If you are anywhere near the special education world, you have probably heard of “Social Stories”.  While championed by Carol Grey of the Grey Center, Social story is a generic term for any type of story or passage that “accurately describes a situation, skill, or concept according to defining criteria, with a content, format, and voice that is descriptive, meaningful, and physically, socially, and emotionally safe for the person for whom the Story is developed” (Grey Center, 2014). They can be simple, or complex. They can be written at any grade level and are always written in a positive and helpful light. And they WORK!

I was skeptical at first, but especially for children with Autism and other memory processing disorders, the repetition and personalization of the story really ‘hits home’.  And social stories are really simple to write!  A simple story can be as easy as:

“My name is John Smith, I am a fun and happy 1st grader at American Elementary School.
When I am at school, I use safe hands and feet.
My friends like it when I am safe at school.”

For these simple social stories, follow a similar process- Begin with a self statement, this makes it easier for the child to know the story is about them and helps them to relate better to the story.  Use positive and factual statements.
Next, state the problem behavior you would like to address. Try to always use ‘positive language’. It is better to say to DO something than NOT to do it. If you think about it, a lot of the time these children repeat what they hear, wouldn’t it be better to hear “I use safe hands and feet” (Safe hands/feet) than “No hitting or kicking” (Hitting/kicking).  End with a positive statement that re-affirms the target behavior by implying the positive consequences for using it, for example: “If I have safe hands and feet, I can earn a token!” or ” I can earn a sticker if I use good language in class”.  You can basically write one for any target behavior that you wish to change as long as you are positive!

Another way to do a social story is a little more complex, but better for older children or children without significant disabilities. It is similar to the “Everybody Poops” type of books and are common in children’s sections of bookstores. The types of books are designed with the target behavior embedded into a storybook/fairy-tale setting. When written by SLP’s or teachers will use a main character similar to the target student or client. They can be long or short, written in whatever grade level is appropriate, and include as many target behaviors as needed. It is always better to focus on one target behavior per story (or per chapter).

I am currently writing a social story for one of my students titled “Izzy the Great and the Missing Planner” about a middle school student ‘detective’. She loses her planner and must find it before the big test tomorrow. It focuses on organization and social skills within the classroom. I am planning on writing another one titled “Izzy the Great’s Big Weekend Adventure” that focuses on hygiene and eating healthy.  The target student is similar to the main character, and it was written in this storybook format because the target student has been known to perseverate on her bad behaviors. This way she is able to see examples of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors without specifying that it is her behavior that we are attempting to modify.

Social stories are a simple and effective way to modify student behaviors with the student doing most of the work. They can be read by a teacher to the student but are often more effective when the student reads them themselves on a multiple time-daily basis. They are effective for all children, with or without disabilities. However the older the child gets, the more likely they are to ‘catch-on’ to what you are trying to do 😉

I don’t know why but the idea of “fixing kids” almost annoys me as much as the idea that kids achieve things “despite their disability”. No parent wants their child to fail in certain areas, however the idea that they want their child ‘fixed’ is almost as obnoxious as hearing that they want them to be more ‘normal’.

Recently, I dealt with a parent whose entire part in the IEP was asking how we were going to ‘fix’ their child’s reading comprehension abilities. “I understand they scored low in working memory and processing, but what are we doing to fix this?”  This child has a diagnosed neurological condition, and has behaviors in the classroom. They have an amazing level of fluency and expression while reading, but comprehension is, as the parents stated ‘something they had been dealing with since 1st grade’. Now I’m no neurologist, but I’m relatively certain that we cannot change a child’s neurology. Perhaps (and hear me out here) if we have not seen grade level progress for 8 years, it is because they are not capable of grade level progress. It is always a delicate balance attempting get parents to the point of realistic expectations for their child. We work daily on skills like inferencing, comprehension, fluency, expression, and hundreds of other aspects of learning. Progress is made quickly for some students, and slowly for others. We are not ignoring that your child has comprehension difficulties. On the contrary, we address it every day.

