Ryan

If you go all the way back to my Annie post, you will find a reference to a person not yet named.  Well now he's named.  His name is Ryan.  In that post I talked about how he was buying clothes for a student.  This  was both nice and very typical of this teacher.  But not what this post is about.

Let me say, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing people who taught me a lot about best practice.  I have also spent a lot of time reading research to build on that knowledge.  I have very definite ideas about what works, what doesn't, and how things should look.  Fortunately, the most important thing I learned is "follow the data."  I say that, because every preconceived idea about how to work with students with significant needs in a self-contained classroom went right out the window this year because of Ryan.

What I learned that I didn't know before:  1) Kids with a variety of disabilities and behavior problems benefit from meditation.  I guess that should make sense....I just didn't know it was possible to get them to do it without actually seeing it in practice.  Whatever you are imagining...you aren't even close.  I couldn't explain it.  I just know what the data said.  2) News 2 You can be used to scaffold in such a way that it becomes a really high level language activity that builds grade level vocabulary.  Until this year, I hated News 2 You.  I can admit that now, even though it's almost sacrilegious for an SLP to say it.  3)  Kids with autism, even severe autism, respond better when you speak to them like a normal person instead of using that "autism talk" that I had been taught before.  I actually knew this before, but I have never seen a teacher use it to the fullest extent possible with such success.  In fact, Ryan uses high level language all the time to build vocabulary.  Maybe even more than what the kids in the regular classroom use.  It's kind of amazing.

I loved the way this teacher ran this classroom.  My highest compliment to a special ed teacher is to say that I would want him or her to teach my child.  Sam would be lucky to have Ryan as a teacher.  Not sure Ryan would feel the same way about having Sam...but you know...whatever.

Ryan, thanks for teaching me even more than your students.  I had my doubts on day one...but I was a believer long before the year was over!  And I know I'm not the only one because my office mate said to me just last week, "You know....Luken's a really good teacher."