Bear Cards

We're carving linoleum blocks in art class this week, which is great because I never used the linoleum printing kit I bought last fall.
My student carved some random marks, which I think will print a cool pattern, but after two months with him, I don't get the sense he cares about visuals.

This student loves music, and he's social. Art class doesn't interest him, offering neither--he'd rather go for a walk outside.
Luckily last night's rain has just stopped here at 6:30 a.m., so we can walk for the second half of class.

 I'd rather stay and work in art class, myself. Good timing, as I'd just been blogging about what I love, and Toys R It. I'm starting a series of Holy Bear Cards:
portraits of the toy bears who live here, with tokens of their powers. 

First up: Bed Bear!

________________________

I feel out of synch with many of my coworkers...
They seem to me like sheepdogs, very invested in keeping students in line. "They need to learn to behave", they say---that is, to follow orders, do things they're told, do things they don't like to do, be where they don't want to be. "That's what life is like," they say.

I don't agree. My teaching philosophy is that students (all of us!) need to learn to MAKE DECISIONS, to discern and ask for what we need. To think of options.
Following orders does not teach that.

I know I'm new to working with autistic students, but stuff I've read about it confirms that my philosophy fits. Maybe more so, as they are more likely to be bossed around, pressured to conform--to "mask" to get by with neurotypicals (NTs)---and being coerced is less than helpful.

What the student really, really loves is to sing karaoke, which he does in choir class. But that can't happen in other classes. If left to his own choice there, he would be on his laptop.
As the teaching adult, I don't think that's the best use of his time--and it's something he can and I gather does do at home--so I am casting around in art class for other choices he might like. The art teacher, who I like a lot as a person, has no clue about helping this student.

So far I've discovered that he likes . . .  squeezing glue!
So, we've been making on paper collages. Again, he doesn't seem interested in the visuals, but he does enjoy squeezing out the glue bottle. His collages are very wet.
Fine!
Maybe he could draw with glue...

Anyway, in class, first we work on art of some sort, then we go for a walk. Only two months left, and this student graduates! Hopefully we can noodle along till then. I'll keep trying things, offering choices.
It's what I want in my life too!

Like, I wanted to make linoleum prints, but it's only when I'm in the confines of class that I'm finally DOING it.
This is another Montessori principle: Freedom within limits.

Montessori principles are great, but as I may have mentioned, the Montessori school two blocks from my apartment looks impossibly precious. The children are dropped off and picked up in expensive cars. They are dressed in the Werner Herzog line of beige clothes for beige children (IG/?TikTok). 

The toy store half a block away from the Montessori school curates the most adorable well-crafted artisanal toys, sourced of natural materials, and the most pricey:
$65 for a wood-block rainbow. More limit than freedom.