How To Be Exceptional in Room 435

Autism Expressed Teaches Digital Life Skills

2013-12-05T14:52:00.001-05:00

2012-08-22T17:29:00.004-04:00

For Students with Autism, An Online Tool to Level the Playing Field

Check out Autism Expressed's recent feature on Generocity.org

http://www.generocity.org/2012/for-students-with-autism-an-online-tool-to-level-the-playing-field/

Navigating the Digital World : A Feature on Our Classroom

2012-04-04T09:17:00.001-04:00

Check out the feature embedded below. If you can not view the page, click here to visit the notebook's website.
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Autism Expressed gets press!

2011-10-24T09:35:00.001-04:00

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/print-edition/2011/10/21/Corzo-incubator.html

Corzo incubator has a flair for creative ventures

Jessica Herring
special to the business journal

PHILADELPHIA — When Michele McKeone walked through the door of the Corzo Center Creative Incubator last November, she was a business novice. She had a newly minted degree in digital media from the University of the Arts, but understood little about how to build a startup.
A few months from now, she’ll launch Autism Expressed, an online learning curriculum that teaches autistic students to use social and digital media. Her business is an expansion of a pilot project she first implemented in the School District of Philadelphia.
The training, mentoring and funding she received through the incubator gave her the preparation to expand the program nationwide.
“My time at the incubator was invaluable,” McKeone said. “Not only did it introduce me to the business community, but it gave me the means to incorporate social entrepreneurial thinking so that I can provide a needed service to a population that wouldn’t otherwise be given such an opportunity.”
The Creative Incubator, located at 320 S. Broad St., was created last year to assist creative business ventures with workshops and competitive grants that fund startups. It’s part of the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy, a center established within the University of Arts in 2005 to provide business workshops and lectures for students and faculty and expose them to business and government leaders.
McKeone is one of four entrepreneurs who won grants this year for their business ideas, each of which reflects a mixture of design, technology and sustainability. The other winning ideas were a sustainable knitted clothing company, a jewelry line for people with cancer and cancer survivors which donates 10 percent of the profits to the American Cancer Research Institute, and eco-friendly building panels that require less energy to heat and cool.
The incubator nurtures ideas from inception to a final business plan. Participation is open to about 15 University of the Arts seniors, graduate students or alumni each year, with public workshops also drawing business professionals. Evening and weekend workshops are led by professors from institutions such as the Wharton School, and cover topics such as how to develop a business plan, read contracts, fund social and creative enterprises, assess a market and more.
The idea for the incubator was first discussed “when several of us — inside the university and outside in the design community — realized that we should find a way of supporting new creative initiatives, startups and those trying to link business, media and technology,” said Neil Kleinman, a professor of media and communication at the University of the Arts. “The creative incubator was formed … to provide reality behind the idea: through a dedicated fund of $40,000 a year, it has begun to support four startups a year in a wide range of topics…environmental, design, fashion, videography, theater, Web interactivity, education and health.”
McKeone attended incubator workshops for six weeks from November to December.
“As I entered the Corzo incubator I was still trying to find my focus,” she said. “My idea was to patent the curriculum that I developed over the years while working with students with autism. After working through the incubator, attending its workshops and open office hours with experts in law, business, marketing, etc., the vision was getting clearer.”
At the end of the intensive program, incubator students compete for startup capital through a fund supported by Wells Fargo and the Corzo Center Endowment. Grant prizes range from $2,500 to $10,000.
Students make 10-minute presentations to a jury made up of local professionals.
Thomas Miles, principal of Miles + Generalis Inc. real estate company in Old City, is a University of the Arts alumni and trustee, and serves as an incubator jury panelist. He said winners are chosen on the strength of their concept.
“We have to be convinced they have a firm grasp of their budget and business plan, and that they understand what they’re really getting involved in,” he said.
“My initial reaction was, ‘you want to do what?’” Miles said of McKeone’s presentation. “It was a little out of my expertise for the kind of interactive computer models she wanted to develop. But she was so passionate about it. And we realized what a need there was for the program.”
“She was very far along in creating an extremely complex system,” Miles continued. “That’s who usually win the grants — people who are on a precipice and this is what they need to get to the next stage.”
In addition to grant money, each winner is paired with a mentor whose role continues beyond the terms of the grant. They also receive access to other advisers from the Corzo community and support from university resources.
McKeone won $10,000 in startup capital and was paired up with Garrett Melby, a jury member who is also the CEO of Good Company Ventures.
“I was going to name my company ‘Digital Express,’ but he didn’t like the name,” McKeone said. “He said it was too ’90s.”
All grant winners get to take advantage of the incubator’s close relationship with Good Company Ventures, an independent nonprofit incubator housed in the Corzo Center that offers business workshops for social entrepreneurs.
Although not a Corzo program, Good Company collaborates with the incubator in many aspects. “UArts students from the industrial design program provided design to our entrepreneurs, and we help organize educational content that Corzo has been producing,” Melby said. Good Company also gives Corzo grant winners access to its business workshops and consulting.
The Corzo Center continues to provide new forms of support for aspiring business owners. It will soon launch Corzo Create!, a funding source for early-stage ideas that will provide $1,500 each month to a university student or alum who receives the highest number of votes in an online poll.

