AKA Proverbs 11:27

 

High expectations

If you were to sit down with any one of my students after having me as their teacher for about a month.... you would know I have high expectations for them.

If you're new to my blog (Welcome!), I am a high school special education teacher.    I'm in year 15 working as a Resource Room Language Arts Teacher.    I've been with my district for all 15 years and I'm incredibly blessed to be able to say I LOVE WHAT I DO.

My students have learning disabilities.   It is my personal belief, that we all have some sort of learning disability.   

In my classroom, I have a saying.    By the end of the first marking period with me, students KNOW exactly what this saying is and what it means.    It goes a little something like this:

In Mrs. Geib's classroom, we do not allow our 

circumstance to become our excuse.

In other words, I do not allow my students to use their disability as an excuse to do less than.   I do not allow them to use their disability as a crutch.    We spend time working on us.   We identify our strengths.   We identify our weaknesses.    We work together to grow and improve.    

When school "closed" for the year, I was heartbroken.   I had the ugly tears and everything.   I was really worried about my students.    I didn't know what to expect from them with online work.   I didn't know what to expect from myself.    These past few weeks have been eye opening learning experiences for both of us.

This week, I've asked my students to share with me what they are learning about themselves as online learners and the responses I'm receiving are amazing.    They're honest.   They're raw.    They're authentic.    I can't help but smile as I read each and every one pop in.    Each notification that pops up on my phone or computer, I find myself pleasantly surprised.

I'm also learning that teens have weird hours.    We've read countless articles on the teen brain in class and we've read a lot about the importance of a good nights sleep.    Seriously... there's a boat load of these articles on the NPR website alone.

I am so glad I didn't lower my standards for online learning.    I am so proud of the students who are taking the time to get the work done and not just done... but done WELL.    At 12:04am I was inspired to post this blog.    Why?    Because my phone dinged and I received this beautiful visualization task from one of my amazing students.     She's a phenomenal artist and it seems her creative spark comes out late at night.    She's reading and creating.    She's learning at the beat of her own drum.    She is not giving up.   She is not shutting down.   She rages on, and I couldn't be more pleased.  

Book review

Our district is presently working on a Reading Challenge.   #PASDReads1Million

I love to read.   I am a reading teacher for a reason.

As a reader... I have quirks.    One of which is I rarely ever read the life story of someone who is still alive.   It's rare for me.   I broke that rule with my girl Tina.   She's 80 and I love her.    She's a freaking warrior.   

YES - I am a huge Tina Turner fan.   Oh, I adore her music!   Love it!

Look.... me as a tiny human trying to be Tina:

Have you ever read a book and deliberately started reading SLOWLY because you know the book is about to end?

That's what happened with me and this book.   I absolutely adored each page, each line.    It's beautifully written and I highly recommend! 

What are YOU reading right now?

Black Out Poetry -

This week, we tried something completely new and completely out of our comfort zones. 

Black.  Out.  Poetry. 

I have been reading about the literacy skills involved with Black Out Poetry, and after seeing a friend post one of her pieces on social media, I decided we should take the risk and try it.   Ultimately, I let the students decide.

The first thing I did was explain it, very briefly.

I then challenged students to complete a graphic organizer while searching the web for information on Black Out Poetry.   Students even went so far as to use the hashtag to search, too.   #blackoutpoetry

Once students saw the samples I had shown, we watched this video.  

We then talked about steps to Black Out Poetry.   I had found several websites with several different approaches.   In my presentation, I stressed to students that we would find what works for us and that the steps were simply to guide us and they weren't all completely necessary.   Our goal was to find our creative process.

We needed a practice round.

For the practice round, I supplied students with the lyrics to two songs.    We listened to both songs and students chose what song they wanted to "Black Out." 

We had so much fun with this!   One of the coolest parts (for me, at least) was hearing and seeing students mess up.    Kids were saying, "Crap!   I goofed!"   Or "Man!   I should have made the circle wider" or even "Oh man... wait... ok... ok... I got it... no biggie."

The next round was student choice.   

Students were instructed to find song lyrics they would like to Black Out, or simply ANYTHING.  Some students chose poetry.   Some chose lyrics.   Some chose an article from the local newspaper. 

