Glenwood Inc. Experience

My dad drives the bus for special needs children at my school system I grew up in back home.  He has to transport a girl to Glenwood Inc. Glenwood is a special school for people and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder's and other mental health disorders.  Their goal is to provide mental health and educational services in a least restrictive setting.  They are different from most schools in that they are a nonprofit incorporation.  They have over 300 acres of land and have houses where students can live on site.  They also have a program for adults.  The facilities are open year round.  The teachers only get nine paid holidays and do not have summers off.  

While I was home for Christmas break I decided to follow the girl my dad transports teacher.  I shadowed her for two days and really enjoyed my time there!  Everyone goes by first names, including the teachers.  I really liked this because it is very personable.  So in Miss S's class she had two boys (C & J) and one girl (T).  C & J are both nonverbal, but T is verbal.  Usually, once a child is sent from their school system to Glenwood it's because they are violent or have self injurious behavior.  Sometimes parents send their children to Glenwood because they can live there, and it is less involved for them when they have a difficult time handling their children.  If the children is sent by their school system then the school system pays for that child to go to Glenwood.  While visiting Glenwood I got to be somewhat hands on with the children, but most of it was observing.  Miss S had done a great job teaching her students and they were not very self injurious anymore.  J had a meltdown while I was there and Miss S and her assistant had to get out the mat and restrict him, but he was better off of that.  It was kind of humorous because J knows that when he gets in trouble at school he will get in trouble at home.  The teachers at Glenwood have to call the students parents, if the student is not an on-site live-in, to tell them their child was restricted.  J's parents are very good parents and very supportive of their child.  However, if he gets in trouble and has to be restricted he knows that when he gets home his parents will get him in trouble and he will have privileges taken away.  C lives on campus at Glenwood.  T gets transported from home.  While at Glenwood, I learned the days of the week song and the days of the week in sign language.  

My experience at Glenwood taught me a lot more than I already knew about children with Autism.  I used to think I wanted to specialize in working with students with Autism, but I am not sure anymore.  It was very intimidating, yet fun at the same time.  I think that it would be a good place to work, especially starting out, to get really good experience.  The burn out rate seems to be somewhat high, because it is a very strenuous and stressful job.

You can learn more about Glenwood Inc. here.

My Service Learning Experience

Last semester I was in a 1st grade class at an Auburn City School.  I absolutely loved every second of it.  That was my time of the week that I always looked forward to.  My teacher had been teaching for many years and had a lot of experience.  She was a great person to shadow because of her experience and great advise.  My first graders were a very diverse bunch.  I had a sweet little girl with down syndrome, a little girl who was somewhat delayed, a little boy who was dyslexic, and a few children with attention deficit problems.  My first graders were also diverse in the sense that there were many different races.  

What a typical Wednesday looked like in my first grade class:

12:00 arrive to class and kids were finishing up lunch

12:10-12:35 kids went to recess, but if there were strugglers that hadn't finished some of their work they would stay behind in class with me

12:40-1:15 my teacher would teach math and I would help

1:20-1:45 I would help a small group of kid with spelling, because their tests were on Thursday

1:50-2:20 the kids had P.E. and I would help my teacher with whatever she needed help with

2:20-2:30 pack up, listen to afternoon announcements, go home

I really enjoyed working with my spelling student group.  Usually the group of students was the same each week, but sometimes I would have a couple of new students.  I enjoyed this because I felt like it was just what these students needed.  Sometimes a child just needs that little bit of extra attention and I felt like that was where I came in need.  

One girl in my class was a little delayed in her learning.  She had not been diagnosed with any type of special needs, however, it would take her a little extra time to do most things.  She was one of my regular students in my spelling group.  At the beginning of the semester she needed lots of help, but by Thanksgiving she was already doing much better.  Just a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving her mom sent in a paper that she said her daughter had used to practice her spelling words on.  The said spelling words were written in pen, which first graders almost always use pencil.  It was on loose leaf paper, which first graders almost always use their special handwriting paper.  Each word was written backwards with the letters also written backwards.  The little girl had never shown signs of dyslexia before except for maybe a letter written backwards here and there.  Also, from what I have experience with students with dyslexia the word and letters aren't perfectly written backwards like the paper her mom had sent had shown.  So, when my teacher showed me this I was instantly suspicious.  I felt like her mom realized that she was a little cognitively delayed and wanted her to maybe be in special education.  I never found out the result, but my cooperating teacher also agreed with me that it was suspicious.

Overall, I loved my service learning experience.  It almost made me wish I wasn't doing special education and that I was doing elementary education.  However, I know that God has given me the gift of working with children with exceptionalities and I truly have a passion for it.  The kids in my class were so great and would always just come right over to me when I got there and give me a hug.  Sometimes one of them would run up to me and say Miss Brennan guess what I did this past weekend or I lost my tooth today!  It was always the highlight of my week.  The love that kids can give is so great and heart warming.

until next time.

happy learning.

Educational Reform

Article Review: This article is about President Obama advocating for educational reform.  He states how he wants longer school days and extended academic years.  President Obama also states that he wants improved early childhood education programs, higher standards in elementary and high schools, better teacher pay and recruitment, and expanded college aid programs.  Obama states that "a better educated workforce will enhance the nation's long-term prosperity."  He wants to improve funding for early childhood programs saying that it will improve test scores if we start educating children at a younger age.    He wants No Child Left Behind to live up to its name and not just be a failure.  In order to help higher education, Obama plans to increase Pell grants.  

Jackson, David. "Obama Urges Education Reform." USA Today. 10 March 2009.  Web. Fall 2011.

My Opinion: Although this article is from 2009, I think it is still important.  I had to read it for one of my classes last semester and found it to be informative.  It is especially interesting, because you can tell that not much of this has been accomplished.  I do agree with just about everything that he talks about in this article.  I think it is important to improve early childhood education programs, because if a child starts out behind they will most likely stay behind.  If you start children at a younger age you will be able to see what they struggle with and strive on.  Higher standards are always needed, and in every school system.  Better teacher pay is needed because teachers are so under-appreciated.  However, the tenure system also needs to be gotten rid of.  The tenure system secures jobs for teachers that do not really care about their jobs and just want the job as a security blanket.  Teacher recruitment is important because good and passionate teachers need to be recruited into the education system.  President Obama states in the article, "Education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it is a prerequisite."  I think this statement is absolutely true.  I think that education is a prerequisite, but it is no longer a promise like it used to be.  With the state of our economy higher education will not always take you to the highest point, because of the lack in job opportunities.  I believe that NCLB is a great thing, but is not carried out in the right way.  I believe that it has really just made education go to the pits.  It is always a bad thing when the federal government is passing laws on education, because they are not the main source of funding for education, the state government is.

until next time.

happy learning.