The Sandwich Approach

2010-09-09T19:05:00.010-04:00

I didn't realize how funny this story was until I was nonchalantly explaining today's lesson to a colleague.

In an effort to develop writing ability, I decided to emphasize proof reading skills in the classroom. This year, the task analysis for any writing assignment always ends with:

-Proofread your own work and
-Have a classmate proofread your work

The first time I attempted to implement this, there was an immediate problem.   Loud pronounced comments such as, "This is wrong! You spelled persevere wrong. It's on the board!" and, “Lam, you forgot to capitalize the first letter of your sentence," filled the classroom.

I stopped all peer proofreading immediately. Though, it was me that made the mistake. I never taught them how to give feedback to each other.

"Let's have a discussion about how we should critique each other’s work." I explained to the class that a critique was when we give feedback about our work. "We all work very hard in this classroom and while we would like to know how to make our writings better, we don't just want to hear negative things about our work, right? We also would like to hear good comments about our writings."

I introduced the Sandwich Approach by drawing a picture on the board of what was supposed to resemble a sandwich and explained the positive-negative-positive model. Next, to make this abstract concept more concrete, I told my students, "After you read your classmate's work, start off by saying something positive about what they wrote. Did they stay in sequence? Did they follow the four, focused-on grammar rules? Was their paragraph creative, informative, persuasive etc.? Then, explain the things they need to change in order to make their writing stronger. Do they forget punctuation marks? Are there too many thoughts included in one sentence? Finally, finish the critique by again noting something positive about their writing.

I wanted make sure everyone understood what I was saying while providing an opportunity to practice using this approach through a fun activity. I started with Vit, who loves to dance. "Vit, critique my dancing using the Sandwich Approach." And so I danced...like it was nobody's business.

"Well, Ms. McKeone," my diva-licous Vit began, “you obviously have rhythm. You could use a little more footwork in your dancing, but I really like your little shimmy."

Excellent. He got it…and he liked my shimmy ;)

Next was Maj. Maj is famous for creating birthday cards that include stick figure portraits to accompany his birthday wishes, which typically include a wish for a large amount of money, a trip to an amusement park and a dinner at the Grand King Buffet.   "Maj, critique my self-portrait using the Sandwich Approach." I went to the board and drew a stick figure with big curly, frizzy hair, which is how my hair might typically look on the days that I do not tame it with the flat iron.

"Um, that's a nice picture, Ms. McKeone, it’s a nice picture. But, but your hair, your hair don't look like that today. You should change the hair because it don't, it don't look like that. But, it's a nice picture. You did a good job."

Not as specific, but Maj got the concept and we can always work out the details with practice.

I had the students each come up and perform while students in the 'audience' went on to critique each performance using the Sandwich Approach. It was Lam's turn to come up and perform. Lam is a HUGE fan of pop culture. He loves wrestling and all things hip-hop. Lam will write a dissertation on De La Soul and Africa Bambaataa any day, especially in an effort to avoid what the actual assignment is asking. As such, Lam is himself, an all-star rapper. I should mention that Lam is in fact classified as non-verbal. He does make utterances that can be understood in context and to a trained ear, but not while he is in the midst of free-styling.

