A Special Ed Teacher

What It's Like To Be... with Dan Heath

Special education teacher Sierra Patrick describes the daily life within her self-contained classroom for students with intellectual disabil

Key takeaways

• Sierra Patrick uses Friday prank calls as a structured way for students to practice verbalizing phrases and taking turns.
• AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices allow nonverbal students to participate in classroom lessons using icons.

Main topics

• Special education teaching
• Nonverbal communication tools

Notable quotes

Non-speaking does not mean non-listening. And non-speaking does not mean non-understanding.

Conclusion

The episode reveals that while special education is a high-stakes, emo

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Our little show hit a big milestone recently. We got our first prank call on the show's voicemail. Speaker 5 (0:08) Hello, I'm a bus driver. Yes, I have fun bus driving. Speaker 4 (0:17) Prank calling is a rite of passage for a lot of teenagers. I was a committed prank caller myself as a teen. And for Sierra Patrick, a special ed teacher, prank calling is her favorite Friday activity. Speaker 3 (0:30) I want my students to have the same high school experience as all of their peers. And when I was in high school, that consisted of prank calling some people. Speaker 4 (0:42) So on Fridays, they dial another teacher's classroom. The teacher's expecting the call, of course, but for Sierra's students, it doesn't really matter. Sierra has to remind them before the call. Speaker 3 (0:54) Hey, remember, friends, we can't start laughing until after we tell the joke. Because sometimes they'll answer the phone and they're just so excited because they know what they are doing that they just start cracking up. I'm like, we haven't said anything yet. Speaker 2 (1:09) But Speaker 3 (1:10) once that punchline hits or the other person on the phone is playing into it, oh, my students lose their minds. Speaker 4 (1:21) The jokes are ones you've probably heard before. Speaker 3 (1:25) Is your refrigerator running? You better go catch it, because that's just two phrases that the students have to memorize. Speaker 4 (1:31) But obviously it's not about using killer joke material. It's about giving students, some of whom can barely speak, a chance to practice using the phone. Speaker 3 (1:42) It's another way for them to communicate. And practice those phrases and sentence structure and taking turns on the phone, especially if you have a punchline to a joke. It's just such a fun time. Speaker 4 (2:08) I'm Dan Heath, and this is What It's Like to Be. In every episode, we walk in the shoes of someone from a different profession. A harbor pilot, a London divorce lawyer, a high school principal. We want to know what they do all day at work. Today, we'll ask Sierra Patrick what it's like to be a special ed teacher. We'll talk about how she handled it when a young man cursed her out, how she helps students manage their emotions, and what happens to them when they age out of her classroom. Stay with us. Speaker 2 (2:49) Planet Money helps you understand the economy. We find the people at the center of the story. Speaker 1 (2:54) Garbage in New York, that was like a controlled substance. Speaker 2 (2:57) We show you how money influences everything. Tell me what you like by telling me how you spend your money. And we dig until we get answers. I Speaker 4 (3:06) had a bad feeling you were going to bring that up. Speaker 2 (3:08) Planet Money finds out. All you have to do is listen. The Planet Money Podcast from NPR. Speaker 4 (3:15) Sierra's classroom is what's called self-contained, meaning her students stay all day with her in one room. Her students have intellectual disabilities that are categorized from moderate to severe. Speaker 3 (3:29) Sometimes that looks like Down syndrome. Sometimes it's students who have intellectual disabilities just based off of circumstances at birth, like fetal alcohol syndrome. Speaker 4 (3:40) Right. Speaker 3 (3:41) Depending on the level of autism, they might be in my classroom as well. So there's really no student necessarily in my classroom that's like, hey, we all have the same thing. We're going to put a sticker on it and this is where we're going to be. Speaker 4 (3:56) In practice, that means Sierra students vary widely in ability. Speaker 3 (4:01) I have some students who are verbal and can follow one to two step instruction. And I have some students who are nonverbal and can follow one to two step instruction. I have students who are within my classroom to make sure that they have a protected space as they learn emerging daily living skills like feeding themselves and then cleaning up after themselves. Speaker 4 (4:31) Part of the challenge of Sierra's job is teaching to each student's individual ability. Just like in a standard classroom, she has a curriculum. She teaches them as a whole group and in smaller groups. On the day we spoke, she was teaching a lesson on laws. Speaker 3 (4:49) The chapter that we've read through today is talking about Sally and Dylan. I just made those names up. Speaker 5 (4:56) Sally Speaker 3 (4:57) and Dylan are walking on the sidewalk. Why are they walking on the sidewalk? Well, it's a law and laws keep us safe. And so the students that are verbal, they can vocalize. The students that are nonverbal, they have pictures in front of them. So they can either use the pictures from the text, you know, or the program that's been provided, or they can use their AAC device, which I know is a very different term if you don't know. It's an alternate mode of communication. So think of it like an iPad. Speaker 4 (5:31) Okay. And Speaker 3 (5:32) it has pictures. For my students, they are one word pictures. That would mean, for example, laws has the weighted scales. And so I'm like, what keeps us safe? And a student can look at their device and see the weighted scales. They will hit the button and their device for them will say laws. Speaker 4 (5:54) Got it. Got it. So Speaker 3 (5:56) they may not be able to verbally communicate, but non-speaking does not mean non-listening. And non-speaking does not mean non-understanding. Speaker 4 (6:07) What's the age range of the students you've got? Speaker 3 (6:09) So as a high school special education teacher, my students can range anywhere from 14 years old to 21 years old. So students within the self-contained setting, they can complete their four. general years of high school. Speaker 2 (6:26) And then Speaker 3 (6:27) should the family choose to continue receiving supports, they can continue their high school career until they turn 21 years old. And that year that they turn 21, they officially age out into the community. So Speaker 4 (6:41) you might have the same student for what, seven years? Speaker 3 (6:44) Yes. So we really go through it together. Speaker 3 (6:51) progress that you see over that amount of time is insane. Speaker 4 (6:57) Yeah. Tell me about that. I mean, I know you can't give any identifying information on, I won't ask, but if you could just sketch out the portrait of one student that you've worked with for a long time and kind of where they started and where they are now. Speaker 3 (7:10) Yeah. So breakthroughs happen every single day in my classroom. And I think sometimes people imagine this like a huge movie moment. Where like, oh, we've gone at it every single day and the student suddenly accomplishes this big ginormous thing. But the reality is, is maybe they used to drink out of a straw and now they can open their milk carton and drink out of the milk independently. Speaker 4 (7:36) And Speaker 3 (7:37) because of stuff like that, like we celebrate it all. And now this student who solely relied on another person. just to drink something with their breakfast or lunch. Now, subtly or not so subtly, we'll look around the room to get the gaze of an adult as the student opens his milk and drinks from it and waits for his applause because we all applaud. Speaker 4 (8:06) Breakthroughs in Sierra's classroom are sometimes less subtle than opening a milk carton. Speaker 3 (8:12)