Week 5 - 2

I chose the article “I Had Finally Found a Place for My Son”, from the New York Times. It discusses Green Chimney’s, a school on a farm in New York State. Traditional schooling was not working for Xander. He had ADD and dyslexia. He was withdrawn, quiet and not completing his schoolwork. Xander felt at home immediately in Green Chimney’s and began to flourish.

The decided to write about this article because I wanted to bring out an idea. As teachers we need to learn our students. Some may be visual learners, some auditory and some may do well with hands-on learning. However, it is important to note that some children will need something different. Perhaps if this was more well – known, more students could succeed in a regular classroom. Maybe their parents could take them to a special therapy or the teacher assistant could work with the student during the lesson.

It brought to mind a third-grade student that I had a few years ago. She was really struggling in the classroom and her parents were unable to help. I had her assessed by a team of therapists and they concluded with a list of recommended therapeutic activities. I researched many ideas and from then on she would stay after school and we would do some activities together.

View the article here!