Must reading for teachers

I just ran across this today and thought I’d share the link to this poem : All Kids Have Special Needs. I think every teacher should read it about once a week. The more challenging your students, the more important it is to read this.

Entering a classroom day after day can sometimes seem like a chess game. As the teacher you want to encourage your students to learn. You have made your plans carefully, taking your students’ abilities and past learning into consideration.  But some days they have a different agenda than learning. They are perhaps thinking about survival, abuse, hunger, lack of love at home, and other things you may not have any experience of. All these things keep them from tuning into the classroom experience you are hoping they will have.

Do any of you have books or links or personal experiences to share on how to reach these special students?