trouble, just as the leaves would if they tried to get to the right place at the right moment or if they struggled to stay put rather than where the current was taking them. We assume that what’ important is the movement downstream – the destination – when in fact it’s the involvement with ourselves and with one another in each new moment that really matter, that bring satisfaction and meaning into our lives. And that involvement, of course, is the journey – the process of engaging fully in every experience that comes your way. . . .

It’s not that preplanning is either good or bad, but you have to use discernment to determine what requires some planning and what can be allowed to unfold. For the time-obsessed, it’s the contrivance of preplanning every interaction, the “efforting” involved in the implementation of that plan, and the lack of unscripted time in which to do what really needs to be done in the moment that cause problems. For the time-resistant, it’s the determination to stay free of time’s limiting characteristics, the absence of any planning whatsoever, and the resulting lack of awareness of what really needs to be done in the moment that cause frustration. Either approach keeps you out of the natural flow, separated from the knowledge that everything is moving exactly as it needs to; in truth, there’s not a leaf out of place”.

Sensory Integration and a Tube of Toothpaste

I have been fortunate to work with a few little guys this summer who I am sure have some pretty severe sensory integration issues and this morning a wonderful comparison popped into my mind (does anyone out there have a white board that could work to catch the amazing thoughts that come to me in the shower?). Anyway, I was musing on how frustrating it is to know that they have not been diagnosed and know that some of their behaviors could be addressed with therapies at the same time I was reminding myself that many people, including school personnel, do not understand sensory integration very well. It is still a newer concept outside of the autistic world, but one that can have significant advantages for many of our ADHD, ODD or OCD children without the full autism spectrum challenges. I find myself often explaining children to teachers and parents right now using sensory references, so here's my new one:

A child with sensory issues can be like a tube of toothpaste. After a few squeezes (stimulus), the tube is no longer even. Sometimes, it fills up at the top, sometimes it fills at the bottom and sometimes there's just a gap in the middle. To get some toothpaste out, you often have to smooth it back out in some fashion, and you certainly have to take the cap off when there's too much pressure. However, squeeze too hard and everything explodes! Even the folks who roll up their tube at the bottom have to adjust it every day to maintain their acceptable amount of pressure in the toothpaste tube.

That tube of toothpaste now reminds me of many of my students. They need to be stimulated appropriately, or squeezed sometimes, but not too hard or too soft. And when the pressure is on from any stimulus, things might blow and they will not stop blowing on their own in these kids. The tube needs to be rebalanced.

I expect that I will now be taking extra tubes of toothpaste with me to presentations from now on :).

Kids Have Energy, We Need to Help Them Use It Well

Kids are full of life. Sometimes it spills out of them in a whirlwind of activity. Incredibly, the simplest sensory integration tool can be the most effective vehicle to harness and direct their energy.

I love how they phrase this! Some of the simplest tools I've used are:

Balance and Movement

A "wiggle seat", which Viking calls a Seat Cushion. They can be used to build core balance and strength but they also allow any stationary seat to be a little more movable. Students sit on them, put them on the floor and balance their feet on them, and a few occasionally push their heads into them for 10 seconds or so to "reset" themselves. These seats are portable and can be taken from room to room which is a huge plus. At home,we have used one at the dinner table, we have put in in the booster seat for long trips, we have taken it to church to use on the pews, to softball games for on the bleachers and have even used one as an "extra" seat on the floor.

Balance boards also work wonders. I found one at an Odd Lots store and it is the most demanded tool I have at school, with all ages! Some use it under their feet while they are sitting, some stand on it for short bursts and I have one that stands on it to read and another stands on when she has a longer writing assignment.

Massage/Tactile Options
I picked up some small massage knobs (for lack of a better term) at a local Dollar Store. One version looked like a small brush and one had more knobby bristles. These are great for a quick pick me up once a class or so and one boy likes to keep one in reach and rub it on his leg periodically which helps reset his attention.