However, there is an aspect of the new Neurodiversity movement that states that we should not be focusing so much on what they struggle in, but what they are good at. Too many educators and parents feel that if their child is struggling at something, they should work on it everyday until they ‘get it’. Not only is this an unrealistic expectation of the child, I know that if I was forced to do something I knew I was bad at and probably hated every day for hours on end, I would act out too.  These children need to be taught how to deal with the hand that they were dealt. They need to be given the proper tools and assistance in order to be successful even with the difficulties they face. Instead of reading a page and closing the book and expecting a child with no working memory to remember what was on the page, perhaps we teach them skills like how to refer back to the text and pick words that help them answer your questions effectively and independently.

I understand that you are worried about your kid. I can’t imagine what you are going through. We are worried too. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t want to keep your child in Special Education forever, I want them to succeed. If I could fix their comprehension abilities at the drop of a hat, I would. But these things often don’t need to be fixed, they need to be accepted.

“Fair isn’t everyone getting the same thing, it is everyone getting what they need in order to be successful.”

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Nothing disgusts me more than kids who make fun of kids in the SDC classroom. But there is something out there even worse than that, and thats parents who use SDC as a hypothetical punishment for their kids.

There is nothing wrong with being in an SDC or RSP class. No parent wants to admit that their child might need extra help or may have special needs. I have plenty of parents here at my Middle School who even refuse testing for the possibility that they might find something wrong.  Personally, I feel that not only are SDC and RSP classes useful, but they are the best option for kids who need extra help.

During the second semester of grad school, my 2 main instructors were gung-ho Inclusion Nuts (I use the Nut term lightheartedly of course). They believed that every child, regardless of their abilities, could be in a general education classroom. While a beautiful thought, in today’s world, this is not plausible. Problems that stem from lack of training of GE teachers on disabilities, differentiation, and behavior management as well as lack of aide support and one on one attention those kids need is killing the Inclusion debate. And for good reasons. I wouldn’t want my child, who might be 4-5 reading levels behind his or her classmates or has a behavior problem to be stuck in a room with 33 other children and one teacher. That teacher has 33 other kids with their own issues, my child would learn very little, if anything in a GE classroom besides social skills, which while important for life, will not help them learn how to read.   In the SDC and RSP room students and parents have access to highly trained teachers who know exactly how to teach a child with a specific processing disorder, or how to provide sensory options to a child with ADHD. To be honest, most general education is not ready for most special needs students.

I am not saying that special needs kids should not be included. Definitely not. I try to get my kids into as many GE classes as their schedules can allow, while ALSO making sure that they will be successful in those classes. Whats the point in having your 12 year old in general education social studies if they don’t know how to read the book? If they are falling behind, getting poor grades, being disruptive to the rest of class. Isn’t that just as ostracizing socially as being in a resource room for that one period, learning at their own pace and getting good grades, gaining confidence with the materials?

Back to my original point. I had a parent say to the team during an IEP recently that she told her 12 year old that “If he did not do well in Social Studies, that he would have to go back to SDC”. . . . . . . Luckily for my job, it was after a 4 hour meeting so I was too exhausted to say anything too explosive.  By using the SDC as punishment, you are perpetuating to your child that there is something wrong with them. That they are different and that being in SDC is ‘bad’, a place where you go when you fail. And this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Resource and SDC rooms are places you go because you have a need that other teachers can’t fill. They are full of highly trained teachers and underpaid aides who go to hundreds of trainings to make sure you get the most up to date, high tech, research backed support possible. We work with you to find what works best, we work with your other teachers to make sure you are successful. We find your learning style, create resources for you, create accommodations, and modify curriculum just so your child can be a successful student. Parents are often more afraid of their child failing than their child is, and SDC/Resource is the most underutilized way to have your child keep up with the increasing demands of the school system.

The SDC is not a bad place. The children who are here are not bad children. You will not go to SDC if you fail. But if you want to be successful, maybe you should.

