Teaching Students w/ASD 5.3: Collaborating with Community Agencies

Image courtesy of Canva

I have had many adults in my classroom working with or observing me and/ or my students, and I am very comfortable having other adults in the classroom as long as we have discussed their role and level of participation prior to inviting them in. I have not, however, had anyone from a community agency come to observe a student in my class, but I have communicated through email and phone with people from community agencies supporting students. 
I think we, as teachers, should be open to collaboration to better support our students and that we can learn a lot from other adults supporting our students outside the classroom. I wish we had more collaboration and cooperation between school agencies, SBT, classroom teachers, and caregivers in general. I had the opportunity to observe a few of my colleagues at the school in Thailand I was working at. I always left these classrooms feeling inspired! I also appreciate being observed by colleagues because they can provide me with honest feedback to grow.

When any adult visits my school, they must sign in at the office and state who they are meeting. They will be given a lanyard stating that they are a guest, and are escorted to my classroom. Adults other than those employed by the school district are never allowed to be alone with students unless they fill out a volunteer form and are vetted by the school board.

One of my colleagues posted a blog article titled "Open Your Door: Why We Need to See Eachother Teach" that I thought shed so much light around an interesting topic: failure. The article says, "conversely, letting people see some of your flaws creates greater intimacy."(Gonzalez, 2013) Failing is natural, and it can be a bit embarrassing, but we learn from it. I think humanizes us. I have had a few lessons not go as planned, including one during my practicum that was pure chaos, and I can look back at them and laugh. I always share the one practicum experience I had with new teachers or teacher colleagues that have had a rough day because sometimes it helps to hear that other people have been there too. 

Gonzalez , J. (2013, October 13). Open your door: why we need to see each other teach [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/open-your-door/