Two toxic moments in staff meetings and what we can learn about being truly inclusive

This is a post that I want to write because these incidents happened.  There are a lot of other incidents that don't necessarily rise to the top in the pile of indignities, assumptions,  and examples of ignorance that are part of the life of being a bi-racial Latinx woman who is white passing and who is not afraid to speak up.  Name spelling and pronunciation, anyone?  (And yes, I acknowledge the great privilege I carry with my light colored skin and hair color.)

These things happen, and I think we can learn from them. So, stick with me.  This is not about comprehensible input.  It is about being better teachers.  And hopefully better humans.  

Anyway, let me give some background.

If you have read my blog for a while, you maybe know that one great passion of mine is inclusion, with the related passions of diversity, social justice, anti-bias, and dismantling the system of oppression and racism and bias that we live with every day.   

One key idea for me in being inclusive is that each member of my classroom (and hopefully community) feels safe and seen for who they are and what they need. They feel safe to say no if they are uncomfortable, or to ask a question if they don't get it.  They feel safe talking, or not talking.  

One of the greatest compliments that I have ever been given was in feedback about a presentation I did this summer.  I am putting it out here because it makes me feel great (because I read this blog too!) and because this idea of safety goes hand in hand with consent.  I am grateful that what I try to do was seen.  

[Elicia] was so open and engaging that she made each of us in the over-crowded room feel welcome. She modeled many important social-emotional practices: tiny physical "brain breaks" to reset our tired minds, differentiating by offering different options and encouraging us to make the activities we liked our own, responding to all suggestions and comments with "yes and", and above all, modeling asking consent for every little thing - "do you mind if I use your picture?" "may I use you as an example?" 

So this work is not just part of my teaching practice, it is who I am and what I bring to the classroom.  I believe in it and it's important to me.     

Fast forward to some incidents in staff meetings.  I want to be clear that I don't have issue with the activities I am describing.  I have concerns with the responses made by my peers, and I want to bring to light some of the embedded assumptions that are made when choosing these activities.   And I want to highlight what a good response to these kinds of incidents looks like. 

After these incidents, I sat down with my administrator and shared my concerns and we made a good plan to address them.  I am really thankful that I have a administrator who makes time and takes time to hear me, and takes these concerns very seriously.  

#1: In a getting-to-know you activity, there is a soccer ball being with questions written on it being tossed around. When you catch it, you answer the question that your right thumb lands on.  This game was being modeled as one that could be played in class or in our advisory groups, with kids.  Some questions were about favorite things, like breakfast cereals, and others were things like "what makes you sad?". 

Let's digest that for a minute.  First, what are the assumptions there?  

• Everyone in the community knows about breakfast cereals.  
• Everyone gets to eat breakfast.
• Everyone is feeling comfortable with getting a ball tossed at them.
• Everyone has the physical ability to catch the soccer ball. 
• Everyone feels comfortable talking about what makes them sad.  (Because you know what makes me sad?  Surviving this.  Is that really what people want to hear?  Trust me, the answer is usually no.) 

Being me, I asked the person running the game what happens if a student doesn't want to answer that question. (Because if I don't speak up, who will?)  Before an answer could be given, someone snickered and made a very belittling comment about what a stupid question that was, that they (the students) could answer the questions.  

Wait- WHAT?  Do we not want all students to feel safe?  Do we not acknowledge that students come from different backgrounds?  

The game leader (our very thoughtful admin) quickly responded "oh sure, great question- have them answer one near their thumb" and moved on.   

So, on one hand, I feel like the admin heard the question, acknowledged its value, and answered it.  I felt seen and heard.  But on the other hand, not only was my question belittled, there was no awareness from at least one colleague that it might be relevant. 

#2:  In a later activity, several pictures of a prominent sports figure were projected, displaying different emotions.  The activity was an emotional check-in.  The pictures were of this sports figure with different facial expressions, and we were supposed to put our initials next to the image that best expressed our emotional state.  

Again, let's dig in to some assumptions about the activity: 

• Everyone can read facial expressions and assign meaning to them.
• All participants know who the sports figure is.
• Everyone is comfortable sharing their emotional state.

I was not super happy for a number of reasons when this activity occurred.  But more frustrating to me was that I had no idea who the sports figure was and I didn't really know what the expressions were.  I asked who the person was (because asking about the expressions felt like it would open me up to ridicule, so I chose instead what I thought was a safer route).  The admin quickly responded, telling me the name and sport. No biggie.  

