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| Temple Grandin at the Students Who are Wired Differently Conference |
I had the honor of hearing Temple Grandin speak at the Students who are Wired Differently Conference in Atlanta last month. She is amazing. I wanted to listen and learn from her for the entire weekend! The way she explains her thinking process and sensory needs is really helpful to parents and teachers who teach children with Autism.
A couple of things she said that stood out to me...
"Are you going to allow a student to fail because you didn't copy on tan paper or other simple things?" (Temple Grandin)
"Don't praise EVERYTHING! Praise the good stuff" (Temple Grandin)
While there I purchased a few books that have helped me get excited about teaching this year and that have refreshed my love of ABA and inclusive classrooms.
I have completed reading the Way I See It, by Temple Grandin and Bringing ABA to Home, School and Play by Debra Leach. I have watched the video Including Samuel also. All I can say is WOW! I am so excited to bring these ideas and philosophies to my classroom this year.
All teachers need to believe in ALL their students. We can't be the one who gives up on them. As a special education teacher it is also my job to encourage the regular education teachers who have students with special needs in their classroom. Too often the students are just put in the room and left with little support. If the general education teacher doesn't have the intuition to research and learn or they may not know where to start to learn, then the teacher isn't able to provide the special need student with he/she needs.
Before teaching special education I taught First Grade. I can't tell you how many times a special education teacher would hand me an IEP and say you have this child in your room, let me know how they are doing. And that would be that. I eventually became the regular ed teacher that BEGGED for the special needs students and also spent my breaks down in the SPED hall bugging teachers for resources and information about autism and other disabilities. It's not easy, but VERY rewarding!
There are days when we cry and feel so frustrated we don't know what to do to help our students. These books and watching this video is something that I will be refer to all year long.
I hope to take what I have learned over the years as a regular education and special education teacher and help other teachers successfully include children with special needs in their classroom.
