Art Therapy

 

This post is to provide others working with students that have moderate/severe disabilities examples of a recent lesson on geometry and art.   

Firstly, students were shown the vocabulary and the different types of shapes.  Then, a picture was shown on the board. Then I would draw a shape and ask the students to copy it.

 

Here is what the chart paper looks like.

 This is a sample of the student's work.

 

Here's another.  

 

Some students did require hand over hand to complete the work but most did not.  The benefits of doing art therapy for the students are focus, improved coordination and simply being in the moment.

Myth of Averages and Universal Design

"Human beings don't line up perfectly.  There is no average learner.  They have strengths and weaknesses.  They all do.  Even geniuses do."  Jeff Rose

The purpose of this article is to support and endorse needed changes in public education in the United States.  Over the past 21 years, as an teacher, the most challenging part of it has been in working in a culture of standardization with students that are all so unique.  Recently, I attended a conference where the "Myth of Averages" was shown to us and it really spoke to me as confirmation of my own experiences as an educator and as a life long learner.  I have put some of the most influential articles here for the reader as blue hyper links for your convenience.

 If you haven't seen Todd Rose's presentation before, it is worth taking the 18 minutes to view it.  He simply lays out the case for why education needs to change and improve how we educate students.  1.2 million drop outs is not acceptable and many of these students have the ability to be geniuses in their own right if given the right support or environment.  Myth of Averages

Schools need to stop working on the premises that one size fits all and differentiate instruction to meet the reality that there is no such thing as an average student.   Everyone is different with strengths and weaknesses.  Conventional teaching was based on a Ford assembly line mentality of factory line assembly.  People are not automobiles or widgets.  Teaching to one type is efficient financially for schools, but devastating financially to the individual and  the national economy. Universal Design

 All teachers should be trained as thought they were special education teacher.  Teaching should be data driven and differentiated, student centered as opposed to teacher centered.  California is presently moving in exactly this direction with its recent change in teacher preparation expectations, but it will take time.  Learning to deal with student behaviors and differences, rather than sending students to the office, taking away recesses, suspending them and expelling them will go a long way in starting the cycle of student drop outs.  Teacher Training

Schools are bureaucracies managed on budgets of scarce resources.  Educational boards are political appointments that tend to make decisions based upon their budgets and community demands.  Access to funding can heavily influence what a district can and cannot accomplish.  Accountability for funds provided can create a culture of accountability that creates a "sink or swim", "win/loose" culture.  Cities with poorer tax bases are constantly challenged in their attempts to provide even the most basic services.  It is easy to understand why student differences and support can be lacking in many schools; they simply can't afford to provide extra support.  Teachers forced between preserving the academic environment to the majority of students and providing a "Free and Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE), teachers lacking training and support will advocate for preservation of the teaching environment and school bureaucracies will back them up. Only investment in changing school culture can turn such systemic failures around. Decreasing High School Drop Outs.  

Standardized testing was designed with the original idea that all students should be able to demonstrate proficiency based on their experiences in standardized schools with a standardized curriculum.  Pressure to deal with ever increasing drop out rates and educational failures around the country, the federal government offered to provide states with funding to help with educational costs, but with the understanding that "No Child [will be] Left Behind".  Schools, states and teachers were held accountable based upon the scores of a single standardized test at the end of each year.  Schools exerted pressure to standardized teachers and teaching practices as a result.  Colleagues were expected to be on the same page on the same day in many schools.  Student centered was bad and teacher centered was rewarded with tenure.  The race was on and a culture of blame and accountability grew.  Scores in some places went up, but so did diagnoses for Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder (ADHD) and medication to help students focus and improve on testing. The ADHD Explosion.  The problem with standardized testing is not only the "win/loose" culture it supports, but also the simple fact that one test does not accurately measure what students have learned. 11 Problems Created by Standardized Testing.

Ironically, we may be witnessing the swinging of the educational pendulum in the opposite way with the passage of "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA). Every Student Succeeds Act.  Education was not included in the United States Constitution as a right.  Historically, students were educated at home on an individual basis.  Towns and states were responsible for the education of their children.  It wasn't until Horace Mann (1796-1859) advocated for a universal educational school system, based upon a Prussian model, that the United States had a public school system. Horace Mann.  Today, with the advent of technology and rapidly changing needs for workers, we all need to consider if the universal system of education that we have all grown up with is still relevant.  Billions, if not trillions of dollars, will be invested in infrastructure, teachers and text books that all may be outdated within a few years. Law of Accelerating Returns.  As populations increase, so will be the need to invest in infrastructure to maintain the paradigm of "universal education", even though, 32% of most college students take at least one course online now. Online Learning.  Learning should be relevant and make sense.  As a nation, educational reform needs to be a priority if we are to remain competitive with other countries and one way to accomplish this is simply to think outside of the box by challenging how we all experienced education.  One size fits all does not work.  Customization and universal access for education will lead to improvement in how individuals succeed ultimately in life and as a result increase productivity in our country.  Sir Ken Robinson, in an interview in 2013, called for a revolution in eduction.  His analogy is one of the best I've seen.  Robinson said: “The big change, I believe, has to be from seeing education as a mechanical or industrial process to seeing it much more as a human and organic one.  Gardeners know that they can’t make plants grow.  Plants grow themselves.  Gardeners provide the right conditions for that to happen.  Good gardeners understand those conditions.  Running a school or teaching a class or raising a family is much more like gardening than [like] engineering.  It’s about providing the best conditions for growth and development."  Changing Educational Paradigms