Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sometimes even FANCY technology doesn't win out

I have a student that is HIGHLY motivated by technology. He has been the beneficiary of many technological advances in his short life. He was born deaf and at 18 months received a cochlear implant. Besides the cochlear implant he wears hearing aids and I use an FM system to increase understanding in his hearing. I am not sure if his behavior issues are a product of living in a world where things don't always seem clear or comprehensible, or if, because he has never gotten a clear understanding of what acceptable behavior, he doesn't know how to act accordingly, but either way, my dear friend struggles with our daily rigor and routines. The one thing he absolutely adores is the computer. The first time I met him was at Back to School night. As most of the other children were wandering around looking at the other amenities that a kindergarten room offers, I found him sitting in front of my not yet networked computer trying his hardest to get it to respond in some fashion. Every day he asks "Is it computer day?" When we got the iPad, the look on his face was like Christmas, Halloween, and the best birthday ever. An even bigger attraction, is that his FM system plugs directly into the iPad, so for those precious few minutes when it is his turn, hearing is not a deficit. Of course, the bad news is.....one iPad, 21 students....you do the math. At the most, my sweet student has one day a week for his turn and then it is still be shared amongst at least three other students. This is one of the things we learn and practice in Kindergarten...to share. This is one of the things that B. can NOT do. So unfortunately, every day when it is iPad time, we go through a major meltdown when the realization hits that it is someone else's turn rather than B's.
In a desperate moment when all other redirection and distraction didn't seem to suffice, I had ONE ace up my sleeve. LIVE WORMS! We had just gotten our very fresh and very active and very fat worms for our science unit of study. And it worked. Sometimes even the fanciest of technology doesn't hold a candle to the fascinating allure of nature's finest; big, slimy, wriggly worms. Thank goodness.

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