Flex class

Today at work, we got our new schedules for the next trimester. This is an exciting thing, because we learn not only what we're going to be teaching (very broadly), but who we're going to be working with as far as students are concerned. My schedule this time had a big cool surprise: I get to work in a couple of flex classes, which are small, interdisciplinary classes with groups of students and teachers.

This is unusual for our school. Generally, the work we do with students is strictly one-on-one, but as students become comfortable being in groups and develop the skills to handle such interactions appropriately, they might move into one of these classes. Today, as I sat with two of the other three teachers and worked on planning out the first day of class, I was struck by how "intentional" we had to be as far as creating a group was concerned.

Now, "intentional" is a word that gets thrown around a lot at our school, to the point where it sometimes begins to feel meaningless. But being intentional is a big part of the work we do. We try to make sure that our students have intentional interactions with other students, as opposed to unplanned interactions. We try to make sure that the ways we speak to our students and the things we teach them are intentional, that we've thought them through in terms of their academic and therapeutic needs. It doesn't always play out to be quite as intense as it sounds, but it's a good overarching idea to keep in the back of our mind as we go through a day working with students who have the kinds of needs that our students do.

With this flex class, though, we did have to be exceptionally intentional about building up the idea of a group with these students. Luckily, all of them have had group learning experiences in the past, but in building relationship with one another in this context, we had to really think through the way we were going to address thinking of ourselves as a class; how we were going to help students' come to realizations about what they can expect from the group and what they can do to contribute to the group. It was an interesting process, and it really made me stop and think about why we do things as slowly and, yes, intentionally, as we do in our school.

It also made me realize how exceptionally lucky most of us are that we can build these types of relationships with one another without such intense guidance; but also how it really IS possible for our students to make progress (even when they seem like they can't) as long as someone is willing to take the time to break things down for them. Working in this job has really given me an appreciation of "individual differences," as we call it in education, and of the benefits of taking things slow. I've really had some epiphanies about what kind of person I am (quick thinking and quick moving and always busy with my hands in something) and the benefits of being another type of person with different kinds of gifts. I feel like I've done as much work on myself in this job as I've done with the students, which is hard but also very gratifying.