Community Connections

By

Ryan Kerr

Presented in Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for

Capstone in Reflective Teaching EDRS 689

Regis University

February, 2010

Lancaster School is a unique place and very diverse on many levels. Speaking of simply the school and no other programs also housed at Lancaster, the students are culturally diverse as well as diverse in their disabilities. There are three areas of focus; basic skills, functional academics and transition. Within each of those focus areas are different expectations for each student. Developmental disabilities are not limited to one cultural population. Within the classrooms of Lancaster there are students and staff who are Hispanic, Italian, Chicano, Asian, Philippine, African American and White Caucasian. There are a variety of religious cultural beliefs among the people within the walls of Lancaster as well. The array of multiple disabilities and behavioral issues of the students at Lancaster represent a small minority of the overall population of students in our schools, however, they are the majority of the population at Lancaster. The community opportunities for my students were so individualized that one student who may possibly live with another student who attends Lancaster, does not necessarily participate in the same activities in their community. Another complicated factor of researching the community strand with my students was the environment in which they lived.

All of the students at Lancaster come from extremely diverse backgrounds and life experiences, as do all students in other schools. Some students at Lancaster lived at home with their families; others lived in foster homes and group homes. The vast difference of the residential piece creates a complex way of approaching how to teach a student. At Lancaster there is extensive communication between the teacher and the home. I made connections with parents when I first arrived by calling and introducing myself as the new teacher for the student in their home. The parent or guardian was surprised as well as appreciative. I was the class’ fifth teacher in two years. I inquired about access to email, so that we could set up communication through emails because it is quicker and simpler, it also creates an easy tracking system. All but one of my students’ homes had access to email. Four of my students lived in group home situations. Those students also had a number of other people who were involved in their lives. I was able to set up email to all the pertinent people; this made communication much more efficient. How I approached communicating individually with students was guided by what kind of environment they lived. Those who lived in group homes had many people dictating to them what they should do and trying to relay information to the school. As the teacher I had to be very clear in my messages and publish them through emails so that everyone involved received the same message.

The method in which I communicated to each student was extremely different, based on their level of cognitive understanding. The varying attributes of each student’s disability plays a huge role in how and what I would say to them. Some students are capable in understanding idioms or humor more so than others. Because my students were higher functioning than most in the school and they were technically “transitioning” to the adult world, I made a conscience effort to allow the student to have a level of control in the communication process. One student in particular would actually write the email to his group home of how his day went. I also felt that this served as a learning opportunity for the young man. He got to work on computer skills, communication skills, accountability and his typing skills, all meeting his IEP goals. One of my students lived in a specialized foster home. It was specialized in the sense that he was a sexual predator and had severe restrictions. The foster parents and I communicated daily. The particular student’s activities in the community were limited due to his ability to be appropriate in the community. The other two students live at home, one with a single mom and the other with his great grandmother. Only one of these homes had email. At this point I began to reflect on the economic status of my students. I was not able to find artifacts to support my hypothesis, but I came to the conclusion that many students who attend Lancaster are typically in the low socioeconomic category ßgood, you note that you did not have evidence but were led to believe something. I was able to conduct two home visits with my students; one who was being raised by his great grandmother and the other who lived in a specialized group home for emotionally and developmentally disable girls.

It was very difficult to get to visit all of the communities in which my students live. Fortunately my administration supported the effort of visits; however, I never went alone. On one occasion, I was with my staff and the other students as we dropped the student off at his home after an outing. The justification was that it was a day Denver Public schools (DPS) were not is session, yet Lancaster did hold classes. When DPS schools are not in session their bus terminal is not either. The other occasion I was accompanied by our treatment coordinator, as we work as a team. These home visits were important because I was able to get a snapshot of the home life of these two students and how they interact with their parent/guardian. In an online educator’s news forum, Education World, (2009) an article was published listing the benefits of home visits by teachers. Some of the benefits listed included; learn more about the student, get parents/guardian more involved and bridge the cultural gap. Both homes were very different. I will reflect on my two visits the communities of the students I actually got to visit. The first student I will reflect on was being raised by his great grandmother. A strong matriarchal presence, was very concerned that I liked her great grandson, and made statements about making sure CB got enough to eat. All which are among Payne’s list of hidden rules among classes (1996; Pg 42).

Student CB is African American and is being raised by his great grandmother. CB’s 10 year old brother also lives there. The boys’ biological mother lives in Texas and I have not been able to get a clear answer about Dad. There are some Uncles who come and go from the house, however, in the past there was a report of abuse from the Uncle to CB, and the Uncle is not allowed to live in the home. CB is a tall and stout 15 year old, the great grandmother is frail and small, but not soft. There seems to be no indication of a positive male role model. CB can be fearful of males, depending on the situation. He has been bullied in the home by both males and females. Great grandmother also makes every attempt to steer CB away from what could be a normal female/male adolescent relationship. It is like she feels that because of his disability he is not capable of having a relationship. Based on information in Payne’s book, my guess would be that this family falls in the category of generational poverty (1996: Pg, 47). Why is this important to know as a teacher; one reason is to always know who you are talking to when addressing the person identified as guardian and the concepts of relationships and what roles a males and females plays. For CB, it is part of his IEP plan to work on appropriate and realistic relationships. But I, as the teacher, also must have an understanding of what he has been taught is his role in the family structure. I do not think I paid attention to this issue for CB during my student teaching.<--Good grounding.