During my first year of teaching, I had 7 Annuals and one triennial IEP. Writing IEP’s includes updating progress on goals, progress in classrooms, compiling data, writing new goals for the years, writing reports from assessments, and considering testing options and accommodations for your students. It is time consuming and necessary process in special education. Initially, I had approached the goal writing as a general theme: What do I want this child to be able to accomplish in their life? And then narrow down the focus from there, however I did not realize until this year in my ‘high parent and advocate involvement setting’, that some of the goals I was writing were unrealistic and unachievable, and how big of a deal that really was.
Let’s get one thing clear, I was never setting anyone up to fail here. Maybe I being too optimistic.  Let’s give an example. If my high school student was unable to prepare any time of meal for themselves without prompting, my goal would read something like: “AZ will be able to prepare a 4-6 step snack or meal with 0-2 gestural prompts with 80% accuracy on 4/5 trials.” Basically I want AZ to be able to make a snack for himself. This will improve overall quality of life and greatly help the family or caregivers of the student. I promise my intentions were good ones!   I actually took issue with goals that clarified that “JK will learn 80 new vocabulary words about the science topic in class and use them in this or that way in writing and in conversation on 4/5 days” etc etc. Way too specific!?  What happens when they meet that goal? That doesn’t represent a broader view of what we are working on in my classroom! My class is way more than memorizing vocab words!

Working with lower income and many less involved parents last year, the IEP goals were generally unanimously approved and those goals became our overall focus for the years academic and functional work.  If the student did not meet the goal, but made progress, this was counted as a victory, and we either continued the goal or made new ones depending on where we wanted the student to focus their efforts.  Maybe they did not meet the goal, but we were going to keep working on it!

This year however, I am dealing with a new demographic of students and parents, often involving a ‘child right’s advocate’.  And many of these advocates, lawyers, and legally inclined parents base the success and failure of their students by the number of goals that he or she meets.

Until this year, I had not heard of goals not being met being used as a device in lawsuits against schools. Of course, not meeting all your goals can show a parent and administration that something is not going well in the classroom, but in general I had thought of meeting 8/12 goals as being a relatively successful year, especially when we are discussing students with special needs. Unfortunately, I was wrong.  A recent IEP had me re-writing almost every single one of my carefully written goals to add for specificity.  A mix of advocate pressure on unmet goals from the last year and recommendations from parent team to increase an already high amount of service due to the 5 unmet goals led the team to specify to me that these goals need to be specific and more importantly, achievable.

I really wanted this child to be able to ask his peers questions in class instead of asking an aide or sitting there bored. Its a good target, but it wasn’t very specific, how could he show us this consistently, how would he know what to do, how would we teach him this skill?
We wanted this child to be able to answer comprehension questions on grade level text verbally. What types of questions, how many questions, what grade level is appropriate?

But the most important question that I had never really considered thoroughly was: Could we ACTUALLY SEE them doing this in one academic year? Sure, it would be amazing if Johnny could cook a meal with no prompting. We would all LOVE to see that. We all want to work on that! But could a nonverbal 16 year old with no cooking ability ACTUALLY do this in one short year?? The answer is, probably not.

We all want our students to achieve amazing things. We want them to do what their grade level peers can do. We want to write goals that represent what we will be doing all day in class. We want to help them improve their quality of life. But we need to write goals that represent what our children can achieve realistically so that we can show that progress significantly each year.

In my previous classroom experience, I have made christmas trees out of popsicle sticks, wrote about Santa, and gave gifts to students during the holiday season. Granted, many of my students did not know what we were doing besides that it was art and not math.  I have never had a family complain about our activities, but we were always conscientious about which families did not celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah and made them feel included with different activities.  This year however, makes me think a lot deeper about the beliefs of ourselves and our students.

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, 76% of America is some form of Christian, including Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, and all other forms of Christianity.  But this same survey states that only 51% have attended church services. Judaism, Muslim, Hindi and Buddism make up about 6% of the American population, but again, the same study related that 19% of the Judaism group reported that “God does not exist”.  A whopping 19.6% of the entire population self reported as Agnostic, Atheist or No Affiliations (thats like 60 MILLION people!).

