Grace, a kindergarten autism teacher, asks her brother Joey, who has Williams syndrome, what makes school work for him. Joey says teachers need friendships, private calm-down spaces, regular check-ins, and to show unconditional love. He loves learning, especially history, and wants school to be fun, inclusive, and energetic.
Questions this video answers
Seeing your friends, mostly, and getting along with teachers.
When teachers help you join different things; you have to be out there and ask.
Ask what you should do; give you a private space to calm down.
When they check in and ask if you're doing okay mentally or emotionally.
Learning new things every day, especially history about different places, animals, and food.
Chapters
Hey guys, it is Grace here with The Autism Helper. I am a kindergarten self-contained autism teacher, and today I'm here with my brother Joey.
Hello!
Tell them how old you are.
Almost 25 years old.
Almost 25, and Joey is my younger brother who was diagnosed with Williams syndrome and is my why as to why I wanted to become a special education teacher. So I thought since we are all in back-to-school prep mode, what better way to start off the year than to ask Joey for some teacher advice for this upcoming school year? So I went ahead and I have 10 questions on my little index card, and I'm gonna ask him these questions and let him give you guys some advice as we start another school year. All right, Joey, number 1, what makes you happy at school?
Seeing your friends, mostly.
Seeing your friends?
Yeah.
All right, anything else?
No, just getting along with your teachers or being nice to your teachers because you never know what will happen.
Yeah, good. That's good. I love that. Okay, number 2, what makes you feel included at school?
Well, ask your teacher if you could be something like included with something because you never know when You're not gonna be included or you will be included at something 'cause you wanna make a change for yourself. You gotta be out there. Be out there, kids.
So you like your teacher to help you join different things at school so that you feel included?
Mm-hmm.
I love that. Okay, number 3. How can a teacher help you when you're upset?
Always ask them, what should I do? Because you never know what will happen if you ever get emotionally stressed out or Overwhelmed.
Yeah, so when you're stressed out or overwhelmed, how can a teacher help you?
They don't know sometimes how to help, but you can go somewhere privately and just calm— try to calm yourself down.
So you like them to talk to you in private and you have some space, a separate space to go where you can calm yourself down?
Yeah.
That's important to you?
Yeah.
I like that. That's important to me too. Number 4, how do you know a teacher cares about you?
Oh, For example, if the teachers do care about you, they'll ask you, Joey, are you doing okay, like mentally or emotionally?
So when they check in with you and ask you about other things outside of school, that makes you know that they care about you?
Yeah.
All right, number 5, what makes you excited to go to school?
Well, learning new things and learning new things every day.
You like to learn, don't you?
Yeah.
What's your favorite subject?
Hmm, history.
History? What do you like to learn about in history?
Like different parts of the world, different places, different kind of species of animals, food.
So you like it all?
Yeah.
Okay. All right, number 6. When do you like a teacher to help you?
When you need help with homework. Or just need to ask a question about something important.
So when do you not like a teacher to help you? Is there ever a time where you don't want a teacher to help you?
Yeah, like when I'm trying to read the paper or something.
So you like to try it first by yourself, and then if you don't understand, you like a teacher to help you?
Yeah.
Okay, number 7. What should a teacher do if you're having a hard day?
Let you go home early.
Okay, well, sometimes teachers can't let you go home early, so what could they do to help the school day go by okay for you?
Like be there for you, or— but you gotta hang out with your teacher mostly because they'll be like, like a school mom when your mother is not even around.
Yeah, that's true. So if you're having a hard day at school, it's important to you for your teacher to spend extra time with you? Maybe give you a little bit of grace too. Yeah, if you're wanting to maybe rest your head or not participate as much.
Yeah.
Yeah. Number 8, what is one thing every teacher should remember?
Always love your children no matter what they are or what they do, because without them, heck, where do you guys will be?
That's true. And sometimes we all have hard days, right? So it's important to love Your students through their good days and their bad days.
Yeah, the hardship to the bad shit.
Number 9, why are teachers important?
Because teachers are the most appreciated people who help us learn each day to be our better selves or be our better person.
That's true, I love that. All right, and the final question, what is your one piece of advice for teachers this upcoming school year?
Well, teachers for this year, have fun. Be more inclusive. Be more fun, energetic. Be funny. Be, be humorous. Be logical.
I love that. So make school a fun place to go, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's important for school to be fun.
Yeah, it is.
Is there anything else you want to tell the teachers watching this?
Well, if y'all are watching this, have a good day.
Thank you all so much for watching. I hope you guys enjoyed Joey and I's video, and we'll see you in our next one.
