Teacher World

Yesterday, I told you about a teacher who apparently thought he had the right to bully a 15-year old special needs student. Well, as if that story wasn’t bad enough, get ready for the dastardly duo: Christie Wilt and Kelly Chaffins, a special education teacher and her aide.

This story is about Cheyanne, a 14-year old special needs girl who attends Miami Trace Middle School in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, who used to love school. Her father, Brian, told TODAY that up until fifth grade, they never had a problem getting their daughter to go to school. But in fifth grade, she was in a classroom with an aide named Kelly Chaffins. On one occasion, Brian said that Chaffins jerked Cheyanne up by her shirt and pulled her from the line. When they tried to talk to the school about what had happened, they were told that Ms Kelly would not do what their daughter claimed she had done, and the situation was dropped by the principal.

Brian told Ann Curry on TODAY that sixth grade was better, seventh grade was worse, but eighth grade was terrible. It was at this time that Cheyanne began to tell her parents that she was being bullied. She claimed that her teachers called her dumb, lazy, and a liar and they taunted her about her belly.

“She got to where she didn’t want to go to school, and Cheyanne’s always loved school. We’ve never had a problem with her. And…she was doing things that, starting to harm herself to keep from going to school. So we knew we had to do something at that point. We weren’t getting anywhere with the school. Every time we’d call, ‘We didn’t do that,’ ‘She’s making up stories’. It was always, ‘Cheyanne’s lying,’” Brian said.

Brian told Curry that when they went to the principal with their concerns, their complaints were always met with the same response; Cheyanne was lying. And when he went to Miami Trace Schools Superintendent Dan Roberts for the first time after getting nowhere with the school’s principal, Roberts told them that they were bordering on slander and harassment and to let it go. He guaranteed that he would provide the best education possible for Brian’s daughter.

Out of sheer frustration, Cheyanne’s parents wired her for sound and were able to tape four days of devastating proof of profound bullying and abuse. Here is a sample of the horrendous things being said to this poor girl.

At one point in the tape, Chaffins became annoyed with Cheyanne over how she had answered a question, saying, “Are you kidding me? Are you that damn dumb? You are that dumb? Oh my God. You are such a liar.”

Cheyanne responded, “I am not lying.”

“No wonder you don’t have friends,” Chaffins bullied her. ”No wonder nobody likes you.”

On another occasion, Chaffins asked Cheyanne, “Don’t you want to do something about that belly?” She and Wilt began to badger her about being lazy, accusing her of just sitting around watching TV. They even called Cheyanne’s parents lazy for not going for a walk with her for exercise.

And there was another time caught on the tape when Wilt refused to even look at a test that Cheyanne had just finished, saying, “…you know what? Just keep it. You failed it. I know it. I don’t need your test to grade. You failed it.”

As if all of this were not enough, at one point on the tape, Cheyanne’s parents heard Chaffins call them “liars raising a liar” after they had called to complain about Wilt and Chaffins forcing their daughter to run on the treadmill as punishment for getting an answer wrong, an episode which was also caught on tape. 

Imagine, as a parent, having to listen to this tape; horrific proof of what Cheyanne had claimed all along. Two adults who were supposed to be teaching your child, protecting your child, and encouraging your child, bullying, humiliating, and destroying your child!

Cheyanne’s tearful father said, “We’re listening to seven hours worth of stuff on this tape, so we were up all night crying, upset, cause we didn’t understand why. We didn’t understand why. Why would they do this?”

Finally, when Cheyanne’s parents provided Roberts with the irrefutable proof of what their daughter had been trying to get someone to believe all along, Roberts finally acted. “There was distressing, disturbing things on that tape that caused us to act immediately.” Dan Roberts said. Chaffins was asked to resign.

As far as Wilt was concerned, Roberts said, “We felt the level of her involvement there did not meet with the level that educational aide had done.” Therefore, Wilt was only required to take eight hours of anti-bullying and child abuse training, in compliance with the Ohio Department of Education’s decision.

However, this Monday, the district placed Wilt on an unpaid leave of absence for the remainder of the school year (I’m guessing because the publicity got a little too hot).

But Cheyanne’s family does not feel this is enough, and I must agree. Christie Wilt was the teacher in charge of that classroom. An aide is exactly that; they are there to do what the teacher asks them to do. It is the teacher who sets the tone for their classroom. Wilt allowed this atrocious behavior to continue and participated in it as well. And Wilt is the trained and educated professional who should recognize inappropriate behavior when she sees it or engages in it. To treat her less severely than the aide is a travesty!

