ED 630 Someone Else’s Kids
Liam Breathnach
In the book Somebody Else’s Kids by Torey Hayden you are given a
viewpoint into a year in a special education classroom with four students. Boo
is Autistic, Lori has severe reading issues due to a traumatic brain injury,
Claudia is an over achiever, but is also 12 and pregnant and Tomasso is a real
challenge to Torey with his behaviour.
Things that jump out for me when reading the book are the goals
that Torey has for the year. Education in the typical sense takes a back seat
to the overall well-being of the children, and Torey spends time making sure
they are learning how to deal with their issues. The foundations of their
education are learning how to handle themselves in a way which will allow them
to function in the classroom. That moves the goalposts from the requirements in
a regular classroom. Through conflict between Torey and Lori’s regular
classroom teacher, we see that not everyone is capable of, or wants to make
this change. Torey also seems to be even more adaptable in her teaching than
would be normal. Knowing if something is not working in a class and being able
to change tack but keep things moving is a valuable skill for any teacher, but
Toreys group of students require this more than usual.
With the backgrounds these students have, they require more
compassion and patience than a teacher would expect to have to give a students
in a regular classroom. Torey displays these traits with each of her students.
Dealing with students with disabilities mean it may require longer periods of
time in order to establish rapport and trust and positive progress may be
extremely slow and fragile. Torey quite honestly had no answers for her
students on some occasions, and could not do anything to help their situations
except to be there for them. That honesty may not have always immediately
worked in here favour but seemed to be a vital part in her relationships with
each of them.
Tommaso has experienced some emotional disturbance in his life. He
witnessed his father being murdered while he was young. Emotional disturbance
is a disability classification under IDEA. Due to the disturbance Tomasso has
difficulty maintaining social relationships with peers and teachers. He is
generally unhappy with his situation and he has trouble controlling his
reactions to normal circumstances. All of these things make it difficult for
him to learn in a regular classroom (Snowman and McCown, 2015). Tomasso is
prone to outbursts and combative. He has trouble trusting people which may
relate to his times in foster care.
Tomasso would be a very challenging student to have in a class. I
have seen combative students before and I remember a particular look from a
student when I let myself get caught up in an argument. I immediately knew the
situation was lost. As hard as it is, it would be important not to engage in
Tomasso’s behaviour. You will reinforce the ideas he has about authority and
only exacerbate the situation. Torey refuses to engage and only tries to
protect other students, ignoring Tomasso where possible and positively
reinforcing him where possible. This would be very difficult in a classroom but
as seen in Maslow’s hierarchy, students must feel comfortable and have few
stresses if they are to be able to concentrate on learning (Snowman and McCown,
2015). Fighting or pushing away Tomasso would likely reinforce his view that
authority figures do not care and he has to do things alone. Positive
reinforcement would therefore be very important, and diffusing his explosions
would also be vital. I would need to speak in a very measured way at all times
to a student like Tomasso and when his mood was stable speak about what the
requirements are and why his outbursts do not help him or anyone. I think it
would be important to have accommodations in the discipline required from
Tomasso at first. Outside of very serious offences it would be necessary to
diffuse the situation or allow it to run its course, if that was possible in a
safe manner, in order to deescalate the matter. It is likely necessary to
ignore some behaviour in order to not have the entire c;ass taken up dealing
with Tomasso. There are lots of other students who deserve my time and I need
to work to spread myself out amongst the students as much as possible. Tomasso
shows himself to be a smart kid when in control of his emotions and he
increasingly integrates with the class over time when he feels more trusting
and safe.
A student with these issues probably has the attitude of a loner,
and would need to be integrated with the class body. In this way, the student
could learn from example what is required to develop relationships. In the book
Tomasso was often paired with Lori. Lori’s open and unbiased world view had a
large effect on Tomasso, and he ended up being very protective of her. Such a
situation could be unfair on one child, but correct placing of the struggling
student could pay dividends. Sitting with an understanding, tolerant student or
group could guide the student through the social protocol required to succeed
in group setting. The traits mentioned earlier such as patience and compassion
would be necessary within the group the students was in, but hopefully, the
attitude demonstrated by the teacher would be adopted by the class.
