Learning is a process that enables us to progress

Stop abusing your boyfriends and yes what you are doing is abuse.

Stop:

Yelling at him in front of his friends 

Hitting or slapping him when he does or says something you don’t like

Telling him he doesn’t have a choice when it comes to decisions that involve both of you 

Telling him he can’t hang out with friends because you don’t like him

Telling him to not talk to other girls even if they are his friend

Forcing him to spend every moment with you 

Belittling him and pointing out all his flaws

Calling him stupid or making fun of him for making a mistake

Threatening to break up with him if he doesn’t do what you want

Being emotionally manipulative and crying until he does what you want

Accusing him of cheating every time he’s not with you

Blow up is phone if he doesn’t text you every five minutes 

Telling him you are the must thing that has ever happened to him and no one else will love

Physically attacking him when ever you are mad

Forcing him to have sex despite that fact that he said he didn’t want to

Invading his privacy by going through his phone

Getting mad at him for changing his password and demanding he tell you what it is

If a guy did any of these things to a girl it would be considered abuse but since its the other way around its considered normal. Throughout High school I saw many girl treating their boyfriends like shit. Sometime even physically abusing them in the hallways and no one trying to stop it because its a girl attacking a boy. 

Boys: If your girlfriend does anything on this list leave her. It is abuse and you deserve better.

You don’t deserve to be screamed at, ignored, or assaulted.

some women are taught that they are harmless and powerless, and should strike back against men with everything they’ve got just to survive. some women are also just assholes who like hurting people. please know you deserve a safe and equal relationship, and don’t settle for less. 

Kid: “Alright! I’m ready to see some tits!”

When this happened, the boys in the room erupted into shouts of joy. 

Me: “Calm down, boys. It was half a second. You barely saw anything.”

*put animated gif of the menstrual cycle on the projector*

Mortified 13 y.o.’s: “SIR?!”

Sheltered 13 y.o.’s, 30 seconds later: “Oh. OH!”

*10-15 minutes pass, during which we discuss the process of menstruation, and some of its key reasons and effects*

As the school year draws to a close, it’s important to say it again. We believe teachers deserve better.

MATH MYTHS: (from Mind over Math)

1. MEN ARE BETTER IN MATH THAN WOMEN. Research has failed to show any difference between men and women in mathematical ability. Men are reluctant to admit they have problems so they express difficulty with math by saying, “I could do it if I tried.” Women are often too ready to admit inadequacy and say, “I just can’t do math.”

2. MATH REQUIRES LOGIC, NOT INTUITION. Few people are aware that intuition is the cornerstone of doing math and solving problems. Mathematicians always think intuitively first. Everyone has mathematical intuition; they just have not learned to use or trust it. It is amazing how often the first idea you come up with turns out to be correct.

3. MATH IS NOT CREATIVE. Creativity is as central to mathematics as it is to art, literature, and music. The act of creation involves diametrical opposites—working intensely and relaxing, the frustration of failure and elation of discovery, satisfaction of seeing all the pieces fit together. It requires imagination, intellect, intuition, and aesthetic about the rightness of things.

4. YOU MUST ALWAYS KNOW HOW YOU GOT THE ANSWER. Getting the answer to a problem and knowing how the answer was derived are independent processes. If you are consistently right, then you know how to do the problem. There is no need to explain it.

5. THERE IS A BEST WAY TO DO MATH PROBLEMS. A math problem may be solved by a variety of methods which express individuality and originality-but there is no best way. New and interesting techniques for doing all levels of mathematics, from arithmetic to calculus, have been discovered by students. The way math is done is very individual and personal and the best method is the one which you feel most comfortable.

6. IT’S ALWAYS IMPORTANT TO GET THE ANSWER EXACTLY RIGHT. The ability to obtain approximate answer is often more important than getting exact answers. Feeling about the importance of the answer often are a reversion to early school years when arithmetic was taught as a feeling that you were “good” when you got the right answer and “bad” when you did not.

7. IT’S BAD TO COUNT ON YOUR FINGERS. There is nothing wrong with counting on fingers as an aid to doing arithmetic. Counting on fingers actually indicates an understanding of arithmetic-more understanding than if everything were memorized.

8. MATHEMATICIANS DO PROBLEMS QUICKLY, IN THEIR HEADS. Solving new problems or learning new material is always difficult and time consuming. The only problems mathematicians do quickly are those they have solved before. Speed is not a measure of ability. It is the result of experience and practice.

9. MATH REQUIRES A GOOD MEMORY. Knowing math means that concepts make sense to you and rules and formulas seem natural. This kind of knowledge cannot be gained through rote memorization.

10. MATH IS DONE BY WORKING INTENSELY UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS SOLVED. Solving problems requires both resting and working intensely. Going away from a problem and later returning to it allows your mind time to assimilate ideas and develop new ones. Often, upon coming back to a problem a new insight is experienced which unlocks the solution.

11. SOME PEOPLE HAVE A “MATH MIND” AND SOME DON’T. Belief in myths about how math is done leads to a complete lack of self-confidence. But it is self-confidence that is one of the most important determining factors in mathematical performance. We have yet to encounter anyone who could not attain his or her goals once the emotional blocks were removed.

12. THERE IS A MAGIC KEY TO DOING MATH. There is no formula, rule, or general guideline which will suddenly unlock the mysteries of math. If there is a key to doing math, it is in overcoming anxiety about the subject and in using the same skills you use to do everything else.

Source: “Mind Over Math,” McGraw-Hill Book Company, pp. 30-43.

