Do U Know any AS Teachers

[wishingwell]

This year my youngest son has had a fantastic teacher. He explains and reaches every child in his care at a level that ensures their confidence in learning. He uses a lot of visual, role playing, hands on and the kids will attempt anything. He explains ever-thing in a way they can understand and offers rewards daily. He has really made a difference to my son education.

 

I can see some traits of AS in his behavior. He is very understanding and offers lots of advice on my older AS son's education even though he has not taught him. I just feel he personally has an in-depth understanding of AS. He is young and this is his first permanent post.

 

Do you know any AS teachers.

 

curious

[Mumble]

Me (although I'm not teaching at the moment).

 

Mumble

[krystaltps]

I happily admit to possessing some AS traits - it certainly runs in the family! I also love teaching AS kids. Not sure if we hit it off because of my experience with C, or because of my AS traits though.

[David Matthew Baker]

Two of my friends at school think I am on the spectrum. One of them has worked a lot with ASD in the past and is about to start a new job at the special school just up the hill from where I am now. I had my group at the TEACCH workshop joke that they would be working with me (as the student) the following day too. Personally I think that there are some autistic traits but I probably am too sociable (though it tends to be with people older or younger than me rather than my own age) to be fully on the spectrum. Certainly I seem to be able to get on well with autistic students. That may just be that I am quite laid back and relaxed though. Friends always say I'm predictable too though I try and argue against that at times. Apparently it is just I'm weird in some ways but always am weird in those places. Having said that if I am on the spectrum it wouldn't worry me because I am happy as I am. It wouldn't make a difference because I am content to be myself. I don't have to conform to others perceptions of normal. Anyway if everyone was normal it would be really boring.

 

EDIT: Of course won't be a teacher till after the summer but that isn't far in advance now. Keep getting asked why on earth I'd want to go into teaching after seeing what the school I'm at presently is like.

Edited June 9, 2007 by David Matthew Baker

[baddad]

Personally, I think the hallowed halls of academia are probably BRIMMING with aspies/HFA's...

Probably more in some subjects than others (my guess is not many aspie P.E. teachers), and my guess would be more in Uni etc than at the local comprehensive (that's not an 'intelligence' slur BTW - more to do with the social interactions involved)...

Physics... science.... history.... math.....languages (esp. 'dead' ones)....... And train spotting at the weekends - Tally ho! Top hole!

[Mumble]

Personally, I think the hallowed halls of academia are probably BRIMMING with aspies/HFA's...

Absolutely - why else do you think I'm so happy at uni (the problems I have aren't anything to do with the academics). BUT, I would say I think this might be becoming less the case as various 'initiatives' come in to make academia more open and accountable - hopefully I can 'get-in' in time . . .

 

Physics... science.... history.... math.....languages (esp. 'dead' ones)....... And train spotting at the weekends - Tally ho! Top hole!

Dead aspies do languages in academia??

Oh, and not to be pedantic or anything, but 'math' has an 's' on the end.

Train spotting - hmmm, you were doing so well until that point - don't you know that the best trains aren't always found at the weekend?

 

Mumble of the Hallowed Halls

[wishingwell]

I would have though that after years of being misunderstood in school that teaching would have been the last career choice in your mind.

 

Obviously I'm wrong.

The more ASD teachers the better for the kids.

 

'Keep up the good work!'

[Mumble]

I would have though that after years of being misunderstood in school that teaching would have been the last career choice in your mind.

 

Ah, well you see that's interesting, because that's exactly what's written in my assessment report - that it will cause me huge stress etc etc, but actually it's the least of my worries.

 

I have a theory on this (and I think there's probably quite a few AS teachers/ teachers with multiple AS traits because of this). Schools run on timetables and routine. They're split up into weeks and then 1/2 termly chunks. With the high levels of paper work expected they provide planned predictability. The teacher, for the most part, when in their class is the one with control over the situation (I don't mean that in any bad way). There's predictability over what to wear, over who you come into contact with. There are rules governing the behaviours of different people in the institution. When schools work, they operate on a calm, predictable basis. We grew up within the routines of schooling, so to maintain that by goig into schools as a teacher rather than having to learn a whole new environment is beneficial. In addition, the bane of most teachers' lives, having to work outside school hours in planning etc., worked well for me because I like working all hours. Not many other work environments give this.

