Vol 66, No. 4 - International Technology and Engineering Educators ...

Special Needs and The Need for Fun
By Ronald D. Yuill, DTE
This approach worked as [the
students] taught each other and
communicated in a positive way.
During the first few days of school I asked students in
one of my classes to tell something they liked to do,
name something they would like to know more about
that would help them later in life, and what they
would like to do in the future. This gave me some ideas of
what to incorporate into the class to help them to be more
successful in later life.
The class I refer to in this article is a “special needs” class.
In my other classes, I teach only seventh grade students.
In the special needs, or “SPED” class, I have sixth, seventh,
and eighth grade students, and they have the most difficulty
of any students in the school in grasping new concepts.
These same students, however, are also the ones who best
appreciate what you do for them and can be the most caring
and sharing. Their behavior is usually better than the other
students. They are the students who stop by the classroom
during passing period and tell you about something special
that happened to them at school or home or just to say, “I
hope your day is going great today.”
Some students in the SPED class require their own aide, and
therefore I had 19 students and four aides in this class. There
was no way I could have helped these students succeed to
the level they did without the help of our outstanding aides.
They cared about the students and wanted them to have
success. They also kept the students from having any serious
problems in getting along with others in the class and
performing their assigned tasks.
Frances and Jasmine repairing a table storage rack for the
school. It was their first time using a wrench.
One of the first topics to arise was the students’ interest
in creating holiday gifts for relatives. I had serious safety
concerns regarding the students and the scroll saw, so I
completed the first step for them and made some triangles,
circles, and rectangular wooden shapes. If a student wanted
a different shape, I cut it out for him/her. I was presented
with some outstanding designs to cut.
27 • The Technology Teacher • December/January 2007