The school district settled a lawsuit with the family for $300,000, but the family isn’t done. They are working with their lawyers to see that Wilt is not only fired from the district, but that she lose her teaching license, too.

Brian told Curry, “I just hope they do something with this teacher. She doesn’t need to be around kids at all. She participated in it, she was right there. I’m looking out for (Cheyanne), but also I’m worried about the other children in that class and what they went through. She’s (Wilt) just as much to blame, if not more, because she’s the one who takes that oath to protect our children. She has more education than the teacher’s aide.’’

Brian is right. At the very least, Wilt should be fired. As far as losing her license, would any of you want her teaching your child in the future? I sure wouldn’t!

Bullying, special education, Teacher-World's Blog Ann Curry, Bullying, Christie Wilt, Kelly Chaffins, Miami Trace Middle School, TODAY

Sadly, over the next few blogs I will be reporting on an issue that both angers and appalls me. I will return to an issue that I am so passionate about, and that is bullying. Unfortunately, this is not the typical story of kids bullying other kids; instead it is the reprehensible story of children being bullied by their teachers.

Tonight, I will tell you about Julio Artuz, a 15-year old special education student from New Jersey, who had been complaining for some time that he was being bullied by his teacher at Bainbridge Regional School in Gloucester County. Sadly, no one believed what Julio told them, not even his parents, which doesn’t surprise me since the teacher’s behavior is so bizarre that it would be pretty hard to believe without seeing it for yourself.

Finally, a frustrated Julio decided to provide proof of his allegations and used his cell phone to secretly capture one of his teacher’s abusive tirades. The offensive footage shows Julio’s teacher yelling, swearing, and being outrageously abusive to his student. In the video, Julio tells his teacher to stop calling him “special,” which seems to be the impetus for the unbelievable rant that follows.

At one point, amidst cursing, the teacher asks what Julio wants him to call him. When Julio says he wants to be called “normal,” the teacher responds, “What? Oh my God. [expletive]…Just what do you think you’re here for? What does the title on the front of that school say? Special education!”

At another point, he says, “I will kick your [expletive] from here to kingdom come until I’m 80 years old.” And when Julio told him not to threaten him, he yelled, “What are you going to do? You gonna get a chopper and chop me?”

The teacher proceeds to threaten Julio saying that when Julio gets out of school, he will be there and there is nothing he will be able to do about it.

Julio showed his taped proof to his parents first. Julio’s father told NBC PHILADELPHIA.com, “I was appalled by what was going on. I don’t appreciate my son being called out at school.”

He reported that he met with the teacher at school, where he was told that he talks to his students this way in order to motivate them. Yet, moments later, Julio’s father said that the teacher gave him a different excuse. “Basically, he just said that he was sorry, that he didn’t mean what he said, he was having a hard time at home with his wife.” But, in his opinion, there is no excuse for how this teacher has treated his son.

Julio and his father also showed the tape to a local attorney. After watching the video, Attorney David Arnold, who specializes in representing special needs students, said, “That’s truly disappointing. The only thing that this child is learning at this point is that, you know, violent behavior is the answer.”

After an NBC news affiliate in Philadelphia got hold of the cell phone footage, the school placed the teacher on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

School officials refused to talk to reporters, however, they did issue the following statement: “This incident is under investigation. The school district takes all bullying allegations seriously.”

And in a statement from Gloucester County Special Services Superintendent Michael Dicken, he said, “The actions depicted on the video do not reflect the mission or culture of our school.  Our school district takes all bullying, harassment, and intimidation allegations seriously…we do not tolerate it.”

Dr. Joel Haber, a clinical psychologist who runs an anti-bullying website called RespectU, said, “Statistically about 1 to 2 percent of teachers are actually involved in bullying students. There needs to be a clear policy in schools not just for students bullying other students but for teachers as well. Teachers are humans too and this kind of thing does happen, so it needs to be managed early.”

The issue for many school administrators whose teachers are dealing with unruly classrooms is when does a teacher’s efforts to control such a classroom cross the line and become bullying? According to Dr. Haber, “Its blurry sure but you know when someone wants to make a kid feel bad, or when they’re abusing their power as an authority figure. That’s not the way a role model should be managing a student.“

It does not appear, from the cell phone video anyway, that the teacher in this classroom was dealing with unruly students. They were in their seats and seemed to be quietly listening to the exchange between the teacher and Julio. And Julio himself seemed intent on getting across a simple and absolutely appropriate message; he just wanted to be referred to as “normal,” and shouldn’t every student have a right to expect that from their teacher?

