10 Things Teachers Should Know

 

10 Things Teachers Should Know When Working With 

Children Who Learn Differently 

1. LEARNING IS CIRCULAR
·         Learning is not only for students – TEACHERS need to learn FROM STUDENTS.
·         Ask yourself:  “What do my students teach me?”
·         Adapted from the Dr. Pepper slogan:
                  I’m a teacher, you’re a teacher,
                  He’s a teacher, we’re all teachers,
                  Wouldn’t you like to be a teacher too?
 
2. SUCCESS DEPENDS ON TEAMWORK
• Definition of “team:”  a group of people who share a purpose or a task and depend on each other over an extended period of time in order to succeed
• Students rely on teamwork to succeed – especially students who learn differently
 
3. PEOPLE THINK DIFFERENTLY
• Students with learning differences…also have thinking differences – these students often see life in black and white, all or nothing
• If a student THINKS differently, then he/she must be TAUGHT differently
 
4. BEHAVIOR IS COMMUNICATION
• ALL behaviors happen for a reason
• Identify WHAT triggered the undesired behavior
• Behavior is a SYMPTOM – find the source
• Teach the student NEW, ACCEPTABLE behaviors to replace the undesired behaviors
 
5. GLITCHED, GARBLED, AND BEWILDERED
• Learning can ONLY happen if  COMMUNICATION is effective
 
6. TEACH ALL OF ME
• A student is NOT a list of symptoms, disorders, or labels
• Every student has a unique set of skills and a unique personality
• Teachers need to adapt to their students rather than expecting students to adapt to teachers
   
7. BE CURIOUS
• Be curious about what drives a student
• Students who learn differently will move beyond rote learning when they feel comfortable outside his/her comfort zone
• Teach students to approach new experiences by using the phrase, “I wonder.”  (I wonder what will happen next?  I wonder what will happen if I…?)
 
8. ESTABLISH TRUST
• When a student can truly trust his/her teacher,  then the student can trust himself/herself
• When a student can trust himself/herself, then learning will explode
 
9. BELIEVE
·         Teach each student to be everything he/she can be
·         Teach each student that he/she can learn
·         Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you are usually right!”
 
10. TEACH FOR INDEPENDENCE
·         Teach students how to live life independently – not everything can be found in a book or on a worksheet
·         Teach life long skills
·         Remember the old Chinese proverb:  “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
 
Adapted from:  Ten Things Your Student With Autism Wishes You Knew
By Ellen Notbohm with Veronica Zysk