They did amazing work!    Some students figured out that they liked ILLUSTRATING their poetry before blacking out while others preferred blacking out first.

Hearing the kids talk through their process together was one of those smile file moments.

Once we finished, we discussed some of the processes they were using:

• creative thinking
• connecting literature to art
• brainstorming
• pre-writing
• thinking analytically
• making connections
• creative writing
• understanding figurative language
• etc...

I never expected them to want to go further.   I kid you not... I had students BEGGING to "do just one more."   I asked them if they would want me to host a Prime Time (study hall type thing we have here) and they said yes... but they also wanted to do one more in class.

We decided we would take random pages from our class novel to Black Out.    

The pieces are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to share them with you once they are back from lamination.    

I am completely blown away by this experience.   

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my job!?!?

About Elliot... on Autism Awareness Day

https://faithfulleigh.blogspot.com/2019/04/autism-awareness.html

This post is from my personal blog (see link above) but felt it was appropriate to share here, too.

This post has been in the working for quite some time now.   I see it only fitting that I "go public" with it on World Autism Awareness Day.   I warn you, that this post is long.   I challenge you - to read it all.

While it has been a long time since I have typed in this particular blog, it is quite obvious that this blog documents a journey.   It goes all the way back to the days of infertility and here I am now with two beautiful and healthy children.

My entire life has been around autism.   My dear friend Maevis inspired me to be a special education teacher.   In high school, I spent my free time teaching autistic individuals how to swim.   Autism is my "thing."   I once had a student tell me that they appreciate me because I "spoke autism"... and fluently!    I'm nerdy.   I like to be up on all the latest research.

My pregnancy with Elliot was perfection.  Elliot was conceived naturally.   We used progesterone supplements during the first trimester to make sure he stayed safe.  Prior to becoming pregnant with Elliot, we were told, that we would never have a healthy son due to a heart defect on my husbands side of the family.   When we found out we were having a boy... we were completely shocked!  Really?   We had assumed Elliot was going to be Eleanor.   I remember feeling this immense feeling of pride and fear all at once.   He's supposed to be sick.   We immediately had his heart checked.   He was perfect.   And he still is.

Elliot his all of his milestones on time or even ahead of time.   He smiled.  He recognized his name.   He crawled.  He walked.  He ran.   He's been talking since he was six months old (seriously) and hasn't shut up since.   He never demonstrated any learning delays at all.   Other than a slight speech problem, no "red flags" for anything... especially autism... ever came up.

Elliot has a tremendous vocabulary.    Unfortunately, all of the children in his life up until kindergarten were either quite younger or significantly older than him.   For example, he has a cousin that is a senior in high school.

I did notice that Elliot wasn't a fan of the Children's message at Church.   He didn't really like sitting up there without someone he knew.   Not really a red flag.   Just different.   And I did notice that Elliot preferred and still does prefer toys that look as they do in real life.   For example, his tractors.   He has/had no interest in plastic or flimsy tractors.   He liked realistic toys.

When Elliot began kindergarten is when I started noticing some social issues and I found myself annoyed with myself because I was looking at him not just as my son but with my "teacher hat" on.  He struggled socially in kindergarten.   One student in particular bullied him.   Badly.   He had a very hard time understanding why someone would just randomly be mean to another person.   However, kindergarten was only a half day program.   I had asked for him to be evaluated for speech because he did have some pronunciation issues.   At the time, the school determined that his cute little pronunciations were something he would grow out of.   He was thriving academically.

When first grade began is when the real bells started going off for me.   I am a big fan of routine and structure and always have been.   Maybe I'm autistic, too!   Who knows.  Who cares!

The first week of school was tough for Elliot.   He went from having a three hour school day to a seven hour school day.   He went from being at an in home daycare to school aged child care.  A lot of change was thrown at him at once and despite being prepared for it to the best of our ability (open houses and tours offered, etc) --- he struggled.   At the end of the first week of school, he had expressed a sadness over missing his kindergarten teacher.   He missed kindergarten.   Despite being able to still see his kindergarten teacher, he was still struggling with the new schedule and the new demands.   He was doing fine academically.   However, he was struggling with staying on task.  He was struggling with a full day every day.    He was having some frustrations.   Elliot was able to voice these concerns to me and we came up with some strategies to help him.   A big help was being able to have a good 35 minutes to himself (no Nora, LOL) after school when we got home.   He's allowed to go in my office and draw.  He's allowed to lay in my bed and watch a program.   He can simply just play in his room with the door close.

