David Warlick - 2 Cents Worth
To be honest, I never wanted to be a classroom teacher. I never dreamed as a little girl that I would stand in front of a class, I never played "school" with my friends, and I certainly still do not want to be a teacher in the sense that most people think about. However, I want to work with children, and I want to teach them. Before I can answer how I would use blogs with my non-existent future classroom, I must first say how I got here.
I was introduced to autism at the age of 17 when I became a nanny for twin boys, one of whom was diagnosed with high functioning autism. Working with him was second nature to me, and his mom suggested that I look into the field of behavior analysis. My whole world changed then. The next year I was hired as a teacher at a learning center for children with autism that utilized Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA. I worked there for 2 years, then decided that I needed a change of setting. I was hired by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, or BCBA, to work with kids with autism in clinical and home settings, which is what I currently do.
But, blogging is something that I can still use in my future profession. One of the children I work with loves everything about computers and is a very strong reader and speller. I could definately use blogs with him. For example, one of his challenges is asking and answering "wh" questions, so to make it more motivating to him, I could ask him a "wh" question on the blog, and then he can answer it through the comments, and vice-versa. Besides using blogs with the children, I also work with a number of therapists. Blogging can be a great way to reflect upon each client together, since we all work with the same kids at different times of the day. We could blog suggestions, questions, and even words of encouragement, because even though this field is what we were all born to be in, it can also be extremely demanding and tough. We are all naturally reflective because we have to be. We have to analyze every single factor of the environment to draw a conclusion about why behaviors occur according to all the different stimuli in the environment.
Presentation
16 years ago
Kellyn, This post was very thought-provoking. The entire reason I chose to follow your blog was because your plan for the future is unlike mine and many of the people in our ETEC class. The path you want to take is extremely interesting to me and I think the way you plan to use blogs even in your situation is very creative. Using blogs with a boy who has autism and loves technology would be a great way for him to learn! The only suggestion I would have for you is to rethink your use of blogs with your coworkers. Remember that blogs are available to the public. You wouldn't want to be posting blogs with the personal information of your patients/students because anyone could read these. Other than this, this post was extremely inspirational for me. I think it is important to learn that teaching does not only occur in the classroom; you are proof of this!
ReplyDeleteThanks Elizabeth! I didn't even think about blogs being open to the public. We could definately not use blogs between the therapists due to confidentiality. Thank you so much for pointing that out to me!
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