auntie, what kind of resources are there for gen ed teachers?

Re: auntie, what kind of resources are there for gen ed teachers?

• torrey111

  February 2012

  fabulous question and wish I could forward this to every principal the U.S. .....Auntie?????

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• AgrippaRidesAgain member

  February 2012

  -auntie-:

  AgrippaRidesAgain:

  Before I became a SAHM, I was a high school science teacher.  Honestly, we got handed accomodations sheets and were told to follow them.  No explanation about what types of things we might expect from students or how to deal with the day to day, well, everything.  My last year of teaching, I had a kid with Aspergers.  Like the other kids, I got handed my accomodations sheet and that was it.  It has been 4.5 years now, so I don't know what it entailed, but it was minimal.  

  Ideally, you should have had some training around how AS impacts a student in the classroom. DS's district has in-service training for all teachers on things like AS. For years these were given by a local Aspergers expert who just happened to be DS's private psych. He would discuss topics like inertia, executive function deficits, poor theory of mind as it impacts literatured based curricula, social and emotional immaturity and bullying. He would also deliver the message that "If you've seen one person with AS, you've seen one person with AS." Some schools send their teachers out for training. I often suggest Michelle Garcia Winner because she's a compelling speaker who "gets it".

  The other thing you should have had was itinerant support. This is the only piece of DS's IEP that remains now that he's a senior. For those of you who don't have an education background, that means teachers have an expert in the district who can address their concerns. They might explain a behavior that puzzles you, help you differentiate instruction, and help you parse the difference between "can't" and "won't". Sometimes this suspport/information is informal; at the elementary school the SLP was great at advocating for DS on site. Teachers knew she was a resource. At the secondary level, it was more formalized but there was still a go to person in the building to ask.

  Failing all that, there are some very good books available to educators that describe the unique challenges of the socially and emotional immaturity of AS in students who are bright to down right gifted.

  It was the hardest freaking year of my teaching career.  I cannot even begin to explain how much this kid and his mother (who I now understand had probably been to hell and back advocating for him) frustrated me.  I thought she was just forever making excuses for him.  He absolutely thought he was smarter than me but couldn't pass a single test b/c he didn't bother to do any work in my class.  He needed to pass my astronomy class to graduate, b/c he had chosen it as his final elective.  I was 9 months pregnant and knew I wasn't coming back when exams rolled around, so I finally gave in and told his mom that if he passed the exam I'd pass him, despite an entire year of incomplete work.  Suddenly I was her shining star of a teacher, and I at least got her off of my back.  I still haven't decided if that was a good decision or not.  He managed to squeak by on the exam with a D-.

  Whatever you did, it probably didn't matter in the bigger picture. It sounds like you ran into a woman who takes her parenting cues from Mamabear. Regular readers will recall that I seldom suggest the strategy of looking to the woods for parenting inspiration.

  Schools and parents should share a common goal of preparing a child to be as fully independent as possible. For a kid with AS, you have the potential for some true independence but it comes at a price to the individual of having to work harder than other people. Sometimes parents or teachers are guilty of the soft discrimination of low expectations. In this case , it sounds like mom was the one who didn't want her son held to the standards of other students. Perhaps she didn't want to be troubled to support him in this because he uspet her homelife. Or maybe he didn't really have AS, but was more impaired and the mom didn't want to face it. I know a couple of parents locally who claim their kid has AS, since he has language but who probably fit the PDD-Nos profile better in terms of IQ and atypicality.

  Moms like this make it hard for the rest of us. We had one in our scout troop years ago. Her kid was pound for pound one of the least likeable individuals I ever met- rude, selfish, offensive. At the start of any difficulty, blame was ascribed to those who wouldn't accommodate her precious son. Her mantra was "Tommy can't...". She wanted a lot from us and yet didn't hold her son to any standards. They left after a couple of devisive years. Mom's parting shot was that they were leaving because "Tommy couldn't find a friend". Bottom line is that neither mom or Tom got that you have to be a friend to have a friend. I heard from a friend in a "rival" troop that Tommy has joined her troop and the he and mom haven't changed at all.