But my colleagues gaped.  "You don't know who X is?" "Do you know who Y is either?"  "How can you not know who X is?" "Are you serious?"  

I was shocked.  Like, really, really shocked.  Hurt, disappointed, sad, angry, and a dozen other negative emotions.

I want to reiterate what I said at the beginning of this post.  I did speak to my administrator. He heard me. We made a plan. I felt heard and seen and respected.  It's ok and I'm ok.  But it is a solid example of embedded assumptions and of not treating each other with respect and kindness.  And of side conversations getting out of control.   

Imagine if I was a kid in a class where that happened.  Maybe I'm 12 and growing in all kinds of new places.  Maybe I am new to the school.  Maybe my family doesn't allow screen use at all.  Maybe I just lost my parent. Maybe I ...there are a million maybes.  But I am sure that in that moment, I have completely lost the trust of that kid.  Note that the person running the activities, the "teacher" (admin, in this case), handled each moment with consideration and kindness.  It was the side talk, the outside conversations that were harmful.  

And please, I am not saying that every kid needs to be coddled and treated like a precious snowflake.  I believe deeply in the gift of failure, the power of hearing no, and the growth that those bring.   

But friends, they see a lot more of the real world than we think.  And they are still kids.  

I can not control what happens to them outside of my classroom.  I can commit to making my classroom as safe as possible.  Especially in 2019.  

What can I take away from these situations as a teacher? (Hopefully they will apply to you too.) 

For me,  it is to critically examine the actual things I do in the classroom and constantly ask myself what assumptions I am making.  Yes, it is exhausting.  I am going to do it anyway.

It is also to take a moment before reacting- to questions, to comments, to actions.  But especially to questions.  If I want to give an eye roll or a smirk, I need to check that right at the door. Because it is legitimate to someone.  

I need to keep focusing on creating a community where those kind of side comments can't happen (through procedures) and don't happen (through community building) and when (not if; I am only human) they do, I own it and address it.

I need to remember to take a cue from my administrator.  He never got defensive.  He owned what happened, apologized sincerely, and together we found a way to repair it.  

Most important, I need to keep asking questions and question other peoples' assumptions.   

I need to remember that it takes courage to ask questions and call attention to unpopular ideas and call people out on their assumptions.  And sometimes I am going to feel bad or unwelcome.  (These weren't even about race. Think about that.)   I need to remember that is who I am- courageous- and find ways to connect with communities that support me and that build me up and help me when I'm down.   

Guatemala: La Escuela de la Montaña

Disclaimer: this post is not about TPRS.  It may come up as it usually does, but if you are reading because you want to know about TPRS, this may not be the most relevant.

This post is about a small language school in rural Guatemala, what life is like there, my experiences there as a student and student coordinator, and why this place is so important in my life.

La Escuela de la Montaña is a small language school that is a project of a larger school, PLQE (Proyecto Lingüístico Quetzalteco), in Quetzaltenango (Xela), located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala.  The school is located about two hours away from Xela, and about 10 kilometers from a small town called Columba.

There are so many things to say about this place that it is difficult to know where to start.

School and Community
The language school is an integral part of the community.  Both communities are groups of former coffee finca (plantation) workers who organized (and suffered) after violations of human and worker's rights.  With support from PLQE and the Catholic church, both communities were able to leave the finca and start over again on their own land.

La Escuela provides work for many women in the two main communities (Fátima and Nuevo San José), where there are few opportunities for anyone in the family to earn a living.  The majority of the men in the area are day laborers, and have to travel 2-3 hours a day (and pay for transport) in the hope of getting a day's wages.  The work for the women is primarily cleaning the school in rotation and cooking for students.  (More about that later.)

The school has created a well-used community library staffed by a teacher for all ages to read and learn.  Most households do not have books, so this is an invaluable resource for the kids and adults.

There is also an arts program that is free for anyone during the school year, adults included, that provides some music and visual art teachers on Saturdays.

http://escuelamontana.org/our-projects/becas/103.html

Scholarships
In addition, there is a very strong scholarship program that serves all the surrounding communities.  In Guatemala, public education is free until the end of 6th grade.  After that, families need to pay tuition, supplies, uniforms, and transportation costs.  There are four more years of education available for those who can pay.  The nearest schools that provide these levels (called Básico and Diversificado) are 1-2 hours away by pickup truck, bus, or microbus.  As such, an education is beyond the reach of many people in the campos.

