Good morning!

After a solid 10 hours of sleep, I’m PUMPED and ready to get my day started.

But, before I go off galavanting to Monterey, I wanted to post up these pictures and just share a bit about what’s been running through my mind as of late.

I’ve already written several blog posts about why Rocketship Education is an incredible network – focusing on building communities and closing the achievement gap. I’ve also written about the number of resources and evidence-based interventions that we use with our students receiving special education services.

We are currently using several of Lindamood-Bell programs to target our kids who struggle with everything ranging from fluency to comprehension to number sense. The programs are all research-validated and they continue to evaluate and improve their program based on extensive data collection and analysis.

And my kids have improved. Significantly.

But there have been many times throughout the year when I pause to think about what I’m doing each day with my students. When I got into special education, I knew that my instruction would be different. Our students don’t need repetition of the same things they’re learning in class. They need the content to be differentiated in such a way that it is more accessible to them and their learning style.

When I chose to teach students with special needs, I knew that my thinking and instruction would have to be outside of the proverbial box. But, over the course of the year, I realized much of my interventions have been so IN the box. Literally. The curriculum comes packed in a box full of resources.

Don’t get me wrong. My kids have made jumps and leaps this year. THANK YOU LINDAMOOD-BELL.

But, I miss the opportunities of “experiential, hands-on learning” that I pictured myself doing. I developed all sorts of programs and activities in my methods courses back at LMU. But, in order to develop a consistency that Lindamood-Bell interventions require, I surrendered my creativity and jumped back in a box.

Since the schedule has been off this week due to state testing, we’ve been finding ways to make up our kids’ service minutes. Yesterday, I decided to take one of my favorite students and wander around the school. Prior to state testing, his class was learning about geometric shapes, types of angles, and finding the perimeter and area of a rectangle. We decided to go on a scavenger hunt around school to point out all the right angles we could find. We then decided to measure the perimeter of the grassy area near the playground. Within a few minutes, this student was trying to solve the perimeter of all things in all spaces of the school. He would take his tiny little feet and plant them carefully – one in front of the other – to “accurately” measure the number of feet on each side.

He continued this for about an hour.

He was adding up two-digit numbers for an hour. (This is the same kid who, at the beginning of the year, would use every possible tactic to avoid work).

And he was focused. And committed. And moving.

And, in that hour, he realized how applicable the content he learned in class was to real life.

Yesterday, I decided to put the box aside and do something that I thought would be more engaging for this particular student. And, in the process, I watched as his excitement for math grew. I watched when he grasped the concept, smiled at me, and said, “I love this.” And I watched my kiddo as he made the connection that what he was learning in class was the SAME thing he was learning on the playground.

In the same way that our intervention curriculum is re-evaluated and improved upon, my approach to the students and instructional methods need to constantly be re-evaluated.

An intervention is an intervention only if it’s working. (<—-wise words from my favorite school psychologist, Brianna). 

And this experiential, hands-on, constantly-moving approach has the potential to work wonders with this kid.

We’ve got one more month of learning ahead of us. Let’s do it.