Building an imaginative bridge between the work of art of compelling fashion, and the work of art of teaching…
My bridge between fashion and teaching has me recalling an experience with my youngest son. Last year, he was in the second grade. Early in the year, his teacher and I sat down for parent/teacher conference. At that time, she expressed her concern for Brandon’s inability to sit still and focus in the classroom, and asked me if I had ever thought about medicating him. I was shocked with her candor, and offended for Brandon. Naturally, my response was on the defensive… “with all due respect, I’m not going to medicate my son so your day goes a little better”. Now, Brandon is without a doubt the free spirit amongst my three boys, and I didn‘t want to change that about him; however, I had seen a lack of focus at home that was annoying to me as well. I decided my class in the coming spring at MSU should be Teaching Kids with Challenging Behavior in hopes of helping my son. It was one of the best choices I had ever made. Throughout the semester, I diligently studied every aspect of challenging behaviors, the causes and the solutions. For my culmination project, I did a 25 page report, with Brandon as my subject, entitled Changing My Son Without Changing My Son. Not only did I identify Brandon’s most challenging issues, but I was able to come up with simple solutions that completely altered his behavior (i.e., Moving him to the front of his class, Reinforcing positive behavior, An incentive contract, A change of bedtime, Vitamins, Quiet homework nook, etc.). Additionally, it became pretty clear to me that boys are still maturing at the 2nd grade level, and it didn’t help that his teacher was very stern, inflexible, and without a sense of humor. I came to learn in my research that a boy like Brandon needed a different kind of teacher; a warm-bodied, kind-hearted, stern (yet soft), and fun teacher. So, I decided to do an experiment. Brandon would be heading to 3rd grade in the Fall, and one of his potential teachers fit the description of what Brandon needed. I asked her to tutor him once a week for a month, and she agreed. Brandon thrived under her, just as I suspected he would. When I sat down with his 2nd grade teacher again in the spring, she couldn’t deny all the progress with his behavior, and was very remorseful with regard to how she handled the situation. The principal also agreed to give Brandon the teacher that tutored him as his 3rd grade teacher. Brandon’s grades were never a problem, just his inability to stay on task. In his 2nd grade teacher’s defense, I don’t know how any teacher having a classroom full of children could ever find the time to completely dissect one child as I did. Taking on teaching Brandon different coping tactics transformed his world. It is clear to me after watching What Not To Wear, Stacy and Clinton did the same thing with Pam. Dissected her, gave her the resources to change, and transformed her world.
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