Sagemute’s Weblog

So I mentioned that I’m fairly boring except for my love of teaching.  I teach high school social studies and the courses I teach vary from year to year.  I love teaching government and law…but I also have a passion for freshmen.  Do not laugh or gasp.  I really do enjoy them immensely.  Since I derive great joy from freshies I teach four classes of freshmen world history this year. (I also teach one class of U.S. History to sophomores, but I dislike sophomores as a whole…that’s another story for later.) Because I’m adventurous I agreed to team teach an at risk group of students.  If you are not familiar with team teaching it generally means that a general ed. teacher teams up with a special ed. teacher.  We have students who are at risk or are classified for special education.  I love that class. They’re a great deal of fun. Plus it’s good for me to slow down and think in a more linear fashion.  I tend to be very global and abstract when I teach. 

One of the reasons I dearly love this class is that over the past year I’ve had occasion to have some additional training about Autism and related disorders. 

 http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_whatis_characteristics is a link to the Autism Society which explains in depth these spectrum disorders.

 One of my students this year is a young man who is Autistic.  He is extremely bright, although a person who cast a casual glance may not recognize this because he has a hard time with communication.  One of the things that I’ve found out about this young man, which is true of many with Autism and Aspergers, is that he loves music and as nearly as I can tell he has perfect pitch.  So I came up with this brilliant idea last night.  Why not teach him everything in song?  It will only help the other students.  I’m sort of infamous at school for using hand motions and silly rhymes to help my students remember concepts….so why not songs? 

 Thus…..I need suggestions for simple, familiar children’s songs that I can take and make into history stories.  If you have any songs that have “stuck with you” since childhood, let me know.  Remember, we here in the house are old.  Well Richard’s old.  I’m not there yet.