November is a bit of a busy month. There are many Federal holidays, students may likely get sick now from germs as the days are colder and driving more students to shared indoor activities. Some classes have major projects and others may be doing alternative assessments.
November has a few other benefits. The repeated reminders are starting to take hold. You’ve cut deals with students to help develop a relationship with a student while secretly helping them develop a skill.
And you think you’ve got it all together. And then a wrench gets thrown in. An assembly schedule, a new behavior, or sometimes even a new student. And you have to do all the building all over again.
But this time it’s different.
You know how thinly you’re stretched. You’re trying to get these eight students services they need. This new student may need services, but that’s not what you’re ready to address.
A student you’ve worked with a variety of skills, and they’re stepping up in positive ways.
And it is different because you’ve had the time invested in the day-to-day interaction.
So whatever that next challenge is, you’ve overcome many others, probably more daunting because you didn’t know what resources to use initially and now you know that you can depend on the campus security or that teacher around the corner, sometimes even a librarian. The world isn’t just you and a specific student anymore. There are peers, there is the administration. These supports help you as much as knowing what skills you might need to make a decision to help students.
Do you have any comments about this week’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Would you like to be a guest blogger? Would you like to have an opportunity to pilot some materials at your campus? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, here, and on our website. Paraeducate is a company interested in providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published weekly during the academic school year on Thursdays, unless a holiday. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