  The school bears some responsibility as well. I have no doubt they were fatiqued by this family's needs and mom's attitude by the time this kid hit high school. My guess is, they wanted him passed and his diploma signed, asap, rather than serving him until his early 20's with transitional services. JMHO, he was failed in both places.

  Anyway, I understand so much more about everything that happened that year now that I've been hanging out here, and kind of wish I had had more information back then.  It seems like there really needs to be some sort of education program in place for teachers (as much as I hated inservices, it's really needed) just telling them what to expect with mainstreamed kids with things like AS, HFA, etc.  Just wondering if anything like that exists. 

  Specific to Aspergers and HFA, each of these kids is going to present with a unique set of strengths and areas of relative weakness. Comorbids really impact presentation at this age as well.

  It's really hard to come up with a meaningful one size fits all approach. The other piece is that the level of support needed is sometimes related to how bought into the subject the student is. Gym class is a huge challenge for many kids on spectrum. Math can be either a source of delight or angst. Most kids with AS like science, but some struggle with math which limits their success in the class.

  I'm curious what the boy is up to now? Was his mom's plan to pass him at any cost a plan for success? My guess is he's on SSI and living in her basement.

  I am remembering a lot more about the year now that we're talking about it.  He was abrasive and dismissive, prone to falling asleep in class and having loud physical outbursts.  He was universally disliked in the school, and when I would talk to special ed teachers about what I could do to make things better, they would start to rant about how he was manipulative and the behaviors he was presenting weren't related to Aspbergers, without giving any actual suggestions.  What I really wanted to know was what to allow and what to crack down on.  His IEP allowed for extended time on work (which his mother took to mean that he could have the entire year to complete it), breaks as needed during class time, and being provided copies of notes, which I am assuming was due to problems with fine motor skills as his handwriting was labored and atrocious.  I never could decide whether I should let him sleep in class and consider it his break or whether I should wake him up.  I generally woke him after I finished giving notes b/c he had copies and I figured maybe the information dump of a lecture was too much for him.  I was a relatively relaxed teacher about a lot of things, which I am now certain caused him more harm than good, because the routine varied significantly from class to class, and we would jump from one topic to another as the class found things interesting.

  He was addicted to gaming and his mom hoped that it would lead to a career in coding or game design, but honestly, he seemed to show no interest in that, only in the imaginary worlds created by the games themselves.  That's what he talked about anyway.  My guess is that he is indeed in her basement, wrapped up in World of Warcraft or whatever game he moved on to after that.  Honestly, he was an extremely unlikeable, unreliable person, so I just don't see him holding a steady job, which makes me sad.  He wasn't a happy kid, but I never saw him gaming, so perhaps that is where his joy was.

  I have a lot of regrets about this particular kid, but it's too late to do anything about it now.  I am happy that I am learning a lot more now so that when I go back to work I will be an enlightened teacher.  I will research the crap out of every kid that comes in my classroom with an IEP.  I feel like heading back to my old school and telling everyone that they need to do the same thing, and I am honestly shocked that I (we) didn't do it before.  Why on earth did we just take the accomodations sheets, follow what they said, and do nothing else?

  
  

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• sbelle3

  February 2012

  I know this was addressed to auntie but I wanted to let you know I feel you on this. I teach collaborative preschool and this year has been SO hard. I received absolutely no training, no guidance, nothing. the year started out with me being paired with a crack pot special ed teacher (don't get me started on her) who left while I was out on maternity leave. I had absolutely no idea what I should be doing with the ASD babies and how to make accomodations while not lowering my expecations. The new teacher I am working with is great and things are soooo much better. I agree, though, that if children with special needs are going to be mainstreamed into general ed the teachers have got to be trained. It is just an injustice to the kids otherwise.

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