Haydens book is nearly as old as I am, and in that time, there has
been a lot of progress made in the fields of neuroscience and psychology. Also,
teachers, administrators and parents are more aware of the disabilities that
are seen within a student body. It would be very important to use the services
and expertise which are available, such as those of school counsellors. Understanding
past occurences and behaviors would be very important. It would also be
worthwhile working with whatever other professionals are available to is create
a functional plan to work with the student and to see that other teachers work
consistently toward the same understood goals. This is not without difficulty
in terms of extra meetings and differing viewpoints, but a coordinated plan
would be to everyone’s benefit.
I think it would be important to have prevention of outbursts as a
key goal. This would mean learning about situations which may provoke strong
reactions and the student’s particular “tells” so that you can prevent them
before they happen. In this vein, dialogue with the students and finding out
the experiences of others would be important. If you know what will set your
student off you can minimize these situations. If there are times of day where
outbursts are more frequent you can be extra vigilant of seek extra help. You
could know what types of tasks will increase stress and either give
accommodations, or give choices which would reduce stress or would allow for
the task to be completed in a different manner. All of these would require
extra effort of the teachers part but are still required in a classroom (n.d.,
2013)
One of Torey’s concerns in the book is keeping Tomasso in the room
when he is experiencing difficulty. She bars the door sometimes but that may
not always be possible and it would cause a teacher real difficulty as you
should not leave a classroom unattended either. To combat this, I think it
would be necessary to establish basic rules and expectations but also to try
and engage the students in dialogue over the issue when possible. Keeping an
eye out for signals that a student may be considering leaving and altering
lessons and activities to minimize creating these situations would be vital (Christensen
et al, 2005). If the student experiences a build up of energy from sitting or a
type of constant work then you would need to work on making the lesson more
interactive and more differentiated. But this is good teaching policy
regardless of the specific discipline issues a troubled student may bring to
your class.
There were events in the book when Torey had to physically restrain
Tomasso and other times when he released his anger and frustration on school
property. In these events, it is likely that the students is in a state of high
agitation, and will require a time to cool down. However, by monitoring the
situation and trying to stay ahead of the signs it, may be easier to manage the
situation (Christensen et al, 2005).
Let’s face it. You would not seek out a student like Tomasso to
have in a large general education class! The displayed issues of violence, mistrust
and temper control are very challenging and it would be extremely difficult to
run the class in a manner that was fair to all students. But there are
strategies which can be used, and they are mainly in keeping with good teaching
practice anyway. With a student like Tomasso your patience would be severely
tested, but building trust would be a major step to success and would require
that patience. Being caught in any lie or misinformation would likely be a big
set-back and therefore you would need to be fortright in your expectations,
rules and execution of discipline. This is certainly not a straightforward task
but it is essential. It would also be necessary to use whatever life and teaching
experience that is available to you in order to work out the underlying causes
of the undesirable behaviour and prepare your lessons and classes in such a way
so as to minimize the outbursts and disruptive behaviour. After all, they do
say forewarned is forearmed!
Good luck…
Snowman, J., & McCown, R. R.
(2015). Psychology applied to teaching. Cengage
n.d. (2013). Strategies for teaching students with behavioural problems.
Retrieved from http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/teaching-strategies/strategies-for-teaching-students-with-behavioral-problems/
Christensen, B., Jeager, M., Lorenz, R., Morton, S., Neumann, L.,
Rieke, E., Simpson, B., Watkins, C. (2005). Best Practices Guide to Intervention.
Retrieved from http://www.k12.wa.us/SpecialEd/Families/pubdocs/bestpractices.pdf
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