For the past seven years I was so lucky to work with an amazing colleague and special needs advocate, Linda Beacham. She passed away on Monday and she is going to be greatly missed by myself and all those who had the pleasure of working with her. She was famous for her sense of humour and creating the best top ten lists. Today in honour of my dear friend and colleague who taught me so much about working with children, here is my top ten list of things that I learned from her.
- Whether or not you have any singing voice at all, singing out loud is really fun!
- Sending an e-mail with the subject line AWESOMENESS to encourage a colleague who had an incredibly rough day working with a student with autism can lift them out of some really dark places.
- There are so many things to see in the hallways of your school. Just stop and walk with someone with autism who sees things from a different perspective than you.
- ERF, Teacher, TA and ECE are useless titles. Team should be the real title.
- Never be nervous about making mistakes. Laugh out loud at them!
- Sledge Hockey and Wheelchair Basketball are REALLY cool sports and athletes who play them are hard core!
- Country music is a great genre of music for boogying to.
- Kids just want to have fun, laugh and smile no matter what their needs are.
- When the facilities or resources are not available so that people with physically disabilities can play sports, start them yourself. Check out Cruisers Sports at http://www.cruisers-sports.com/Home.shtml
- Giving a colleague a top ten list of the amazing things about working with students with autism is a really fun way to end the year.
I learned that teamwork and collaboration is key to teaching.