School Wide Achievement Time (S.W.A.T.) officially kicked off at the Junior High this week. As an enrichment activity, I offered a "beginners sign language" option. About 20 students attended, and luckily I also had a Paraprofessional with me who was fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). The students had a great time, and I even heard that many of them were finger spelling in their afternoon classes :)
It turned out to be a great opportunity for me to meet mainstream students. The majority of students I work with are diagnosed with either a Learning Disability, Autism, or Developmental Cognitive Disability. This was a wonderful way for me to connect with more students in our building, and they were also able to learn about Deaf culture and being sensitive to those with disabilities.
The only concern that arose out of S.W.A.T. time for me today was for those students who were pre-assigned to an intervention (extra help in math, Phy Ed make-ups, etc.). Many of those students did not know they were pre-assigned, and had been looking forward to an enrichment activity (such as How to Make Root Beer). I believe it would be beneficial to notify students when they are pre-assigned to an intervention.
Overall, this was a positive experience for me. Hopefully the students enjoyed their time and learned something new!
Nice Bike to you for your success!
ReplyDeleteI understand that not all teachers have such a unique talent or passion for root beer, but I do believe more teachers, like you Emalyn, need to offer better enrichment opportunities. S.W.A.T. was designed to intervene with our struggling students yet 90% or so do not struggle. How can we convince teachers to step outside their comfort level and offer an enrichment to try to reach the 20 or so students like you did? Maybe it's possible that some teachers don't have the capacity for enrichment, but I do believe more should try.
I found SWAT was a little hectic for the first time. Biggest reason was because I was pulled from what I had designed to do (algebra intervention) to help with our geometry intervention. I feel that we had so many intervention options out there and not enough enrichment options. When it came time to enter our Saber Pause students, I had 4 very bright girls who had zero options left to choose. They had to choose study hall because of this.
ReplyDeleteI would love to offer more enrichment choices that give MORE options for the students to pick from. Some of the enrichment choices that were out there only had 3-5 students show up! Over time, we will figure out what the students enjoy and I am willing to go outside of my comfort zone to offer the choices.