Norwalk special ed teachers try to keep students engaged
NORWALK — When I taught high school English, I expected my students to read independently, to be thoughtful writers, to be completely engaged in class, and to do all their homework. Those expectations are the norm for secondary school classrooms.
But special education staff work with the children who don’t meet those expectations in spite of their best efforts. They need a different kind of instruction and lots of emotional support, and their teachers are there for them — teaching, coaching, counseling — each day. During distance learning, the challenges are even greater.
“I put in lots of extra hours,” said Roseann Fazzino, special education teacher at Norwalk High School. “I know these kids. I don’t want them stressing out. I’ll call them even if it’s 6 p.m. That’s what we do.”
Fazzino teaches functional math to students who are not ready for algebra and geometry. “A lot of them are not independent learners, and they rely heavily on me to give them directions,” she said. She logs on to Google Meet with her students during their math
period, gives direct instruction, and then lets them work on their own.
“The fact that we are teaching in real time is keeping the kids on track,” she said. “I love that I can connect with them every day. They still have their jokes and snarkiness, and we all chime in and laugh about it.”
She also co-teaches intermediate algebra. During school and
now remotely, her students are in a regular class and she’s there to provide support. Often, the class watches a video on how to solve problems and the students take notes. But her students have trouble figuring out what’s important — either they write everything down or they give up and write nothing. So she creates templates for them — she writes the main ideas and the kids fill in the details.
But maybe her favorite part of the week is the Thursday Zoom with the Best Buddies Club in which students without disabilities make friends with those with intellectual disabilities. “It’s important to make those students feel included and not feel alone,” she said.
Every Thursday she has a mix of kids signing on, and they play games together, like a remote scavenger hunt or bingo. “Each week, we get more kids to logging on,” Fazzino said, and it’s been a challenge to find games that so many kids can play.
Heather Martin, counselor for the Success Therapeutic Program at Brien McMahon High School, said her 12 students need plenty of support. They suffer from anxiety, depression, or bi-polar disorder, and they often have histories of past trauma. “My kids are struggling,” she said. “I created a Google voice number so they can get in touch with me at any time. I might be on the phone with some kids five to seven times a day.”
The Success Program teaches students to cope with stress, regulate emotions and improve relationships with others. Martin said many of her students have solid academic skills, but their emotions can prevent them from learning successfully. She logs into their classes, and she also provides both individual and group counseling.
She teaches coping skills. For example, when people feel intense surges of emotion, our bodies actually heat up, so it helps to do things to cool down. “One student loves to open the freezer door and put his face right in to get a surge of cold air,” she said. She teaches them to accept what they can’t change but take responsibility for what they can do. “Try to think of the positive opposite,” she said. “If you’re depressed, try to find something joyful. Try to find things to help shift back the other way.”
She does daily check-ins with every student in every class, and she has virtual individual and group counseling sessions. “They love seeing the faces of their friends and their staff,” she said. She extended the one-hour group session to 1.5 hours so they can have time for social interaction.
“Losing school means they have lost the connections they were developing. I have a significant number of kids who are lonely.”
Roton Middle School also houses a Success Program for children with behavioral needs and academic gaps, taught by special education teacher Jennifer Cruver, psychologist Alyssa Martino, and two registered behavior technicians.
“I have to say we were worried in the beginning of distance-learning,” Cruver said, “but due to the relationships we formed with them when school was in session, all of our kids log in on time every day. If there’s a problem, the kids reach out.”
Many of her students are with her four hours a day. She cannot give them worksheets or independent work during each 50-minute class. Instead, she uses competitions, short videos, real-life examples, and games.
“We have to try to bring the concepts to life,” she said. Martino is in all classes as well. “She can give immediate feedback to students if there are behavioral difficulties,” Cruver said. “She can go into a separate Zoom room to get them regulated.”
“These children have significant social and behavioral needs,” Martino said. “They could be disruptive and acting out, or they could be withdrawing and just sitting with their heads down, not focusing and not getting anything done. There’s lots of anxiety and depression.”
She has a mantra with her students: “If you’re having difficulty, you have a right to your feelings, but you have to deal with it without making it worse.”
She teaches skill sessions several times a week, going through how to use different skills — identifying feelings, regulating emotions, imagining positive moments, and many others. “It requires constant coaching and my reiterating skills all the time,” Martino said. “Everything is harder now, but they are working really hard to maintain progress.”
“It’s great to see their growth since the beginning of the year,” Cruver said. “They are doing just as much work, learning, and making strides socially, emotionally and academically.”