Dear Phoenix, I posted on Facebook yesterday about the hate and violence infecting the US. I was moved to post something because silence seems wrong. In my post I had noted that for 22 years, no one bothered the Boston Holocaust memorial. Now it has been vandalized twice in 6 weeks. White-supremacy is not acceptable. […]
Read moreFinding My Passion for Teaching
Dear Phoenix, There is a certain kind of giddy I get when I think about the students I teach. Every one of them brings to me a renewed sense of the world around me. When I first started teaching, I worked as an after school music tutor. After a few sessions, I knew that teaching […]
Read moreThe Story Behind – As the Ice Speaks
Dear Phoenix, I have been thinking about my students today, wondering how all of them – past and present – apply what they learn in music class to life. It never occurred to me that my students got anything from lessons other than learning the instrument until I got the opportunity to observe a friend […]
Read morePresuming Parental Compentence
Dear Phoenix, I am getting ready to talk about us at a conference in San Diego next month. As I was scanning my past presentations, I realized that the gap between parents and teachers are growing, and neither of them are to blame. A quick scan of therapies for Autism, and articles on special education, […]
Read moreTraveling with Autism is getting harder, not easier. Why?
lauranadine autism, emotions, Rising Like the Phoenix Atlanta, autism, Delta, disabilities, southwest, travel
Dear Phoenix, It is not uncommon to see public spaces with accommodations of various types. Restaurants have high chairs for little ones who can’t reach the tables quite yet. Shopping malls have strollers for children and wheelchairs for elderly who find it difficult to walk the entire mall. Even in states with public smoking restrictions, […]
Read moreTeaching Phoenix to Climb
Dear Phoenix, It has been a few days since I last wrote to you, but something amazing has happened. I am in Alta, Wyoming attending the wedding of a good friend of mine. She wanted my shadow songs to accompany her wedding on the top of a mountain facing Grand Teton. It is beautiful. To […]
Read moreToday I am Proud of my Autistic Son
Dear Phoenix, I have to tell you today about my son, Jacob. After years of hard work, struggling with people telling him he would fail because of his autism, and many mistakes, he graduated high school. He will be 17 on Friday. Like it? I think his ideas for design are fascinating. You can see […]
Read moreMonday Grievances
Dear Phoenix, I’m filled with so much frustration over the way things are going for me lately that all of my carefully built filters are burning off. I am finding it more and more difficult to keep quiet about the things others do that hinder progress, or create barriers. I wanted to write to you […]
Read moreThe Story Behind River Oasis
Dear Phoenix, Did I ever tell you about why I wrote the shadow song, River Oasis? I struggle with knowing who my friends are. People say they are my friends, but I sometimes get confused with the term friends. Everyone seems to have their own definition of what a friend is, so I just really never […]
Read moreThe Day I Was Wrong, and it was Fantastic.
Dear Phoenix, Presuming competence is the foundation for effective special education. We can no longer build models based on repetitive behaviors, rewards, and exclusion. Our lack of understanding as educators must be the curiosity incubator rather than the cage that causes us to recoil when our foundations and pedagogies are questioned. We must evolve from […]
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