It's a Balancing Act
Teaching is a balancing act. It is easy to get caught up in meeting standards, following curriculum maps, and attending meetings. You begin to feel that you are teaching out of compliance. From working in the field I have experienced and witnessed many teachers begin to feel this way. Your teaching to comply to your state or district demands rather than what your students need. I am not saying that compliance is not important and we should not follow expectations and demands set. What I am saying is this...… Find a balance and remember that teaching is your talent and craft. Follow the curriculum map but put your own spin on instruction. Know your students and how they learn best. Teaching is not black and white. Don't worksheet your students to death. Give your students the instruction they really need. Maybe your students learn best through movement, songs, or hands-on experiences. You students are more likely to remember the experiences you give them rather than the worksheets you give them.
As an intervention specialist balance is key for serving students with moderate to intensive disabilities. I love teaching and I love to teach my students academic skills. The balancing act in my classroom is how do I teach academics but still give my students the functional skills they need. This is where I feel intervention specialists struggle including myself. In my classroom I spend the morning working on academic skills. Students work in whole group and learning centers for math, and language arts skills. In the classroom we work on the same standards for a month at a time. Each week I vary how students work on the skills associated with the standard. By switching up the ways students complete the skill I am meeting the various learning styles of my students. In the afternoon I focus on functional life skills with my students. Working with students on the autism spectrum I have learned that downtime for them is not good. They also often expire and lose focus in the afternoon as well. I use the time in the afternoon to work on basic job and life skills. Some of the skills we work on in our classroom include packing groceries from our food pantry, and folding laundry. We also do weekly cooking projects, and focus on basic cleaning skills such as sweeping, and wiping tables. These are all skills that will make my students more employable and independent in the community. This is often lost but it is a balance to stop and examine what are students really need. The end goal is help support our students to be as independent as possible.
Have a great week teachers.
See the possible.
Dulce XOXO
As an intervention specialist balance is key for serving students with moderate to intensive disabilities. I love teaching and I love to teach my students academic skills. The balancing act in my classroom is how do I teach academics but still give my students the functional skills they need. This is where I feel intervention specialists struggle including myself. In my classroom I spend the morning working on academic skills. Students work in whole group and learning centers for math, and language arts skills. In the classroom we work on the same standards for a month at a time. Each week I vary how students work on the skills associated with the standard. By switching up the ways students complete the skill I am meeting the various learning styles of my students. In the afternoon I focus on functional life skills with my students. Working with students on the autism spectrum I have learned that downtime for them is not good. They also often expire and lose focus in the afternoon as well. I use the time in the afternoon to work on basic job and life skills. Some of the skills we work on in our classroom include packing groceries from our food pantry, and folding laundry. We also do weekly cooking projects, and focus on basic cleaning skills such as sweeping, and wiping tables. These are all skills that will make my students more employable and independent in the community. This is often lost but it is a balance to stop and examine what are students really need. The end goal is help support our students to be as independent as possible.
Have a great week teachers.
See the possible.
Dulce XOXO
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