Image provided by Carlo Rafael Grajo
Top: Mr. Bigelow and Mr. Chris standing together to take a photo.
Have you ever wondered what happens in SPED classes? Mr. Michael Bigelow is a SPED teacher at Washington, and he teaches his students life skills they will need after school, or as he calls them, daily living skills. To learn more, we followed Mr. Bigelow’s class over a week in February. “We talk about how to do your laundry, we talk about hygiene, how often you should shower and wash your hair and brush your teeth, we talk about everything,” Mr. Bigelow said.
They are also taught general education, such as math. “A lot of my students have really good basic math skills but the reading comprehension part of solving word problems [is difficult], so we talk a lot about looking for keywords and try to decode what is the answer actually going to be so we did some word problems together in class,” Mr. Bigelow said, mentioning one of the things he taught his students that week.
Every morning, Mr. Bigelow’s students have functional reading lessons and practice reading and writing with their journals. “That’s a good time for me to get to know the students, but it’s also a good time for me to teach them about things that generally students with autism struggle with, which are abstract concepts like kindness and gratitude,” he says.
After that class, he teaches his students math, which is “mostly money, budgeting, and time, because those are the main math skills that most people use after high school.”
Mr. Bigelow also teaches personal management and started a healthcare unit where students learn basic health procedures. “What is a doctor? What’s a pharmacy? What’s a prescription? So, it’s just all about healthcare stuff,” he says.
Usually, the last class of the day is his vocational skills class, where students learn how to perform jobs. They have a recycling program where they turn in recyclable materials for money. They also leave campus to work at various places. “That gets them out of the classroom so they’re practicing job skills, but also in a place like Billy Roy’s and Suju’s that has lots of customers, they’re also learning a lot of social skills while they’re there, so that’s a pretty important part of our of our program–actually getting getting out into the community.”
Every Tuesday, Mr. Bigelow goes out with his students to places such as McDonald’s to practice social skills, purchasing, and budgeting. Mr. Chris, an assistant in the class who was partnered with a student to help them with daily tasks, said his favorite part of the week was the outings. “Seeing them interact with the rest of the world, that’s always good to me,” he said.
Mr. Bigelow also teaches his students a lot about communication. “For the last couple years, we’ve been teaching them how to use Gmail and send emails so they can communicate with their parents,” he said.
Mr. Bigelow has a class of 12 students, many of whom have been with him for several years already. He appreciates how small his class is, because that allows him to become close with his students. “A big part of the class is to have the students be as comfortable as possible and feel like they belong in the class, because that’s how people learn best, when they feel most comfortable,” Mr. Bigelow said. “Whenever I see them pick up something new, that’s always a good thing,” Mr. Chris added.
Carlo Rafael Grajo is a senior at Washington High School. He lived in Pleasanton, then moved to Fremont at 10 years old. This is his first year working for the Hatchet, and he is interested in covering art and entertainment—such as shows or music—and local news, as well as his opinions. He enjoys listening to and making music, drawing, reading, and watching movies and shows. Carlo plans on pursuing a career in journalism in the future.