Little Red Riding Hood Has a Change

I was so excited to pop into a colleague’s classroom today and see a piece of my Lil’ Red Riding Hood resource being used with her students.  I have to give her complete credit because if it weren’t for her I might not have created the resource.  She was planning on using folk tales and fairytales in her literacy lessons.  She had a few texts, but wanted to do more with them that just read them aloud.  We had been discussing her plans when I offered to make something specific to the alternate Lil’ Red Riding Hood tale that she had in her curriculum and was looking to use.  I spent much of my Christmas break creating the item and delivered the lesson plans to her upon our return.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Little-Red-Riding-Hood-for-Second-Grade-Classrooms-1625612

One of the elements of the resource is a writing page that allows the students to change elements of the story such as the setting, the food she brings to Grandma, the character she meets on the way, and how these characters respond to each other.  It’s a cloze passage and creates a writing piece that even our challenged students can find success.  My colleague had told me that she had used it and that the students really liked writing their own stories.  She also invited me to come in and see what they created.  I looked forward to it.

Well, today I got to read those pieces.  How fun!  They had Lil’ Red in Mexico with pizza, in Seattle with cereal, and more.  Below, you’ll see some of the ones that I had time to take a few pictures of.

   

Not only do I enjoy reading their cute stories, but I’m incredibly honored that my colleague found my work purposeful, fun, and valuable enough to use it in her lessons; not to mention that she liked the results and is now showing them off in her classroom.

Now she’s requesting sets for the Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, and for Cinderella.  Guess what I’m working on during my spring break.  Yea!

Can He Stop Hitting?

“B— is doing so much better!”  Those were the exciting words I heard this afternoon when I visited in one of our preschool classrooms.  But better at what?  Counting? Learning his shapes and colors?  Learning the letters? What?!  Well, it is more than academics and quite a joy for his teacher.

Flashback to September:

I sit with my colleague who teaches preschool.   She is not only new to our school, but new to the profession.  She has taken on two  ½ day classes of 3 and 4 year olds; half of whom are “model” students for the other half that have qualified for special education services due to being diagnosed with autism, down syndrome, or developmental delays.  It’s only the first week of school and she is showing the anxiety on her face as she tells me about the little boy we’ll call “B”.

She is receiving regular comments from families telling her about how their children are afraid of “B” and how they don’t want to come to school.  “B” gets into their personal space and stares at them intently; thriving on their reaction, especially two particular boys.  In addition to this power play with his classmates, he has bitten my colleague more than once.

As she continues to talk, she shows me the beginnings of a pile of paperwork that she is planning on filling out regarding his behaviors.  She just doesn’t know what to do.  She asks about how she can protect the other kids, change their feelings about coming to school, change his behavior, and deal with all of the special needs that her students have.  I don’t think she knows what she has gotten herself into.

I ask more questions to hopefully guide her towards coming up with her own ideas and solutions.  But I quickly realize that her hypothetical toolbox of teaching tools is nearly empty due to lack of experience.  I don’t blame her or judge her.  I remember being at a loss in my first months on the job too, even though I thought I was very prepared.  So, I offer some suggestions; including calling the special education director for specific help in regards to managing children with autism, as this is not a forte of mine.  I promise to come in the next day to support her and see how I might better coach her as we move forward.

Cut to a few weeks later:  My colleague has new problems to add to her concern about “B”.  He’s running around the room and won’t sit on the carpet, let alone stay there during lessons.  He’s still intimidating the other children and biting.  She’s tried kneeling down and talking to him but he just runs away.  Don’t even think about putting him in time-out. After communicating with the special education director, my colleague has enrolled in the annual physical restraint and seclusion training that every special education teacher must participate in.  (http://www.specialed.us/S&R/S&R-FAQ.html )  For now, we’ve decided to assign “B” a special spot on the class carpet, provide him a carpet square (much like a sample piece that you can get from carpet stores), and ask her para-educator to keep a special eye on “B” to see if we can at least keep him in the area of the group during lessons.  I’ve also committed to providing her with pictures of children sitting on the floor so that her students can see what her expectations are.  Let’s start filling her toolbox.

  

It’s December now and my colleague is using the images of children sitting on the floor, as well as a few other images of her expectations. “B” has taken ownership of the special carpet square that now has his name taped across the top. My colleague has liked this idea so much that she has assigned special carpet spots to a few others as well.   Yea!  I’m happy to see that “B” likes his spot and he’s with the class…but he still isn’t staying in one spot.    Now, little mister “B” likes to take that carpet square and move around several times during a lesson to nearly sitting on his various classmates.  They ask him to stop or to move, but he just loves that he’s bugging them.  He doesn’t respond to my redirection either.  Ugh.  To make things even more challenging, my colleague has gained a few more children in her classes and they are all students with IEP’s (Individual Educational Plans).  She has students who push and punch, who get into everything, run around, climb on tables, and throw things.  Yes, those are typical preschool behaviors, but she has it to the extreme and has little help in the afternoons to manage and teach the 18 students.   Though she’s seeing progress with “B” she’s feeling overwhelmed by the work and the pressure to manage it all.