In this instance (while he is rapping), it's probably more appropriate that one can not make out his utterances, because while Lam is a sweetheart and will steal your heart any day of the week, he is in fact, gang-stah. Chances are, you may not be able to understand what he is rapping about, but you can be pretty sure he just called you a punk (or worse) and said something about your mamma.

So Lam gets up and begins his rap. He went on and on, feeling the flow, throwing his hands up in the hair and finally ending with two fingers to the crowd and what anyone could recognize as a, "PEACE!" Everyone clapped and I called on Detective D to use the Sandwich Approach to critique Lam's performance. This would be no easy task for most students, but Detective D is clever and insightful. He is the type of student who can recognize the social dichotomy of the classroom and turn it into a murder mystery (more on that later).

"Ok. Detective D. Use the Sandwich Approach to critique Lam's rap performance."

Detective D had a thoughtful face on, but did not hesitate for a moment as he presented his critique. "Well first thing, the lyrics were great."

Yes! In case, you missed it, this is where you laugh. I have fallen out several times since the first time I retold this story, though sometimes others have not been so quick to pick up on the humor and beauty in this moment.   Even for me, it did not initially register while working with the students in the classroom. Perhaps it was because I was so caught up in the assessment process, making sure that everyone was grasping this concept. After all, immediately after his initial comment, Detective D went on to say that Lam could have had more eye contact with the audience, but had great body language when using his hands during the performance. He gave a very appropriate critique, demonstrating his comprehension of the Sandwich Approach.

However, what Detective D has truly demonstrated was his ability to empathize.  Detective D had assessed this moment prior to his response and in his choice of words, he chose to be supportive and encouraging to his peer.

Wilt & Blossom

2010-06-17T14:32:00.008-04:00

It's the end of the year and we are breaking down the classroom and re-organizing for next year. The classroom is almost completely bare except for Tilja and Audrey who are both sitting in front of the window, vibrant and beautiful. Tilja is a peachy-pink hibiscus that was once wilting in my apartment as winter temperatures dropped. Audrey was a dying duo of a lilly plant and some other leafy green that my roommate placed next to our trash can one day. Originally, her name was Lola (she was a show girl). I had brought both of these plants to school because I knew they had a change of survival in our tropical climate classroom. For some reason, maintenance likes the temperature kept at 80 degrees and above.

I remember how excited the students were to receive Audrey and Tilja. Each student came up with an original name for each plant and we all voted for our favorite one. It was Vit, who requested the job of caring for these two plants for the entire school year. He began watering them each day and we started to see some progress. However, when our winter break came and went, we returned to two very dilapidated plants. At one point, it was suggested that there was no hope at all for Audrey and that she should just get tossed.

Vit did not like this idea at all. He told me that there was still a little green left and that he wanted to keep watering both plants. So we agreed to keep Audrey and see what happened. As time went on, not only did she grow, but she thrived.

Vit's thumb was not the only part of him that was green; his social skills were a bit novice. As a freshman, transitioning to a new school, and like any other kid, he wanted friends very badly and was eager to be accepted as soon as possible. Vit's overwhelming need for attention and validation made it difficult to make friends initially. This caused Vit a lot of emotional distress and his behaviors fluctuated from extremely extroverted to depressed and introverted. On several occasions, he even became physically aggressive with other students in our classroom. We decided that Vit would benefit from counseling and soon began anger management sessions with his counselor.

Fortunately, Vit's social skills began to develop throughout the year and he was making friends. We saw an increasing sense of empowerment as he utilized his interest in the arts. This year alone Vit has contributed to our award winning Computer Fair project by producing original music and comic strips, auditioned and performed for the school's talent show, performed the lead role for a script written by his drama class at Barnes and Nobles and won a Black History Month Poster Contest! Vit was also known among his peers as a phenomenal dancer. While he had gained the support and admiration of so many, there were also students in the school who were not as friendly—haters. ;)

Throughout the year, Vit had suffered harassment from a few students in the hallway who yelled out sexual orientation slurs. When Vit finally reported these incidences to me, I immediately took him to the school police to identify the students. We all wanted to make it very clear to Vit that he had the right to walk throughout the school without being harassed. It was in the spring time when Vit 'came out' to me, expressing that he was bi-sexual. He told me that his counselor had given him good advice: "He told me that I can be anything I want to be." I told him that I agreed with his counselor. Since that day, we have seen Vit's self-esteem and sense of empowerment grow immensely. His attention seeking behaviors in the classroom have diminished and he seems slightly more comfortable in his skin.

