When students are having a hard time completing work, understanding, or struggling with the work load, modifications are put in place to promote academic success. There are many kinds of modification strategies out there for teachers to use for various student needs. One may need to modify the classroom, the curriculum, the way the information is being delivered. There are many ways a teacher can alter subject matter for a student it just takes patience, understanding, and caring.
When I was going to school, student teaching and substitute teaching, academic modification was my area of interest. I loved working with my students and figuring out what made each of them such unique learners. I loved working out ways to reach them, how to turn on learning for them, how to help them become innate learner. This is the root of my passion, this is why I love teaching, this is why I am thankful I still get to experience this with my girls.
Instead of modifying lesson plans and classrooms I am a Mommy Mac Gyver. There are so many times I have to make something out of nothing to appease my girls. Give this mom a paper clip, tooth brush, gum wrappers and a crayon and wahoo stand back, it quickly becomes the best toy ever. I know many of us, Mom's, out there are Mac Gyvers. Just give us a screaming kid and some random items and who knows what we are capable of making to distract them. A mom can transform a boring car ride into a trip to outer space, a walk in the backyard quickly can become a safari!
Modifications are second nature to a mom; it is what our day can become in seconds. You plan a quiet day at home not doing much around the house maybe just a quick pick up, some laundry, ooh maybe prep dinner. Simple tasks, right? Just to accomplish a load of laundry means that I may just have to turn my front room into a fort, my laundry basket into a car, or bassinet into an entertainment center for the two busy bodies that seem incapable of doing anything quiet or letting mom accomplish her chores. I would have to share half the pile of clean clothes with a four-year-old that thinks if she swirls her arms around inside a shirt and says, "right corner together, left corner together, fold, fold, done" really means that she folded a shirt neatly, haha in my dreams, but someday!
Do you think Richard Dean Anderson (T.V.’s Mac Gyver), ever had to Mac Gyver a diaper out of a sweat shirt cause he ran out? How about devising a way for a four-year-old to gain independence by being able to make her own breakfast cereal in the morning...without making a mess, or come up with a way to get carrots in a child's diet without them knowing they were ever on the plate?
Well, my four-year-old has been having a hard time learning to write. I can feel Kindergarten breathing down my neck, this is the last year I have her at home. This is the last year to help her prepare for the wonderful world of learning that lays ahead of her. We have worked out of preschool books the past two years. Malia knows her numbers, letters, how to spell her name, how to jump, hop on one foot, throw a ball, run, skip, her colors, and shapes so what we do we have left? Writing, I have tried books that teach writing through tracing patterns, tracing between the lines, we have tried having her write over the top of my letters, or connect the dashes. All of which have been unsuccessful, she can trace in the lines but when it came to transferring that to letter writing, no go. I talked to many teacher friends, "Give her time," they said. I don't have much time left, I want her to be ready, Kindergarten is around the corner.
So I went to my cousin, Cassie, who is my teaching hero! She gets students to do just about anything, she creates all of her own lesson plans, she reaches students that other's don't, her student's scores are always on the rise...she is a teaching genius! I knew she could help, not only is she a teaching genius but a Mom! She gets me! Cassie told me to try a different medium--"some kids are more into textures than others", she said that many kids when learning to write have a hard time with a pencil because it is a foreign item. She suggested "Modifying" ahh, a word I understand. I could feel my college courses flooding my mind all the methods I learned, all the terms, Yes, YES! I understand! Commence Mommy Mac Gyver, Professional Modifier, my mission: to teach my four-year-old how to write using any alternative teaching method necessary!
When I was going to school, student teaching and substitute teaching, academic modification was my area of interest. I loved working with my students and figuring out what made each of them such unique learners. I loved working out ways to reach them, how to turn on learning for them, how to help them become innate learner. This is the root of my passion, this is why I love teaching, this is why I am thankful I still get to experience this with my girls.
Instead of modifying lesson plans and classrooms I am a Mommy Mac Gyver. There are so many times I have to make something out of nothing to appease my girls. Give this mom a paper clip, tooth brush, gum wrappers and a crayon and wahoo stand back, it quickly becomes the best toy ever. I know many of us, Mom's, out there are Mac Gyvers. Just give us a screaming kid and some random items and who knows what we are capable of making to distract them. A mom can transform a boring car ride into a trip to outer space, a walk in the backyard quickly can become a safari!