Revised: Summer 1999  Student Learning Assistance Center (SLAC) Southwest Texas State University

My first full-time teaching gig was at a charter school for students with Autism Spectrum disorder, ADHD, and Emotional/Behavior needs.  So, yes, I’ve taught students with autism.   It is such an umbrella of a diagnosis that I am hesitant to give advice one working with students that have been diagnosed on the spectrum.  Each kid will have different strengths and weaknesses, like any other kid.   Their minds just may work differently, but that doesn’t mean they are lesser.  Oftentimes, a different way of thinking allows an individual to be successful in areas others are not.  The best thing you can do is be an ear to listen, a guiding hand for things that are difficult for the child to navigate, and always be aware how amazing they are and help them use their awesomeness to their best advantage.  Remember, they don’t need fixing.  They do often need support in utilizing their strengths and dealing with things that are difficult for them —- just like any other kid.  I think Dr. Temple Grandin (not a medical doctor, she has her doctorate) opened my eyes most to what Autism can be like to live with and how it varies so greatly from person to person.  I most definitely recommend picking up her book, Thinking in Pictures. 

As far as looking into working with pre-k students in general, I’d join the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  They have a discounted student membership.  This will get you online access to their journal Young Children and then you can get the print version of Young Children or Teaching Young Children.  Teaching Young Children is just pre-k related teaching ideas while YC is more Pre-K through third grade (with an emphasis on the younger end).   I have learned a lot from both journals and implemented many ideas from there.

My district uses the Creative Curriculum and I know a lot of other programs as well as daycare / independent preks use it as well.  You might look into its corner stone values.

Finally, most of the pre-K students I work with that have needed early intervention have needed speech and/or language therapy.  This is often in addition to other services.  As a classroom teacher, it will be your job to support what the SPL is doing in his/her sessions.  I make an effort to stay informed on best practices to build language and help with speech in the classroom (feedback loops, prompting, intentionally teaching vocabulary, modeling grammar, etc.)

It got better for me. It will probably get better for you.

Here’s the thing: Being a teenager sucks. People who tell you that these should be the best years of your life are fucking deluded. Your brain is a mess, and it’s not because you have AS (although that makes it harder, or at least hard in different ways): it’s because it and your body are in a stage of off-the-rails weird and rapid development. At the same time, intellectually, you’re pretty close to an adult, which makes it even harder to wrap your head around how transient and irrational the rest of the upheaval is; and you’re probably dealing with a level of social and personal pressure that would be enough to make most people come a little unhinged even without all the preceding baggage.

Which is to say: being unhappy is a pretty reasonable response to being a teenager. 

That said, if you’re unhappy to an extent that’s seriously impacting the quality of your life and your ability to or interest in living it—and especially if you’re considering harming yourself or someone else—it’s time to to seek support. I don’t know what your family or school situations are like, but you might find it helpful to have a therapist or another adult in a helping position who’s a little removed from your day-to-day life. Mental illness and the threshold for intervention are, for the most part, issues of degree: anywhere short of a crisis, what constitutes a tolerable level of discomfort or lack of comfort is a call you’re going to need to make, or at least be part of making.

Apropos of making that call, here are some things I wish someone had told me when I was your age, although I’m not sure I’d have listened. Your mileage may vary:

Unnecessary suffering is not productive, virtuous, or mature. That is a lie we tell poor people and artists, because romanticizing misery is a great way to quash revolutions before they start. Don’t buy in.

It’s okay to want to be happy. It’s not selfish—and, if it is, well, fuck, it’s also okay to want things that make your life better. It does not make you a bad person, and seeking help is not a shortcut or cheating.

It’s okay to like things that are not productive. I know, right? This is pretty obvious. But until I was in college, I was deeply suspicious and ashamed of any happiness that came from things I saw as frivolous. Permission to enjoy things regardless their social value is, for me, pretty fundamental to spanning the gap between functional and okay.

Finally:

I spent most of my teen years spiraling towards and through a breakdown. The year I was 16 was, by any reasonable subjective or objective standard, the worst year of my life. At 31, I’m pretty happy: there’s a lot I still have trouble with, and a lot I’m still figuring out, and I don’t have all my shit together, but I can live with all of that in a way I couldn’t 15 years ago. There are other factors that have contributed to that, but the most significant by far is time. Who I am now is not someone I could have been at 16, or 26; I imagine that in another few years, I’ll be able to say something similar about 31. Being a person, and being any good at being a person, is an ongoing, very cumulative process. You’re really early on. In video game terms, you keep getting killed in the ice caves ‘cause you won’t get the fire sword for another few levels.

I saved the last question—whether it fuels my work—for last, because that’s still really painful and difficult territory for me to navigate. I am an incredibly private person, to an extent that swerves pretty far into dysfunction, and that heavily informs what I do and don’t write publicly about. At my best, I would like to be braver, but that exchange—trading privacy and control for a wider scope and probably better work—is one that’s very difficult for me to convince myself to make.

On the other hand: Where I’ve been is, inextricably, part of who I am, and who I am inextricably informs what and how I write. And who I was and how shitty my life was when I was a teenager has definitely and directly fueled what I’m writing to you right now.

Anyway.

Be patient with yourself, and what you feel, and who you are. All of them are worth honoring, and all of them will change.

“This was a response to the furor kicked up over the glossy ‘princessification’ of Pixar’s Merida character, both in image and doll form. I drew this picture because I wanted to analyze how unnecessary it is to collapse a heroine into one specific mold, to give them all the same sparkly fashion, the same tiny figures, and the same homogenized plastic smile.

My experience of female role models both in culture and in life has shown me that there is no mold for what makes someone a role model, and the whole point of Merida was that she was a step in the right direction, providing girls with an alternative kind of princess. Then they took two steps back, and painted her with the same glossy brush as the rest. So I decided to take 10 real-life female role models, from diverse experiences and backgrounds, and filter them through the Disney princess assembly line.

I got Professor Snape from Harry Potter. This would mean something to me If I’d read HP books.