Another teacher found some inexpensive massage tools like this that vibrate and the elementary students use these at times. Viking Fitness also has vibrating pillows available and there are many other options online I'm sure.

At home, we have a pad that goes on the couch and we can set it to heat (for my fibro days this is great) and can set it to vibrate also, which works well in short bursts once a day for my daughter. If she is getting out of sorts or we know we'll be going somewhere that will overload her senses, she parks on the vibrating cushion for 5-10 minutes - fun and effective!

Fidget Tools and Fine Motor

We bought one of these for my daughter and I love it - so does she. It's portable and soothing and all one piece. You can take it apart I think, but that is not the goal which can help it be less distracting.

Other options I've used in the classroom include stones (from a planter that broke), fabric swatches, placing small strips of velcro and some smooth fabric on notebook covers, we use TheraPutty and squishy balls, I've also used hand grippers from the Dollar Store or twisty stick. I know these have a different name, but they are from the craft section of some store and don't have pointy ends like pipe cleaners or bent paper clips.

Some Sources for Sensory Tools
Our best resource is our OT at school. She is full of ideas and is great at finding cost affordable options. Her favorite easy recommendation is a water bottle. Sucking is one of the most soothing actions for the nervous system apparently and water is great.

Be sure to browse your local Dollar Store, Target or Odd Lots. Thing tactile and think management. Lots of pieces will be found all over!

I have found that when looking for ideas or materials on the internet, I can find some things by searching with sensory integration, but I find more at occupational therapy sites. Most of them even have separate sections just for sensory tools.

Some places I like on the web:
* Viking Fitness, Grand Rapids, MI and on the web
* Dream Catcher Weighted Blankets (these are a little pricey for classroom use, but a great resource to recommend to parents)
* Therapro - discount occupational therapy supplies.

Perception and Reality

Out of Mouths of Babes

Okay, maybe not babes, but middle school children anyway. This week, one of our parents subbed for a sick teacher and at lunch she told me she had an Out of the Mouths of Babes story she just had to share. She was right - she had to share it and so do I. Perception can be a funny, funny thing - and can come from who-knows-where!

As she was getting ready that morning, she was looking for something to wear and was debating about wearing a skirt. She apparently had this debate out-loud as when she added the "because I might have to shave my legs" her son, who is in my middle school class, told her to "Just do what Mrs. Barto does".

At this point I was more than intrigued, because I was quite positive that I have never talked about shaved or unshaven legs of mine or otherwise in either history or English class, to which he explained: "Just wear tall boots. Tall, leather boots like Mrs. Barto does".

Well, status of my legs withstanding, I was fascinated by his take on my fashion choices. Reality and comprehension are based on perception, and (apparently) perception can come from lots of different thought patterns! Out of the Mouths of Babes indeed......

Resources for Sensory Integration

I was creating a resource tonight for our parents at school on sensory integration resources and decided to post them here as well. I haven't read all of the books, but I have found everything else to be helpful with my daughter and my students. I was at a meeting a few weeks ago with an OT coordinator that specializes in sensory issues who was amazing! One of the parts that I found most fascinating was the distinction between the kids who are tactile-needy and those who are tactile-defensive. I am looking for my notes presently and when I find them, they will be next up on the blog queue!

On the Web

* From Lindsey Biel, OTR/L and Nancy Peske (Raising a Sensory Smart Child)
o Sensory Diet Activities for Home and Away
o Tips for Helping Your Child with Sensory Problems
o Toys, Equipment and Gifts for Kids with Sensory Issues
o Seasonal Tips for Cabin Fever



Books
This is a list of books that I'd formed so far, but rather than take the time to link them all again, here is the link to one of the pages I created originally. Literacy of Teaching has links to all of these. Enjoy!

