WATCH: Teacher Starts Every Day by Complimenting Students
Children learn to love or hate at an early age.I think it’s time we actively work towards teaching love and acceptance.
Posted by Special Books by Special Kids on Sunday, November 15, 2015
In a video that’s now been shared more than 19,000 times, Philadelphia native Chris Ulmer shows how he starts every school day at Jacksonville, Florida’s Mainspring Academy: By complimenting his special education students for 10 minutes.
Ulmer told ABC when he first began teaching, every lesson had a theme, like “Monday Funday” and “Toast Tuesday.” He noticed Tuesdays — the days with affirmations at the start of class — tended to go the best, so he began doing it every day.
The Philadelphia native is in his third year of teaching special needs students. He told the Penn State website he originally wanted to coach college soccer, but fell in love with special education while getting his masters at the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky.
He posts videos, with parents’ permission, almost every day as part of his Special Books by Special Kids project, a multi-media project serving special needs kids and their families. He’s trying to sell a book.
“The book … will give a detailed account of raising a child with special needs,” the Special Books by Special Kids site says. “In this book, parents describe in great detail the joys, worries and experiences of raising a child with special needs. This book will also include stories and quotes from the children.” Ulmer told ABC he has 50 rejection letters on his fridge.
Ulmer has had the same kids in his class for three years, and says the class has “evolved as a family. We have an understanding that comes with time that you don’t naturally have.”
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