On my Soapbox: Teacher of the Year, then and now

Those of us involved in education out here in Oregon were pretty excited to have one of our own named as 2008 National Teacher of the Year. I was even more delighted when Michael Geisen accepted his award from President Bush with a polite but firm stance outlining the shortcomings of No Child Left Behind.  As reported by Charles Pope of The Oregonian, Geisen “used the White photo opportunity to make a case for classroom creativity over a testing regimen.

‘So often in public education, we squander this creativity, we squander the entrepreneurial spirit of children because we place such a high value on being right all the time,’ Geisen said during the event. ‘They’re notof our own, named as 2008 National conglomerations of hormones, they’re not animals to be trained, they’re not just numbers to be measured or future commodities to produce. They are our equals.  They’re the here and the now.’

Geisen is concerned that No Child Left Behind can censor innovative teachers like himself because of its heavy reliance on tests to track achievement, rate schools and punish poor performers.”

Read the full article here.

At the same time Mr. Geisen’s remarks were hitting print, I was buried in historical research that had me reading through newspapers from Grafton, North Dakota, circa 1903. I had to marvel at a series of weekly columns by Superintendent of Schools J. Sonderall, whose 100-year-old words prove that some things should never change. “A never-failing test of good teaching,” he writes, “is the ability of the teacher to hold the attention of her pupils.” The surest way to lose the attention of students, Sonderall says, is to “be a slave of the textbook,” to promote “concert recitation” and “parroting” of answers.

“A prerequisite of the good teacher is sympathy for children.  A teacher should be a student of child nature and understanding the workings of a child’s mind. (She) must study the noble as well as the ignoble traits of each of her pupils, ascertain what her pupils know about the subject, take in to consideration the intellectual development of her pupils, present each phase and part of the subject as may be absorbed, for the time being, to the greatest benefit of the child mind. The motto should be, not how much, but how well. Be thorough – not hasty.

“A teacher with dull imagination has no place in the  school room. She must see a subject in the same light as her pupils, and modify her explanations and illustrations in terms of their language and experience... A teacher may employ various means for holding the attention of her pupils in the various subjects, but behind it all must be the guiding spirit of the teacher who both knows her subject and is willing to teach.”

Superintendent Sonderall was and is dead right. But I believe the willingness to teach is not what is in short supply these days. It is our own willingness to untie their hands and allow them to teach to the student, rather than to the test.

Speaking of which --

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Congratulations, Bryce!

For the second time this year, Bryce has been honored as a Thomas Edison High School Student of the Month. He was nominated by his history teacher, Devan Dunn, “for your consistent excellence in World History and your ability to juggle so many activities and still perform.” And we thank Mr. Dunn for his consistent excellence in teaching a complex curriculum in a manner that is both relevant and accessible.

Bryce wanted me to share this track photo with you. As he wraps up his freshman year at Thomas Edison, he looks back on eight months of profound changes with the declaration: “I’ve never been happier in my life.” Don’t you think it shows in his face?

These photos of Bryce and classmates were taken on a two-day field trip to the Wooden Boat Center in Seattle. The school offers five such excursions each year, to different outdoor venues around the Northwest. These wonderful opportunities get kids into new learning environments outside the classroom and outside their own community. It’s hands-on, multi-sensory, social learning at its best.

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Play time: Ten Things to do with a Big Box

I will never forget how astonished – and delighted – I was to discover that thousands of plain old play activities were actually useful sensory integration experiences.  I think there’s a little place in all of us gr’ups that is still a little kid who loves that kind of play. I freely admit that one of the “funnest” things my kids loved to do was play with boxes – big boxes. The foosball table was universally ignored, a fiasco as a family activity, but the box it came in was a pirate ship, a bobsled, a fort and several other incarnations before it simply disintegrated from use. What fun I – I mean, they – had!

It’s not at all uncommon for children to love the large box something comes in more than the item itself. Young children do not yet have a sense of value; rather they judge objects by their fun quotient, and large boxes rate very highly in this category. For your child with autism, they can provide wonderful sensory-therapeutic experiences. Many ASD kiddos enjoy enclosed spaces like closets, cubbies and hidey holes, and a refrigerator or other large appliance box is ideal for this kind of space. Here are ten ways to adapt a refrigerator box to your child’s interests and needs:

• For the tactile-input seeker: line the insides with textured items that he will enjoy feeling, such as fur, sandpaper, etc. Or fill pockets with textured items (marbles, seeds, etc.) Clear vinyl hanging shoebags provide inexpensive ready-made pocket space.
• Some kids bliss out on bubble wrap – imagine a whole “room” lined with it.
• Paint the interior with chalkboard paint and he can change the landscape to suit his needs whenever he feels like it.
• A small-screen TV or DVD player makes it into a movie theater.
• A sleeping bag and flashlight make it a campsite.
• Make it into a restaurant. For your picky eater, any trick that encourages healthful eating is worth a try. He may even surprise you and try something new. Don’t forget to practice ordering and paying the check!
• Install a steering wheel. He’s a race car driver, a bus driver, a truck driver, fireman or pilot.
• Make a quiet place. Paint the inside a calming color and furnish with pillows, books, stuffed animals, headphones and music.
• For the space aficionado: cut star shapes in the top
• Language lessons: big boxes are ideal for creating games that teach the spatial vocabulary and concepts that can be so difficult for our kids. Try a version of Simon Says, emphasizing spatial terms: “Simon Says go inside the box. Shake your foot outside the box. Hide behind the box. Run around the box. Throw the beanbag over the box.”

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The Autism Trail Guide: Eric Hoffer Book Award finalist

The Autism Trail Guide: Postcards from the Road Less Traveled has been honored as an Eric Hoffer Book Award finalist.

The Hoffer Award was founded by award-winning author Christopher Klim (with permission from the Eric Hoffer Estate) “to honor freethinking writers and independent books of exceptional merit.”

Learn more at www.hofferaward.com
and read an excerpt here

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Meet my readers: fellow writers Kerry Cohen and Judith Mammay

Oregon Book award finalist Kerry Cohen describes her experience parenting her son who’s on the autism spectrum in the essay, “What's Wrong With This Picture?”

Kerry is the author of Easy (Simon & Schuster), an Oregon Book Award finalist and ALA-YALSA Quick Pick, and Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, coming in June from Hyperion.

Judith Mammay has just released Knowing Joseph (Blooming Tree press), a book for mid-grade readers about Brian, who struggles with the fact that his younger brother has autism, his own need to be perfect because of it, and the bullies who taunt him because of his brother. www.judithmammay.com.

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This month’s Reads

Autism Asperger’s Digest

We Walk Before We Run
Postcards from the Road Less Traveled,
Autism Asperger’s Digest
May-June 2008

Excerpt:

Both of my kids had to learn to walk before they could run. And I can just hear you saying, duh! Everyone has to learn to walk before they can run!

It’s a simple truth but it often falls apart when we go to frame our hopes for our child’s future. The diagnosis of autism seems to come with a fast-forward button that makes us leap light years ahead, wondering will he ever - go to college, hold a job, marry, be a parent. These questions are extremely important, because nurturing a child to independent adulthood is the goal of every parent, regardless of whether their child has autism or not. But the hours we spend fretting about the “can he/will he” issues years from today are far better spent in the here and now, building the scaffolding that will support his journey to those goals of adulthood.

The future we envision for our children is built one step at a time, in thoughtful, patient, and well-planned increments, not “break-throughs” or miracles...

Autism Asperger’s Digest
Two-time MarCom Gold Award winner
Two-time NAPPA Parenting Resources Gold Award winner

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Children’s Voice

Summertime, and the reading is easy...Tips to keep kids reading through the summer
Exceptional Children:  Navigating Special Education and Learning Disabilities
May-June 2008 

Excerpt: 

“I find television very educational,” Groucho Marx once said. “Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.”  It’s an attitude most schools would like to encourage... 

...Here are 10 things you can do to help children with one of education’s most essential building blocks. 

1. A child who seems disinterested in books may be very interested in reading something he has written himself.  Have him write out his stories or narratives and read them back to you. Or he can dictate them to you or a recording device.
2. Let your child choose what he wants to read, and where he wants to read it. Don’t assume that your favorites (or his siblings’) will be his too. Encourage him to read anywhere: hammocks, lofts, nooks, forts and bathtubs can all be attractive reading spots...
3. Wordless books are reading too. Have the child make up his own story to go with the pictures (write it down and add details during subsequent readings), talk about sequencing (how stories have a beginning, middle and end), and make up names for the characters..

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Healing

Three Little Words
Healing, Spring-Summer 2008 

Excerpt: 

“I was wrong.” So many people find it terribly difficult to say these three little words, and yet nothing is more loving than giving your children the gift of being content with their own humanity. By freely admitting when you are wrong, you are you are modeling strength, grace and humility... that, not only will the world not come to an end with such an admission, but that trying again and/or making amends can feel great. 

“Just be yourself.” As children grow older, they mingle with more and different kinds of families, and they begin to be able to place themselves in the context of the larger world. My kids heard “just be yourself”  enough to ultimately learn that, whatever their doubts about themselves and their various limitations, they have the power to decide whether to be their own best friend or their own worst enemy. That’s a power no super-hero can touch...

You can now download the entire issue here as a PDF.