It sometimes seems that schools want to make it impossible to obtain supports for our students. Every child has a legal right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE); sometimes, an assessment determines which supports ensure an appropriate education. Unfortunately, school district evaluations can be superficial and incomplete. There is…
Tag: students
Autistics struggle because most people have more social skills and extroverts with social skills lead most communities. By the age of six, teachers can accurately predict which students will be successful. That’s true in various nations, on several continents. Research has found, time and again, that the mastery of cultural norms…
Podcast Episode 0049; Season 04, Episode 13; November 24, 2020 Daniel Sansing and I discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic encourages colleges and universities to reconsider how we support autistic students in higher education. Is online education an accommodation or does it leave out important life skills? Daniel Sansing, MEd., Literacy and Second Language…
Autistic students and their parents contact me all-too-often about writing courses at colleges and universities. For some reason, writing pedagogies (the theories and methods instructors embrace) prove particularly problematic for students with disabilities. Writing courses are tailored for the “normal” students, those without any physical, cognitive, or mental health challenges. Much…
At the end of every semester I experience a sense of failure and wonder how I could do better. The insecurity and anxiety paralyze me. I read the evaluations and reviews, but instead of noticing that I score higher than university or program averages (and medians, too), my mind locks…
For the last few months I haven’t had much time for blogging, or even quiet reflection on life. This was an overwhelming semester, and I am surprised that I managed to function through the last 16 weeks without total collapse. Partial collapse has followed, though. This semester was too much.…
Perfection and compulsive organization drive me to over-prepare for the courses I teach. I’ve found that some instructors, especially at the college and university level, are comfortable with a loose seminar approach to teaching, I like to have lots of notes, outlines, slides, and handouts. Without the structure, I would…
While working on the research for my dissertation, I have read page after page on writing pedagogy asserting that the goal of a university writing course should be to teach students that knowledge is socially constructed and that “truth” is relative to culture and community. The problem with this assertion…