Asking dumb questions: Sometimes not a dumb thing!

Sixteen years ago I started my first teaching job. I had a student who was in my "basic" (read last resort type of class) science. She was deaf, worked with an aide when she'd cooperate, but spent most of her time in the resource room because of her abilities and her behavior. I was told she was very low and had awful outbursts.

She was about the sweetest girl I had ever met and I didn't see the bad behavior. In the stockroom (where my "office" was I found a coup of a Spanish physical science glossary. When I gave her the glossary she started doing so much better. She started to try more. She started to participate. I worked with her a lot because I just didn't believe she could be as academically low as I was told. I tried everything I could to communicate with her and she responded.

At her IEP meeting it was noted that she was doing well in my class and I explained what I was doing with her. Nothing really amazing, honestly. Then I asked a dumb question about sign language: is there a Spanish version and couldn't we try it with this student? I honestly didn't know. I found out there was such a thing and they decided to try it.

After that she had much more success and started being in regular classes. I wrote her note and asked her why she was a behavior problem in her special ed classes, she told me she was so mad about being in resource room--with some pretty low kids with pretty severe disabilities. When she described the students she was with, I thought I'd be pretty mad too if I were her.

Why was this successful? I think the fact that I was trying to communicate with her had the biggest effect on her doing well in my class. I showed her I cared if she learned, I wasn't willing to just let her sit passive in my class.

I admit I'm not the most patient or politically correct with my colleagues at times. Hearing a teacher say they've tried everything, tends to rile me up and I ask "have you really?"

I'm am not a teaching expert. The only sign language I know is inappropriate to share, and the only Spanish I know can order me a beer or find a bathroom. But I was willing to find something to help this student.