I Refuse, Jaylen Must Be Equally And Equitably Served As Well!

The world of teaching and learning is experiencing something it has never thought was possible, that is, a real time transformation. As districts and local schools scramble to find their footing in the new norm, I found myself a little saddened and frustrated by the fact that Jaylen, a middle school special student with many of his classmates, might be forgotten. As many teachers in our local schools are fast tracked and transitioned to online teaching, I wondered how much of the training is geared toward Jaylen and his special teacher. 

You see, under normal circumstances, Jaylen has always fallen short of resources and many a time cut off from mainstream education. And now all the attention is thrown at the general education student. I hope that someone somewhere also thinks of Jaylen. Looking at some of the training given to teachers, I see that the tips and strategies are mostly geared toward the Gen. Ed. student, not at Jaylen and his teacher. I hope and pray that the designers and the SMEs take Jaylen and his teacher to heart as they design and develop these training programs.

You see, Jaylen is not a regular student. For him to be motivated to do something, he needs a lot of sensory and stimulation. It takes ten to twenty minutes to get him to start his assignment. It takes another to keep him engaged in that assignment. When reading and following many of the training manuals ushered to us as teachers, I did not see any that had Jaylen’s name in it. 

I myself as his teacher, I felt forgotten because the training I had recently only focused on how to give assignments and facilitate engagement in a general education virtual classroom. I began to wonder, with this current situation, how was I to reach out to Jaylen and make his time in the virtual classroom worthwhile. How was I going to motivate him to start, stay and complete his task without sensory and stimulation. How was I to teach him writing his name, address and parent’s names without frustrating him more? I am afraid of losing him and many of his classmates.

Come to think about it, this also calls on parents to play a bigger role. In a perfect world, this would be awesome to get parents involved in their children's schooling. But knowing what I know about Jaylen’s parents and their struggles to keep him calm, I doubt they’ll even try getting him engaged. It is a constant battle keeping him calm and engaged for a specified period of time. I wonder how this will work? I am really concerned that many of our students like Jaylen will regress and lose all the hard work they put in throughout the year. 

At this point all I can do is to hope that as designers and SMEs we will consider individualizing online training for Jaylen and his teacher as well. Further, I hope some good training program for Jaylen comes out real soon.