The question I found myself facing was, “How do I ignore something in my classroom, something that 90% of my students believe in and love, while making sure that that 10% is happy and included”.  This originally came about at Halloween time when I was asked by a parent for an alternate writing prompt other than “Write a Halloween Ghost story”.  I had heard that certain religious groups do not condone Halloween, but had never seen it in practice. I do not know the actual religion of this family, but lets suffice to say that Christmas falls into the ‘not celebrated’ category as well.  Luckily for me, the parents were the type to ask only for an alternate assignment, not to repeal the assignment altogether. They were kind and not too demanding about their child not be included in our Halloween activities, but I have seen other teachers have a much harder time.

I agree that forcing religious beliefs on any person is a no-no. Lets not get into the Pledge of Allegiance debate right now.

My question, stated before, and my thoughts on this boiled down to, are all of my students who celebrate Christmas, actually Christian? And the answer was a definite No. I’m sure many of you know people who celebrate by getting a tree, putting up lights, and spending barrels of money on things to say I love you to family and friends, who haven’t attended mass since they were baptized at 2 months old.  Growing up Catholic, I went to mass on Sunday’s, Easter, and Christmas. I was raised with the understanding of what Christmas was ‘originally’ about. But I would be stupid to think that everyone believes this. If every self-identified Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, etc etc stopped celebrating Christmas, I’m sure the economy would truly suffer.

As long as you, as the teacher, are celebrating ALL of the Holidays *teaching about Holidays around the world is a great common core lesson!*, not discriminating against any religions, not going against another child’s beliefs or forcing them to participate, theres not reason not to include some Holiday fun in your class.  You don’t have to be a Christian to celebrate love, giving, selflessness, and joy. Christmas, and even to some degree, Hanukkah, to the chagrin of the Churches and Synagogues, HAVE become commercialized holidays where the priorities become gifts and children cry when they don’t get I-Pads.  Sad? Maybe. But in December each year, beyond the shopping and Black Fridays and credit card bills, I see people volunteering for food drives, giving clothes and toys to the less fortunate, writing checks to non-profits, and giving more than they receive. And it makes me wonder if the world wouldn’t be a better place if we had more than one ‘holiday season’ each year.

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard a debate (on a country music station of all things) going on about a teacher who had recently been in trouble for “tweeting” about how one of her first grade students came in with a runny nose and how that had “ruined her whole day”.  A few months back, a bay area teacher was under fire for tweeting about how her summer school high school english students are “effing stupid” and “kill me”.  And today again in Yahoo News, there was a post about how a 20 year veteran teacher went on a racist rant on Twitter and gotten fired.

People get fired every day for the things that they post online. Whether it is forgetting that you are friends of your boss or that you follow the restaurant that you work at on twitter, it seems their are humans make terrible internet decisions every day online (see hilarious pictures at the end of this post).   The question becomes, why do teachers make front page media when they make mistakes? Isn’t that unfair? We’re only human! There are thousands of pedophiles getting busted daily by cops, drug lords dealing to young people, parents abusing their children, but the minute a teacher tweets something inappropriate, the press stops and stares. Is this another societal “double standard”?

Yep. Deal with it.
You are a teacher. You are working with a child for 6-8 hours (if not more, per day). Often, this is more time than these children spend with their parents at home not counting sleep time. They look up to you, emulate you, respect you, and copy you. Especially with elementary and middle school, most of these kids loooooove you. Can you imagine their little heart broken faces when they find out that their runny nose ruined your day? That you think that they are “stupid”?

Yes, it is a double standard.
Back in college, (yes this is a #fbf story), I was in a sorority all 4 years of my undergraduate degree, doing usual sorority things, as well as the fun fulfilling charity work and activities the media does not portray. During my Junior/Senior years, I was the head of the “Standards Board”. This is the board of women who sit and make sure that the sororities image is maintained and bylaws were followed. This is when social media was just becoming a HUGE thing. I had to call in young women for inappropriate behavior and pictures weekly.  This meant that if I messed up, it was a. big. deal. I was held to a different standard back then. This was not a fair situation, but like teaching, it was never meant to be. There were reasons that in the 1910’s they had rules like this:

(Crazy right?)

