Plowing through and protecting the Blind Side: Are Offensive Linemen meant to be Special Ed Teachers?

When I was in high school I played football and loved it! I was on the offensive line and there were a couple things that were my main responsibilities. Number 1: run blocking. The essence of run blocking is to find the person that you're responsible for and get them out-of-the-way so that someone else can come through and be successful. Removing obstacles and making sure that there's nothing in the tracks to slow the running back down is what makes a good run blocker.  Sometimes I had to take two assignments to ensure that the holes were cleared by starting with one man and moving up to the second level on a linebacker just to make sure that that running back could make his way through. Although sometimes successful with this more difficult challenge, removing more obstacles obviously made it easier for the runner.  Number 2: protect the passer (quarterback). Moving into pass block position and making sure that any force that was coming at me was going to be stopped so that the quarterback could do what he was supposed to do (throw the ball). Unfortunately at times the quarterback never saw when I failed or messed up as he was dropped by an unsuspecting defensive tackle. Although i managed to do my part well most of the time, there were several occasions where my best offensive protection was just look back and yell "Look out!" in hopes that he would've gotten rid of the ball by the time the defense of lineman arrived to make a tackle. Although those occasions were far and few between the reality was to be a successful linemen I had to do two things: remove obstacles and to protect my person to make sure that he could be successful. I think those two correlations have carried into the special-education world.  I always think for the students in my class but if I cannot remove the obstacles for them to be successful, I will never increase the likelihood for their success. However in doing that I always have to keep an eye on protecting them from things that I may or may not see it coming. In the Public school, it could be something as simple as a fire drill or the gym not being available for PE that day (which is super hard btw). But no matter what it is, my job is two fold: remove the obstacles and protect the person. 

I think that's what made Harrison so great when he came in as a peer helper in my class. Harrison is a senior offense linemen for the Toro's at Spanish Fort. Last year it was his first year in Project Outreach and honestly most people thought he came because of his girlfriend! However as the year went on, Harrison started forming relationships with students in our multi handicapped class. He would spend any free time going into that class to be around them and even left class for extra bathroom trips to pay them a visit from time to time. Harrison would leave his normal crowd of friends of his age to go enter into a classroom were very few recognize them and only a couple seemed even interested in his arrival.  Children with Downs Syndrome, autism, and Cerebral Palsy were all slowly giving him a little piece of attention as he visited daily.  But with a greater time commitment and his own desire driving him, Harrison wanted to build relationships with the students that would be lasting. Coming in to the fall Harrison became a leader of Project Outreach, our service club that connect students with disabilities to their non-disabled peers for the better of them both. Harrison had demonstrated such passion for the students that we felt like his presence on the leadership team was inevitable.  We were right. He didn't just want to be their friend, he wanted to think for them and help them by planning events and activities for the students with the other leaders on the team. But probably the greatest attribute that Harrison brings as a leader is not just his willingness to remove obstacles and protect the people is the fact that he is one who brings people with him. Slowly but surely as the year began, more and more of Harrison's friends, the other players on the football team, started showing up to more and more of our events. In the morning before the bell rang Harrison would bring one or sometimes two of his friends into the classroom to connect with the students that he has grown to love. In his mind, why wouldn't he share what's become such of great value to him. Although he still jokingly makes fun of the fact that his friends can't open the door, and don't know where to stand and where not to stand, he is bringing them with him. This shows his commitment to not only be a leader but to multiplying this vision into others lives. This is probably one of the greatest successes that I will ever see as a teacher. My cosponsor said one day he walked into her class with a student from my class to introduce him to people during his communication segment of his schedule.  He was prompting the student as he had been taught to introduce himself and ask others "What's your name?" Ms. Daniels later came  to my class and said, "he's like a little you." Taking information and putting it in the mind of another person and watching them take that same information and give it to someone else on their own is really the root of multiplying your life. Harrison doesn't even realize what he's doing and his impact on the lives of others or that anybody's even paying attention to him. He's just a guy whose taking something that he loves and sharing with the people he loves because that's what you would do when you're excited about something. But what's even cooler to me is the fact there even doing it!  He could be doing anything with his time at school, but this is how he spends it.  Honestly I think it's become part of Harrison's second nature. What he does on the field is same thing he does off the field. He spends his time removing obstacles and protecting people who are sometimes a little more defenseless than others. And that may be why offense of lineman could be the best special-education teachers out there! 

I Wish I Could...

"Can't you make them stop". These were the words that we're spoken about one of my students who was not having that good of a day. It wasn't that they were upset for no reason, they were just not getting their way and was taking it out the way that they had learned. As my student was clearly being a disruption to several other classes a teacher walked by and said to one of our staff, "Can't you just get them to stop?" When that was told to me a few hours later anger and rage filled in my heart immediately followed by sorrow and sadness. I didn't know who it was, and in all honesty, it really didn't matter. My first thoughts were what do you say.  How should i respond to this when I was clearly frustrated according to one of the other staff in my class. I guess my answer to this question, "Can't you make them stop?" was simple.  I wish I could. I wish there was no such thing as Autism. I wish that every student in my class was in regular classes striving for the same goals as their nondisabled peers. I wish that the students who I teach didn't have to have visual schedules or times built-in for reinforcement to ensure that they completed the tasks at hand. I wish that we didn't need four adults to watch nine students in the classroom that looks nothing like the others in our building. I wish that our students could voice their frustrations with words and even facial expressions and not self injurious or aggressive behaviors. I wish that my students saw the future as a bright horizon instead of a possible reliance on other people for all of their wants and needs. I wish that their parents were not constantly thinking of "I wonder what will happen if something happens to me first." I wish that everyone in our school, could see the world through our eyes and understand that the small strides it take weeks and weeks to accomplish are worth the hours and hours of time it takes to accomplish them. I wish that the students in the class is surrounding us understood that that test that they get to take for that homework assignment that they chose not to do is a privilege and an honor and that our students would love to have that opportunity. And I wish that more students came into my classroom and embraced and engaged the students on regular basis like the wonderful students in Project Outreach had.  And that the end of the night when I'm thinking of other ways of how we could do things better, what can we do to help the student deal with the behaviors, what social story I can write to prevent it from possibly happening again, and what else can we do to not interrupt everybody else around us, when I think about the question of "Can't I just make them stop?" My answer is still devastatingly sad, I wish I could.  I really wish I could.