W stands for:
Wonderfully
X stands for:
Exciting
Y stands for:
Year
Z stands for:
Zip A Dee Doo Da
Every year is different and our
kids grow and develop and our
year is almost over. The kids will
have the summer to do more
growing and maturing, and when
the school year begins again in
August we will have new kids plus
our "old kids", they will be older,
wiser and off we will go.
Time marches on.
***Due to continued clean up for
a minor flood in our basement,
I am finishing the challenge early.
Saturday is technically the last day.
I hope you have enjoyed my posts
for this challenge. We will resume
regular programming next week.
~Keep on Dreaming~
V is Village.
We have heard the phrase
"It takes a village" many
times. "A belief that it takes
an entire community to raise
a child. A child has the best
ability to become a healthy
adult if the entire community
takes an active role in contrib-
uting to the rearing of the child."
~~~ Hillary Clinton
At school "it takes a village
to educate our kids." We
welcome the chance to work
with our kids, see their goals
met, watch them meet their
milestones, celebrate with
them, comfort them and
learn from them.
Thanks Karen (Over The
Backyard Fence) for jogging
my memory on this.
~Keep on Dreaming~
U stands for:
Ugly
Unable
Underdog
Understand
Unfortunate
Unhappy
Unique
Unite
Unknown
Unusual
Upset
Us
These are words that could describe
our kids at a variety of times. They
are used by adults and children who
do not know our kids use to describe
them.
They are very judgmental, hurtful
and unnecessary in my opinion.
We spend time "educating" the
kid's peers about our kids, so they
can get to know each other better.
So our kids are:
Beautiful
Able
Winners
Fortunate
Happy
Very Unique
We UNITE for our kids
Well known
Remarkable
We work very hard to lessen
the upsets
Us, we, community, group, class
~Keep on Dreaming~
T is for Teacher.
A person who teaches or instructs,
usually in a school setting. BUT
there are many others in our
children's lives who "teach."
So, at school we have :
Lead teachers--
Those responsible for all the fun
stuff that goes along with being
the lead.
Paras--
Those that work as closely with
the students as the teachers, they
also assist in the classroom with
data collection, recess duty, rest-
room assistance and much more.
In our district, they are assigned
to the Special Ed dept.
Aides--
They are usually in the general ed
rooms assisting with the class
activities, covering a class while
the teacher is in a meeting and
sometimes they get cafeteria duty
too.
Speech, OT, PT, Music and Vision
therapists--
These people are more specialized
and focus on a specific need a
student may have.
Art. Library, Music and PE--
They are another group of specialized
group of teachers.
Classroom volunteers--
Under the guidance of the classroom
staff they assist where needed.
First and foremost are Parents--
Our children's first teacher.
Children don't come with handbooks
so we all do the best we can to provide
for our kids.
Oh, let's not forget our
Grandparents--
They are some of THE BEST teachers
we could have.
If you know another "TEACHER, "
thank them.
~Keep on Dreaming~
S is for Special.
I work in the field of Education
that is labeled "Special Education."
My student's ARE special NOT because
their abilities are different from most
but because they teach us something
different about them daily.
They reach goals/milestones.
They grasp a concept that you think
they'll never get.
A sound, word or phrase is spoken
after many days of work between you
and the student.
One day they realize that there ARE
other people around them AND
interactions begin to occur.
So you see WE ARE special for
many reasons.
~Keep on Dreaming~
R---Real
E---Expected
S---Share
P---Patient
E---Extraordinary
C---Care
T---Teach
~Keep on Dreaming~
Q is for Quick!
In my day to day world of working
with my young friends I have found
the need to be quick.
When looking up this word, I found
two interesting definitions.
1. Moving fast or doing something in
a short time.
2. (Of a person) prompt to under-
stand, think or learn; intelligent.
Now when I hear the word quick I
think of moving fast.
We are quick footed--Sometimes
we have to move fast to catch a
runner or the child who has a
different place in mind than the
classroom.
Quick minded--Plans change,
staff are sick children are absent.
Plan B is always an option
and sometimes C and D may be
used.
Quick witted--This is a hard job
and we have a tendency to be more
serious and forget to laugh and have
fun. Laughter is the best medicine
especially on a bad day.
We have quick reflexes--We never
know how the day will go until the
kids come in and usually we can tell
who might have a rough day so keeping
close watch to make sure things stay
where they belong and not flying
through the air is a must.
Also sometimes hands and feet are not
always used appropriately so we watch
for those too.
Never a dull moment in our room.
~Keep on Dreaming~
P is for Peers.
I have touched on this in a previous
post but I feel very strongly about
peer interaction. There are so many
benefits to having peers in the room
or visit during the day.
For our students being with their
peers provides them with a way to
observe the world around them.
When one of my student's goes to
his Kindergarten class for two hours
in the morning he follows their rules
and expectations.
