Special education teacher holds students to high standards

Carroll County Times
6/10/2009

NEW WINDSOR — Fourteen-year-old Mike Bailey filled a measuring cup partly with water and slowly dropped in cubes of butter, just as teacher Linda Shinderman instructed him to do.

When the water reached the 2-cup mark, he knew he had the correct amount of fat for the chocolate caramel bark he and his classmates were making.

“That’s a scientific thing called displacement, where the solid causes the liquid to rise,” Shinderman, a special education teacher at New Windsor Middle School, told her students the morning of June 3.

Shinderman was the recipient of the 2009 Special Education Professional of the Year Award, presented by the Arc of Carroll County.

She was nominated by her principal, Donald Bell, for her high expectations of her students and ability to determine exactly what they need to learn.

“When you walk into her classroom, you can’t tell it’s a classroom for special education students,” said Bell, who has watched the students participate enthusiastically, talk about current events and create their own weather reports.

Shinderman, who started at New Windsor Middle in 2004, teaches a modified curriculum for six students who all have different learning styles and disabilities.

She said small steps are the key to helping them understand the material.

“No matter what the task is, if I can break it into enough small steps, we can accomplish that task,” she said.

One of the programs she started is a weekly cooking class, where students learn to make recipes in a full kitchen that was installed in her classroom last summer. It was funded by the school’s PTO and the school system.

The recipe the class made on Wednesday had four simple ingredients: saltine crackers, butter, sugar and chocolate chips.

“I try to base it on how they would cook if they were cooking on their own,” Shinderman said.

Aside from a few hints and reminders about food preparation from their teacher, the students were able to figure out the steps by themselves.

Shinderman said holding students to high standards helps boost their self-confidence.

She has worked in the special education field for more than 30 years and said she has developed a special bond with her students. She taught at schools in Arizona and Virginia before moving to Carroll County 12 years ago, when she started at Eldersburg Elementary School.

While she has taught students of all levels, from preschool to high school, Shinderman said her current class is her favorite age group.

“They have so much personality and eagerness to learn,” she said.

A big part of her job is preparing the students for being out on their own. She has them do odd jobs around the school, such as dusting lockers and making ice bags for the nurse, and they are evaluated by how well they stayed on task.

Shinderman also has a token system to teach the class about basic budgeting. They get tokens for the work they do and must add up the amounts in a special checkbook each day.

Then, they get to spend their tokens at a “school store,” which Shinderman stocks with items she purchases herself, such as snacks, sports memorabilia, puzzles and arts and crafts kits.

“Sometimes it takes a long time for them to earn that money, but they stick with it,” she said.

Teaching assistant Robin Keefer said Shinderman encourages the students to be independent but is also kind and understanding. She knows exactly which questions to ask them when they need a little bit of guidance, Keefer said.

“I wouldn’t work with anyone else,” she said.

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