When NBC asked how it makes him feel when his teacher talks to him the way he did in the video, Julio said, “It makes me feel like trash.”

Should a teacher ever be the catalyst that would lead to a student feeling like trash? This teacher’s behavior is morally and ethically reprehensible, and I can’t imagine any district being willing to take the risk of putting him back into a classroom. Certainly Bainbridge Regional School District can do better than this.

Keep this bully out of the classroom!

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Scientists have suspected for a long time that autism runs in families, but a new study on autism is a little startling, as it reveals that it occurs more frequently in families who already have an autistic child than originally believed. While this news is a little unsettling, it is news that parents of autistic children need to be aware of when planning to extend their family.

Let me start by explaining some basic facts about what autism is and what causes it. First, as reported on the website Autism Speaks, “Autism is a general term used to describe a group of complex developmental brain disorders known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders.” It is more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes, and pediatric AIDS combined because it is estimated that one in every 110 children are diagnosed with autism.

With an estimated 1.5 million people in the United States, and tens of millions worldwide diagnosed with autism, it is alarming to learn that, according to government statistics, the prevalence rate is increasing as much as 10% to 17% annually. At this time, it is unclear what is causing this increase, but two possible explanations have been given: the improvements made in diagnosing the disease and environmental influences.

Additionally, studies point to a higher incidence of autism in boys than in girls. In fact, boys are diagnosed three to four times more frequently than girls, and current estimates are that one out of 70 boys is diagnosed with this disease in the United States alone.

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer as to what causes autism. Autism Speaks reports: “The best scientific evidence available to us today points toward a potential for various combinations of factors causing autism-multiple genetic components that may cause autism on their own or possibly when combined with exposure to as yet undetermined environmental factors. Timing of exposure during the child’s development (before, during or after birth) may also play a role in the development or final presentation of the disorder.”

Now, a recent comprehensive study, performed at UC Davis MIND Institute, has revealed that parents who have a child with autism have a 19% chance that their next child will also have autism. Most previous estimates of the risk of recurrence ranged from 3% to 10%.

In this study, researchers in twelve different locations across the United States and Canada tracked 664 infants who had at least one older sibling with autism. On average, the infants were 8 months old when they were enrolled in the study, since autism is usually not apparent at that age.

Most of the sites where babies were observed saw each baby four to seven times until they turned three years old. If, however, at any point along the way, children showed any signs of autism they could be diagnosed without waiting till they turned three.

All children who were not yet diagnosed were then evaluated at the age of three, and the results were significant. In male children, 26% had some form of autism, while in female children, the rate was only 9%. The rates were not affected by either the gender of the older sibling or the severity of the older child’s case.

A rather disturbing finding was that when there was more than one child in a family with autism, the chance of other siblings having autism increased to 32%.

Experts explained that the calculations are averages, based on the study, and could be higher or lower in any given family.

In the study, scientists collected DNA samples from many of the children to look for genetic differences between the sibling pairs who had autism and those who didn’t. The goal is to better comprehend the genes involved in autism in the hope of developing tests which would measure the risk in individual families.

Dr. Daniel Geschwind, an expert on autism genetics at UCLA who wasn’t involved in the study said, “To a limited extent, scientists can already predict risk from DNA.”

Up to 15% of these cases have already been linked to specific genetic mutations, and if one of those mutations is present in the parent as well as the autistic child, the risk for the next child to have autism is even higher than the rate found in the study. Whereas, if the mutation occurs only in the autistic child and not a parent, that would indicate that it arose spontaneously, and it is unlikely that there would be any risk to future siblings.

Scientists have known that when twins are identical, the risk of both twins having autism is much higher than it would be for fraternal twins. But this new study discovered that the autism risk for regular siblings is comparable to the risk for fraternal twins. Since fraternal twins and regular siblings share about half their DNA, this is what scientists would expect for a genetic disorder.

According to Sally Ozonoff, the lead author of the journal Pediatrics, which published the results of this study online Monday, the information gleaned from the study is not intended to frighten parents, but rather to inform them. She explained, “If a family has a child with autism, it’s the first question they ask. But even now with better estimates, it’s important to convey this was the average risk.”