You are in charge of the world’s future. You tell them right from wrong, what is acceptable and what isn’t. How to be a better person. How can you do this while also being a giant hypocrite?
Nowadays, the world’s future leaders also, tweet, and text, and go on facebook. They will find out what you say, their parents will, your bosses will. Would you have written those things if you knew that? Why write them at all?
In my opinion, teachers who say terrible things about their jobs regularly either A) Should not be in the teaching profession, or B) Were really too dumb to realize that their information is public, and therefore, refer to A.

We all make mistakes. Teachers have tough jobs. Do I deserve glasses upon glasses of wine after long, complicated IEP’s, being slapped by students, and mountains of paperwork? Sure. Do I need to go online and describe how the parents were “totally stupid” and the kid is awful and how much my life sucks? Absolutely not.

Usually, when I have a ‘ranty’ post to write, I re-read it and consider, is this really how I want to come across? As a teacher, and as a human being?  Internet common sense dictates that you ‘think before you post’. I would take it a step further and say that if you really need to think that hard about if your words are appropriate, then don’t post it at all. Isn’t this what we teach our students anyways? That if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all…

Society will always judge teachers like they judge Taylor Swift. We are all good people, doing good things, unworthy of press time, until BAM, we do something wrong, unclassy, or scandalous. That is how the media and society works. The bad will always outweigh the good in people’s eyes.  Did it matter that the lady tweeting racist remarks had been an upstanding teacher for more than 20 Years? Nope. Did it matter that the Bay Area teacher was working with an underprivileged population and her students all loved her? You bet not.

Society will do what society does. But teachers can outsmart society, and don’t give it something to talk about.

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The tweet that got the Texas Teacher fired, and the article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2829375/Texas-teacher-fired-racist-tweet-Ferguson-police-shooting-raged-white-detractors-kill-themselves.html

People who forget they “friended” their boss….

People who forget to switch their Twitter account out from their day job…

People who are not very good at their jobs in Social Media Relations…

And a teacher who really needs to stop posting. just stop.

Or see here for more bright people that will make you feel better about your posts about your cats 🙂

Hello, you’ve found it! I’ve decided to switch to wordpress for my blogging needs from now on.

If you are looking for my posts about Vietnam, they are no more. If for some reason, you wanted to view them, let me know and Ill send you my backup file 🙂

I’ll be the first to tell you that I have only been teaching for a little under 2 years, and in education (as in schools) for 4. So I can not speak for everyone in the profession as to how they perceive the world.

I have taught in a low income area and middle income ones. I have worked in public schools, preschools, non-public schools, elementary and middle schools and one thing is obviously consistent across the board: Parents (or guardians, here I will not discriminate). However the extent to which the parents are a presence in the schooling of their children seems to range depending on the socio-economic status of the school you are in. This is especially evident in special education. You will often find that involvement correlates to income.

For those unfamiliar, special education requires constant and consistent testing, work, forms, laws, plans, and processes to make everything run smoothly. Some kids begin this process as an infant, some not until high school. But regardless of who you are and why you are there, the process begins in relatively the same way: the parents. The parents are the ones who notice that there is a discrepancy in their students learning, or believe that their grades do not accurately represent their child. They might notice that their child does not make eye contact or is not talking at the appropriate age. Their concerns are generally valid and early detection can lead to early intervention, which can only benefit the child in the long run. Sometimes (rarely) the students are referred for assessment because they are doing poorly in classes, or there are specific behaviors the teachers and staff observe. But either way, the parents are there every step of the way. From deciding what services to give, to meeting and discussing goals and classes each year, to re-evaluating and testing every 3.  Being a parent of a child with special needs is no easy task. And teachers need to develop relationships with these parents in order for the child to be successful.