Whatever they are doing, he is doing.
It may be in a different way but he is
going along. If it is a game, someone
may need to help him but he is play-
ing the game. When he goes to PE,
Art, Music or Library he is expected
to follow the rules in those classes.
For those students who come to our
class to help, they learn about our
kids, their likes and dislikes, how
best to work with our kids, how to
react if someone has a meltdown
etc. They learn that our kids are
cool. They learn that there is more
to our kids than they thought.
Friendships are developed and our
kids come to expect their new friends
daily.
So fun to see.
~Keep on Dreaming~
***Note published a day early
scroll down for "O."
O is for Openness.
When one works in the Special
Ed field one MUST be open to
ANYTHING! Because it is not
for the faint of heart. :)
But there is so much to get out
of working with this population
and I have touched on those in
the several previous posts.
"A wonderful gift may not be
wrapped as you expect". ~~~
Johnathan Lockwood Hule
"The soul is healed by being
with children." ~~~ Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
"Life provides chances to
open your heart all the time."
~~~ Amy Leigh Mercree
~Keep on Dreaming~
N is for Noise.
In the world of a child with special
needs noise is a "NO, NO!!"
LOUD noise in particular (made
by someone or something else.)
They can make as much noise as
THEY want an it does not appear
to bother them BUT if someone
else a noise they usually look like
the child in the photo above.
A good majority of our kids are
noise sensitive. You are thinking,
well most people don't like loud
noises either but you have to
understand that we know how
to cope with the everyday
intrusions in life and they
don't. Another skill for us to
teach among many.
Some of the things we do
at school to keep noise to
a minimum.
*Quiet conversations
*Music or video sound
low to medium
*Headphones help a lot
to block out white noise
around them. Helps them
focus better.
*Whisper or lower voice
when speaking.
If you have someone in your
life who is sensitive to noise
try one of the above. Hope-
fully it will help.
~Keep on Dreaming~
M is for Milestone.
A milestone is an action or event
that marks a particular eventor
change in development.
Remember when your children
were growing and getting bigger?
You had milestones that you looked
forward to--right?
The parent's of our student's have
milestone's they want their kids to
achieve too. They just come a
little later in the game for some.
Here are some of the milestone's
we work. At school we call them
"goals" though,
Academic
Social--with peers, classmates
and adults
Speech /Language
OT/PT
Personal Care/Feeding
Achievement of these milestone's
or goals are celebrated whole
heartedly. As I am sure you did
with your kids when they were
young.
~Keep on Dreaming~
L is for laughter.
Have you had a good belly laugh lately?
Have you heard a child laugh recently?
Has something tickled your funny bone
lately.
Sometimes life gets so serious that we
forget to just let go and laugh. I mean
the kind of laugh that afterwards your
stomach hurts a lot but you feel like
the weight of the world has gone away.
We are lucky, the majority of our kids
find something that is funny to them at
some point in their day. It is so much
fun to hear that laughter.
Find some time in your day to laugh,
read jokes, watch a funny show, be silly,
spend time with your kids or someone
else's kids and have fun.
Be a kid again!!!
PS: If you are seeing two colors, I
apologize blogger would not let me
change this to one color.
~Keep on Dreaming~
K is for Kindness
The act of being generous, friendly and compassionate.
We are taught from an early age these
qualities. For children with special needs
these are "concepts" that are achieved a
bit more slowly. This year we have been
working closely with the general ed pop-
ulation to be "peer" models to our kids.
As I spoke about in the integration post,
those of our kids that can spend time in
their grade level with their peers do so.
We have had sixth grade "helpers" in
our classes working with the kids on a
variety of things-recess, PE and activities
within the classroom.
Being in class with their peers gives our
kids time to observe, interact, play and
learn from each other. It also gives the
peers time to learn and understand
that our kids aren't scary. For some this
is their first experience with a child with
special needs.
Our "helpers" benefit from their inter-
action they have with our kids too. This
is where generosity, friendliness and
compassion come in to play. Again they
come to realize that our kids are not bad,
mean or yucky. Yes, they make noises,
they act differently, they don't
seem to listen or understand anything
but as time goes by our kids prove them
all wrong!
With this post I post I do have a request:
when you or your family are out and about
and one of my kids is near give them a smile
it will make their day and if they are with their parents they will appreciate it too! Thanks!!
~Keep on Dreaming~
J is for Jewels.
Our students are our own jewels in
our "jewelry store" of life.
Their CUT is different.
We have males and females. Each
group is equal in size.
Their CLARITY is different.
Each of our students picks up concepts
at their own rate of speed. Some need
more or less help with concepts.
Their COLOR is different.
We have a virtual melting pot in our
three rooms. Males and females.
adult's and kids. Caucasion, African
American, Hispanic and we have a
variety of abilities and disabilities in
our rooms.
~Keep on Dreaming~
