When
I walk my dogs – I talk to neighbors - I ponder- I wonder - I reflect and
frequently I do not always notice things.
I
walk past the same houses twice a day and sometimes more frequently. One day I
saw a beautiful scrub. It had an
incredible shape and I had not noticed it previously. How many times had I
walked by it and missed the beauty of the fire brush?
In September one my
dogs experienced a new bump in his life road and faced a major challenged. Out
of the blue Schooner went blind plus he was diagnosed with diabetes and spent a
couple of days in the hospital – it has a bleak and tough week for us but
especially for him.
This
seemed to happen all of a sudden.
On a morning walk I noticed he seemed to bump into a fence he always
liked to walk near. On the next
day morning walk I noticed he looked a little confused and that he not only
bumped into the fence again but when we came home he just sat in front of a
cabinet and stared blanking at it.
When I got home that Sunday afternoon I could tell, for sure, my dog was
blind.
The
next morning I found a vet clinic with an ophthalmologist who could see him
that day. Who knew there were dog
ophthalmologists? While she was examining
him I told her that I really wanted him to have a blood test. What we learned from the tests was that
not only was my dog blind but he was also severely diabetic. Again, who knew
dogs could be diabetic? It was the
diabetes that caused his cataracts leading to his blindness.
After
his testing at the clinic he needed to be hospitalized because his diabetes was
so bad. (BTW dogs do not get diabetes from not enough exercise or too many
sweets – like we get it. Dogs get
it purely through genetics. It is
totally inherited.)
The vets kept saying,
“Didn’t you see any warning signs?”
I said it is hard to know warning signs when you don’t know what you are
looking for. I asked, like what kinds of warning
signs? They said if he drank a lot of water and/or peed a lot. Well, he did – but boy dogs do pee a
lot so I did not think anything strange about the behavior. I know he drank
more than my other dog but he is a bigger dog - I did not know that meant
anything. I said to them how would I know what to look for if I did not know
what I needed to look for especially if I did not think anything was wrong?
Now I can look back
and identify some warning signs. I now see signs that maybe had I seen them earlier and
knew what to look for previously, his health conditions might be different
today.
If
you would go back to a previous post on this blog cite (The Middle Way, the Balanced Classroom, June 20, 2010) I write
about my two dogs Lizzie and Schooner and how I was trying to find the middle
path on our walks since one would want to go one way and the other dog would
want to go a different way. Now I
understand why he had preferred patterns in our walks.
I
cannot move things around the house now otherwise he will bump into things and
it confuses his pattern paths. There are various barricades to prevent him from
falling down steps. I worry about
me falling over them and getting injured – so now I have to be more cautious. Our
walks take much longer now, which sometime really tries my patience.
These
are issues regarding his blindness but being diabetic also provides
complications. There has to be a
regular schedule for eating and giving him his insulin shots. He has to eat within a 12 hour
timeframe and he needs his insulin shots within 20 minutes of eating. This doesn’t
sound all that hard but it is – sometimes he doesn’t want to eat and although I
have figure out ways to give his shots with little distractions sometimes he
doesn’t like them and gets mad at me.
I have never lived such a regularly schedule life.
Schooner is lucky because,
Lizzie, my other dog helps him. She stays with him and rarely leaves his side.
If I leave the room for what she thinks is too long she will come to me with an
expression on her face sharing that I need to go check on Schooner. She is his little guardian angel supporting
her buddy.
Through
Schooner’s health our lives have all been
changed and we all have a different relationship. We have developed new
vocabulary with different phrases; “step down one, step down two, step down
three. Step up one. Favorite alley. Alley going home.” In some ways I have always been a
patient person but I am more patient now.
When
we take our walks I often ponder how most of us, every day, do not notice
things around us. Actually, most of our lives we do not see things that are in
front of us.
Schooner’s new
challenges also make me ponder how teachers and family members may not
understand why children may behave as they do. They have certain patterns of behaviors
that may be considered disruptive; maybe they cannot see or hear that well. They cannot tell us because it may be
the only way they know how to see or hear. They cannot always tell us why learning is hard for them, it
just is. Some students may be ADD
but it is not their fault if they are.
Like
me with Schooner, teachers
do not always know what to look for or even know that we should be looking for
something. So, we have to develop a new level of awareness with our eyes wide
open.
I have resolved everyday, on our walks,
I will discover something I have not previously noticed and I want you to do
the same.
I
want you to do so also through two lenses. One is the lens as an educator. For your reply to this blog I want you
to reflect on how teachers and family members can develop ways to look for things
even when they do not know what they are looking for so we do not blame the
kids needlessly for something out of their control. Identify three or four ways you can develop strategies of
observing student behavior patterns, possible indicators and what may be a
concern.
For
lens two, I want you to identify something new every day that we have class. It
could be something in your neighborhood or on the train or riding a bike. Write them down so you can remember
them and when class is over post them on your blog.
For
example, when I walk the dogs every day I have promised myself to see something
in my neighborhood that I have not seen before. Maybe it is trim on a house, or
a marking on a store front – now that I have developed this pattern finding
something new is not all that hard to do.
As
my dog struggles to learn his way around the neighborhood, the house and life I
also struggle to find my way in the world to help him. The old patterns of my life
and “our lives” have
changed since he lost his vision and became diabetic and we are creating new patterns.
I want to thank Schooner for he has made be a better person. Maybe he lost his
eyesight so I might better see signs that surround me and to look at the world
with my eyes more widely open. I invite
you to do the same.