Having worked in both environments and mixed environments, here are the perceived differences.

The Differences and Frustrations:
(Please understand I am generalizing from experience and know not everyone fits the molds!)
Parents in low involvement areas often (not always) have a lot going on. They often work full time in low pay/ low reward jobs. They have to wonder where their next meal is coming from, where the rent would come from for next month, etc. They are often less involved. They can not pay for things like field trips, class parties, class supplies, or sometimes even new clothes for their student when the old is too small. They have busses pick up or drop off their kids and cannot make it to meetings. Some don’t have e-mail, or even cell phones. Some don’t have the resources to deal with their child with special needs. Getting them to the IEP meetings, to sign paperwork, to deal with behaviors at home, is often impossible.
And it is frustrating. As a special educator, I daily devote 8+ hours of my day, as well as my time at home, to making up resources, shopping for new toys, reading and writing plans to improve the child’s quality of life. If I write a behavior plan that stipulates that the child will not be allowed computer time at home if they are aggressive to their siblings or classmates, and they don’t follow the plan at home (because they haven’t come in, haven’t read it, or can’t read it) it becomes a relentless set-back for the child.

Parents in higher involvement areas often (not always) have one parent as a caregiver at home, or higher paying jobs that allow for time off. They are able to purchase new clothes, school supplies, and treats for their kids. They drive their kids on field trips. Sometimes they are home for bedtimes, sometimes they are not. Most have working cars and get breakfast and are dropped off every morning.  They request meetings with teachers because their child missed an assignment or got a B on a test.  They can bring advocates and outside therapists to IEP meetings because they do not agree with what the school has decided.  Some request services for their child that has A’s and B’s because they feel the student “could do better”.  They critique the standards and the lesson plans because they
‘dont make sense’ or it’s ‘too confusing’. They call out teachers and more often than not, get their way.
This is also frustrating. As a teacher, I went through 2 years of post-grad training on lesson planning, differentiating instruction, giving assessments, etc. I know what I am doing.  At my current placement, I have seen teachers yelled at, teachers called dumb, and teachers threatened with lawsuits (by CHILDREN). I have seen parents work hard to make sure their SDC student gets out of SDC because it ‘makes them look bad’, yet they still want them to have a 1-1 aide in all of their classes. And because they are high income, they win.

Parents in either situation either care or they don’t. That is a sad fact of life. These are generalizations (and in some cases extreme ones) of parents in both situations. I have seen parents in low involvement areas attend every class field trip just to be there for their child. I have seen parents in high involvement areas send their highly autistic child on to the library for 7 hours after a short day because they forgot to arrange a ride.

Which is a better environment to teach in? Those with high involvement or those with low?

Some educators like the autonomy of teaching with low parent involvement. They are able to teach what they need, give help when needed, and move forward.  They don’t have to fight, argue or explain themselves consistently.

Some educators prefer to teach with high involvement. They get school supplies and field trips. They collaborate and listen. They have to explain their methods to parents and enjoy doing do.

If this were a political debate, I would take the ever unpopular “Moderate” position.
Teaching is an art. Some are good at it and some are not. Teaching is also one of the few careers where our salaries are up for public debate and scrutiny (but that is a topic for another day).  You may have seen the quote “In it for the outcome, not the income” and for almost every teacher I have met, this is true. We love your children as our own; their flaws, behaviors, peeing on the floor and all. We want to be your friend and co-worker. We want to work with you to make your child the best possible human they could be.
We want you to participate in your child’s education. We want you to come in and work in our classrooms, and drive on field trips, and meet with us to discuss projects and homework and how little Timmy did on Friday with that Math test.

We also want you to respect that we know what we are doing. We’ve probably been doing it for a while. Just like we don’t give parenting lessons, please don’t give us teaching lessons. Trust that the silly things like the Common Core and Standardized testing and PE requirements will all work out in the end. Understand that we know that “new” is scary; it may be new to us as well. But we are trying our hardest to make sure your child is successful in it.

That is our job, and we love what we do. Otherwise, we would not do it.