 La Escuela administrates a scholarship program that  is truly amazing.  Scholarship recipients participate in community service, classes on budgeting, health and adolescence, politics, government, and more.  They have to keep their grades up and attend school regularly, and participate actively in their communities.

I had the great fortune to attend one of the classes on health and puberty and was blown away by the number of kids who were receiving these funds.  It is truly a program that can change the world.

Life for students attending La Escuela
Here is a review I wrote for goverseas.com

Cement block house in Fátima

Let me get a bit of terminology out of the way before I explain a little bit about living in these communities.  Think of a city block.  That is about the size of Fátima.  Nuevo San José is about three blocks in total.  There are a couple of little stores (tiendas), a church, a local primary school, a health house (now mostly defunct due to lack of funding), and a bakery.  Down the road is a larger community with a few more services.  Most houses have some form of electricity, but some don't.  Many have dirt floors and most women still cook off of wood burning stoves.  Many men in the community have traveled north to the USA and send money home, so some homes have more resources than others.  Sinks (pilas) are outside.  Many showers are cold, hooked up to the sinks, and are outside.

It is important to me that readers do not think "How awful" or something like that.  It is easy to be shocked by the poverty and developing country living conditions.  (Also, if you think that only happens in developing countries, I suggest heading to inner-city Baltimore or the Navajo Reservation.) This is just the reality.

Students at La Escuela do not live with families.  They live in relative comfort in a former coffee finca house, in dorm rooms, with relatively hot showers, potable water, indoor plumbing, a kitchen, and usually, electricity.  Also, fresh organic french-press coffee.

Maíz

For meals, you walk down to Nuevo San José or Fátima. The cobbled road is usually slick with rain, moss, and cow dung (a local herd gets walked up and down the road daily).  Students eat three meals a day with a different family each week.  Meals are usually simple- beans, pasta, eggs, some vegetables (which are only sold from a cart on Thursdays, or in Columba), and mountains of home made corn tortillas.  Many families grow their own corn and beans, and late July/August is when they start harvesting.

Reading to kids

Students are encouraged to bring books from the school's library to read to the kids in the family, or art kits that can be checked out.

Classes and Activities

A ranchito

Students take classes either in the mornings or in the afternoons, for four hours a day.  Classes are taught one-on-one by an incredibly talented group of professional language teachers. You meet with your teacher in a little ranchito (a little covered area with a table and whiteboard) outside.  The teachers are passionate, committed, and very good at their work.

Each week, there are a handful of speakers who come to the school to educate students about the political realities of Guatemala.  In the two weeks I was there this time, I got to translate the story of one community's fight for unpaid back wages, that included threats, starvation, and more.  Another community leader came to tell the story of how his community decided, after a lot of injustice and no support from the legal system, to occupy a finca, and how they are working now to transform it into an organic coffee and banana cooperative with community programs to empower women and youth.  In the past, I have translated the story of a torture survivor (during the internal armed conflict), an ex-guerrilla fighter, and others.

There are also community members from Nuevo San José and Fátima that come to discuss their own lives and specialties.  This year, I worked to translate the story of the local midwife, a current-events discussion that focused on corruption in the health system, and a lecture from a local herbal expert who received medical training to help his community use plants and local resources to maintain their health.

In addition, there are soccer games in nearby Columba, hikes to see (or not, depending on the weather) the local active volcano, weekly cooking classes, and more.

Coordinadora
I was invited to work as the fill in coordinator during the time I was there as the full-time coordinator had to return to the States for a couple of weeks.  My role was to translate, support the students as needed, and bridge the gap between the incredible school staff and faculty and the students, some of whom did not speak any Spanish (yet).

It was a lot of work but very fulfilling and kept me busy.  I also attended class each day with the intention of figuring out how to do a TPRS training in Spanish.  (There! I knew I would work TPRS in somehow!)

3 Hypotheses (with spelling errors) about language acquisition

 I was incredibly gratified to learn that the teachers at the school were starving for training, and we had an amazing time working together to help me explain clearly what TPRS is all about for them.  I got to do a demo class with the Spanish students, then a brief demo and explanation with the teachers.  I plan on returning to do a more complete training next summer.