5 comments:
Thank you for your post. My daughter had been given an eye exam at her school and we found out that her left eye is severely worse than her right. We would have never known but after the optometrist informed us that she would tilt her head to read things, we began to notice. I felt like a bad parent but we are now making the necessary steps to correct the situation. Teachers can sometimes be the first contact to notice something wrong, especially in low-income schools. It is important for the teachers to differentiate instruction to find how students learn best but also to look for how students learn worse. This may lead to a diagnosis of a problem. If a student is a bad visual learner, is it because of eye problems? If a student is a bad auditory learner, is it due to hearing problems? It is also important for teachers to relay the fact that an eye, ear, or other problem does not make the student a bad person or a "dumb" person. With the correct accommodations, that student can still be taught to reach their full potential.
Teachers and parents can use a variety of strategies in order to monitor student behaviors and patterns. Most importantly, I think every teacher should use a behavior log. Take note every time a student is disruptive or needs to use the bathroom, etc. This will give you data over a long period of time to tell if there is a pattern. And if you find something, be sure to talk to the student's other teachers to see if this is happening throughout the day.
It is also important to take note during tests/quizzes if a student is very far behind the pace of the rest of the class. This could help to identify any student with a learning disability. These types of problems can have a variety of signs and symptoms that can easily be overlooked.
Lastly, I advocate for every parent to recognize when their child is struggling or exceeding in a class or multiple classes. Even something as simple as noticing that a student is constantly complaining about a specific subject can be helpful. By seeing these patterns, parents can have meaningful conversations with teachers and even the students. Through group work among the three (student, parent, and teacher), education can be improved for each individual student. With each of these strategies, simple observations and pattern recognition can make a large difference on the education of a student.
Mr. Vroman
I am glad that your family was able to identify the vision challenges your daughter is experiencing. What prompted you to take her to the optometrist in the first place? Is she your older child? A friend of mine in NYC would refer to his oldest child as their experiment – because with the first child we don’t always see things or know how to do things like we do with the siblings that follow. So do not feel like a “bad parent.”
It may be true to some extent that teachers identify behaviors patterns prior to families – but not just in low-income families –middle class and upper class families may also need support with such observations.
Differentiation may be a good tool for educators to identify learning challenges or complications - and then provide support for families to assist the child to get appropriate treatment.
It is essential that families and educators work in harmony to help students move forward towards success. Unfortunately, harmony may not always happen. Educators need to remember to treat families with respect and honor and that we do care about their children.
How specifically are you going to help differentiate or identify your students’ possible learning challenges?
Good luck.
Ms. Backus
I like the idea of a behavior log – it may require a little extra time in a teacher’s already busy day – but time well spent. I am not sure learning challenges can be connected to disruptive behaviors – although some may be. It is a good idea to keep a log of disruptive behaviors for many reasons, but it is also a nice idea for identifying students’ behavior trends i.e. where students sit or move in a classroom to better hear or see or to get away from others, or if they repeatedly ask you to repeat something or if you find a need to repeat things to get their attention, or if you need to talk louder etc. Talking with other teachers is exactly one reason why teaming is so important. During team meetings teachers can discuss concerns and successes regarding their students.
I agree with you that a student with a slower pace may be indicative of a learning challenge – but it is also that some kids may be very detailed in their thinking and processing of information or they go over tests to make sure things are correct- they could be a Myers Briggs “I” who think through many layers of ideas before replying.
I also agree that teachers, support staff, families and students are all part of the team working towards each student’s success. Some parents/guardians may be too hovering or helicopter type parents/ guardians while some may find a good balance while other parent/ guardians may be more relaxed and hands off and others may be overwhelmed by many factors in their lives (work, their parents health, other children’s situations). Being a student, being a parent/guardian, being an educator are all tough roads to hoe – with a variety of bumps in the road that come and go and hopefully with many smooth roads as well.
Being an educator involves way more than just presenting content material, always has and always will.
Good luck.
What a tragic occurrence that happened to Schooner. It seems like he is in great hands/paws though with you and Lizzie.
I think it is important to be in close communication with other teachers, especially more experienced teachers; to bounce ideas off of, to seek advice, and to discuss any issues regarding students. By observing student behavior, one can keep note of how a student acts, responds, socializes and can probably get a good idea of the student's self esteem. By communicating with a mentor on student behavior, among other things, one can be helped in determining if there is something that needs to be addressed with the student.
A good time to record student behavior is not only when the student acts out, but more importantly, observing how they work with others, how they work individually, how they speak and how they socialize. Do they seem confident? Discouraged? Depressed? Happy? Sad? Moody? Do they practice good hygiene? Has their attitude changed in any way? Has their school performance changed in any way?
It's also important to make note of these behaviors and possibly discuss them with the student him/herself. It may also make sense to reach out to parents to inquire about the student. It's possible the parent has no idea or is completely aware of a condition that was not made known to the school.
Thanks for your support and kindness regarding Schooner. It has been and continues to be a learning curve for all of us.
One thing that has helped us are other dog owners who have had similar health concerns with their dogs. I do get ideas from them on how to help retrain Schooner. Even at the school this week where we did the shadow study one of the administrative assistants shared how they helped their dog – who had been born blind – learn the world around him. So reaching out to others – whether pet owners or teachers helps us help our pets and our students and provides some sort of comfort fro us.
Record keeper is essential for teachers to help them collect their ideas and observations regarding students so they can identify a pattern of behaviors as well as provide research to support their presumptions.
To record possible emotional flux that you suggest as well as appearance and personal hygiene are good areas to address. So as you check with other teachers, the student him/herself and the parents- guardians do need to be part of the identification process as well as creating a plan to support the student in areas where support may be needed.
Teachers have a lot to observe and address everyday and the list continues to get longer and longer. Good luck working with your students and all your observations.
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