I shadowed a student for an entire day at our special education high school
I shadowed a student and here are some takeaways from my experience:
Italics denote my inner monologue and key learnings
Due to COVID-19, staff have a prep period from 8:00am-8:30am each day. As a staff member, a first period prep is niiiiice. But for this student shadowing experience, I stopped to consider that our students wait on the bus for an hour senselessly each day. This totals to over five hours a week just waiting outside. Independent travelers who arrive early are rewarded with waiting outside the building (sometimes in the cold) as well. What a waste of time.
It’s 8:30am and the student who I am shadowing bounds off the bus. He loves school. Everytime the building closes, we can expect red faced emojis in the Zoom chat box accompanied by questions and comments like, “when can we go back to school?” and “I hate covid, I’m so mad we can’t go on the school bus to the school building!”
Enter the cafeteria, and students and staff are standing around. Imagine waiting on the bus and then waiting in the cafeteria? “Breakfast” is crackers, apple juice, cheerios, and milk bagged up to be transported to the classroom. The classroom teacher and paraprofessional have a system worked out where the class goes upstairs in two groups so they don’t have to wait for the whole class. Entering the classroom, it is not typically decorated to perfection as in a normal school year. This is a Covid school year. There’s musical instruments, random bookshelves, and two computers that look like they don’t work. I see on the board that I am in class V34 and I contemplate our class aims. The homeroom aim is to engage in collaborative discussion by asking 1-2 conversational questions. The aim in English Language Arts is to describe items and activities using the 5 senses. The aim in math is to calculate and compare the cost of rent in different neighborhoods. The aim in social studies is to define “neighborhood” and identify elements of neighborhood. The aim in health is to identify short and long term goals.
As a member of the curriculum team, I feel nervous and excited, it’s time to see our plans in action. Also, breakfast is really nice, just like an adult would want to have. It is independent time to eat, look at your device, put your head down, or chill. Happy to see that even though breakfast is now served in classrooms, students still get to decide how to spend their time.
At 9:15am, literacy begins. J is distracted by a whiteboard and eraser, but I observe that his teacher does not focus on the fact that he is distracted, but more with how to engage him. Literacy starts with talk about the weekends. The environment is so calm and Ms. R, J’s homeroom teacher, does such a great job of smiling with her eyes and full face, even though she is wearing a mask. The paraprofessionals sit in the back of the room as each student shares their mood and asks the next person how they are feeling today.
Ms. R is such a great active listener. She responds and validates as each student shares what they are feeling excited about. Some answers include: Cinco De Mayo, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and even “a 6 months until my birthday.” I would love to be in this class.
The Literacy unit is based around The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. This week is a week to engage in writing. The aim is that students will describe items and activities using the five senses.
Some students fidget or look at other things but it does not seem to bother anger, or discourage Ms. R. Judah volunteers to read. “Descriptive writing is writing that expresses emotions or ideas in a creative way.” Just as I am thinking about how I am tired of looking at Google Slides and wondering if the students are too, Ms. R grabs our attention with a fun game!
She describes a situation using the five senses. As she describes the taste of sweat, the sight of black and white, the sound of a whistle and cheers, and the touch and smell of the grass or similar descriptive phrases, J asks, “is it a ying yang?” Descriptive language and visualization is spot on for promoting rigor and engagement for this class, I teach these kids too.
Ms. Rachel’s Slides are organized, clear, and use visuals. Students notice and ask questions about the slides.
It’s freezing in this classroom. One student wears a blanket, another wears gloves. I wish I could go to the store for coffee, I probably would. Such a privilege to meet your own needs whenever you want.
The students get really into a descriptive language game where they are tasked with describing an object or activity without using that word for the opposite team. They are supposed to come up with a way to describe a mystery object that only their team knows the identity of. Paraprofessionals, Ms. K and Mr. W, really know the students, they listen to them, encourage, and help them make connections.
Ms. R’s energy is infectious. She smiles through her mask and says “I’m so excited, I’m so excited.” As teams describe different objects, she leans in and indicates that she’s listening and excited. As a student in this class, I feel incredibly valued and affirmed. Ms. R makes adjustments to the rules and the grouping as needed. I’m shocked that the kids don’t grumble or complain - they respect her as much as she respects them.