Ozonoff recommends that parents who decide to have more children should be in contact with a pediatrician who will begin early developmental surveillance of future children.

“These babies should potentially be treated differently than other infants,” says Ozonoff. Pediatricians should be asking questions about their baby’s eye contact, babbling, smiling at people, and playing peek-a-boo, because these are developmental milestones. If babies aren’t doing these things, pediatricians or parents should be looking into early intervention services.

I want to conclude this blog on a positive note because, according to Ozonoff, the research, as a whole, should give families of autistic children hope. “These findings are much higher than any of us anticipated, but the flip side is that over 80% of these children did not develop autism,” says Ozonoff. “That is really important for these families to hang on to. The glass is still more than half full.”

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Well, here I go again, the end of another school year, and a time to look back and reflect on the successes and the failures of this past year.

First, let me remind you that we tried something new this year; a self-contained, co-taught classroom at the fifth grade level. We worried going into this about how the parents and students would respond since all of the other fifth graders switch classes between two teachers. We were so gratified by the positive response from our parents who seemed to sincerely appreciate everything we did for their kids. Since we were with their children all day, we were able to develop a deeper relationship with each one, and that seemed to be appreciated by the majority of our parents.

Because our students had our full attention all day and did not divide their time between our classroom and that of another teacher’s, they thrived on the extra attention they received and the extra time we had to get to know them better. That extra time allowed us to better identify their strengths and weaknesses, which proved instrumental in our ability to individualize instruction.

Another success we experienced this year was the flexibility to break students down into groups when it was clear that they did not understand the material, and also to challenge those who were ready to move ahead. With three adults in a classroom: me, an intervention specialist, and a paraprofessional, we had a flexibility that you normally only dream about.

Again, because we were self-contained, our schedule was extremely flexible. If students were struggling with a concept, we could adjust our schedule at a moment’s notice and continue with that concept until they got it, or if they seemed to catch on quickly, we could forge ahead and move on to other plans faster. That kind of flexibility is a luxury which we thoroughly enjoyed, since it is a rarity in a team teaching scenario.

I also believe that, because we got to know our students so well, they were not as reluctant to admit when they did not understand something we were doing. In a traditional setting, that is often not the case. Our students were comfortable enough with each other and with us to be more honest about their needs.

Finally, I believe that our students learned to be more respectful and understanding of each other’s differences. They learned very early on not to question differences in assigned work, whether in content or quantity. And our general education students were very willing to work with our IEP students and peer tutor them, which our IEP students thoroughly enjoyed. This aspect of our experiment was a win-win situation for everyone.

As to the failures of our experiment, I honestly can only think of one: I think it held our Gen Ed students back a little bit. We sometimes had to move slower than they needed to move, which I know was frustrating to them at times. Information which they could process quickly took longer for the IEP students, which sometimes led to visible frustration and boredom. Frankly, finding the appropriate balance between the pacing of material for Gen Ed versus IEP students is a problem in any classroom, I just feel it was more pronounced in ours since we had an equal number of both students.

Next year we will be going back to traditional team teaching due to a reduction in staff. While I am unhappy that much of what we spent hours creating and preparing will probably go unused next year, I am so very grateful that I had this opportunity. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the lessons we learned will help us be better teachers in the future.

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Some good news for a change for educators! This past Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan met with the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and delivered a strong message that No Child Left Behind needs to be revamped because it sets too many schools up for failure, something teachers have been trying to say since its inception.

Duncan stated that, according to his department, it is estimated that four out of five schools in the United States, which could be as high as 82%, will be unable to reach the NCLB benchmark which states that all students will test at a proficient level by 2014. (Educators have made this same claim since the bill was passed in 2001, but our concerns have fallen upon deaf ears. Ironic that suddenly the Department of Education has come to a conclusion we have known from the start, isn’t it?)

Duncan further stated that when this current year’s test scores are counted, the numbers could reveal that our nation’s schools are already at risk, but he is not putting the blame on schools, which seems to be the favorite past time of many these days. Instead, he is putting the blame where it finally belongs; on No Child Left Behind.

“This law has created dozens of ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible, and focused on the schools and students most at risk,” Duncan told the committee.

One of the contributing factors making it increasingly more difficult to reach the goal of 100% proficiency is that each year the standards are higher than the year before. As a result, Duncan told the committee that the percentage of schools that are not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress could rise from the current level of 37% to 82%.