* The Out of Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder by Kranowitz
* The Out of Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder by Kranowitz
* Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder by Miller & Fuller
* The Sensory-Sensitive Child: Practical Solutions for Out Of Bounds Behavior by K. Smith
* Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight: What to do if you are Sensory Defensive in an Overstimulating World by Heller
* Sensory Smarts: A Book for Kids With ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorders Struggling with Sensory Integration Problems by Chara, Chara, Chara and Berns
* Helping Hyperactive Kids - A Sensory Integration Approach: Techniques and Tips for Parents and Professionals by Horowitz
o Many of the activities in this book and the illustrations are geared toward small children, but the information is applicable to older ages as well!
* Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Integration Issues by Biel and Peske
* the highly sensitive child: Helping Our Children Thrive When the World Overwhelms Them by Aron
* Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent and Energetic by Kurcinka


Some of our Favorite Products


* Weighted Blankets
My daughter and I found a lap-size blanket at Viking Fitness that is surface washable, but it is also microwavable! We warm it up before bed and lay it over her as she's been tucked in to help her calm her body enough to go to sleep. Love it! (P.S. This picture is from Viking's website, it's not my daughter)


* Theraputty
o A good fidget for stretching, pulling or rubbing (tactile stimulation).

* Water Bottles
Our OT told us that sucking is one of the most balancing activities our students can do throughout the day. This works with hard candy, but water is also a powerful restorative, so we ask them all to bring water bottles.

The Power of Words

I found an old notebook I used to collect quotes in and thought I'd just post some of those (and some newer ones) today. I tried to give credit to those who originally penned these words and apologize if I missed crediting anyone who lent me the power of their words!

"Our greatest national resource is the minds of our children."
— Walt Disney

"Throughout history the exemplary teacher has never been just an instructor in a subject; he is nearly always its living advertisement."
— Michael Dirda

". . the humanities encourage the development of our own humanity. They are our instruments of self-exploration."
— Michael Dirda

". . if you are given lined paper, write crosswise. At least occassionally."
— Michael Dirda

". . . there's no use trying to live in other people's opinions. The only thing to do is live in your own."
— Emily in Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery

"Remember that "Help us grow this grass" is a far more effective sign than "Keep off the grass"."
— Norman Vincent Peale

"Children need models more than they need critics."
- Joseph Joubert

Faces by Jess Moss in The Other Side of the Door
There are millions of kids in the world,
all with two eyes, one nose and a mouth
And of those millions of faces, no two are exactly alike.
You'd think that by now there'd be no way left to put together
eyes and noses and mouths to make faces that
are different from any other face
But that's what's amazing is that there will keep on being
millions and millions of different ways forever
And no two faces will ever be exactly the same.

There are millions and millions of kids in the world - each with one brain. No two are exactly alike and no two ever will be....... (this part was all me :)).

Helping Kids Learn to Be Thinkers and Learners......

Two thoughts, okay at least two thoughts today following my wandering around the web (never seem to be able to get off my PC in just 10 minutes anymore!). I stumbled across some thought provoking and interesting posts by two people I don't know, Will and Dave; one was actually in response to the other guy's postings. So, before I start saying that guy too much, here's what they were:
1st one: "Will's post"
2nd one: "David's post"
Of course, I found them interesting because I tended to agree with them on a lot of things and have added them to my favorites now. But, they reminded me of what I was going to blog about Monday, which was learning and thinking. Teaching kids to be active leaners and thinkers. I frequently try to remind the teachers (the other 4 in my school) to remember to celebrate what we do do and that teaching life-long thinking is more valuable than whether or not Jimmy is listening to you today or making the right decisions, if he is learning how to, that is more important. Doesn't really make our day easier, but it could make his life easier somewhere down the road!

And, on a smaller note (more tangible I suppose), some of the other things are teaching our students problem solving. Remembering that math is more than calcuation and drills, even when you are working with remediation or reteaching. How is tons more of what is tough going to make things better in the long run, especially in this day of calculators and computers, I mean come on. You can learn to think mathematically and strategically without being subjected to the prison of constant drills. Also, I think I've mentioned it before, but my class started a wikispace this year and I'm easing my fellow teachers into it, slowly but surely. This is not because they are opposed or anti-technology. It's usually because they are already very busy with the amazing amount of work we already put into our jobs and/or they are still buffering the uses and how it works...it can be overwhelming.