This school is a very special place.  People who end up there tend to be people who are interested in social justice, worker's rights, and human rights.  They tend to be ok with not having internet for a few weeks, and they are usually motivated, compassionate, and interesting.  So that is great too- I get to hang out with interesting people.

Anny, a teacher, and her student, an organizer for worker's rights in Los Angeles,
 doing a brain break with me during class time

Living in Guatemala is not easy.  Transportation is uncomfortable and unreliable.  (Think of a school bus that seats 6-8 adults across, or the back of a pick up truck that is standing room only.)  You can't drink the water and you have to be careful about food.  During the rainy season, nothing dries, and the bugs are out to get you.  And yet, I will continue to back again and again, because it is important, and because I love it there.  

One night, I brought paper and colored pencils to dinner and colored with the kids.
This guy and I clearly have a lot in common!  This is why I come here.

Please get in touch if you would like more information about the school.  I would be happy to answer specific questions or support you if you are interested in going.

Part 1: DIY fidgets (Fidgets are not your enemies...except when they are)

This is a follow-up post to my original post about turning my classroom into an OT sensory experiment.  Read the original post here.  

Click here for How To Implement and CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Of course you hate them.  But they are not your enemy!

Overall, the experiment was successful for me and my kids.  I started adding fidgets and sensory supports to my class BEFORE fidget spinners hit the market, so I was well prepared to deal with that wave of nonsense.

Why Fidgets:  "Fair is not Equal." 

I am not going to go into the "why" too much. If you read my original post, I go into it probably deeper than I should. Suffice it to say that I am totally sensory seeking, and many kids are too.  Have you seen that kid who constantly runs his fingers through his hair?  Or the girl whose leg will not stop knocking into something?  Or the kid who chews the end of his pen and pencil so bad his gums occasionally bleed?  Those are the extremes, but everyone benefits from learning how they learn. If I can help them learn better, feel calmer, feel better, than that's why.

What 
smooth     pokey      soft      heavy     textured    fuzzy    hard (solid)      squishy    interesting   heavy
These are the adjectives you want to keep in mind when looking for fidgets.

Where/How Much
Take your huge budget of $30.00 or so and head to the dollar store.  A slightly more expensive option is a party supply store.  In Utah, Dollar Tree and Zurchers are the places.  Family Dollar does not usually have what I am looking for.

Look for things that are interesting to touch but small enough to fit in a hand.  Dog and cat toys are very popular with my kids, as are items from the bathroom section- the little massager roller is a favorite for pokey and solid.  Squishy toys, legos, and stuffed animals are all favorites too.  Get some, remove anything that can be removed, and see what they like!

Special considerations: 

Remove the keychain part! 

*Special note for chewies* I keep coil type keychains (with the metal part removed) in labelled zip lock bags for the kids who need them or bring them in.  (No one else gets to touch them.  How gross!)   A search on Amazon for chewies will bring up very expensive special chewies, which are great to recommend to parents but are not in my budget.


 Things break:  Some great squishy toys are also prone to breaking when put in a middle schooler's hand.  So...be thoughtful.  Take apart anything that can be taken apart.  Of course, if they break it, a natural consequence is that they clean it up.

DIY Chair fidgets:

http://blog.maketaketeach.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Chaundracu.jpg

Ask at your local bike shop for used tubes. (Those are the tubes that go inside bike tires.)  They are surely going to be free.  Cut off the pokey bit (the valve stem) and wrap one end of the tube around one front leg of a student chair.  Tie a simple square knot.  Pull it fairly tight across the front of the chair to the other front leg and tie that end in a square knot.  Cut off the excess.  Voila- you have a chair fidget that is silent and can be used, pushed up or down, and is completely free. (Or you can buy special expensive things that do exactly the same thing.)

Weight belts/Lap Belts- great for wigglers and kids who keep putting books on their heads. (This really happens.  You know it.)
1) Find kid pajama pieces at the local thrift shop, or fuzzy socks from the dollar store.  Note: it is incredibly hard to find non-gendered items, but it is worth looking!  I ended up with a Frozen PJ set, which both the boys and girls seem to love equally, and it contains almost no stereotypical symbols or colors.  
2) Purchase bulk rice and/or beans.  This is the biggest cost of the project.
3) Cut off pieces of the PJ set to make tubes (think arms, legs, right?) and sew them up at either end to make heavy tubes.  Sew them really, really, really well.

