To make numeracy practice more engaging online, I have added a new segment to our daily routine. This segment supports my student’s alternative goals of counting and/or number identification but is more exciting than just counting. The daily tasks all use items from around the house and allow students to connect numeracy to their daily lives.
Below you can see some of the tasks we have completed. My students require visuals to support their understanding of tasks, so I have made a series of Youtube videos that I show the students before each task. The tasks are straightforward, but you could add to the complexity of the assignment by graphing, comparing, or fractioning the data. We often spend time identifying the numbers as a class and for those able we figure out the biggest and the smallest numbers recorded. These tasks are designed to include all types of dwellings. These tasks are also designed so that they need little parent support.
The tasks:
Count how many steps between your device and the refrigerator and back.
Here is the plan for our first week of online instruction in January.
Have a wonderful first week back everyone!!
9:30-10:00 Small group instruction using a combination of Google Jamboards and Boom cards. Below are some pictures of the activities that we will be using.
10:00-10:30 Exercise Time!! All students will join in and do an exercise program to get moving and get our heart rates up!!
Here is my New Year’s Playlist for our excercise time this week:
Exercise:
Warm up/Stretches
20 seconds Running on the spot
20 Jumping Jacks
20 Leg lifts
20 Body Twists
20 push ups on the table or wall
Dance Break
Do at least 1 more set of movement exercises. 2 if time permits
Cool down/Stretches
Remind parents that their child needs a place to move, some running shoes and comfortable clothes. It is going to be a 2021 party!!
10:30-11:00 Morning Meeting- All students gather. We practice communication, math, reading and life skills through a series of slides and songs.
11:00-11:30 Small group instruction: focus on communication, functional mathematics and functional language.
Similar to the first period in the morning we will be using a combination of Boom cards and Google Jamboards. Jamboards are ideal if your students are able to click on a link in the chat box and move to a new page. If your students are unable to do that, Boom cards are a much better option.
11:30-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Small group instruction:focus on communication, functional mathematics and functional language.
1:00-1:30 Afternoon Meeting- All students gather. We practice communication, math, reading and life skills.
1:30– Art/Creation/Friday Favourites-
Art: We do a simple drawing that works on student’s listening skills and fine motor skills. I have found that having the students use either markers, pencil crayons or crayons works best as everyone has different materials in their home. I use pastels when showing the students as it shows up better on camera.
Creation: With everyone at home, it is time to get out the lego and other materials that work on fine motor skills.
Friday Favourties: What is your favourite sport?- Every Friday we take a poll about some of our favourite things. We graph the results and work on our communication and numeracy skills. Here are a few pictures of previous Friday Favourites.
I’ve often been described as a person with a lot of patience.
However, in my current role as a contained classroom teacher of 10 students with developmental disabilities, my patience has been tested over the past year and a half.
My students sometimes demonstrate their anger or frustration in aggressive or difficult ways. Other days, my students may forget things that they have mastered for months. Parents sometimes aggressively advocate for their students and yell at me because they are frustrated by the system that allows two year wait lists for things like occupational therapy or speech therapy. All of these things would test most people’s patience.
But that is not what has challenged my patience. I am finding that what I am most impatient with is myself. I’ve asked myself so many questions over the past 15 months on this amazing journey with my students. Why didn’t that approach work today? Why didn’t I handle that conversation differently? Why is the student feeling so angry today? Why? Why? Why? I’ve been really anxious about the speed at which problems have been resolved and how fast my students have settled into their new school.
What I wish is that when all of those self doubts and impatience started to bubble up in September 2018 when I began this class, I could read what I am about to write now 15 months later…
It will all come together. Trust yourself and your skills. You will find a rhythm among your team that address the needs of your students. You will be able to anticipate your student’s stressors and know how to calm and reassure them. You will be able to anticipate the needs of parents and have built such a trusting relationship where they know that you are advocating for their children just as hard as they are. The student that is screaming 8 hours a day at school, just needs a couple of months to adjust to all the new people in his life. The student who has challenges around self regulation will be able to use a calming space regularly to help him stay safe at school.
What I didn’t realize at the beginning of this journey was how much time many of these things would take. All of these changes took many school days of an incredibly committed and reflective team. It also took a lot of humility to admit when I needed assistance. But most of all, it has taken a lot of patience with myself to allow the time needed to build relationships and to really get to know all of the awesome things about my fantastic students.
On March 21st, our class celebrated World Down Syndrome Day. World Down Syndrome Day is designed to recognize and celebrate the contributions of people with Down Syndrome. It is also a day to highlight the rights, inclusion and well being of those with Down Syndrome.
It is common for many schools and places around the world to demonstrate their acknowledgement of the day by wearing unusual or mismatched socks. This simple act encourages all of us to celebrate uniqueness and diversity.