So, in line with those two thoughts, I had found two great articles from Edutopia to share. Now, I have to admit, when I first signed on to receive this e-newsletter I was a little skeptical. It seems that Hollywood entering the world of education is becoming a very "in" thing to do and, truthfully, there are a lot of "non-education" folk already messing with education; but I wanted to check it out. I have found it to be great and very applicable to even my setting. I am inspired by many things I read in their newsletters, and while some are more ideal than practical I think they are good challenges for all educators. Once our thoughts become static, we are no longer learning and to be a good teacher - okay, an awesome and inspiring one - we still need to remember how to learn!

Okay, back to the point. The first was exciting, and honestly, a pat on the back for me. I am not only letting my students "play" with technology and "play" on the internet, I am truly teaching them skills for life-long learning: Wiki Don't Lose That Number by Chris O'Neal. Thanks to Chris and to Edutopia for the continued encouragement, inspiration and validation! Also, just an aside, it was in response to some other Edutopia article that I'll have to go find one of these days that I started my wiki and blog spree....

Second point for today (finally, whew!): math is more than calculation! Math is problem solving, math is talking about problems and solving puzzles, it is critical thinking and discovering relationships... and I'm not the only one who thinks so and is improving students' learning by being committed to this notion: Math is Magic. Go Fullerton IV Elementary School!!!

I realize that this was a lot of chat for two points and I'm sure I exceeded my predicted amount of two . . . and ....... I'm sure I can say that it will probably happen again.... night all!

Scaffolding and Making Meaning in Education

I completed a practicum this semester to finally earn the state endorsement on my certificate for learning disabilities and one of the hottest topics out there is scaffolding - providing those supports students need to access curriculum/expectations and/or acquire certain skills. This week I needed to write about scaffolding and had some thoughts:

One of the biggest challenges in providing appropriate scaffolds in a classroom of diverse learner is when they all need different scaffolds. What is a scaffold for one might be a hindrance for another… this is one of the concepts that I am most asked about when discussions revolve around student-centered instruction, accommodations, remediation, IEPs and or behavior management. It’s also a common theme among discussions I have with students.

Many students with learning disabilities have some difficulty thinking outside of themselves. By this I mean that most students I have worked with may know that all students learn differently - especially if they are at LMA because they must have learned differently for their parents to look for something different – and often they can explain why people learn differently, but many of these same students are the first to notice when students are treated differently. They look for order and often order means the same. . . . especially if someone else is getting something “good”.

I find that scaffolding for this understanding of how to be different and when and why that is okay is one of the hardest concepts to scaffold, for both students and adults. What is fair? Rick Lavoie says that “fair does not mean equal”. This is true; so how do we balance using a scaffold so our students can perform or learn along a continuum that will compare them against others at some point and scaffolding understanding of individual differences? I do believe that giving notes from a lecture to a student with auditory processing issues or output (writing) issues is important and an appropriate scaffold, but then how do they learn the skill of taking in information independently? How do they learn what to do with those notes? Scaffolds only assist students in making meaning when they are able to use them; when the result is something the student can use – not just a band-aid. Yes, giving a student notes can be like a band-aid. The teacher has provided supports. The teacher has followed the IEP. The IEP included good supports. The student is using an accommodation that is appropriate to his/her needs and may be making his/her best effort to do so; and still this child can look lazy, unappreciative and may not achieve the intended goal.

I do not think this is the case all the time, but with curricula getting more and more packed with content objectives – again I seem to cycle back to the MMC and state guidelines – when is there time in a school day to scaffold a student into being able to independently use an appropriate scaffold so that he can in turn grow to a point where he does not need that scaffold to be independent anymore (whew!)? Guidelines and standards are important to measure that education is providing appropriate skills and content knowledge to support the development and support of growing societies, but how is a society that was established on the principles of personal freedoms and rights of individuals so dependent on an education system that seems to forget the individual? How do we make meaning of that?….. Who scaffolds the system?