Modifications are second nature to a mom; it is what our day can become in seconds. You plan a quiet day at home not doing much around the house maybe just a quick pick up, some laundry, ooh maybe prep dinner. Simple tasks, right? Just to accomplish a load of laundry means that I may just have to turn my front room into a fort, my laundry basket into a car, or bassinet into an entertainment center for the two busy bodies that seem incapable of doing anything quiet or letting mom accomplish her chores. I would have to share half the pile of clean clothes with a four-year-old that thinks if she swirls her arms around inside a shirt and says, "right corner together, left corner together, fold, fold, done" really means that she folded a shirt neatly, haha in my dreams, but someday!
Do you think Richard Dean Anderson (T.V.’s Mac Gyver), ever had to Mac Gyver a diaper out of a sweat shirt cause he ran out? How about devising a way for a four-year-old to gain independence by being able to make her own breakfast cereal in the morning...without making a mess, or come up with a way to get carrots in a child's diet without them knowing they were ever on the plate?
Well, my four-year-old has been having a hard time learning to write. I can feel Kindergarten breathing down my neck, this is the last year I have her at home. This is the last year to help her prepare for the wonderful world of learning that lays ahead of her. We have worked out of preschool books the past two years. Malia knows her numbers, letters, how to spell her name, how to jump, hop on one foot, throw a ball, run, skip, her colors, and shapes so what we do we have left? Writing, I have tried books that teach writing through tracing patterns, tracing between the lines, we have tried having her write over the top of my letters, or connect the dashes. All of which have been unsuccessful, she can trace in the lines but when it came to transferring that to letter writing, no go. I talked to many teacher friends, "Give her time," they said. I don't have much time left, I want her to be ready, Kindergarten is around the corner.
So I went to my cousin, Cassie, who is my teaching hero! She gets students to do just about anything, she creates all of her own lesson plans, she reaches students that other's don't, her student's scores are always on the rise...she is a teaching genius! I knew she could help, not only is she a teaching genius but a Mom! She gets me! Cassie told me to try a different medium--"some kids are more into textures than others", she said that many kids when learning to write have a hard time with a pencil because it is a foreign item. She suggested "Modifying" ahh, a word I understand. I could feel my college courses flooding my mind all the methods I learned, all the terms, Yes, YES! I understand! Commence Mommy Mac Gyver, Professional Modifier, my mission: to teach my four-year-old how to write using any alternative teaching method necessary!
Mom on a budget of $0 equals a Mommy Mac Gyver, repurposing common items from around house to create modified learning supplies!
Pie pan+ leftover moon sand=fun way of sand writing, without finding a beach.
Ziplock+ several drops of random paint colors=clean/reusable finger painting when illuminated by a window (extension for lesson-put two primary colors in bag to teach about secondary colors).
Play-dough= easy fun way to trace letters in or to sculpt letters out of (science project/extension make your own play-dough recipe)
We have been spending an hour a day learning through playing. Then for the fun of it, the rest of the day, I let her use her dry erase letter practicing board to play (uhmm..that’s code for practice). I told her, I know you know your letters and if you feel like trying you can try to trace over these letters and see what you can do. I walked out of the room. When I came back three little letters had been traced over! A shaky hand, not perfect by any standard but BEAUTIFULLY attempted and executed! Amazing!
What my daughter reminded me was every learner is unique, what works for one doesn't work for all. She taught me to have faith and to calm down. When I let go and gave her space and made learning fun she rose to the occasion! My little girl is learning to write! The stress of Kindergarten has diminished. I know my girl is going to do amazing! Lesson learned: MOMMY needed to Modify my behavior. I needed to have confidence in my daughter, step back and when I did she felt confident enough to try!
What my daughter reminded me was every learner is unique, what works for one doesn't work for all. She taught me to have faith and to calm down. When I let go and gave her space and made learning fun she rose to the occasion! My little girl is learning to write! The stress of Kindergarten has diminished. I know my girl is going to do amazing! Lesson learned: MOMMY needed to Modify my behavior. I needed to have confidence in my daughter, step back and when I did she felt confident enough to try!
No comments:
Post a Comment