For us, preparing to wear our special socks was a great way to start the conversation about this fantastic day.We sang the song “Lots of Socks” every morning throughout the month of March and spoke daily about Down Syndrome.
On the 21st of March, we had a celebration in the morning where we all shared what was special about each of us. We spoke about Down Syndrome and all the amazing people in the world with Down Syndrome. And of course, we showed off our socks!
In addition to our class celebration, I thought I would share some of the things that I have learned this year.
I am very fortunate that I teach 5 students with Down Syndrome. It has been my first-time teaching students with Down Syndrome so I had a lot of misconceptions going into the role and I have learned a lot!
The first thing I learned fairly early in the year was the correct way to speak about someone with Down Syndrome. In the past, I had the misconception that a person with Down Syndrome may be referred to as someone with Down’s. That plural form is incorrect. John Langdon Down was the person who classified the Syndrome but he did not have it and therefore, it is not possessive. The only proper way to speak about someone is to put the person first (as you would with any exceptionality) and follow it with either Down Syndrome or D.S.
Eg. Student with Down Syndrome or Student with D.S.
I also had the misconception that people with Down Syndrome are always happy. I can confirm for all of you with out a doubt that my students demonstrate a variety of emotions regularly. My 3 students who have just hit puberty, go through about 25 emotions an hour as many of you have experienced with your students who are adolescences. Whew!
However, my students do smile a lot and that sometimes prompts many of the adults at my school to speak about how “sweet” or “cute” my students are. Sometimes I have to gently remind the staff that my students are not young children and that they need to be spoken about the same way you would speak about other 11 and 12-year-old students. They need high expectations for behaviour and communication.
Finally, as I started reading articles about people in the Down Syndrome Community, I was surprised how many times they were referred to as being afflicted with Down Syndrome. Just this week I read an article that spoke about people being victims of Down Syndrome. I assure you that my students are not victims. They are some of the coolest, most interesting, charismatic, smart, caring students I have ever taught.
A few weeks ago, I heard my student screaming in the bathroom. I mean really screaming. The bathroom is located right across the hall from our class and two of us bolted to the door to see what the problem was. 8,000,000 things went through my mind in the 4 seconds it took me to get to the door. Was she hurt? Did she cut herself? Had she broken her leg? We knocked frantically and went into the bathroom and breathed a deep sigh of relief. My student was having her first period. She was bawling and very upset because she did not understand what was happening to her. My student has a Developmental Disability that impairs her ability to process information so explaining this was normal was a very difficult thing for her to understand.
We got her cleaned up, assisted her with some materials and brought her back to class to relax. (My other students who also heard her screaming were freaked out and needed to see that she was okay)
I called mom to let her know what had happened and supported the student through the remainder of the day until it was time to go home. I explained to the student multiple times that it was part of growing up and that all women experience this but she still seemed incredibly confused by the whole thing.
I went home that night and decided it was time for my 5 girls to learn about their menstrual cycles. However, I have never tried to teach students with Developmental Delays about what happens during puberty. I thought about what I needed to do to explain this effectively.
The next day I spoke with the parents of the other four girls and told them that we would be speaking about this in class. I wanted to prepare them in case they came home and had questions. Some of my student’s ability to communicate is quite impaired so when they come home talking about blood with no context there could be some confusion.
I also prepared visuals for us to use in class and visuals with a dialogue for home. It is really helpful for my students to hear things repetitively so having the same message at home and school is very helpful. I used visuals from Boardmaker online. Here is what an example of that looked like:
I made a time in our schedule over the next 6 weeks for the girls and boys to do a separate activity. The girls stayed in the classroom and the boys went for a walk. During that time, I used visuals to explain when a woman grows up, she gets a period. I explained what a period was to my girls using the most basic language and pictures I could think of. It has taken some time but my girls are starting to understand. For my group, I have had to reassure them consistently that it is healthy. The word healthy was something that they all understood. They knew if you ate vegetables it was good for your body and it made you healthy. It is a word that obviously resonated and made sense for them. After using that word, they all stopped looking so horrified about the concept of becoming a woman.
Privacy has also been a real challenge for some of my students. The day after our first big talk, my student walked into school and was so excited to tell me that she explained everything to her mom and dad last night about periods. She said it so loudly that an entire class of grade eight students next door to us heard it and burst out laughing. My other student walked in and loudly asked my other student “how’s your period going?”. My girls have had to be reminded multiple times that periods are private and not something we talk about in public.
Throughout the past few weeks, we have also purchased pads from the grocery store and practiced putting them on underwear correctly.
We will continue learning about puberty and menstruation until all of my girls develop the skills to manage their monthly cycle independently.
