It's over! The first week of teaching. I knew I would survive but it felt more like thriving being back in the special education classroom. So much familiarity but also with so much urgency to do and change things to be the way I want them to be. It wasn't all bells and whistles but I would say it was by far my best first week of all my teaching career.
One of the best stories of the week had to do with one of my new students who I am getting to know. We had gone to PE and our two Leadership students were with us. At our school, we have a program that is basically reverse inclusion. Typical students who are juniors or seniors, come into the special needs classes for a block. While in the class, the students work one on one with students in my class as well as provide support for myself and the staff. The goals are to help increase socialization with typical peers as well provide opportunities for the typical students to learn more about their peers with autism. It's not always pretty but it is always beneficial for both!
So, as I was saying, we had come into the gym for PE and one of my students was bouncing a basketball when he decided to lay down on his stomach close to the middle of the gym floor still bouncing the ball. It appeared that he was looking intensely underneath the ball gripping it with two hands and dropping it. Over and over he would bounce and catch while looking intently underneath the ball. I walked over and thought in my head, "What is he looking at?" Now here is the time when I really can't care what a gym full of teenagers are thinking. Thats not a struggle for me, but it is kind of awkward at times. So I did what I knew was the only way to find out what he was looking at. I laid down on the floor next to him and began to watch. What I saw was super interesting.
Our gym floor had been recently refinished and a clear coat of wax had been added to the floor. Some new designs and decals were added as well as the three point area now was a different shade. From where I was standing it just looked shiny and I wasn't really sure what he was looking at. So I laid down, parallel to him, and began to look under the basketball that he was so rhythmically bouncing. The newly waxed floor was more than just shiny from this angle, it was reflective. As I watched, my student was bouncing a ball as if he was opening and closing a window that he was looking through. But what he saw were students running the perimeter of the gym floor looking like a streak of light. As the 20-30 students ran and he bounced the ball, the visual light that was coming through the ball was super visually exciting and neat to look at. It was also enjoyable to see the different colored outfits back various colored streak run by as he kept bouncing and watching. The visual parade of streaks was super enjoyable and very pleasing to the eyes.
Now I had a chance to not only see what he saw, but also to let someone else get a taste of this perspective. I told my student what was going on at the time. Now lets face it, I knew I looked ridiculous but sometimes you just gotta get a different perspective to see what they see. As I shared what I was witnessing, I really didn't expect her to take a first hand look for herself. I mean this a high school senior girl surrounded by a bunch of students. But she did. And she was super excited as she made her own observations of what she was witnessing from this new perspective. I think one of the most enjoyable parts of my job is not only getting an understanding of my students and their world, but sharing that understanding with others no matter how easy or hard it may be.
Sometimes when teachers see students do a certain behavior we look at it only from our perspective. We see how we see it and not how they see or even feel it. We ignore their experience only for our perception and then in turn make false assumptions about whats going on. That day all three of us got some huge benefits. For me, I got a better understanding of my student that will hopefully help me as the year goes on. For my Leadership student, she gained a glimpse into autism that she may have otherwise never seen if she wasn't willing to lay down on the floor and see the world through his eyes. And for my student in my class, I know he saw a variety of different things, but what I will hope he sees is that others are willing to lay down, watch the floor with him, and maybe just maybe start the beginning of a brand new friendship. Every perspective is different and to get a better understand of the world of autism, sometimes you may have to lay down on the floor.
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