Through this school year, Vit has experienced some wonderful successes in establishing supportive and healthy relationships and perhaps even more valuable he has learned from many of his painful failures. While Vit continues to see his counselor regularly, he has found a mentor in our classroom aid, Mama E. The blossoming of this relationship was powerful to watch. Initially, Vit's behaviors were hard for our classroom aid (and many others) to understand or accept. However, with such subtle grace, they have been put together for each other's benefit. While anyone can see how much Vit values Mama E, Mama E has often expressed to me just how much she has learned from Vit and how much she values that growth. She tells me, “God puts us in each other's lives for a reason.”

I think that one of the most important lessons that Mama E has presented to Vit in her mentorship is that he will most likely continue to encounter struggle, perhaps even more frequently than most of us. But she reminds Vit that we must remember a certain vocabulary word from our classroom word wall: persevere. This is a word that every one of my students will come to know, understand and use.

Although the word walls are down and classroom is near empty, it is the life in Audrey and Tilja that remind me of what we have all accomplished this school year. I can assure you that Tilja, Audrey, Vit and Mama E were not the only ones to both struggle and persevere this year in Room 435. We have all had moments of weakness and trial, and days that wilted our stems. At the same time, we have all blossomed with great vitality. We did not merely survive this school year, but we thrived, with the love, patience and support of Room 435.

Autism Awareness Event for the School District

2010-04-26T20:37:00.053-04:00

After winning third place at the Philadelphia Regional Computer Fair Competition, our students were asked to present at the 3rd Annual Autism Expo. The Expo included state legislators, researchers, advocates, superintendents, parents, teachers and anyone else interested in networking with providers who specialize in resources for students with Autism...

For this event, we were able to bring the entire class. This was especially exciting; it allowed the three students who competed in the computer fair to show off to their peers what they has accomplished. Additionally, it allowed the other students to not only be excited and supportive of their peers, but to also look forward to their own participation in next year's competition.

While many of the speakers at this event were informative, I think I was most intrigued with Dr. David Mandell, a researcher from The University of Pennsylvania. In his findings from his most recent research, which has been noted as "the largest randomized trial to date of a behavioral intervention for children with autism," he made a quick and subtle point that noted the need to 'update' the high school level curriculum for students with Autism.

This immediately reinforced my own ideas and goals to develop a specially designed curriculum that speaks to the acquisition of Digital Age learning skills. I invited David to come check out our award winning Computer Fair Project.

He got it. I was flattered and excited when he spoke of moving forward in the fall and asked if I was interested in perhaps being part of the conversation/process.

I am very interested.

There were many other interesting offers I received from this experience such as a principal's request to facilitate a teacher workshop at his school. It seems that I am doing something that others in the educational industry find valuable. That is really exciting; especially because I am so heavily invested in this idea and working so hard to have it come to fruition on a larger scale. I hope this interest spreads like a wild fire because I truly believe that it is the minimum of what is appropriate for our students with Autism.

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Regional Competition

2010-03-15T20:38:00.032-04:00

We are on fire! After winning first place in the multi-media category at our school's computer fair, our students went on to win third place in the Philadelphia Regional Computer Fair Competition Multimedia category.

As the only Autistic Support Classroom in the Philadelphia region to participate, many people thought that placing third was an impressive accomplishment for our classroom; however, our students had another sentiment. "We wanted to win first place."

I explained to them that not only was the pool of competitors much larger than our school's computer fair, but that some of those students had much more experience using technology and multi-media. Placing third was indeed a big accomplishment and they should be proud. I knew that they truly felt gratified as they returned to school, showing off their trophies to students and faculty throughout the building.

I can appreciate their ambition. In fact, I too hold aspirations that will hopefully contribute to their ambition, nurturing the motivation to accomplish, persevere and compete amongst their peers. It is my intent to fortify a process where students with Autism regularly compete with "neorotypical students." It should become the norm.

