Often in teaching its the unintended little surprises you experience during the learning process that mean the most, but they often keep you going during the "hard times", and make all the effort worth it.
For instance, I had a long discussion with a parent Tuesday night who praised and thanked us for CAPES! She talked about the changes their child has experienced since beginning in CAPES! Increased social interactions, better behavior at school and even counting down to the next CAPES!
Congratulations, YOU are making these changes, not me or Dr. Z (We just get all the credit ;) The joy, appreciation, and "thank you" written all over her face and words makes all the effort of putting CAPES! together worth it.
Explain a few surprises you have had while at CAPES! so far...about the child you work with and about yourself. Additionally, many of you had the opportunity to work with a student you had never worked with before, or even had two students- How did you adjust to that? What kinds of surprises did you encounter with that situation? But most importantly what did you do to hurdle those surprises?
This last week was such a special week for me. My child is very particular about sticking to his usual routines. One of the most important things for him is that he has his goggles and his flippers every time he gets in the pool; well unfortunately this last week there were no available flippers for him. At first he just sat down and would respond "No!" to everything I told him we were doing. Eventually I just told him, "ok, well I'm going to go have fun in the pool." I got in the pool and kept my eye on him still sitting in the corner. Amazingly, he slowly worked his way into the pool. I went over to him and immediately starting praising him and having fun with him. At the end of the pool session he was so excited that he swam without the flippers. It was an amazing moment for me seeing that small breakthrough with him with stepping out of his comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteThere have been many many pleasant surprises as I have been participating in CAPES! The first being my enjoyment of the whole experience. To be honest, I looked at the 2 hours every Tuesday as something keeping me from getting things done at home. However, I look forward to it every week now because of the progress my student is making, and because of the relationship we have formed. Her mother has been so positive in her comments about her daughter's experience she has been having. There are of course little surprises that come up that I am not prepared for such as her reaction to some of the activities we do. Some she really enjoys, others frustrate her, and some she just doesn't find interesting and loses focus. Overall I have learned to bend my knees and even if she doesn't enjoy the activity, I tell her to keep trying and then after so long we will move on to another activity more enjoyable. Disciplining has never been an enjoyable thing for me, however I am learning that when surprises come up it is always necessary to praise or redirect.
ReplyDeleteOver the last few weeks there have been a few things about F who has surprised me. One of those is that she is a lot more open to interacting with other CAPES! kids and she hasn't had any panic attacks yet. The main objective that we are working on with her is social interactions, and so far, she has done far better than I thought she would. This week, F and I took in another student whose WSU person couldn't be there. F was much more open about having this other girl with us, and she even wanted to play with and talk with the other girl. She did get a little upset that my attention wasn't completely on her, but she never said or did anything to make the other girl notice that she wanted all of my attention. I hope that F keeps on surprising me in her social skills, and lack of panic attacks.
ReplyDeleteMy surprise was that this week I had A (my usual CAPES friend) and her cousin as well. They are about the same age and play well together but they don't always agree on what to do. I had some things in mind for the evening with A, but we had a hard time deciding on what to do as a group to make everyone happy. A is very considerate and usually chose to allow her cousin to make the decisions instead of causing any problems. It went a lot smoother because of how A was so easy going and I know it will mean a lot to her when she can decide what activities to do on her own.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite surprises this week was how willing my CAPES participant was to some of my suggestions. I got him to float on his back, which I have been trying to do for weeks. I still had to bribe him sort of by letting him throw the basketball if he would just try floating once. To my surprise again the same night I got him to play a board game with me. He normally hates board games, but after the initial fight to get going, we had a lot of fun. He really enjoyed the game and even beat me fair and square. I love how every week I can find something to be thankful for with my CAPES experience. I am even surprised with how comfortable I am. In the beginning I was so nervous and never thought that I would be so excited every week for this class!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by how quickly the kids warm up to you. We have seemed to bond really quick and I feel that we are both really excited to see each other. It has also been fun to help him do activities that he has never done before and seen how excited he is when he plays the game or makes contact with the ball. I took him to the racquet ball courts and he had a blast. He was so determined to make contact with the ball and he really started to get the hang of it.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by how quickly the kids warm up to you. We have seemed to bond really quick and I feel that we are both really excited to see each other. It has also been fun to help him do activities that he has never done before and seen how excited he is when he plays the game or makes contact with the ball. I took him to the racquet ball courts and he had a blast. He was so determined to make contact with the ball and he really started to get the hang of it.