Part 2: Classroom Community Management Strategies for Fidgets

Original Fidget Post
DIY- how to make your own fidgets click here

This post will explain how I actually manage the fidgets in my classroom.

Available at the dollar store!

Storage:
A simple over the door shoe organizer or something similar works great.  It is also very cheap.  Tip: Get a clear see-through hanger.  It makes it easy for everyone.

Logistics:
Each student in my class has a number already.  I bought enough wooden clothing clips for each kid (also, dollar store), and numbered them.  The clips just live on the side of the shoe hanger.  When a student wants to check out a fidget, they find the clip with their number and clip it to the pocket that the item came out of.  Then, at the end of class, they put their clip back.  I only need one set of numbered clips because each class uses the same numbers.

How I introduce them: 
1) I introduce the why.  Fair is not equal.  We all need something to help us.

2) I introduce a few things at a time.  Maybe one from each category (soft, hard, smooth, weighty).

3) I clearly state the rules. Here is an editable copy of my rules.

4) I enforce the rules.  I  really enforce the rules.  If I am distracted, if someone else is distracted, or if the tool rolls out of a student's hands, it goes away.  No arguing, no whining, just try again tomorrow.  

For the next week, I go over the rules at the beginning of each class and continue with the enforcing.  (That continues all year for some, but some kids figure out what won't come flying out of their hands and adapt.) 

It seems to work! 

Organizing - reflecting- paperwork: the technology solution (part 1 of 2)

Last year, I decided to put a bunch of time into what I called The Great Organizational Project. My idea was that I needed a systematic way to organize and store my files (well, duh) that was going to help me prep and plan faster.  Since I decided to commit to a specific TPRS curriculum and since I teach it sequentially (that is, I teach it across four different classes, just at a different pace for each), it made sense to archive it in a very thoughtful and useful way.

First: by "unit" I am referring to "target structures and cultural connection pieces."  Don't be misled by the legacy title- I am not talking about the "food unit" or the "travel by airplane unit".

I had to figure out how to store the units not in use and also how to keep track of four separate courses' worth of paperwork. (Made tinier by my habit of copying everything half size on recycled paper, then cutting it down to the precisely best size to fall out of a file folder.)  More on that in another post.

Plus, I realized that I had no good way of capturing all my notes, realizations, reflections, ideas, and extra resources, and that was going to be valuable as I wanted to teach at the same school/same level for more than a year or two.

This last bit was really important because nowhere could I find discussion about how to organize all the stuff that is important for reflection- and for me, that includes all the notes, extra resources, youtube videos, edpuzzles, etc.  Also, as we are told, reflective teachers make better teachers.  And I did *SO MUCH* self reflection in grad school (and found it to be really helpful) that the habit is pretty ingrained in me.

The short version: 

Evernote and Dropbox. (Scroll down for how I actually use them)

The long version, with details: (what I tried, why it failed, how I figured out what does work) 

Organizing resources and reflections:
Here are some of the systems that I have tried (unsuccessfully) to capture all that stuff:

• post-it notes - tried and true, always available, but horrible for capturing URLs or anything more than a few words.
• Adding thoughts to the PDF file on my computer that contains the lesson plans- it worked, sort of.  Except that you have to a have a good pdf player that is easy to annotate.  Which I didn't.
• A lined paper expressly for jotting notes in the front of the paper file.  - actually, if I didn't need to copy resources on the interwebs, this probably would have worked ok for me, but since I do, it did not.
• A word document in the master file in Dropbox (more on that below) that I can update- great for urls, typing quickly on the go, and being in the right place.  But not searchable.
• A document on my iPad in my favorite handwriting/notetaking program that I use all the time-this seemed ideal as I usually have my iPad, use it for planning and notetaking already...  - it turns out that a handwriting program, while ideal for all the ways that I use it (to capture meeting notes and handouts, to capture training ideas, notes, and handouts) is not ideal for managing all the errata that I found myself trying to organize- notes to self, pinterest boards, blog posts, pdfs, videos from youtube, conversations from a listserv or el Face (what it is called in Guatemala, my nemesis and favorite PLN), and more.
• Evernote 

Evernote: Why I love it and how I use it

Finally,  I committed to Evernote for this part.  I love Evernote because...

