How many poker chips do you have?

I thought that the facilitation was wonderful this week because there were so many interactive, concrete strategies that really helped bring the reading to life! The part that stuck with me the most was the idea of giving students "poker chips." It was heartbreaking to think of how little "poker chips" our students with special needs have, and I was reminded of the importance of building confidence in the students and teaching from a strengths-based perspective, finding ways to build them up and find the things that they are good at and can be praised for. All this week, I thought about everything I did in terms of "poker chips"...when I reprimanded a student for their behavior, I realized that I was taking away some of their poker chips, so I needed to find another way later on to give them poker chips by finding something they had done well. I tried to remember that taking some chips is sometimes necessary, but it is okay as long as I build them back up.
I also loved the part of the evening where we "dined" on new knowledge based on different cases of students with special needs. I think that it is very important to put a "face" to each and every student with special needs instead of placing a blanket label over them. I loved that many of the articles were written from the perspective of the students with the special needs because I think that we often get caught up in the bureaucracy of issues in the schools and we forget to bring it back to the level of our students. I was reminded of how very special each and every student is, and the fact that each and every student brings something uique and important to the class that needs to be discovered and appreciated!