It’s my job as an instructional coach to be a guide on the side and not to directly tell teachers how to do their jobs.  I do a lot of listening and questioning.  Often, the coachees can come to a realization of what they need to do or try.  Sometimes I offer suggestions and I hope to be their support and encourager.  I won’t give up on my colleague or “B”.

Now, I have taught preschool, but it’s been over 25 years ago and I didn’t have any special education students.  I have a full toolbox of things to try with our special education students, but this little kiddo has got me challenged for effective ideas that will keep him and the other children safe and learning.  I think it’s time to call on our current and seasoned special education preschool teachers.

So now it’s February.  My colleague and I have visited a couple of other preschool classrooms that have similar demographics.  There is so much great stuff going on in other teachers’ worlds and if you have the opportunity I highly recommend visiting other teachers within your area of teaching to see what you might glean from their work.  I know I gained a lot from this time.  I kept thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that when I taught preschool?”  and “I wish I had known that back then.”  My colleague took several ideas that she saw and has made them work for her.  It’s so neat to see the growth in her students and in her teaching since then.

But what about “B”?  Well, he’s growing too.  He’s sitting longer on his carpet square and he’s engaging in the lessons more.  But he’s still hitting.  It’s gotten to a point where his teacher is not only concerned about protecting the other kids but she is reaching a point of sheer frustration.  She’s just to her limit with the hitting thing.  I don’t blame her.  It’s been going on for several months and it doesn’t seem to be better.

And then, we meet in March.  We talk about the changes that she’s made and how they are going.  We talk about how much easier the changes have made her days.  She’s happier.  She loves these kids and she truly shows increased confidence.  But yet…”B” remains a high focus.  As we talk about the things that have worked with him, and try to get to the real reason why he’s acting out the way he does, I think back to one of the teachers in the preschool rooms that we visited.  She had a ring of small images attached to her lanyard.  They are specific pictures that she uses to help her non-verbal students communicate.  She can provide them to students at the drop of a hat.  Then it hits me!  Why not use that with “B”?  Since talking to him doesn’t work, and being more assertive hasn’t helped, let’s go to non-verbals and peaceful communication.

So I suggest to my colleague that she make up a ring of images showing the things that she wants and doesn’t want for “B”.  For instance, when he hits, she would take the picture of safe hands and show it to him with a short statement like. “We have safe hands in our school.” Or if he becomes intimidating we show him a picture of a peaceful face and tell him that we “are nice to others.”  I know, some of you might be saying, “Duh.”  But for us, it was something that we hadn’t done.  We knew that he had eventually learned how to sit on the carpet due to the image of a child sitting and lessons that supported that image and expectation.  We knew that he liked videos and had begun to respond to other visual clues.  Before I left, my colleague was already selecting the images that she would use.  That was Friday.

Today is Tuesday.  She has tried the behavior images for only 2 days.  I walked into her classroom this afternoon and “B” was quietly playing by himself at the building blocks center.  I sat with her at a table while she taught a small group of students.  As she finished and the students were putting some things into a bag she was holding, she said, “B— is doing so much better!”  She told me about how he had started hitting and she showed him the behavior image.  He stopped.  He focused on her words and even walked to the time out spot with her!  He didn’t sit in the time out chair, but they did count to ten together before he returned to play.  Since then, he hasn’t hit nearly as often and things are beginning to settle down in her classroom.

I’ll admit that I cheered audibly.  It was great news!  We know this may only work for a while, but it worked!  He is learning and understanding.  My colleague is happier.  She is building her confidence and filling her toolbox.  We take the little successes one day at a time and hope they continue.  It had been a long time and it was very rewarding to see success.

I’m so glad we believed in this child and the kept trying different approaches to meet his needs.  He still has challenges but he is growing and learning, and for a teacher, that’s what we want most of all.  Hurray for “B”!  Hurray for my colleague!!  I’m excited to see what we can accomplish next.

Lessons from the Iditarod

Each year, I love to follow the Alaskan sled dog race, the Iditarod.  When I lived in Anchorage, Alaska I took it for granted.  Each winter, at the end of the annual Fur Rendezvous festival, we knew that the race would start from downtown and that we’d hear daily updates on the radio and the TV’s evening news.  As a student, we didn’t take any time out of class to study the history or use the race as a tool for learning.  It was just a race that happened each year, much like the local sprint dog sled races that occurred around town.  It was more of an interest for tourists or to the Chichakos ( new to Alaska residents).