• Manage is the best verb to describe it.  I use Evernote to manage information, which means I have less to do.
• The search function means that if I use the tag function well (part of the management system), I can call up what I want in a short amount of time, i.e. in front of the class, if I suddenly need to fill an extra few minutes or a tangent leads us to this great video that I saved to do a short Movietalk.  
• Adding content from my iPad or computer, if I find something interesting or have a great idea, is easy.  If I really wanted, I could even use my phone.  Heck, I can import a pdf from my lesson planning app of my daily lesson plans for a selected time period so the next time I teach it, I have a rough pacing guide.
• I can capture everything from the interwebs, easily.  I can also include word docs, pdfs, and photos of the sticky notes I wrote to myself (as long as I remembered to take a picture of them, which is surprisingly easy to remember once you get in the habit of throwing all the stickies away at the end of the day, GTD style) 
• When I sit down to plan a new unit (Unit=Target structures that I focus on + cultural or other connection), I almost never look at the paper copies of the plans- I don't even take them out of Great Organizational Binder until it is time to make the copies.  So having all that stuff on the computer helps.  

How I use Evernote

• I created notebooks in Evernote for each unit that I teach. 
• I made sure to tag each note with the unit name.
• I made a tag for all notes that included reflections on what to do next time or how it actually went. Then I actually used it to tag those notes.  Then I remembered to search for that tag every time I went back to a unit.  (REAMDE is the tag, thank you Neal Stephenson)

DROPBOX

Organizing files (docs and pdfs)
Dropbox continues to be my go-to (go to the bank and throw money at them, but still go-to) system for storing most things on the computer.
If you don't know about it, explore it.  The advantage of it for me is that I can use Dropbox to save every single important document, while using the interface of my beloved MacbookPro, complete with the fantastic tag and organizational layout that is part of the apple UI.  And if something catastrophic happened to my computer (say, while riding to and from school with it on my bike) I would have a timely backup that I could access instantly and teach from immediately.
I decided to make every dropbox master file look the same so that it would be as easy to find stuff digitally as it is to find stuff in my binders.  For me, it looks like folders in each master folder called: Activities, assessments, to project, stories.  Again, for me, making electronic files easy to find is a huge priority.  Searching through word documents by vague title (Spanish, say, or reading activities) is a real drag and never results in finding what you are looking for.

Youtube, google drive, and other outliers
It turns out that if I had started using Evernote when I first started teaching, organizing youtube and google drive would be no biggie.  And as I write this, I realize that I could use Evernote to organize these two very important technology resources, just the same way I use it to organize edpuzzles (cool but labor intensive), kahoots (same), old-school jeopardy-on-the-internet games (extra cool), pinterest pages, vimeo links, soundcloud links, etc.  I will probably see if just copying the relevant google or youtube url into evernote and tagging it well will save time.  Because, you see, that although I have playlists by unit in youtube, they do not alphabetize and that drives me up the wall, and my googledrive is something of a disorganized mess, because really, who has the time to organize that too?

On labeling and titles
As silly as it seems, deciding on titles and investing in good paper labels (for actual print things) really makes a difference in organizing.  The same way that I use consistent tags in Evernote, being consistent about what you call something makes it easier find.  For instance, in quizlet (a somewhat crummy platform, in my opinion, as far as organization but a useful tool to keep parents happy and make kids feel like they are doing something familiar, which can be good for families new to TPRS who want vocabulary instruction [note: my Quizlets are resources for the students, and only once ever in three years have they been used to teach vocabulary, said the TPRS teacher defensively]) having all the unit names be familiar makes it slightly easier to organize resources.  For curriculum collaboration in google drive across states, possibly countries, and certainly grades, it is imperative to use the same names. (And since I do participate in this kind of collaboration, I really value it.)

So, that is how I organize digital resources.

Helping learners learn how they learn...or how I am turning my classroom into a sensory OT experiment

Many elementary teachers know that some kids truly need supports to learn.  These supports are frequently written into IEPs and 504 plans.  Many parents and OTs are the ones who get these supports written in, and good teachers incorporate the fidgets, lap weights, earphones, etc. into their classroom without a blink.  Other teachers can't get over the idea that "fair is not equal."

I'm not here to judge.

I am here to say that in every english - speaking classroom that I have taught in, there has been a huge sign saying "Fair is not equal."  I taught a series of lessons around this idea: that if Johnny needs (glasses, crutches, a cast on his arm), than it would be silly if everyone in the class also needed that support for it to be fair.  Or...more to the point, if Jane is allergic to chocolate, than to keep things fair, no one should be allowed to eat chocolate.

