Who Comes Up With This Stuff?

One of the joys of social media is the opportunity to hear from diverse situations on important topics. And one of the challenges is that sometimes those voices are less informed that it is advisable to listen too. Websites like "Pinterest Fail" make poor or badly given advice amusing, but what happens when the ill advised suggestions is about something more serious than a chocolate cake recipe?

One of our responsibilities as teachers is to be sure we are following best practice and best practice isn't always represented on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler. For example, in spite of what we know is researched based, best practice about high expectations, core words and presuming competence in the absence of other evidence it is common to read that we should, for example, start with or require mastery of low technology eye gaze boards before trying high technology eye gaze AAC (and no student is in a position of "absence of other evidence" than a student who has only have eye gaze for communication!) or that we should start by offering only a few choices and not increasing vocabulary until those choices (nouns, of course) are mastered, rather than starting with aided language stimulation and core words as research tells us we should.

As we move with our students into the new school year let us remember that it is our job to examine the advice we hear on social media and compare it to research based evidence proven practice before we decide what and how to teach our students. They deserve our effort!