He further stated that all states and districts have to “implement the same set of interventions in every school that is not meeting AYP, regardless of the individual needs and circumstances of those schools” because they are governed by the same federal law. Duncan called this concept “fundamentally flawed.” He explained, “By mandating and prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, No Child Left Behind took away the ability of local and state educators to tailor solutions to the unique needs of their students.”

Duncan was not just there to ask for the reauthorization and speedy revamping of NCLB; he was also defending President Obama’s budget request for 2012. In his statement, he expressed his concern that the United States under-invests in education compared to higher-performing countries.

Arne Duncan is my new hero, at least at this moment! I admit that I have not always agreed with what he has said or done, and I have frequently taken issue with Race to the Top, one of his pet projects. But hearing these welcome words about NCLB, a law that has angered teachers due to its impossibility, helps to relieve some of the disappointments and worries teachers are going through in these difficult times.

I have blogged that I volunteered to teach in a co-taught, self-contained classroom for at least two years. SPED students make up half of my classroom population. Now, anyone who has worked with these students knows how ridiculous it is to expect that we will be able to get every one of these students to pass the OAA. We have one student who got only 7 questions correct on last year’s math test! Yes, you heard me right! A few of our SPED students will probably pass one or more of this year’s tests, but most will not. How many teachers are going to want to work with these students if they, by law, must get them to reach a level of proficiency on all of their tests? It’s impossible, it’s ludicrous, and it is ultimately unfair to these students who deserve teachers who are excited to work with them, not assigned to do so against their will.

And there are always those students who do not qualify for SPED services but fall between the cracks nonetheless. Getting these students to pass, in spite of multiple attempts at intervention is often equally impossible.

So, while it astounds me that it took this long for those in power to realize that No Child Left Behind was a flawed piece of legislation from the get go, I am grateful that it sounds like it is going to be analyzed more realistically now. When Diane Ravitch, a staunch supporter of NCLB initially, has been speaking out against it and claiming that it will destroy public education, it’s clear that it is long past time to make some necessary changes to this law.

So, thank you, Arne Duncan, because, with these simple words, you have given educators everywhere some real hope for the future at a time when we are desperately searching for any hope at all.

Educational Reform, No Child Left Behind, special education, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Arne Duncan, Diane Ravitch, House Committee of Education and the Workforce, No Child Left Behind, special education, state achievement tests

CNN Health recently reported some interesting news about dyslexia, a condition which makes it difficult to interpret language. This condition which is also called developmental reading disorder may affect from 5 to 20 percent of the population. Those are significantly high percentages making it critical that we learn as much as we can about this condition. New research suggests that it might be possible to predict from a brain scan whether a child with dyslexia will be able to improve their reading ability over a few years. Interesting stuff, right? So let’s dive into the challenging issue of dyslexia.

Children with dyslexia may experience difficulty with reading comprehension because they don’t connect sounds with letters and have difficulty recognizing words. The reason for this is that their brain doesn’t properly recognize or process symbols. While it is possible for some children with this disorder to read fairly normally in time, the question being researched is which children will be able to improve their reading skills and how much extra help it will take to make that possible.

A study conducted by Fumiko Hoeft, a psychiatry researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine, followed 25 children with dyslexia and 20 children without dyslexia for 2 ½ years using brain imaging to try to answer these questions. Using two kinds of neuroimaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging, they studied children as they performed reading tasks. According to the article, “Neuroimaging ‘Predicts’ Which Dyslexics Will Learn to Read”, published on 12/21/10:

* No behavioural measure, including widely used standardized reading and language tests, reliably predicted reading gains.
* Children with dyslexia who at baseline showed greater activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus during a specific task and whose white matter connected to this right frontal region was better organized showed greater reading improvement over the next two-and-a-half years.
* Looking at patterns of activation across the whole brain allowed them to very accurately predict future reading gains in children with dyslexia.

Let me break this down as simply as possible. What this research tells us is that, first, after additional testing, it may be possible to use brain imaging as a prognostic tool to predict reading improvement in children with dyslexia. Second, since the research shows that dyslexic children used different neural mechanisms and pathways when making gains in reading than those used by typically developing children, interventions could be developed for children with dyslexia which would focus on the regions of the brain that are more effective at improving their reading skills.