When report cards came, we signed up for a parent teacher conference.   His teacher is absolutely wonderful.   As we were talking about some of his struggles, I just flat out said, "Do you think Elliot has Asperger's?   Do you think he's somewhere on the spectrum?   Something is a little... Sheldon Cooperish to me."   She was RELIEVED I said something.   By the end of the week his permission to evaluate was signed and I was in touch with the school psychologist.

And because this is how God works.... I laughed when I learned that Maeve was the name of the school psychologist.   It reminded my of my sweet Maevis.   My childhood pal on the spectrum.   God is a trickster.   For realz.

As a special education teacher, I know the "rules" and I know the "lingo."   I went all out with Elliot's testing.   I wanted full evaluations done.  Everything.  The works.   With extra data sprinkled on top.  I also knew that this was going to take some time.   Possibly more than the 60 days the law affords.   I also knew that this was going to be overwhelming for Elliot, and I wanted to make sure that a relationship was formed first and also that there were breaks for him so as not to be completely defeated.   I gave the school psychologist his full medical record in addition to providing four pages of typed feedback.   This is my kid.   Something was off.   I wasn't messing around.

February 1st is when I was told that he definitely qualified for special education services as a student with high functioning autism.   I cried.   I don't even know why I cried.    But I did.   I cried.  A lot.

I soon realized that I wasn't worried about Elliot.   I was worried about how other people would see Elliot.   I'm not a fan of labels and I just knew (and know) that there are struggles coming.   But then, the more I thought about it, I had a "DUH!" moment.   It doesn't matter.   Elliot could be purple with five arms and he'd have struggles.   It doesn't matter what Elliot "has" --- he's going to have struggles and it's my job to love him through it.

His IEP meeting was quite lovely.    Not even kidding.   Maeve was kind enough to provide the reports to me ahead of time.   We had great discussion about Elliot.   My little genius.   We agreed that he would benefit from speech and social skills.   It was made very clear that he is not learning disabled.   No where close.    We talked at length about what kinds of SDI's would benefit him.   We set reasonable goals.   I felt like his IEP was a true team effort.

His classroom teacher is amazing.   She made a "star chart" for him.   His first goal was to hit ten stars.   He mastered that goal.   His second goal was to hit 15 stars.   He mastered that goal this past week.  He is presently working towards a goal of 18 stars and he has been at 17 stars so far this week.

Elliot is far from non-verbal.   It was tough for us to decide if we would tell him he "has autism" because we don't want him all up in his head about it.   I finally sat him down and explained to him about his IEP and what it means and what autism means.   We also had a very good discussion about a classroom rule I have for my students which I now will be passing down to him.    We do not and we will not ever allow our circumstance to be our excuse.   He is not to every "play the autism card" or "use the IEP excuse." and at his young age of seven, he understands this.

You're probably wondering where Elliot struggles.   I was thinking about posting that but I'm not going to do that.   It's my belief that people need to be judged by the content of their character.  Their integrity.   Not their deficits.   Elliot has them.   And guess what... you do too.

What I can tell you about my son is this...

• he is and always will be the love of my life
• he is a fighter just like his mama.   Goals have been set for him, he's processed them, and he's already knocking them out of the park
• he's caring, he has a huge (and healthy heart)
• he loves to learn
• he is especially strong in math and really enjoys science
• he's a book lover
• he loves corny jokes
• he's a builder
• he thinks in pictures
• he understands sarcasm
• he believes in kindness
• he has hugs that an army could get lost in
• his big brown eyes are deep and genuine
• he tells me about his dreams almost every single day
• he is happiest in nature
• he's met one friend this year and it brings me great joy
• he has a toothless smile that can make your day
• he celebrates his success
• he acknowledges his failures
• his hands fit perfectly in mine
• he is an artist
• he is a visual thinker and hands on learner
• he never forgets (blessing and curse)
• he's working hard at being the best Elliot he can be
• he is not allowing his circumstance to be his excuse
• he has made me a better woman since the day I knew he was coming
• he is going to change the ****ing world.... just watch
• he relies on and trusts in God
• he is doing the best he can

It's funny, really.   When we were going through infertility and having miscarriages on the regular... some people would make that age old stupid comment of, "Everything happens for a reason."   I prefer saying, "God is going to use this!" --- it has all come full circle now for me.   

