Experiences

The experience that I want to discuss is something that is very sensitive but very important for all personnel in education to be aware of and to hear about.  Several weeks ago, I had a student who was exhibiting some odd symptoms in class.  The student appeared very distressed, was breathing heavy, and was shaking.  When I noticed the student, who had moved to the back of the room, with their head down, I went over and tried to figure out what was going on.  The student was strongly gripping their cell phone, and I had, at first, thought the student had received a message that made him or her angry.  It was very unusual and just strange: definitely like nothing I had experienced before.  The student kept telling me that he or she was fine and continued to ask me to leave him or her alone.  At this point, I asked if he or she wanted to sit with a chair in the hallway to take a break, which they did.  I continued to try to elicit information on what was happening with slight success.  I was able to get some spotty pieces of information, and was still unable to really assess what the issue was.  At this point, the student began to sweat and have labored breathing, to which I called the nurse.  I stood there after the student had been carted away, so confused and concerned.  I carried on for the rest of they day in a bit of a fog just wondering what was happening, as this student is usually a bright and happy personality in my room.  I later received a message that day asking that I stop into the nurse’s office.  When I did, she gave me the news that the student had ingested an excessive amount of a substance in an attempted suicide that morning, and that the physical symptoms I witnessed were a medical result of this.  The student was taken to the hospital to receive medical care and was admitted to a program to address the mental illness.  The student just recently rejoined the class at school after weeks undergoing treatment.  This was a pretty heavy experience for me to hear my colleagues and medical staff at my school tell me how I saved a child’s life that day.  This experience will continue to offer me a more attentive mindset and remind me every day to tune in.  A quiet student with their head down can be easy to overlook at times, especially in rooms of 35+ students.  This was the extra reminder I needed to never become complacent, not only as a teacher, but as a human being that cares about other human beings.

I think the biggest thing that I have began to implement to allow for student variability and customization to their learning has been the use of different technology-based tools and digital lessons. I especially like adaptive practice tools and websites that adjust the level of difficulty based on student response.  These kinds of tools also offer immediate feedback, which I think speeds up the learning process.  I also have been having an extremely high level of success with the tool called Nearpod for making digital interactive lessons.  These kinds of tools offer students many different methods for input (ex. voice recording, typing, touch screen pen, etc.) so students really have the opportunity to engage with the content in many different ways.  I think that this has increased overall engagement and mastery of learning objectives. The digital tools offer so much flexibility and opportunity for differentiation and adaptability on the part of the teacher and the student.  If I notice students having difficulty, I can pull a small group and push out a link to additional resources, like a video, for them to engage with to address their learning needs.  Overall, when used effectively, the digital tools can be a truly amazing addition to any classroom!