Small instructional choices add so much value to the lesson. For example, Ms.R uses confetti gif to reveal correct answers, she gives countdowns to give students a chance to get ready together, she asks students what they think about how the lesson is flowing, “do you think we have time for one more?”. When someone is talking she has a way of making sure their share is important, “let’s all be listening to _____________.” At the end, she asks the students to give themselves a round of applause and I honestly want to give her one.
At 10:00am a cluster teacher comes in to teach social and emotional learning (SEL).
She is relatively new to the school. I met with her last week to introduce the social and emotional curriculum to her. I wrote the SEL curriculum. I told her our goal is for the year for students to match their intrinsic talents, strengths, and interests to a world problem or need. It will be nice to see this action!
All classes are self-contained and there are no opportunities in my student’s class schedule to leave the room to see other teachers on Mondays at all. The cluster teacher teaches a social and emotional learning unit on character strengths. Through the lens of Amanda Gorman, students discuss how they can match their intrinsic talents to a world need. J, the student I am shadowing, says that he’s an artist and proposes that he can draw comics to cheer people up. LOVE IT!
10:45am Another SEL cluster teacher comes in. We should work out our cluster schedules a little better!!! Why do they have SEL twice? The second SEL cluster teacher also follows the curriculum, asking students to identify their needs and how to get their needs met. After the activity that centered around “adulting,” students are permitted to begin some independent time until lunch. My host student J starts to feel frustrated that the class is not going outside for lunch. The teacher tries to explain that each class has the option to go outside one day a week to give everyone a chance. He listens but doesn’t appreciate it. LOL.
11:30am Lunch is served in covered aluminum containers that are delivered to each floor and picked up by paraprofessionals. Lunch is pizza, an orange, an apple, chickpeas, and milk. Students are given time to relax independently and engage in preferred activities. Some students talk while others draw. J says he tends to play a game on his ipad, draw new characters, or read.
At 12:15pm, math was supposed to start and there was some dra-ma. No, it wasn’t that serious. Apparently, the student I was shadowing asked another student to give him some space at the windowsill during lunch. The student had taken offense to the request and was coached [heavily] [and beautifully] by Ms. R to say, “Hey can we talk?.” J responded by saying, “I was just reminding you to stay 6 feet apart from me.” We moved on but Judiah knew he wasn’t wrong.
First we did a really fun movement break, you can find a similar one here. More kids join in as we go, infectious energy again. We get into the lesson around 12:52pm after the movement break. I love that students can get what they need, there is not a sense of feeling rushed. Skills like talking things out, using movement to de-stress, and being flexible IS learning.
Math is centered around the topic of gentrification. The teacher asked what gentrification is. Ms. R has such a good presence, she really LOOKs at the students. When she listens to them, she really wants to hear them. She is a really good listener.
Gentrification is basically defined as when a neighborhood that used to be affordable, gets more expensive. New people move in, and the cost of living goes up. My host student says “it’s not fair for people to leave homes, their houses are for sale.” The students are tasked with analyzing gentrification by looking at rent costs and calculating the difference between median rents in Brooklyn in different decades. The lesson is on Slides again but they are so clear, visually appeasing, use base 10 examples as well as numerals. Every student is engaged and excited to learn more. After group practice, it’s basically time for bussing. During bussing, everybody chills or works until the phone rings to say who should walk downstairs for bussing.
When the day is over, my initial thought is wow, I’ve been in this room all day. BUT IT WASN’T BAD. In my opinion, because of the:
Culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy
Teacher and two paraprofessionals all warm, kind, and patient
Sunlight-drenched corner classroom environment
Awesome, intentional team building and SEL instruction
When you’re in this class…. Even though you’re self-contained, wearing masks, during a global pandemic, it still isn’t THAT bad. As a student, I saw how much who my teacher is matters…. and how much I matter to them. What a joyous, supportive environment where students productively struggle and adapt and learn! But what if I had that OTHER teacher??