 

On being misunderstood, yes, but this gives us an ideal starting point from which to apprach the situation - we can see what is really happening and what the child is experiencing.

 

As teachers, I would suggest AS individuals can excel in this career - providing a calm, structured routine from which children (all children, not just ASD) benefit.

 

My biggest problems (which is why I'm not teaching now) were in accepting the hierarchy of the school management - that the head/deputy could make any decision they wanted over me (even though I'm the one who knew my class) without giving reason, just because they were 'in charge'. I don't like a very top-down model and I do believe in working with the children and starting from their starting points - but this unfortunately doesn't always fit with the school.

[Bard]

I find that the truly random and chaotic element in school is the children. Which age group are you trained to teach Mumble?

[Mumble]

I find that the truly random and chaotic element in school is the children. Which age group are you trained to teach Mumble?

3 - 13. Though I prefer the 7 - 13 age range - I like teaching all subjects to the 7 - 9 ages and maths to the older ones - thankfully I had a school that gave me this opportunity.

I have however taught in quite 'traditional' schools. I didn't cope so well in an inner-city school, so it's probably as much about the environment as anything else. And I was good at putting on the 'teacher act'.

Anyway, I didn't cope and need something more structured (hence academia), so maybe it was more chaotic than I realised and I just 'got-by'.

Thinking about it worries me a lot because I wonder where my future is.

[Canopus]

I have a theory on this (and I think there's probably quite a few AS teachers/ teachers with multiple AS traits because of this). Schools run on timetables and routine.

 

Interesting that you mention this. I was talking to a TA who told me that primary schools now run on timetables almost the same way as secondary schools do. When I was at primary school there wasn't a timetable and it was difficult predicting what you would do in advance. Every day was a new set of surprises. The TA told me that she thinks that kids with AS benefit from having a timetabled system and would struggle more under the system of my primary school. Any thoughts on this?

[summertime]

I have introduced pictorial timetables in every class in our primary school, I feel this helps the ASD pupils but also the pupils with anxieties, the children love them and it takes a lot of stress out of their day.

[Guest Lya of the Nox]

we use visual timetables in the nursery i work in , the kids all love them,

[Bard]

I have introduced pictorial timetables in every class in our primary school, I feel this helps the ASD pupils but also the pupils with anxieties, the children love them and it takes a lot of stress out of their day.

 

 

So have we!

Velcro strip on the wall and pictures about 15cm square, plus the date.

We still do individual ones for some children, so they can personally remove a picture after the activity.

The amounts of time you have to spend on each curriculum area are now legal requirements in the NC, so they have to add up. The focus is now on subject lessons rather than the old carousel.

[Canopus]

The amounts of time you have to spend on each curriculum area are now legal requirements in the NC, so they have to add up. The focus is now on subject lessons rather than the old carousel.

 

One good thing about the NC is that teachers can't stop kids from attending certain lessons because they have behaved badly, or haven't done the work in a previous lesson.

[Bard]

One good thing about the NC is that teachers can't stop kids from attending certain lessons because they have behaved badly, or haven't done the work in a previous lesson.

 

 

I agree.

In the old days of teacher-lead topic-based teaching, you could also manage to avoid covering specific subject areas that you didn't like, such as music with instruments or DT with actual tools, or electrical circuits. Some children ended up with a rather lopsided education sometimes, depending on the individual quirks of the teachers...me included.

As a quirky teacher, I mean.

[Canopus]

This was one of the reasons for introducing the NC. The government and secondary school were concerned about the excessive variation in what primary schools were and weren't teaching. Quite often primary teachers would teach only what interested them, and in a style they wanted. I certainly had a very lopsided education and not exactly tilted towards what I was good at or interested me.