We have just completed a conference at our school for all our teachers to give them more information on those who have learning differences such as dyslexia. My husband,sister-in-law,and two of my children, all who are dyslexic, give their points of view on how they learn in a non dyslexic world. My sister-in-law also gives her view as a dyslexic parent trying to educate her own dyslexic child, and the hardships she faces. The conference left many of the teachers commenting that they ‘just did not know”. These so frequently are the words I hear from most teachers once they begin to truly understand the amount of time & frustrations we contiually deal with when we have teachers who “just don’t know”.
On a positive note, we are seeing changes on a daily basis now from many of the teachers. When I went for parent-teacher conferences, I was asked by each and every teacher, “how am I doing now? Am I making the changes that are needed to reach your child?” Even those that I thought were doing a great job have taken it a step further and are making changes to Chemistry & Algebra II classes that I wouldn’t have even thought of doing.
For the past few weeks I have been watching an English teacher learning to make changes in her classroom. It has been slow explaining to her how some of the teaching ways that she chose to use and how they negatively affect our kids. We now are getting schedules of what the work is in class and when it is due, and time tables for when her tests will be. Before she thought that it was fine to have the kids themselves organize it all. She is finding out that this is helping all the kids because they now have a written copy to help them stay organized. Now we parents that need to work one on one with our kids now have the map that we need too. While working with her day by day she has made changes that with at least three dyslexic students in her room she can see the changes in their grades. They are going from the bottom of her class to A’s and B’s. It is so worth it to see one student who I have watched for several years change from someone her classmates have, along with the teachers, labeled as slow, getting good grades. Her smiles state it all.
Please continue to work hard for our kids. I see many parents and teachers that continue to search for the “why” of dyslexia. After many years of contradictions I have moved past the “why” and began to work solely on the “how’. We are making phenomenal gains in my own family and with other children at our school , that the “why” is more unimportant to me now. I feel that we may never have all the answer as to why some kids are dyslexic so I will not wait until they find them to make a difference.
To watch a preview of our video go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Orj9gGMGm0
or our web site www.therighttolearn.com
Thank you