Now, as I live and teach in the lower 48 (the 48 contiguous states), I think of the Iditarod as such an amazing teaching tool.  I think my childhood school teachers really missed out on a great opportunity.  Even though the race seemed old-hat, so to speak, there were still such elements that would likely have engaged us, the students, in learning more about our own history, culture, and geography.  Not to mention connecting our classroom learning of the 3 R’s to real life.

But I can’t go back to my past and ask my teachers to teach us more about this unique event.  Instead I’ll bring it to my classroom and seek to engage my students in their learning via this special race.

For  several years now, I’ve integrated the Iditarod into our writing, math, grammar, spelling, and reading.  Each year, I added more elements.  (See my product at  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Iditarod-Unit-Activities-and-Printables-2015-543433. )   I was especially excited about 5 years ago when I was able to incorporate technology by using the Iditarod website where my students tracked a musher, watched video, learned vocabulary, and viewed images.

     Well, this year has offered a few more lessons that I can use as further learning opportunities, especially in the area of social and emotional learning.  For instance, on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, Brent Sass, a contender for winning the race and the current champion of the Yukon Quest, was disqualified due to having a device that was capable of 2-way communication.  (http://iditarod.com/resources/press-media/)  He had a iPod Touch that he had used for listening to music and watching movies.  The Iditarod, after all, is a 1100+ mile race and having some sort of entertainment on those long stretches between checkpoints can be very helpful.

     Shortly after this Yukon Quest winner learned of the disqualification decision, he gave a video interview where he took full responsibility for his mistake.  He spoke of how he didn’t even think about using the 2-way communication capability when he decided to bring it along.  He had been able to have it on the Yukon Quest since they allow mushers to use Wi-Fi at checkpoints to update their blogs or websites. (http://www.yukonquest.com/news/clarification-regarding-yukon-quest-rules-two-way-communication-trail)  Brent also spoke of how he didn’t hadn’t and would “never use it as a 2-way device” in this race.  But knowing that the rules were solid, he accepted the consequences, no matter how difficult it was to swallow.   Brent offered an apology to his fellow mushers, his fans and family, and especially to his dogs for letting them down.  He called it a “stupid mistake”.  He could have blamed others, argued with the judges, and/or protested the disqualification when he knew he had no intentions of breaking the rules.  But he didn’t.

     This real life problem offered a teachable moment.  Though I felt really bad for Brent, my students can learn a social/emotional lesson about unfortunate consequences and how to respond to them.  They can learn about following and breaking rules.  We can have an open discussion about choices and whether we felt the consequences were appropriate.

     But that wasn’t the end of the lessons that this year’s race could provide.  The following day, a race favorite, Lance Mackey, shared a heart wrenching self-realization.

     Lance is a four time, back-to-back, Iditarod champion, with two of those wins coming off of winning the Yukon Quest.  He loves the sport and has been involved in mushing and the Iditarod since he was a child.  His father was one of the founding mushers and early winners of the race, and his older brother has also won the race. Last year, Lance did not participate in the Iditarod due to health issues.  In 2001, Lance was diagnosed with throat cancer and went through surgery and chemotherapy.  But that didn’t stop him.  He continued to race, manage his kennel, and take excellent care of his dogs.  But after years of health battles, Lance is struggling.

     In a video interview given at the Tanana checkpoint, Lance shows his swollen, numb, and stiffened hands.  The weather has been extremely cold with temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit.  He tells the interviewer that he can’t feel his hands and that it feels like his fingernails are “being pushed off”.  He decides to stay in Nenana until he could take care of his dogs right, since, at that time, he is unable to put booties on the dog’s feet.  As he chokes up he goes on to say “My brother’s gonna run with me.”  Lance’s brother, Jason, is also running the race.  Lance goes on and says, “I’m messing up his race so he can boot up my dogs.”  Lance wants to get to Nome.

        But that’s not the end.  As Lance continues to talk about his hands he comes to the realization that this may be the end, and not just the end of Iditarod 2015, for him.  He tearfully states, “I can’t do this anymore.”

     The reality brings another teachable moment.  I’ll ask my students, “What does it mean to sacrifice?  Who is sacrificing more?  Is it worth it?  Why or why not?  Would you keep going or quit?” and more.  These are all questions worth asking.  This real life struggle can teach the students about perseverance, empathy, sacrifice, making tough decisions, and what it means to see the end of a dream.

     As I’ve used the Iditarod for engagement in academics, and inspiration toward perseverance and teamwork, this year’s race brings lessons that may last longer that a day or two.  As I write this, the race is at the half-way point for many mushers.  I plan to look for other inspiring lessons as the race continues this year and every year following.  I admire the mushers and I hope that my students will take away some deep, and important lessons from them and the race itself.  It is an amazing opportunity and I’m so glad to be able to bring it to my students.