Halfway There......

I can't believe that we are already halfway through CAPES! It has gone by so fast, and I am not looking forward to it ending. When we first started our group decide that we would each work with one child the whole time. We figured it would be easier to connect with the child and really stay focused on what areas need to be worked more. We have run into a few set-backs with having a child who is no longer participating in the program, as well as a couple of times that children or students were absent for a night. Because of this we have had to move things around a little.

I, myself, haven't run into the problem of having a child I didn't make a lesson plan for. We usually do our lesson plans together as a group because social interactions are a big focus among our kids. This makes it easier to adjust when have to help with another kid. This coming up week I know that we are adjusting our lesson plan to allow for another group's kid join us. When we make our lesson plans, the ideas that we come up with have been things that we can be flexible with. I think this is a big thing to remember when making a lesson plan. It is a great thing to make a plan that is set, but is easily rearranged when needed. We also have little "side" lesson plans, like a back-up plan, in case the kids don't take to what we planned, or if the activity doesn't take as long as we anticipated. By having these back-up lesson plans, it has made it very easy for us to transition into a new activity when needed.

I think as a teacher, if you have kids with special needs in any of your classes, then you should be prepared to always have them in your class, regardless of their regular class schedule. Make a back-up plan. It doesn't even have to be a full lesson plan, but perhaps just a style of teaching reserved specifically for when the lesson needs to be altered due to a change in a special needs student's schedule. You could change a lesson into an active response activity. Or perhaps just slowing the pace of the lesson might help. A big part of how to be flexible is going to be based on the exact needs of the student. Know your student's needs. Then based on their strong points in the learning environment, alter your lesson to accentuate those strengths so that the lesson is still taught, without leaving that student behind, but rather allowing them to excel with their peers.