I was lucky enough to observe and help with a program called Social Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL). This program has an adult staff that works with students who are on the Austim Spectrum until they reach the age of 16 (when they can leave school if they choose). The student that I was able to interact with is a 15 year old boy. This boy, S, struggles with some Emotional Behavior issues. This issues have brewed from abuse and neglect by his birth parents at a young age and some pre-speech. S has trouble with identifying feelings and has frequent outbursts of anger. He is now living with a very loving adoptive family; this has led to a more stable environment but there have still been issues. He has repressed issues that make him struggle with stressful situations--he has a great need to feel in control of a situation. This need led to a "hostage" situation with the adult staff. Also, he will sometimes lock the teachers out of the building or himself into a room--as I witnessed while there. S hates people who smoke because of his birth parents and believes that people are bad people if they smoke. He will ask everyone he meets if they smoke--good thing I don't and I don't like it either! S is also a very sweet boy and responds well with younger children (protective need) as well as adults (curious, thoughtful questions to be answered).
The SEAL program is a wonderful instructional tool for students who have been dealing with a lot of things included proper interests and fitting in. The building that they are located in is an old house building. The backyard is currently being transformed (by the students!) into a relaxing and personal space. Every student there is getting their own 3 meter x 3 meter plot of land to do whatever they choose with. They are also working on a joint project to make a sitting area in the corner. S chose to make a shed in his area. I feel that this is an amazing thing for him to work on. He needed to make a sketch plan, as well as figure out how and what materials he needed, how things would go together, and he is in charge of the actual building project. S spent the day taking out pieces of wood and nails from pallets delivered by the construction crew next door (S was very kind and thankful for the men who walked over each pallet). S was able to feel confident in his abilities because he got to work hands-on by himself. He told me that he enjoyed being able to bang the hammer and pull out nails. It was relieving for him and he could release tension. He struggled with following directions from the adults and wanted to get right into working without any strategy. I feel that if the agency could work with the construction crew next door and get S a day of observing them, that he would see that they need a plan everyday and that they just can't start nailing things down--also, that those guys need to follow the orders of their director. At the end of each session the adult staff and S sit down and fill out a sheet for the day. I really like this idea and I would want to implement it even if it's just in a general education classroom for a whole class activity. The sheet had a check list of the activities they wanted to get done for the day and then a section that was entitled, "What Went Well" and "Even Better If..."
Something that I really took away with this week that is in general for all teachers no matter where you are is: if you're getting burnt out at your job, you have to do something about it or the kids are going to suffer more than you are. There is one teacher that we were with who fits this exactly. The students were working on a play presentation for their role as tour guides for the Bishop's and Earl's Palaces. The students were given a role and script and asked to memorize their lines as homework for a few weeks now. Our guess is that they never practiced in class based off of the teacher's response. They had a dress rehearsal at the Palaces and the teacher (who is about to retire) was so hard on many of the students (they are only about 10 years old). He was stopping them while they were acting, yelling at them not getting it right, telling one girl that she was pathetic and that the other girl did a better job. It was so heart-breaking to watch the students' self esteem fall below the ground. All of us American students went on the trip with them and we were all exhausted and felt horrible about ourselves after just by being around that negativity the whole afternoon. I have seen this on many occasions throughout various observations both abroad and in America; it's not just from the teachers who are retiring either. We really have to love what we are doing and we have the job of making our students feel welcomed, supported, and cared for. Yes, we have high expectations for their abilities, but there are other ways to go about making sure that they rise to the occasion instead of yelling at them and putting them down.
The six of us also had a meeting with the Head Teacher of the school on Thursday. We got to share with her all of the things that we saw that was different and similar to the United States. We also learned a bit more about the teacher responsibilities and the teacher's life in Scotland. First, all people studying to be a teacher get a salary paid probationary year in a school. They are still supervised, but they are all into the school with their own classroom. There is one teacher in that position at Glaitness and she was starting to apply for jobs too. Their application process involves answering questions and providing evidence that they meet the standards (sounds familiar right!?!?). Another thing that I really liked that teacher's are responsible to do is fill out a detailed description of each of their students' progress on their report card. This gives a description of how the student is doing in all aspects of school and not just letter grades--that actually does not happen at all on their report card. The best thing that I liked was when the Head Teacher was talking about Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. The point that I like the most on this curriculum is that Health and Wellness is ranked just as high as Mathematics and Literacy. That would never happen in the United States mostly because it wouldn't be as measurable as they would like. Part of the Health and Wellness curriculum is teaching about all different types of religion equally--the students get a wide range of different customs, traditions, and stories from each religion. We had a discussion about this and we all agreed that it is a great way of doing things because people fear what they do not know; if they don't know about a religion, they fear it and pass judgement.
Neat things that I have been seeing this week:
1. The P6 class is studying the Scottish Parliament and they had a representative for Orkney come into their class so they could learn more from a first-hand experience. They asked very good questions and the representative was very non-biased but still included their opinion but covered the opinion of others. I learned that they can only do four weeks of campaigning!!! Gosh, I wish it was that way in the States. Their most important issues is whether or not to declare an independence from the UK.
2. Positive Behavior School Rules: The Safety Rule--Look after our school and all that are in it. The Learning Rule--Work Hard. The Respect Rule--Be kind and helpful. The Inclusion Rule--Ensure that everyone belongs. The Communication Rule--Express yourself clearly and positively. The Health and Wellness Rule--Look after ourselves and others.
3. I observed a P2 class and the teacher is wonderful! She uses very good classroom management with non-verbal actions as well as changing the tone of her voice and making sure that all students have her attention. They were working on rounding and writing instructions using transition words. The class made milkshakes and then had to write up instructions. The teacher used the Smartboard to put up a word bank that the students created to help aid them in writing.
4. Not necessary "neat" experience, but it addresses things that we will be talking about in class. I was with the P2 class in Art and they were working on a project. Out in the hallway I hear a student screaming and things being thrown around. It got quieter (student must have been moved somewhere else) and we received a phone call saying that they had to evacuate that area of the school. The Art teacher apologized to the students and said that we have to end Art early, set down their materials and go back to class. We were escorted outside and then we wrapped around to the younger grade entrance and back to class. The students could tell something was off but we remained calm and just said that we needed to be done with Art and we would continue the projects later. At break time, I found out that it was a student who has been having a good run at school (usually gets sent home three times a week for safety reasons, but has been in school for 8 weeks now without a problem). It was a bit scary to be honest, just because I didn't know how far the student would get away from the area and I was more concerned with making sure the children weren't scarred or threatened.
5. The last day of school for us was Sport's Day. This was very similar to the Track and Field event in my home district. However, instead of having just the two top grades participate, the entire school did--even the P1's. The school was divided into three different groups based off of agricultural products. The whole school also voted on team captains (P7's). They came to school with full team spirit and encouraging signs. The events included a tattie race (potato on a spoon), sack races, three legged race, rugby, dodgeball, boccia ball, hula hoop race, etc. It was a lot of fun to see all of the students cheering one another on and so excited when their team did well. I was in charge of the score board so I got to use my math skills!
For the sack race, the P7's had to start lying on their back to make it more difficult
It was very funny watching them try to get up
6. The bond that we made with the students at the school. They were all so wonderful and nice to us the whole time we were there. On our last day they said bye to us and wished us well. They were also hoping that we would stay or that we would come back. One of my P6 students said that I should come back when they are at the secondary school. I told him that he would probably not recognize me, but then he said, "No, I'll remember you because you have the accent." So cute!!!!
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