In pushing to make that happen, I will continue to set high expectations for my students... and myself.
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We Won!

2010-02-19T15:34:00.476-05:00

Congratulations to Room 435 Productions! Today was our school's Computer Fair and we won first place in the multi-media category! I am so very proud of the boys. You can view the project on our wiki by clicking here.
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Unfortunately, in my experience, I have encountered many people who
misinterpret the capabilities of a person with Autism. Mainly, what can be expected from this population has been underestimated. However, many who work with students with autism know their abilities are dynamic. As one of those people, my motivation for the past two years has been to open a window into the world of students with autism and show that with the appropriate support, students will persevere beyond their cognitive variations and accomplish many great things.

Thus, meeting the high expectations established in our classroom, Room 435 Productions presented their use of Comic Life and Garage Band at our school's computer fair. These digital media applications, which are found on MacBook Laptops, were classroom assessments. In other words, after I presented a lesson on dialogue and another on pattern, the students were required to illustrate their understanding. You can view their creations via our classroom Wiki by clicking here.

I presented these projects during a common prep period to show teachers how to implement such software into their own curriculum. The creativity and skill exhibited by the students in Room 435 truly inspired teachers throughout the school; I began to see student generated comics posted both inside and outside of classrooms.   I smiled to myself, knowing that Room 435, an Autistic Support classroom, was the catalyst for these exhibitions.

However, it was today where my students experienced the reach of their own accomplishments.   I admit, I did not provide them with much preparation to what would be expected of them--I wasn't sure myself. Thrown into the fire of having to present to principals, teachers and peers, initially, they were nervous.   However, they quickly adapted, working off the questions that peers and adults were asking.

Vit began to describe what he accomplished and said, "I used creativity and technology and made a comic where this experiment goes wrong and it becomes a zombie and zombies are everywhere and I have to kill them all. It's like realistic and horror fun. And so, I made a song in garage band."

A student questioned, "You made the song too?"   When Vit reiterated that he made it, the student's reply was, "That's hot. I like it."

Their enthusiasm in their responses was spellbinding. Both peers and facilitators were impressed, intrigued and inspired. One of Maj's 'cousins,' a term he uses for friend, said:

"Oh Maj, I got tears in my eyes. I'm about to cry."

While Lam was anxious to play some basketball, both Maj and Vit were willing to give up their gym period to see if they won.   As we waited to hear the organizers announce each category's winner, both Maj and Vit were telling their friends how nervous they were. While other categories only had one or two entries, the multi-media category had four.

Maj, gripping his fingers together said, "I, I, I never been this nervous before."

Maj and Vit were eager to win. As our classroom was announced as the winner, they jumped up excitedly to claim their awards.    Glowing and with smiles from ear to ear, they proudly raised their trophies to the audience and let out a great, "Yeah!"

After the award ceremony I asked both Maj and Vit to give an acceptance speech. Maj began:

"I feel so happy because I won a trophy! And I really so proud of my teacher who's name is Ms. Michele McKeone because she keep me stronger and keep my work hard for for her and then uh, I'm very proud of you. Thank you, Ms. McKeone.

I was surprised and honored to have been given recognition.

"I, I am glad to do this. I'm glad I made the song and everything. And, I'm happy that Ms. McKeone liked the song to put it on there and I'm proud of her."

I reinforced to them that they did all the hard work.   It was I who was very proud of them.

Beyond winning the award, my students have felt the recognition for their achievement by their peers. I can only imagine the sense of empowerment this gives them--especially when considering our previous conversation (see Today It Got Deep). I'd like to insist that events such as today's harness a little more consideration for the abilities of students with Autism. For me, their accomplishment reinforces my desire to open that window a bit wider.

Click here to hear the acceptance speeches, pictures, and other video.

Remember to wait for the video to completely load. You should see a black box before you press play.  Enjoy.

Click here to see our winning submission. Share

Today, it got deep.

2010-02-05T13:31:00.016-05:00

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I’ve been spending a lot of time, chasing my tail, trying to figure out what my first blog entry should be. I wanted to write something that would ‘show’ and not ‘tell.’ Alas, what happened in class yesterday is the perfect account for what I am trying to share...

