My fourth week

Reading about implementing a theme was a very new concept for me as I am not a teacher. Though I found that I became quite interested in ways that I could find a area of interest to the students and use a methodology to implement a theme study based on questions I could ask myself about it. I also like the way that when implementing a study we can use the students curiosity and skills at their grade level to help themselves learn about the theme st hand. I personally found myself using King's question stems to help with my client this week when he was studying about the events of World War II. One of the hardest things for a teacher to autistic children to get out of their students is a level of thinking in which the student starts to ask why a certain event, lets say in History, happens. With my client, is was the first time I got him to ask why we went to war with Germany and why did Germany feel the need to try and take over Europe. Now I don't think he could put his mind around the concept of countries fighting countries for political reason and such, but it was a great step in which he finally asked a why question in class, pertinent to a topic that we were studying.
It was also interesting to read about meeting required standards as it was the first time that I have even thought about that in terms of teaching. It is something that in my field that I don't have to deal with directly. I can see the challenge of one having to fit a theme within the framework of the standards that the students need to meet. How rewarding for a teacher to have the interest of the students, implement a theme that crosses multiple subjects, and have them learn skills that will meet local standards.
The concept of initiating thematic units to me is like laying down a foundation that the students can stand on to begin their own personal journey into the topic. Providing the correct questions and resources for them to work with gives them the advantage to go into a theme like a traveler going into a foreign country with a map and a personal guide. The student can find the things that they want to find and have the courage to go deep into the theme with out getting lost.