Progress in view at open house
Open house was coming closer. You could tell by all of the art work and student writings being placed on the bulletin boards throughout the school. Special projects always could be found in the hallway during any school year. It was just that the "Open Houses" drew a special viewing of the children’s work.
That sometimes posed a problem for the teacher in the specialized self-contained unit. Some of her children with autism had a wonderful gift for art. One particular child, Ralph, could draw most anything that interested him free hand. Ralph also had beautiful handwriting. He loved to write about things such as Star Wars, Wimpy Kid and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Most of the children, however, had fine motor skill issues. They received occupational therapy regularly to help address their eye-hand coordination. They could not produce the artwork found throughout the school just prior to open House.
Instead, the teacher decided to surprise her parents with a very special show. Most of her parents brought their children with them during open house. The teacher had already seen most of the parents in the morning but they still liked to come to the open house as a family.
As the day of the open house approached, the teacher organized the children’s reading, writing and math folders just like any other class. Her students were progressing with the Edmark Reading Program which included lots of worksheets for a visual cue of how the children were doing. However, sometimes, it wasn’t as clear on how some children were really progressing. Standardized testing and specialized academic programs often failed to tell the true story on how these very special children were doing in their education program.
One such child was Matt. He had entered his final year in elementary school. Matt had been in the self-contained program since he was 3 years of age. The boy didn’t talk a lot. When he did, it was usually with single word phrases like "print," "bear," and "candy". Yet, Matt could surf the web better than most people. In fact, Matt found a way to get to "You Tube" one day to everyone’s surprise. That site had been limited in the school district. Matt wanted to see a certain "You Tube" that showed polar bears, which he loved.
Matt’s father usually would pick up the boy after school. His mother’s work hours made it impossible for her to come to see the teacher often. So she liked the time that the open house gave her to see how her son was doing. When Matt’s mother came in that night with her husband, the teacher had the SMART board up with the web site http://jmathpage.com. The teacher encouraged Matt to go up to the board and show his parents what he knew. Matt couldn’t verbally count his numbers consistently beyond 12 correctly. Yet, he really knew them. His sensory processing issues just made it impossible for him to get the words out. With the website opened, Matt showed off his knowledge when asked to find specific numbers on the 100 numbers’ chart. When he got the answer right, a dog bone popped out to Matt’s delight. The boy also showed off his reading and writing skills on two other websites for language arts www.plattscsd.org/oak/smartboard/Smartboard.htm and http://faculty.usiouxfalls.edu/arpeterson/htm. After finishing his work on the SMART board, the teacher let Matt create his own pumpkin carving on the "plaatscsd" website. Matt, of course, carved a happy face in the pumpkin. When he was done, it lit up like a real pumpkin with a candle inside. The boy smiled at his parents after showing off his work.
When the teacher turned back to look at Matt’s mother, she noticed her crying. The teacher commented, "You didn’t know how much your son really knew did you?" The mother shook her head. The teacher smiled and said, "These children are like sponges. The typical methods of teaching don’t always work for many of these children. This is a wonderful age with all the technology. It is a tool that opens doors to so many people, especially these very unique children." Matt knew that he had done a great job showing off and wanted his reward, a few miniature M&M candies. Before he could get the candy, the teacher asked the boy what colors he wanted. Matt asked for blue candy and that is exactly what the teacher gave him.
Technology is changing almost daily. Websites come and go but several schools throughout the world have opened wonderful free web sites to help students. The direct benefit for all of us has been that these web sites are available to far more than just their students.
For example, the website www.plattscsd.org/oak/smartboard/Smartboard.htm is broken up into several different subject areas including social skills. Under the social skills area in "plattscsd" are several examples of facial expressions which sometimes are missed by our children. The same web site also has wonderful illustrated stories that are animated.
Pamela Gross Downing, a special education teacher can be reached at downpamg@aol.com.
