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If you have been following the progress of “Going the Distance” since it’s inception 3 years ago, then you know that I had a ton of respect and have a close friendship with many of my teachers and administrators throughout my education. So, it was an honor to come out to Southern California and train both general and special education teachers as well as administrators and parents on how to better support neurodivergent and special education students.
The first event of 2024 for Going the Distance was hosted by the California Association of Resource and Special Education Teachers who are based in Sacramento, California but covered the entire state. So, all the teachers who attended came throughout California from cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego to Irvine, CA for two days of training.
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For this conference, the trainings that were offered were “School Safety Drills and Autism” on February 23rd and “School Assemblies and Neurodiversity” on February 24th. For those of you who have just recently started to follow my journey, these trainings are presentations that I created are based on firsthand experience of how I dealt with situations like school safety drills and school assemblies. Hearing from someone like me will give teachers the ideas that they need to support a student who might otherwise be having a hard time.
Part of the reason why I do these trainings is because many schools will view students who express fear in doing a school safety drill or partake in a school assembly will turn the other cheek and see the student is being insubordinate or a complete coward. The teachers that attended these trainings each took what they learned and will incorporate them into their own systems.
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A few examples of what they learned first came from a CARSplus board member who teaches special education students in elementary school and explained during the training that one of her students would throw up out of fear when there was a school safety drill. I explained that the student was expressing fear by throwing up and that its an example of a defense mechanism that some students will use to cope with situations.
Now there is also the matter that it seemed like the drill that the teachers were more interested in was the earthquake drill segment. As I continue to present this training in different parts of the country, there will be teachers that are deeply interested in a particular drill. For example, if I do this training in the Midwest or the deep south, there will be deep interest tornado drills. Given that California is a state prone to earthquakes, the interest in the earthquake drills segment was high.
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Another example came during the “School Assemblies and Neurodiversity” training where another teacher revealed to me how one of his students had trouble coping during a pep rally because it was held indoors. The main meat of the presentation came towards the end where I talked about the value of virtual school assemblies or school assemblies that are livestreamed as well as talking about that there is always an escape route for the student if assemblies get too overwhelming.
Again, most teachers and administrators will turn the other cheek if a sensory friendly student balks on school assemblies, but school assemblies aren’t for everyone and many of the teachers in the training agreed with me. I also explained to a teacher in attendance that I was offered the chance to leave an assembly when I was in high school, only to turn it down because I felt like there needed to be a status quo that needed to be maintained.
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But getting back to CARSplus itself, not only did we have teachers from California, but also from Washington state, Colorado and even North Dakota which sends a message that there plenty of states that don’t have the conferences and trainings that CARSplus does. While it’s nice to have attendees coming from out of state, part of me feels that there does need to be more trainings and conferences so that teachers don’t have to make the travel needed especially if their school district doesn’t allow them to have the time off needed.
And that is why I strongly encourage training at these types of events because if you are trained on issues like this today, then the student will be better supported tomorrow.
Plus, doing these trainings is also a huge benefit for myself too, not just doing as a business but also a chance to talk to my younger self and say that there were chances to have when it came to getting the support needed. I didn’t have to be in the school assembly when I should have spoken up. I wish I did get opportunities to partake in school safety drills from a different perspective.
Now, I’m giving students, teachers and administrators the chance to take the edge off of doing these types of events and CARSplus won’t be the first and certainly won’t be the last types of organizations that will learn these educational matters from a neurodivergent perspective!!
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Catch you all later!!
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