John has Asperger’s syndrome, this causes him to have socialization problems. He was strong enough too tough through it most of his life until he was finally diagnosed with his condition. People did not understand him and drew preconceived notions about him. People told him he was bad and that he could become a criminal if he didn’t change. But he couldn’t change it was part of who he was.
Describe some of the approaches you would use as John's teacher when he was a youth.
Unfortunately when he was a youth people were very biased and did not know about certain conditions. Teachers had less training and corporal punishment was still allowed. I would like to think that I would have not been abusive to him, but when the education system is breathing down your back to do something we teachers willing fall in line. Even now we are doing it. Who is to say that all the sensitivity and inclusion won’t turn out to be a terrible idea later on down the road? I could make the future generations soft or all students could lose out on experiences because too much funding was given to special needs. Not that I am saying this is true but something like this could happen. But as for John in a class room today. I would show understanding and take the time to understand him and his condition better. I would work towards having him become part of the classroom community just as if he was any other student. As well if possible I would educate the class on such conditions as Asperger’s syndrome. People are more tolerable of things which they are knowledgeable about; people fear that which they do not understand.
Today I was not having such a good day. I had a rough weekend which spilled over into this Monday class. The book store had been out of the text book I need for this class so I had not gotten the readings done. As well spent the first half of class doing jigsaw chapter work from the text and we had not been told that we need to bring our text book to class. How can the university expect us to be able to do our work if they do not provide enough of the required text books for everyone? It is craziness.
The first thing we did was the jigsaw chapter work. The group moved at much to fast a rate for those who didn’t have text books. I got nothing out of any of this work and it only succeeded in frustrating and confusing me. It is a good thing I use to be a psych major before my last degree and that I was able to later catch up on all the work and readings I missed. University should not be about killing your students with work, but about training and understanding. I feel like I am working against the school instead of with it and that is a horrible feeling for any student. It is hard to try to live up to the expectations we are told we have to live up to when the education system teach us doesn’t follow the same standards of teaching.
After this we watched a video about differentiated classrooms and how they function. It was very informative and I got a lot out of it. Though the differentiated classroom is idle it can be a very hard environment to maintain day after day; especially if you have a difficult class. I would not go out and try to turn any class I teach into a differentiated class right away. A classroom is something that must develop and evolve. There is no one right way to run a classroom. But I do believe that elements of the differentiated classroom would be great additions to many classroom environments.
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