A special shout-out to Grayson who has put up with some weird stuff this week with the schedule and absences. Mr. Moran even pulled me aside to tell me what a great job he has been doing (after day 1!). Keep it up Grayson! Very proud of you!
I love how you all are jumping right into helping and conversing with the boys. I have witnessed great prompting already- which is extraordinary for this early in the semester! "What is prompting" you may ask? That is guiding the boys toward doing the right thing or getting an answer without actually giving it to them.
Prompting is SO important in the world of special education. You never want to just give answers. We want to believe, and let the boys know we believe, that they can do things on their own and be independent! This doesn't mean that we don't help them. That is, after all, what we are taking this class for. We want to model and show the correct steps toward getting to that point.
So think about the hour that you are with the boys. For the academic classes we never want to just give the answer. See if you can figure out a roundabout way to get them to the answer without just saying it outright (if they are having difficulty).
If you are in a class such as cooking, PE or Community Living, it is important to model correct behavior and to allow them to do the work rather than doing it for them. It's a fine line between helping too little and helping too much and it takes a little while sometimes to find that line. I will continue to remind you of this and guide you throughout the semester.
One other thing that I want you to keep in mind is our Carly video. Remember how in the beginning no one thought anything was going on up in her head? Well they quickly found out that she was a lot smarter than she let on! Think about that when you are working with the boys! We do not know how much they are capable of, so it is very important to keep pushing and to have high expectations for them!
Finally, I want to get to know you all a little bit more! (And I want you to get to know each other more!) Please answer the following questions by commenting on this blog post:
- What is your favorite extracurricular activity (or your favorite thing to do outside of school)?
- What is your favorite class?
- How many siblings do you have?
- What are you most excited about for LINKS?
I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week! Looking forward to chatting with you all on our class time next Wednesday!
Mrs. VanLaan