As we learn more about how the brain works, it is exciting to think that we may be able to use this research to help people who struggle with a variety of learning difficulties like dyslexia. What good news!

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In my last blog I told you how much I have grown as a result of my new assignment in a self-contained, co-teaching classroom. But I am not the only one growing. I am so proud of my co-teacher and how she has grown, too.

In the past, any intervention specialist I worked with was never an integral part of the lesson planning process. Instead, I would plan out my lessons and tell her what I needed her to do. That was then, this is now! We do all of our planning together making all decisions in tandem and sharing equally in who does what. This is all new to my co-teacher, but she has jumped in whole-heartedly. We blend our styles and ideas to create lessons that have been well-orchestrated and predominately successful.

Traditionally, you must understand that an intervention specialist in an inclusion setting has been an observer during the general education teacher’s lesson, during which time they might circulate to make sure their students are focused and listening. At the end of the lesson, they were often seen circulating to help those students who didn’t understand what they were doing or pulling small groups to reteach or intervene. That was then, this is now! My co-teacher is an equal participant, as am I, in every lesson we teach. This is not always a role an intervention specialist is comfortable with. Their expertise is in reteaching in small groups or one-on-one. They are not used to delivering a lesson in front of a whole classroom. So this is a huge stretch for my co-teacher, but again she has jumped in with both feet, willingly agreeing to costumes and acting out parts, role playing, etc. If someone were to walk into my classroom who didn’t know either of us, I think they would have a difficult time determining who was the general education teacher and who was the intervention specialist. That speaks volumes for my co-teacher’s willingness to do whatever is asked of her.

Intervention specialists are trained to understand the minds and thought processes of students on IEP’s, but now we are asking them to understand the minds and thought processes of the general education student as well. Now, that may not seem like a big deal, but believe me, it is a completely different way of thinking and requires a different way of teaching. It’s more hands-off at times, offering minimal guidance as needed. This is foreign to an intervention specialist who is used to restating and reteaching until the light comes on. The challenge is to not give too much help, which might result in the general education students relying too heavily on her when they might not need that extra help. She is doing an excellent job getting to know both the IEP students and the general education students and determining their actual needs.

Hats off to my co-teacher! I admire her so much for the uncomfortable things she is doing while making it all look so comfortable. We are both growing and stretching, and will continue to do so. I will speak for both of us and say that we are working more but loving the work we do.

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One of the things I love about co-teaching, especially as we are doing it this year, is that it demands that both the general education teacher (that would be me) and the intervention specialist (that would be my friend) move outside our comfort levels and grow in various ways in order to meet the needs of a true co-teaching classroom. This growth is beneficial to everyone involved. Let me explain how it is changing me.

As a general education teacher, I have worked with Learning Disability tutors, as they used to be called, for years. This is how that translated: I would teach a lesson with the LD tutor and their students in an inclusive setting. Then, the tutor would either move from desk to desk helping these students to understand the follow-up activity involved or pull them in a group out in the hall or to another room to work with them. It was no fuss, no muss for me.

Now, that’s changed. Our groups are always fluid; the only time IEP students are pulled separately is to have tests read aloud to them if that is part of their IEP. For the first time, I am just as responsible for whether these students understand the concepts being taught as the intervention specialist. This adds hugely to my job description, but instead of resenting this additional responsibility, I am enjoying it immensely, as it has me thinking and growing in ways I would never have thought or grown before.

I have always admired my co-teacher’s patience, and slowly but surely, I feel it rubbing off on me. I am learning not only to be okay with the tedious task of explaining and re-explaining, but I am actually starting to like it as I am learning to think more like my intervention specialist. I, too, am pondering how my students process information; why some have so much trouble seeing what seems so apparent, or why others are so darn literal. And, it is making me a much better teacher. I find myself building deeper relationships with these students and enjoy discovering their strengths and weaknesses. It is a wonderful feeling to be needed and wanted by these amazing kids.

I have also learned to let my guard down and have fun with my students in a way I would never have allowed myself to do before. My co-teacher and I role play, dress up and act out parts, sing, and enjoy teaching in a way I have never done before. It is such a freeing experience, and our students love it. I can’t begin to tell you how many times we have been clapped for or begged to “do it again”. I think our students see us as adults who are serious about our jobs but also know how to have a good time teaching, and as a result, they have fun learning.

