Dream Team and Community of Practice
Week 2
ED 6990
Linda Krouse
This week we are asked to think about three or four organizations to
work with that can support or enhance our vision for early childhood
education. These need to be in the area
where we live or work and have an interest in early childhood education. I admit I have held several positions in the
early childhood world but none that interested me so as finding out about the Ohio Coalition for the Education of
Children with Disabilities. This
organization has several components that I could plug into either as volunteer
or an employee. One is parent
mentoring. This person goes to the
schools in the area and helps parents understand things like IEP and classroom
main stream assignments for their child. Another component is as an educator for either
parents or teachers or both. I just
attended one of their training this past Monday on “Taking the Sting Out of
Challenging Behavior” This is a topic
that is close to my heart. As a teacher
I have not been trained in this area at all.
This is also the biggest area new teachers struggle with. I attend as many of these kinds of sessions as
I can so I can learn strategies for understanding and helping children understand
the rules of behavior in the classroom and in society. I have heard of children as young as three
being dismissed from a pre-school for not behaving but in reality it was the
teachers who didn't know how to help that child learn to behave.
The
second organization is Help Me Grow. This
is an early intervention organization that identifies children who are lagging
behind their developmental milestones. They do in home therapy for infants,
toddlers to age 3. “The program is
family centered and is available in all of Ohio’s 88 counties. Their services
include parent education, ongoing screening, coordination and referrals for
community resources and transition at age 3.”
The organization which is nearest me is the Northwest Ohio Help Me
Grow. I have applied for a position
there in the past and keep my eye out for any openings. As a child development specialist I can see
myself in a role in this organization.
The
third organization I would like to get to be involved with is the Good Samaritan School for children and adults with developmental disabilities. This school has a pre-school I would love to
work in this setting for a while. While
I am passionate about Montessori education I know that it takes experience working
with children with many kinds of developmental delays and disabilities. I don’t have enough experience yet to have an
inclusive classroom of my own but I hope to one day. I can
see how being a classroom assistant in this setting would benefit me in
building my knowledge and skills.
I
have checked out the employment opportunities in all of these places and at
this time there are no openings. But I
continue to monitor that situation. I
feel the right thing will come along for me in the right time.
I feel I have a great deal of knowledge
about developmental disabilities and delays.
I am good at identifying the kinds of delays that children might have
that would hold them back in normal development. So I would be a good fit for
Help Me Grow. I am also very good at
explaining things and doing workshops so I could be a parent mentor or a parent/
teacher educator and hold workshops on the various topics I am familiar with. Really what I lack is the experience in the
teaching and classroom management and desire a mentor teacher to work
with.
As they used to say “If you build it
they will come.” One thing I and my partner
are working toward is a non - profit organization that will provide programming for children on the autism spectrum.
Geared toward their interests we will be facilitators in the community.
We have already talked to several local businesses about participating. One is
a stained glass shop who has done this before and was very positive in her feedback
about doing it again and an artist who may be interested. There is a ceramic shop also we want to get
hold of. We have plans to hopefully use
the kitchen of the church we attend and have cooking night and do some
community activities. We want to have a theater and a movement class too. I am a certified Autism Movement Therapist so
this would be fun. These would be once
or twice a month and the cost would be minimal for the families. Once we get the pieces in place we can begin
to gear the activities toward the interest of the children, and let them lead
the activities. We don’t have a name for
our adventure but I did create an organization several years ago called Holistic Integrated Therapy – Make every
day a H.I.T. I have not formally
registered it but if Monica agrees we could have the name and hopefully a base
of operations by this fall. I am excited
by the possibility of getting this off the ground.
Well thanks for dropping by
Peace and all good
Hi Linda,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear about your interest in Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities. You have heard about young children being dismissed from pre-school for behavior issues. I have a good example for you. I have been advocating for a kindergarten boy this year who is diagnosed with Autism and has behavior issues. His teacher is a very young first year teacher. This child was suspended from school for the fourth time this year for his behavior. What is frustrating to me is nether the teacher or our administrator would take the time to understand and work with this child. I am an expert in behavior management and his other teacher has many years of experience with behavior issues. Their solution was to send him home rather than to collaborate and come up with a plan. I encouraged the parents to advocate for him and to get an advocate to help them navigate this issue, but they weren't willing . So who suffers? This child suffers because he doesn't have the skills to manage his anger successfully. Please know that your work in this area would make a huge difference to kids and families.
Michelle Nutt
ReplyDeletePlease tell me what you do and have done to become an expert. This is such a need and I need more resources and training Can you share further?
Linda, you have some great passions and ideas. I think it takes a special personality to want to work with the kids with special needs of one sort or another. It can be challenging and trying, but also rewarding.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that you don't know much about working with children with challenging behaviors in a classroom setting. I have come to see that there are many educators in your position. What do you feel could be done to better prepare and educate teachers on how to work with children with challenging behaviors? In my center where we work primarily with families in poverty, I see that every classroom of twenty children has one or two with extreme challenging behaviors that really test the teachers. We have provided so much training and support, but it seems like it is never enough. As the director, I feel I do a really good job with these children, but it is hard to continue to train the teachers and not see it implemented the way I would do it. What trainings have you found the most successful?
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI think that it takes a special teacher to want to work with children with disabilities. As I read your post I can tell that you have a great passion to work with young children who need extra attention and care. I am interest in the workshop that you mentioned "Taking the Sting out of Challenging Behavior." This is not really an issue that I have in my classroom, but as a foster parent I feel that this training could be very useful.