That's usually the point where kids nod and agree with me: how ridiculous.  Fair is not the same as equal.  They get it pretty quickly, especially once it's normalized.

Now, I can't do everything for everyone but I can do my best.  I can do my best to differentiate, to personalize, to make learning relevant and interesting, and to help kids learn what they need in order to learn.

You see, secretly I have had a lot of experience and training with behavior plans,  observations and tracking of behavior, identifying and data-keeping for IEPs and 504s, and that sort of thing.  I have been incredibly fortunate to work with amazing school psychologists and occupational therapists who have supported, mentored, and guided me as I tried to make my classroom equitable as well as a place for learning.  Those skills are not ones I have had to draw on too much since I moved to my current school.  Truly, I get to focus more on teaching and building relationships with kids, and less on behavior and/or meeting kids' basic needs.

I currently teach in a middle/high income independent (private, not parochial) school.  We do not have IEPs or 504s.  Some students have as many learning needs as in any of my public school classrooms, but our school doesn't have a strong culture, especially in the middle school, of trying to help kids meet those needs with more unusual accommodations.  That's not a criticism.  It just is.  Independent schools work differently.  We work as a staff to meet individual needs in different ways and we do have a culture of making traditional accommodations and modifications.  Both approaches are valid.

http://www.codeshareonline.com/plan-b.html

  But this year, I have been confronted by groups of kids who really struggle with impulse control.  To the point that in one class, I have gone to Plan B a bunch of times.This form is one of my favorites for this kind of formalized data keeping.  I can not recommend it highly enough.) I realized that I needed to go back to some of the strategies that I have used before.  Because there is no reason not to try.
 Seriously frustrating and boring for all!   After watching the kids for the first few weeks of school and thinking deeply about what their behaviors are telling me,  (

I spent a few hours re-reading notes from other accommodations, plans, and searching the web for DIY OT sensory kits.  I realized that many of my most challenging students are sensory seeking (chewing, touching, bouncing, etc.).

As I told them when I started discussing this in class, all those behaviors (not Behaviors!) are well within "normal" human range.  In fact, I am sensory seeky myself: I asked them if they had ever counted how many times I put on chapstick or check my pocket to make sure that it's there.  (One observant student pointed out that those behaviors happen about every 5 minutes.  I think she was being generous!)

I made a plan, a budget (which got a little out of hand...that's what happens when a sensory seeker goes to put together a sensory toolkit!), and a shopping list. I was going to get fidgets, make some lap weights, and whatever else I could find to make my classroom a sensory seeker's favorite place.

I hit up the thrift store, dollar store, winco for bulk rice and beans, and a party supply store just because it was near the dollar store. I ended up with a huge variety of squishy, hard, textured, and soft items.

Best scores:
coiled keychains for chewies (party store) + ziplock bags to keep them personalized
beads, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks  for small fidgets
a bin and vertical magazine storage thing to store it all in
a great Frozen fleece sweater that was repurposed into lap weights - both non gendered and fuzzy!
a huge variety of squishy balls and critters from the dollar store
a variety of pet toys (soft, soothing), duster mitts (textured), and massage tools (hard, pointy), also from the dollar store
lengths of rubber from Amazon for chair fidgets

Homemade weighted lap belts-very popular! 

Tool check out system- very high tech

I knew I wanted some sort of accountability for students to use these "tools" so I also bought some clothespins, and wrote numbers on them (each kid has a number in my class) as well as"Tool check out".  When they check out a tool, they simply move their numbered clip to the correct bin.

I am introducing the tools slowly- and with great success.  The lap weights are the biggest hit so far, followed by some of the squishies and the chair fidgets.  I will follow up this post later...once the magic has worn off.
My biggest take away after two days with them are:
1) Students lit up when I asked them to try something (like a chewy, or a lap weight).  They knew what they needed- they just needed to be told it was ok to need it.  Seriously, the love was overwhelming.
2) I said that I was going to try this so all students could have a chance to learn the best way possible- and maybe other teachers would come on the journey with me if it worked out.  One student told me "well, you are way ahead of the rest of them.  Thanks!"  I reminded her that we are all on a different journey- this is mine, and I don't mind a little contained chaos.