Now, I get that this is a kind of post that is two weeks late to some people. For some people like myself, I keep playing holiday related media year round and I often find inspiration in these types of media to present to you, my audience.
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Just today, in fact, I was watching “The Year Without a Santa Claus” (1974) and I zeroed in on the two characters that many people remember the most: Snow Miser and Heat Miser aka the Miser Brothers. As I watched their scenes, I couldn’t help but think to myself that there is some educational value that these guys can represent that goes beyond inflating their egos at one another.
Now, when it comes to special education teachers, there are some teachers who often struggle to get their students engaged in something like science. Back in my day, we had plenty of programs that were both entertaining and educating in the four core subjects of English, Math, Science and History/Social Studies.
But when it comes to studying the weather, usually that rested on something like “The Magic School Bus,” as an example. While I still think the Magic School Bus is a prime example, there is something about the Miser Brothers that pops out and screams “weather!”
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As for the brothers themselves, Snow Miser is the laidback brother who wants to create winter wonderlands while Heat Miser is the uptight brother wants to create heat waves. With all the extreme weather going on these days, I’d like to think that its just the Miser Brothers taking their fighting to the next level.
But in terms of how they can be used for special education teachers, they can use the Miser Brothers as a teaching tool to why we have rain and why we have thunderstorms courtesy of Heat Miser or why we have sleet and ice in addition to snow courtesy of Snow Miser. Plus, you can use these guys as to why we get hurricanes, tornadoes or severe thunderstorms as to how these kinds of storms work. You can say that their constant fighting and bickering causes these kinds of storms.
Now, I’m pretty sure that not all students will get the idea and that’s okay. They might either not care for the characters or they might not celebrate the holiday they are associated with. The goal here is to make science engaging for special education students by any means necessary, even though it might not fully work.
Still, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?
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Catch you all later!!
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