Alicia’s Letter
Alicia writes, “I’m just as at loss. I feel the overwhelming need to educate these students to the best of my ability, but I need some advice from somebody who has more experience than I.”
Professor,
I know that I have never had a class with you aside from student teaching seminar but I feel as if you would be able to help me with a few things.
I am a brand new preschool teacher and the students are all special needs, some students have IEP goals that are completely unrealistic for the child at this point in time. For instance, I have a little guy, called Enrique, who may not be able to hear. Enrique’s therapists, his mother and I are all in consensus, that he may be deaf. (There is a lack of medical care due to family transportation issue.) Unfortunately, some of his IEP goals state that he should be able to follow through with verbal commands.
The reason that I’m writing you is because I’m just as at loss. I feel the overwhelming need to educate these students to the best of my ability, but I need some advice from somebody who has more experience than I.
I have been having some struggles with my aides. They seem to do things that are against my personal philosophies, even after directly speaking to them about it. When I go on lunch for a half an hour, I come back into the classroom, and my aides have videos playing, with a container of jelly beans. She gives candy to the children “who are sitting nicely.”
Thank you so much for taking your time to read this. Thank you so much for getting back to me!
Alicia
Our Response
Dear Alicia,
Thank you for your letter. We appreciate the challenges you face in your classroom and hope we can help you to improve them.
The scope of the teaching challenges tells us that:
- You are teaching young children in a special needs setting who have diverse learning needs;
- Some children have challenging behavior and others have intellectual. emotional and physical needs;
- This is the first time some children have been in an early years setting. A lack of background information about each child prevents educators from being able to fully meet their individual learning and developmental needs;
- Some tension with the classroom aides suggest educators are not collaborating in a team.
We need to plan the best way for you to respond to each of these teaching challenges so that your teaching and each child’s learning and care experiences are improved as quickly as possible.
We are suggesting that you introduce a number of strategies into your classroom that will help both children and educators.
This website provides information to get you started with meeting the needs of the children in your classroom:
Students with Special Needs in the Preschool Classroom
Pat Satterfield pat@center4ATexcellence.com
http://www.center4atexcellence.com/documents/studentswithspecialneedsinthepreschoolclassroom1.pdf
After reading and following the points from the power point Center4Excellence Students with Special Needs we suggest you:
1. Build a team of educators consisting of the director, the teachers and classroom aides that has a designated time to meet for 20 minutes at the end of each day.
A daily team meeting will give all educators an opportunity to work together, learn how to improve their teaching and agree with decisions about how to introduce changes into the classroom. This will bring consistent teaching practices into the classroom that will help each child and each educator.
I have been having some struggles with my aides. They seem to do things that are against my personal philosophies, even after directly speaking to them about it.
- Collaborating with classroom assistants: making it work for you:
http://www.childcarequarterly.com/pdf/winter12_assistants.pdf
2. Organize the classroom in ways that enable each child to fully engage in their play as soon as they arrive each session.
Improved classroom organization will help each child become more independent by finding the toys and using the materials they want to play with. When children are fully engaged in their play, their behavior will improve which will give educators more time to support them.
- The Power of Purposeful Preschool Environment:
http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2014/the-power-of-purposeful-environments
3. Create a flexible daily routine that consists mainly of long periods of free-play with as few transitions as possible.
A flexible daily routine with few transitions will give each child plenty of time to explore and learn in ways that are appropriate to them. Educators will also have regular opportunities during the day to learn about and support each child’s learning and development.
- Planning Transitions to Prevent Challenging Behavior:
http://journal.naeyc.org/btj/200805/pdf/BTJ_Hemmeter_Transitions.pdf
4. Encourage educators to interact with children during their play.
Beneficial interaction between educators and children will ensure each child’s socialization and engagement are fully supported during play. Children’s behavior will then improve and stress levels in the classroom will be reduced.
When I go on lunch for a half an hour, I come back into the classroom, and my aides have videos playing, with a container of jelly beans. She gives candy to the children who are sitting nicely.
- Building Positive Teacher-Child Relationships:
5. Introduce a system of child observation into the classroom that enables educators to record and understand each child’s special learning and developmental needs.
Recording child observations will enable educators to share and understand each child’s behavior and needs. The team can then accurately assess each child’s progress and plan activities the classroom to support each child’s next steps in learning and that reinforce IEP requirements.
- Beyond Outcomes: How Ongoing Assessment Supports Children’s Learning and Leads to Meaningful Curriculum:
http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/YC_Beyond_Outcomes_Dodge_0.pdf
We hope these recommendations will help you and your team bring about real improvements in your classroom. We hope that the challenges you face are reduced and you are then able to support the needs of children effectively.
Sincerely,
Heather, Lorraine and Tricia