Of the six students in my class, five work independently on MacBooks using various digital media software applications to develop portfolio projects such as Comic Strips, Blogs, Music, Wikis, Websites, etc. We were all seated at a large table in the back of the classroom, assisting each other whenever help was needed. While proof reading Maj’s blog, I noted the correct way to spell the word, ‘autistic.’

Upon hearing this word, Jam looked up and said, “Ms. McKeone, I have two cousins that, they's Autistic.”

My immediate thoughts went from considering three cases of autism in one family to being curious about Jam’s interaction with his cousins. I asked him their names and if he spent a lot of time hanging out with his cousins.

He replied, “Uh, nah, uhh, I don’t hang out with them. I hang out with the regular kids. They is Autistic like Rid and Lam.”

While first preparing to tackle the “regular kids,” remark, it took me a minute to process that Jam seemed to be saying that he did not consider himself a student with Autism. In fact, he only considered two of the six students in our classroom to be what he thought to be Autistic.

I asked him what ‘regular kids’ meant. At this point, Maj chimed in to offer his understanding.

“My dad, my dad says, he says that Autistic kids is when, you, you, you think different and and and you, uh, think different and you learn different.”

I told Maj that his dad was right and that thinking and learning different made each of them unique (a vocabulary word on our word wall). He continued excitedly to express what he knew.

“It, it, it mean that you are a child, like 2 years old, and and and you can’t speak. That, that, that mean that you Autistic.”

I felt this might be a good segue to explained that everyone learns and develops at an individual pace throughout life. I pointed out that the other classrooms (which some of my students attend) often have more students in them because that is conducive to their learning style. Like the students in these classes, I explained that all individuals, including myself, have both strengths and weaknesses. Each of us has a gift that we bring to the classroom and we all have things we need to work on. After this explanation, we went around the table indicating the unique gifts that they each bring to the classroom. This was our collective conclusion:

"Qom is always willing to be a friend and have a conversation. Maj writes great stories. Vit is an amazing performer. Rid has a lot of personality and likes to help. Jam is a talented rapper and producer. Lam is caring and gangsta."

I also emphasized that as an Autistic Support classroom, we (myself, Mrs. E. & and Mr. T.) are all here to not only support them in developing their unique gifts, but also to help develop strategies to overcome struggles.

Maj thought about what I said and then said, “Ms. McKeone, I have a question. Do that mean that, that because we in an Autistic Support classroom, do that mean that you, Mrs. E and Mr. T are, do, do that mean you are not Autistic?”

I explained to Maj that we are not considered to be people who have Autism, but that we are here to support each of them in achieving their goals.

Then again, Jam expressed more of his thoughts on the matter.

“I used to have a TSS (Therapeutic Support Staff) worker, because uhm, Mr. Line, my teacher told me to do my work. I said, ‘No.’ I was 12. When I was 13th years old, in the seventh grade, I didn't know how to uhm, do my work, stay on task...My teacher told me to get busy."

Jam went on to reflect on many of his educational experiences growing up, as he does often in the classroom.

Qom, who was surprisingly quiet, finally told us how he came to the Autistic Support classroom.

“I used to be in a Learning Support classroom, but I was too much trouble so they put me in Autistic Support.”

I immediately let Qom know that I didn’t think he was trouble at all. I thought he was a great student with a wonderful personality.

Four of the five students excitedly express something they felt was relevant to the conversation.

As I reflected on this powerful moment, I remembered how it all started. The story Maj wrote, where he used and misspelled the word Autism, was about getting on the bus filled with other students with Autism. In his writing, it seemed that Maj was trying to express that he would rather not ride on the bus with them.

Everyday, there is a behavior, comment or other implicit suggestion illustrating that my students have in some way internalized what it means to be a person with Autism. Although they have not yet established a firm understanding, at the very least, they have determined that it means they are different.

As it is my role is to develop strategies to navigate these struggles, I look to present a project-based learning assignment that deals with the meaning of being a person with Autism. However, how I should begin to shape this on-going process of empowerment, I don't know. I do know, that this progression will be an integral part of developing their sense of autonomy.

One extremely gifted student, Vit, who struggles with his own set of social issues, seemed to read the theme well.

"Autistic's like regular. It's like, everybody in here is regular. You are, you are, he is, he is."

Listen to a short sound clip from this conversation.