5:44 p.m.
By Dad, hope you have a good time writing.
I'm beginning to stretch a bit at work, finally. The adjustments I asked for in November have been made and the 13 days of work since the new year have played out much as I envisioned, aside from the inherent unpredictability of the work. Students were arriving prior to the arrival of much of my staff, whose hours also called for them to leave before the students left for the day. Inherent pitfalls were twofold: the ability of the staff to collaborate was severely impaired and team members were forced to jump onto a moving train of spastic behavior. This was alright for my aides who understand the constantly evolving needs of our student, but for those new to the worlds of special needs and mental health the learning curve is long, slow, and likely daunting. Training new staff, directly in the classroom, on the inner workings, shifting needs, nuances, communication styles, and learning modalities of people with Autism and Intellectual disabilities is, without question, one of the most challenging metal slaloms a teacher can perform.
However, the most important thing a new team member can do to support students is watch a teacher’s nuances in communication with each student. Studies suggest that only 7% of communication is verbal. That leaves a lot a room for nuance, which can only be learned after prolonged exposure to a person. Assistants who emulate teachers who have spent this time with students are much more equipped to serve and more likely to view days not as “Good” or “Bad” but as days of learning in which more tools are added to the box.
My new assistant (the first granted request) has proven extraordinary at noting nuance. There is very little time during the day in which her student, with whom she works in a one-to-one capacity, does not require attention. It is also the case that verbal communication is not this student’s most effective mode of communication. As a result, nuance in the student’s communication style is vital in our work with him. After spending weeks as the student’s one-to-one aide, I was prepared to share all I had learned with anyone who would listen; my new aide has proven to be the right person.
The program’s new hours (one hour less at the beginning of the day) has been equally as powerful as obtaining a new aide. During that hour, the team is able to debrief, share insight from the previous day, discuss any new protocols, and address student needs and behaviors. As the classroom teacher (there is only one teacher in the district that serves this population), this hour also grants the opportunity to educate the staff on methods of working with young people in a class that has the widest disparity of needs I have ever seen. Understanding that a workday cannot be filled with only talk of work, I am beginning to also use this time to learn two minutes more about their lives; I enjoy hearing their stories.
Those two components, one hour of collaborative time with staff and an aide for my neediest student, have altered my outlook on and approach to the work. The staff enjoys the time spent adjusting today based our understanding of yesterday, and I am afforded the flexibility to tend to an ever expanding and dynamic caseload.
Asking for that which one needs to better do the work they want to do is a critical step in renewing a passion hindered by arbitrary boundaries erected by money and ignorance. If the boundaries are not lifted the work is impeded and the passion loses its brilliance.
No comments:
Post a Comment