CB lives in the Denver Public School district, East High School would be his home school. In the 2007-2008 school year there were 2,058 students enrolled. Daily attendance totaled 1,788. In the 9th grade there were 525 students that mean 27.3 students per teacher (EHS accountability report) (Artifact 1). In comparison, at the beginning of 2009-2010 school year Lancaster had 87 students enrolled for grades including first through twelfth. The student to teacher ratio is always 2:1. Based on CB’s abilities and behaviors, a small individualized school environment is the best for CB to gain skills to be productive in the community when he is an adult. The question, “How do I achieve this as his teacher,” is what guides my instruction to him specifically. I am not sure, even though the environment at Lancaster allows for smaller ratio of students to teacher, that what I am able to accomplish in the classroom is truly getting him ready to be a functioning independent member of his own community. CB performs at a first and second grade levels academically. When CB displayed behavior that would interrupt the lesson he was able to be redirected and return to the previous task at hand. However, he did not have the ability to recall the information being taught prior to his behavior problem. Now that time has passed and I have gotten to know my students better, I am beginning to notice trends when CB has his behavior problems. It usually occurs when I am conducting a big group lesson on a new skill or topic and it involves reading and writing.<--good! At first I thought it was because CB performed at a lower grade level than a few of his peers in the class. But recently we have had new students join and they perform at even lower levels. Now I have come to the conclusion that it is because of his hearing disability. He does wear hearing aids and he has preferential seating. But looking deeper into the situation and reflecting, I now think he continues to have difficulty hearing or blocking sound when we conduct big group lessons. My instructional strategies for CB are to incorporate more sign language.<--Excellent, you are connecting your data collection/observations to concrete examples of particular differentiated strategies.

CB also has a progressive hearing loss. He knows a little sign language. He and other students have difficulty with knowing all of their letters and spelling. I have decorated the classroom with the alphabet in sign language. CB has also checked out a sign language book from the school library. I use sign words with him often. I also use signing the letters to him when helping him to spell a word. I have recently found my newest student benefits from this as well. They hear the letter, see the letter and then write the letter. CB has helped me to find strategies to assist his classmates, and it appears as a whole class things as well as I let them know my own personal interest in signing. This is how I have helped my own first grader learn to spell. In terms of teaching a new skill to CB, I will have to plan it accordingly to be 1:1 with the teacher and during big group instruction he will have to work on something either independently or with a teacher’s assistant.<--you probably already thought of this but he might benefit from noise cancelling headphones. Other ways that I have attempted to bring in parts of CB’s community to his education is through his newest goal set up by his great grandmother to frequent their local recreation center. Good transition and leading me on through the story! Shortly into my student teaching interim I competed in a duathlon. I shared with the students what I was training for and my results after the race. Since, I have committed to competing in my first triathlon, and I have shared with the students that I do not know how to swim, so I am taking lessons. This has allowed them to know that I am also learning to do things, as we all are always learning.

In his community he frequents the Hiawatha Davis recreation Center. He has recently been paired with a fitness coach and his great grandmother has started attending water and senior chair aerobics. This is a great resource for CB and his great grandmother. His great grandmother is a traditional African American cook, and is adamant that CB eat everything he chooses to put on his plate. I commend her for getting him involved in fitness. CB was notoriously late for his bus when it was time to go home, he always had lots of stuff to pack up and he walked slowly. After learning of his great grandmother’s influence to get him involved with a fitness coach, I began challenging him in a race to his bus. This continued to him initiating the challenge. Since learning of this relatively new weekend activity for CB, I began sharing my own personal goals with him and the class. I also structured a nutrition lesson, for this student’s benefit as well as others. Many adolescents who are disabled and or live in out of placement do not often have a healthy nutrition. Many of them are overweight and do not know about healthy foods.

Parent involvement is difficult at best. CB’s great grandmother only drives at certain times of the day. To get her to come to school is difficult and this has made CB sad when we had Lancaster’s Open house. To create and maintain parent involvement with this parent, I call her frequently. We discuss many of the positive things CB has done and the good choices he makes. When he does make poor choices, I have to be careful and cautious when informing his great grandmother. Because of the history of abuse that has been reported, by the school prior to my interim as well as after, I have to present it in a way that shows that CB did not disgrace her or the family in any way and that he responded positively to the consequence. Based on my readings in Bridging Cultures, African-American families are collectivistic (2001; pg, 4). The African-American culture is strong in their loyalty to extended family and kinship. Although, they stress the importance of individual achievement, one individual family member’s actions reflect on the whole family. As a teacher, it forced me to really reflect on what I say and how I say it. It is not one of those phone calls to take lightly or quickly. I must plan on being on the phone for a lengthy period of time. In contrast, ßgood! I have other parents/ guardians I can call, leave a message or write an email with a brief description and synopsis of the consequence and feel comfortable.