Aspie Educators Sharing Experience

[dschoch]

Dear all,

I would like to open a new thread where Aspie educators, teachers, researchers and academics can share their experiences with social situations in the classroom and with colleagues.

Issues to be discussed can be

• How can Aspies run their classes student-centered?
• How can we initiate and maintain a dialogue with students?
• How can we assess ourself and the impact of our teaching on students?
• How can we maintain eye contact?
• How can we structure our lectures to avoid Aspie traps?
• How can our NT partner help to coach us communication skills?
• Do we come out towards students/colleagues/superiors?
• How do we foster joint research with colleagues?

To begin with myself: I am 50 years old and have got a 75% score at the test at Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY, and an even higher score at other tests. My brother is a diagnosed Aspie, so I am quite confident on the validity of this test. I work at a British University in Malaysia and I am very happy with my position. I am eager to improve my social capabilities in relation to the students and my colleagues. I was formerly employed at a university in Thailand, where, traditionally, the teacher is very well respected. In western universities, however, students are much more demanding.

Best Regards Dan

 

[Soup]

Hi Dan! I'm a teacher (Elementary School) & an Aspie. I'm 47 yrs old (until Wednesday), married with 2 adult kids. The discussion topics you suggest for this thread are very broad & much can be said about them.

One thing I do in my classroom is try to create an atmosphere in which the children feel safe with me. Some teachers single out children, discipline them in front of peers to make an example out of them or embarrass them. I refuse to do this. Nobody ever gets called out publicly or humiliated. Being flexible & not having rules that are there just for the sake of it helps. For instance, Aspie kids often feel over-stimulated in classrooms. I keep 'junk' & displays to a minimum & keep the noise lever low to moderate (depending upon the activity). I have an ADHD-friendly classroom where kids are encouraged to get up & stretch & move about periodically. Kids are not designed to sit still in rows for long periods. Allow kids to eat a small non-messy healthy snack at their desk. Let them sip from a bottle of water: who does this hurt? They'll e more alert. Some Aspie kids begin feeling 'stimmy' or 'meltdownish' if they're hungry or thirsty. If a kid raises his hand to go to the toilet, I allow them to go: nobody sits dancing in their seat, nobody ever is humiliated by having their hand ignored & peeing themselves, nobody gets asked in front of the whole class "Do you really really really NEED to go?" A kid knows when he needs to pee & doesn't need my interference.

Kids are hypersensitive to favouritism & the biases of the teacher. Preferences are intrinsic to humans & often we don't even realize that we have them. We need to check ourselves for this. Are we smiling more or seeming to approve of or like some kids more than others? Most teachers favour the kids who are polite, well-mannered, cute & do their work well. this is terribly unfair to the kids who are less cutesy & less academically inclined or who are challenged. WATCH YOUR BIASES!

A few years ago, I was in the staff room at lunch when a colleague who taught Kindergarten began a disturbing rant about how, here in QC, you used to see French Canadian names. She literally said, "Now, it's all NGUYEN!" & had fun angrily mis-pronouncing the same. There was only 1 Vietnamese girl in her class: just a little snippet 5 1/2 yrs old & already she was facing the racist biases of her adult teacher. BE AWARE OF YOUR PREJUDICES & keep them to hell away from the classroom: better yet, GET OVER THEM!

No matter how much we seek to communicate with & reach out to our students, they can spot a phony, a bigot, a character flaw, domination issues or a bias from a distance. It will alienate them, invite rebellious & discordant behaviour & make them hate both YOU & school. When a kid senses that a teacher dislikes a given kid, they target that kid for maltreatment & know they're likely to get away with it. Popular kids are often popular with the teachers too: they know what to say to you to make you like them.

I really believe that, when it comes to classroom relations, everything begins with the teacher & the classroom atmosphere he or she fosters.

 

[dschoch]

Sorry I have written a long reply, but this f@&?/?g software has locked me out and forced me to delete my submission, although it pretendet to have it save automatically. I am very disappointed and frustrated. Shall we switch to e-mail?

 

[Gomendosi]

dschoch, If it helps at all, I tend to write my replies in Microsoft Word or at the very least, WordPad.

What this does for me is twofold:
Firstly, I always have a copy of what I typed should the info on the page be lost for whatever reason
Second, I get to spell check everything before posting, which is frequently a good thing for me at least ; ]