Michelle Hensley, a high school level special needs teacher at Shrine School, did just this, although rather inadvertently.
Hensley was in her junior year at the University of Memphis, studying to become a pharmacist, when her fate took a sharp turn and she was involved in a bad accident, leaving her in a coma for over a month. She suffered from injuries and amnesia, and she had to relearn how to execute basic skills like eating and walking.
“I was in the hospital all summer long, and after that I had to go to physical, occupational, and speech therapies. I had to learn how to do everything again,” she says. “I went back to school and work, and I realized I was a different person. I realized that I was needed as a special education teacher because if I could overcome all these obstacles and do this again, I can teach these kids to do it, too.”
Although she knew it would take her extra time to start a new major, Hensley changed the focus of her education to comprehensive K-12 education. Once she graduated, she began teaching Adaptive Functional Skills (AFS) special education classes at Oak Elementary School, and after a year, she moved on to teach kindergarten and first grade at Shrine School.
Hensley uses music to teach her students. “Music can get to everyone,” she says. “Sensory learning is everything for these children.”
This year, Hensley rose up to teaching at the high school level. So accustomed to teaching younger children, and in new territory, she was at a loss of what musical lessons she would prepare for her students.
“I was so used to playing Elmo and Sesame Street for my kindergarteners and first graders, but I didn’t know what high school kids would want to listen to,” she says.
“I sent questionnaires to the parents of my new students, and I was amazed to see that many of their favorite TV shows were still Elmo.”
Hensley enjoys getting to know her students. “At the beginning of each year, we have to give them an assessment called FISH [Functional Independent Skills Handbook], where we have students do things like look at something for three seconds or hold something for five minutes,” she says.
“This test is required in every classroom, but I love being able to familiarize myself with what they can and can’t do and what they do and don’t like before I start planning my lesson plans or themes for the year.”
With the help of these types of assessments and by working hands-on with her students, Hensley gets to a point where she really understands her students and is able to communicate with them based off their nonverbal cues.
“I’ve really come to understand my students,” she says. “They’re all nonverbal, so seeing how they interact through facial expressions is the best. They’re all so smart, but they’re just stuck in bodies that can’t move.”
Hensley offers up advice to other prospective special education teachers. “Don’t be afraid to get dirty and go all in. Get up off the floor and be with them and do with them. Lots of people don’t want to work with this population, but you just have to remember that they’re like any other child, but with barriers, and you have to treat them like that.”
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