ReplyDeleteMy student G has missed about every other week which has been a surprise each week not knowing who I would get to focus my time on. I did get to spend time with her this week and it was wonderful to feel the relationship we are forming grow and develop further trust. The most surprises in working with her have come while swimming as it is much more out of G’s comfort zone than the land based activities have been. She gets overjoyed and nervous at the same time; it sounds like last semester the majority of the time she sat on the ledge of the pool. Our first day swimming this was my experience as well so I have been very committed to getting her in the water. I want G to get the greatest value and fullest sensory experience possible out of CAPES!, especially the swimming portion. It has been nerve racking because in anticipation of getting in the water, she has had a tenancy to run off towards the swimming accessories which are closer to the deep end of the pool. This reaction has surprised me and I wanted to make sure this didn’t happen this week; through me having confidence and being kind, communicative and assertive I assisted her to get in the pool eliminating the “hesitation game” that has occurred in the past. I have learned that the more confidence I have in working with her, and the clearer the boundaries and rules are, the more successful and enjoyable our time is. To hurdle the surprises, especially in the pool, I have made it as fun as possible and communicated some simple rules in the water like no running out of the pool. She has come so far from last time we met. It’s so awesome to see progress!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest surprise is how overly joyed all of these CAPES participants get to see us and to do physical activity. They absolutely love playing and interacting with other participants and us students. Another fun surprise for me is how to work with an individual that is mostly non-verbal. I have never worked with anyone who could not communicate vocally. It has taught me so much about how smart but misunderstood he is. He loves to play and try to make me smile which I love about him. I have started to use less words to try and explain but more demonstration right along with him. He learns and participates so much more when me and his family are interacting right along with him. That is when he is happiest and learning the most. I love how much he enjoys swimming in the pool. Never have I ever seen someone with that much energy to swim constantly. It has taught me to just let him go and swim as much as possible in that hour because that is such a great exercise for him and also teaches him s lifelong physical activity.
ReplyDeleteI think all I needed to adjust was to be around him and get to know him better. We have a lot of fun! I’ve been learning how to better invite him to do something he isn’t really excited about. He’ll tell me all kinds of stories: Who won the football game, what animal is the coolest. Any question I ask he’ll answer, so it’s really cool. Surprises? They’re all good ones and I keep running into them all the time! We do something knew and I find out he either already knows how to do it or catches on really fast. I taught him some yoga poses a few weeks ago and this week I decided to try them again and see what he remembered. He remembered all of them! I also thought it was cool that he played tag with me with each of us taking a turn to be it. The last time I tried to play that with him he didn’t want to. I think it helped because he had been talking about cheetahs and so I incorporated that into the game and he got to choose what the cheetah was chasing after. Oh! Another surprise! He normally walks down the steps one at a time with both feet hitting each step. I only had to remind him to do it right (one foot per step) twice this week instead of every single flight we go down. The only negative one I had was the week when he had a melt down after falling but Dr. Williams handled that one…I was just..there. It all turned out well though.
ReplyDeleteThe most rewarding aspects of CAPES! has been the times where my participant has pushed themself. They don't like to put their head under the water, but when they do, I can tell they feel so accomplished! I have also gotten them to change some inappropriate social behavior, which is also very encouraging. I've actually thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of CAPES!, but it seems the best times have been when they have succeeded past what they were previously able to do.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised but how much J has come in aspects of the pool and in communication, she has gone from just sitting on the steps in the pool and standing on the platform for doing things that she has never done before in the pool. Her communication has gotten phenomenally better then it was at the start of CAPES! no its not perfect but it has gotten so much better, and its great to be able to see what they are learning and accomplishing.
ReplyDeleteI have been surprised by how quickly R has warmed up to me, and how comfortable I feel with him. I was nervous at first because I didn't know how he was going to react with me, but since day 1 he has been awesome. I can honestly say that he has made me warm up to him, than me trying to get him to warm up to me. R's behavior has been so amazing that it just makes it that much easier and fun to work with him.
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