Like I have said in a previous post, working with children with Autism is such a treat. Rosie King talks about how we always try to put people in certain categories and make people "normal." My students are anything but normal in the best way possible! I wouldn't have it any other way.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Friday, October 3, 2014
Just a Little Goes a Long Way
Earlier this week I got an email from my son's teacher. Before I opened it, I was a little worried. I get emails from her all of the time, but it is usually the weekly newsletter or something the whole class needs to know about. This email was different, the subject was just "Grayson", my son's name. Of course my first thought was "what has he done!?" My instant panic sent me through millions of different scenarios in about 2 seconds. Now let me tell you, my son is a very good boy at school and has only had his binder signed twice ever. I am not used to hearing anything about his behavior so I was nervous! I opened the email and realized that I worried for absolutely no reason. Her email was to tell me about how he had read a story that he had written to his class that day and what a great job he did. She went on to tell me that he was such a great writer and that she loved his illustrations. I am not telling you this so I can brag about my awesome kid (which he IS), but to tell you what I learned. When I read this my eyes filled with tears of pride and I got a huge smile on my face. I forwarded the email to his grandparents and bragged to my friends. When I picked him up from school, I told him all about the email from his teacher and he just beamed. It was that day that I learned that little can go a long way. It did not take his teacher very long to sit down and write that to me, but look what an impact it had! He now has more confidence in his writing and drawing skills, he knows his teacher cares, and he knows that when he does something well then it gets noticed. On my side, I appreciate that teacher so much for loving my son and encouraging him. In my job, I have to send emails to parents every day telling them about a problem we've had with their child or something that has happened. I cannot imagine having to be on the receiving end of those emails every day. Parenting a special needs child is tough enough. I have learned that I need to be better about acknowledging the positives and communicating that better. Just because a student has a bad day or a tough week, doesn't mean that they are bad kids. I love all of my student and I know that I am lucky that I get to work with them daily. I need to express that more. It won't take me long at all to sit down and type a quick email or write out a short note. My 5 minutes could make a huge difference to someone else!
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
The "Normal" Kids
When people ask me what I teach and I tell them Special Ed, the first response is always about how I must be so patient. Then it is usually followed up by some compliment about how special I must be to work with the "tough kids." While I appreciate the kindness, I don't feel it is necessary at all. The truth is, I feel SO lucky to get to work with these amazing kids every day. They probably teach ME more than I can ever teach them. I feel so privileged that I get to be the teacher that my sweet little ones rely on. My school has done a wonderful job of integrating special needs students as much as possible into their classrooms and I am really proud of that, but this video reminds me that "normality overlooks the beauty that differences give us." I hope that if I teach my students anything this year, they will always remember "you don't have to be normal, you can be extraordinary!"
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