I am currently taking the Senia Certified Educator Level 1 series of courses. In the last course, or maybe it was longer ago now, we were asked to make presentations we could take to the staff to give them more information about different disabilities (autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.). Since we [inclusion support teachers] are taking the Senia course as a team, internally we divided the topics so we could start building a library.
I was hoping to get dysgraphia, but when I chose, last, there were only a few left. I don't remember what they were off the top of my head, but I ended up with executive functioning.
I made it for the course, but when it came to what I was going to present to the staff, I had to think of how to make it effective with the 5 minutes I was given to talk.
Yeah, 5 minutes to talk about executive functioning skills and how to teach them.
My flow was along the lines of:
- Introduction where I showed why they are important
- Showed the data that teachers had been submitting themselves
- Made the connection for them that if you keep submitting requests for support for a kid who doesn't have organization skills, maybe it is time to start teaching them
- And hey, organization is an executive funcation
- Here are some other executive functions
My intent was to grab their attention and convince them to look into the data they are collecting on their own students. A few teachers told me they enjoyed it. I was uncomfortable giving it to them because of how it might be taken.
So, if I were to do it again, I might rearrange the presentation to lead teachers to their own conclusion then nudge them toward my conclusion.
After:
Overview
Why they are important
Talk about them
When you look at the data, what could you look for?
Do you see any EF you could teach to?
