There are no exams at OTSS, so during exam week there were not a lot of students in the school. Since there wasn’t much going on, Lindsay kindly arranged for me to observe in the GLP and ASD classrooms when I was in the school.
GLP
I spent the morning observing the GLP classroom. The teacher, Mr. B, tries to create a relaxed and welcoming classroom environment for students to learn. He began the class by reflecting on the previous day’s behaviour and asking each student how they were feeling. The main activities for the day were watching small video clips and answering comprehension questions. Mr. B did a lot of scaffolding by answering the questions for the first video as a class. He also typed up the answers the students said so that the whole class can type them into their Chromebooks. After the first video, he asked the students to try answering the questions on their own for the second video. When I walked around the classroom to observe the students’ work, I definitely noticed that their writing skills is lower than the standard of their age group. Hence, the GLP is not heavily academically focused, and the students are not working towards earning high school credits. The class mainly focuses on helping students develop social skills beneficial to the workforce.
ASD
After lunch, I spent the afternoon with the ASD class. The students went on a skating outing. Some were not willing to go and/or skate, because they were not comfortable with an unfamiliar setting. I noticed that almost all of them needed assistance in daily functions, such as putting things in their bags, putting on shoes, etc. I needed to help them tie their skates and put on their helmets so that they could skate safely on the rink. Even though some students were not willing to put their skates on the ice, they still were there to “participate”. The teachers tried to encourage them but were not overly pushy. The ones on the ice were enjoying their time with the other ASD teachers. Building relationships with the students in this class is really key, because students need to feel comfortable enough to learn and try new things.
Summary
I thought today was a very insightful. I spent the day with a set of students that is very different from who I usually teach. For the students in GLP and ASD classes, academic success is not the most important; what's more important is the learning process. The teachers were all very warm and created a welcoming atmosphere for students to learn. The key to teaching these students is to be attentive to each of their needs and accommodate to them. If students are not receptive of what we teach, then what we do is meaningless. The programs emphasizes on daily-living, social and workplace skills so that the students can learn to become independent adults after they leave high school. The use of experiential activities provide a positive learning experience for students and help them develop these skills at the same time.
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