I know that in a very short time I have made more improvements as a teacher than at any other time of my teaching career. And I know I will make many more before this year is over. Change is good in teaching, and this is a change that has been exceptionally good for me.

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In a past blog, I told you that co-teaching is a marriage; a marriage between the general education teacher and the intervention specialist.  As you know, this year my intervention specialist and I are in a full-time marriage as we are self-contained. So, now that I am in a more committed relationship, you might ask how our marriage is going so far this year.

I love it!!!!! Imagine having two teachers working in tandem at all times. That old adage that two heads are better than one is proven daily. Where I hesitate, my co-teacher jumps in, and where she falters, I fill in. As Jerry Maguire would say, “She completes me.” We complement each other so fluidly that our teaching is becoming seamless.

There is never a time when one of us is just sitting. We team teach, parallel teach, orchestrate centers, or work with individuals and groups throughout the day. There is never a time when I feel unsupported by her, or she by me. We role play, act out what we are teaching, and thoroughly enjoy both our students and each other. I can’t say that I have ever enjoyed the actual act of teaching quite so much. I am so grateful to have this opportunity.

I spent considerable time over the summer wondering whether the choice we made to be self-contained was a wise one. I worried about teaching subjects I had never taught before. But I needn’t have worried. And if I needed any proof, I got that at the end of this past week when another one of our school’s intervention specialists, who has stopped in often throughout the past two weeks asking for advice or just to see what we are doing, told us that she wished she could be doing what we are doing because it looked like we were so much more effective and the kids seemed to love it. She talked about feeling like she was being pulled in two different directions as she moves from teacher to teacher. I always called that the yo-yo effect. I think for the first time in three years my friend and co-teacher does not feel like a yo-yo, and I don’t feel short-changed. So, I love this marriage, and I hope to stay in it for a long time.

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As I have explained in previous blogs, this year my co-teacher and I are experimenting with a self-contained, co-teaching classroom. Since we are trying something so different, I plan to spend time blogging on a regular basis about what is happening in our classroom and how our efforts are paying off. So, here goes:

Day one down, only 180-some to go!!!!! Yes, today was our first day of school, and I am so glad it is over, although all in all, it went quite well. Our focus today was to set forth the important premise that there is no “unfair” in our classroom. To get this point across, we used two exercises to underscore the fact that we all come into the classroom with different abilities, and our job is to provide the tools to ensure that everyone will have the same opportunity to succeed. In this blog, I will describe one of those activities.

In our first exercise, we hung two large candy bars from the ceiling at a height we knew our tallest student could reach. We then asked him to come and take the candy bar of his choice. He did so easily, and then we picked a significantly smaller student and invited her to do the same thing. Of course, she could not reach the last candy bar, and she began to complain that it wasn’t fair because it was too high for her to reach. I asked what we could do to make it fair. She first said that I could reach it for her, and I said that I was willing to help her, but I wasn’t willing to do it for her. She thought for a minute and asked if she could use a stepstool I had in the room. I said sure, and helped her to use it to retrieve the candy bar.

We all celebrated her victory, and then I asked the class what was unfair about the candy bar exercise. Interestingly, no one said that it wasn’t fair that they didn’t get a candy bar, but everyone agreed that it wasn’t fair that we had placed the candy bars where only the tallest student in the class could reach them. I asked if they thought it was fair that I let the shorter student use a stepstool. They all agreed that using the stepstool made it fair for the student who could not physically reach the candy bar. At this point, we asked how learning was similar to this activity. After much discussion, we arrived at the conclusion that everyone comes into the classroom with different abilities and everyone also has areas which are a challenge for them. We asked them if they thought it would be fair for us to ask a student to do something they couldn’t do, or if it would be fairer to give them a leg-up and give them the tools (just like a stepstool) to achieve their goals. Everyone agreed that giving struggling students the necessary tools would be the fair thing to do. I asked them why they thought I wouldn’t just give the shorter student the candy bar when she asked. We all agreed it doesn’t help them if we simply give them the answers.

So, what did we conclude? They agreed they will not say, “That’s not fair!” when we provide students with the help they need, or their peers have a reduced assignment to complete, or a different activity to reinforce the same skill is used, etc. We agreed that our goal to make sure everyone in the classroom is successful is the fair thing to do. How awesome to have students reach this conclusion on their own!

So, as I write this, even though I am exhausted, I am optimistic about this group and its potential, and I think it is going to be an awesome year! I’ll keep you posted.

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