“Belimbing, tembikai, betik”: What do I teach next?

In my first job as a special education teacher at the House, they already have an established program, so I only had to do what I am told. When I moved on to the Society, I was working at the vocational center and there was not much teaching going on. Most of the time, the students were packing drinking straws, and I had to make sure that the products were of acceptable quality and that the students were being watched over. Then I started my first real job as a special education teacher at the Center, and that was where my troubles began.

The Center was started because some parents were not satisfied with the education their children with Down syndrome were receiving at the special education classrooms in national schools. The purpose of the Center was to enhance/supplement the education of the students. The Center was functioning more as a tuition center rather than a full-fledged school. The students were coming in for three hours, twice or three times a week. The students were of varying elementary ages and functioning levels.

When I started as the head teacher at the Center, I was in charge of everything-from teaching, acquiring teaching resources (making, modifying, searching and buying), and even collecting school fees from the parents. However, my biggest problem was that I did not know what to teach. There was not a curriculum in place that I could follow. Although the Center had a copy of an early intervention program, most of my students had already outgrown that. The center had an individual education plan (IEP) for each student, unfortunately the IEPs were the cut-and–paste sort, with no appropriate goals or behavioral objectives that I could work towards.

So the program that I developed and stuck with was that each month, the assistant teacher taught a theme (e.g. fruits, vegetables, types of emergency services, types of automobiles, etc) and one/several concepts (e.g., up-down, left-right, front-back, etc). There was a new theme and a new concept each month. The assistant teacher also taught some basic mathematics. While I worked one-on-one with the students: teaching reading in Bahasa Melayu or the alphabets (depending on the student), and also working on cognitive and fine motor skills. Both of us worked on gross motor skills together.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), some of students progressed faster and us, teachers, were not able to keep up with them. Some of the students learned the theme and concepts in one week, while others did not manage to grasp the lessons even at the end of the month. Before the end of each month, I had to come up with a new theme and concepts for the next month, make the teaching materials and work on homework sheets. After close to a year, I ran out of themes and concepts because we have gone through most of the common things around us. At one time, I wanted to modify the national curriculum for my class but when I looked at the different textbooks, it was overwhelming, and I did not know where to start.

Now that I know more, what would I have done differently?

a) I now realized the importance of a curriculum to tie everything together. I would insist that the administrator and the consultant provide a good curriculum. Even if it means to modify the national curriculum, time and resources should be allocated for the teachers to work on modifying the curriculum.
b) The consultant, teachers, and respective parents should come together and write up a workable IEP for each student. The IEP does not have to be an extensive document, but just several appropriate and realistic goals for the student. (A topic for a another day)
c) Instead of working one-on-one for reading, I would separate the students into two groups. The advance group would work on reading in Bahasa Melayu, while the basic group would work on the alphabets. (A topic for another day)
d) Instead of whole group instruction for mathematics, I would separate the students into two groups. The advance group would work on addition and subtraction, while the basic group would work on basic number skills.
e) I would also like to include a stronger element of lifeskills and social skills in the curriculum.