I fell in love with Autism when I met Maevis.    

I fell more in love with Autism when I started teaching for PASD.

I fell in love with my son when I first saw his tiny heart beat flicker on a screen.   

I fell even harder when I held him for the first time.   

And now God has used me through it all.... he has chosen this remarkable young man (who happens to have a few quirks) to be my SON.  He has chosen me to be his Mommy.   And I promise you all this... he is going to change the ****ing world.   He already has changed mine.   

Well played, Lord.   Well played.   

Elliot Walter Geib, you are a Child of God... who happens to have this thing called Autism.  And I love you to the moon and back, forever and ever Amen!  

When you cry on a Monday...

Let's face it.

It happens.

Teachers are human.   And sometimes tears are shed.

Tears of frustration.

Tears of anxiety.

Tears of ... well... anything.

Today.... it was tears of JOY.

Seriously, I came into work this morning to this:

Because you see.....  I have beliefs.  

I truly believe that before learning takes place a student must feel two things.   First of all, they must feel safe.   Secondly, they must feel valued.   If either of these things are lacking, you're in for an uphill battle.

I truly believe that we as teachers hold a significant amount of power.   

I'm not talking about classroom management.

I'm talking about the power to take an "I can't" mindset away from a student and turn it to an "I can."

I'm talking about the power to take a negative attitude and turn it to a confident attitude.

I'm talking about taking a back row, hide my face so the teacher can't see me student and turning them into a LEADER.

We have that power ya'll.   

It all starts with relationships.     Then curriculum can come in.   

Smile file

If you really want to know why I teach.

This.

This right here.

I'm really going to miss having Mama D with us but so glad she made such a strong impact on my kids!  On OUR kids!

Dude... I lost...

But her face is priceless!!!

Smile file!

My heart darn near exploded when I received this beautiful gift!   One of my students created a book for me!   The illustrations are all her own!  The writing is all her!   Holy smokes, I can't stop smiling!   What a gift!!!!

Tired of it...

This is what happens when your students are tired of the layout of the room.   THEY change it.   I like it!  Once again, would have never ever thought of this particular layout.   Actually, I lied.   I don't like it.   I LOVE it!!!

Halloween Shift

I teach high school.   Let's face it, it can be a tough crowd.  Especially at Halloween.   Teaching on Halloween is interesting.   You have a unique population on this day.

For example... you could have:
A.) A normal day
B.) Students who already dove into the candy stash at home
C.) Students who are not focused because they can't wait to go trick-or-treating
D.) Students who are bitter because they want to go trick-or-treating but someone has told them they're too old for such things

I was wondering what on earth I could do for my students for Halloween without violating any wellness policies by sugaring them up and without looking like the corniest teacher they have ever met.   As the wheels turned, I decided what point is Halloween if I can't freak the children out a bit?

Mu hahahaha

The link above is to a Pixar Short called "Alma" - this story completely bugged the students out.   It's a bit freaky.   It's up to interpretation.   And oh my gosh there are NO WORDS!?!?!   Oh, the horror!

A few weeks ago we had discussed the difference between making an inference and making a prediction.   We talked about how similar these reading skills are but we drove the point home that typically a prediction is confirmed or denied once a story ends.   An inference, however, is open to interpretation.   What I had planned to be a forty minute lesson ended up spinning into TWO class periods filled with partner shares, discussions, a lot of "what ifs" and fact-checking.   The students completely took control.   And what's funny is my intention was to freak them out a bit.   I never expected for them to freak me out in return.   

Truth!

Teacher funny