Working Towards Independence with Learning Specialist Cindy Stremmel

Every day is different for Learning Behavior Specialist CIndy Stremmel, and that’s just the way she likes it. Her attitude towards embracing the sometimes hectic nature of teaching children from a variety of age groups, each with their own set of unique needs, makes Cindy one of Progress Parade’s most versatile tutors.

“I have been working with Progress Parade for maybe four years now, and I really enjoy the job because it has a lot of flexibility, and everyday is different. During the daytime, I’m a learning behaviour specialist for five different schools in the city of Chicago. There, I service students who have an IEP (Individual Education Plan). In the evening, I go to kids’ homes as a private tutor. These are students that need extra support with their course load. Of course, every student is different. I get a whole range of ages, so it’s really fun.”

A place for Neurodiversity in mainstream education

In her 30 years as an educator, Cindy has witnessed how the neurodiverse movement has quite literally taken children with special needs out of their school’s basement IEP classes, and into the mainstream classroom.

"I feel like everybody should be able to experience what a typical student experiences throughout the day."

“I was working with the autistic population and we would always have the classroom way in the back of the building, like in the basement. It was crazy, but that’s how it was! There was very little support, it would just be me and a teaching assistant. Because it was a self-contained classroom we wouldn’t have equipment for labs, we just had textbooks. About 10 years ago, that started to change. They started bringing these kids to P.E. classes. Now it's just kind of evolved where all students are together. If they have special needs they have an assistant with them, but they are in the regular classroom with the typical kids. I love that. I feel like everybody should be able to experience what a typical student experiences throughout the day.”

Building the executive functioning skills to succeed

Cindy works with children to achieve educational goals with regards to their performance in reading, writing, or math. But with many of her students, Cindy focuses on developing the key organizational skills that provide them with the tools to thrive in the classroom, and beyond.

“I sometimes have students predict how long they think assignments will take, or how long it takes to read 20 pages of a book that they are reading for english class. They’ll say ‘oh, five minutes!’ And then I’m like ‘ok, let’s figure that out now’. I’ll set a timer and guess what? It takes 45 minutes. They underestimate the time, which is why I encourage using a timer and I tell parents to really help their kids be aware of how they’re spending their time. I help them understand just how much they can accomplish in an hour.”

Cindy has found ways to leverage technology to help students with their time management.

“I use what's called “A week at a glance”. It's a Google doc that I put together with the students with each class and the days of the week. We fill it out each time we meet. This provides a place where students can plan out their whole week and figure out at a glance what days they’ll have tests, when they have quizzes, papers to do, etc.”

“A lot of students don’t know how to study for tests, or take notes from lectures or readings. For the younger ones, if they don’t have a system, they’re really at a disadvantage.”

Cindy also has  a simple system to help kids keep track of their homework.

“It’s a three ring binder. It has to be pretty thick, around two inches. And then when you open this binder, there’s a pocket. So it’s simple, the first pocket is titled To Do and contains all the homework and worksheets that needs to be done. In the binder you have dividers for each of your classes, that’s where you keep your completed and graded work. At the end of the binder, there is another pocket that is labelled “Turn in”. So anything that needs to be turned in goes there.”

Achieving independence

While a child’s grades are important when it comes to measuring their progress, the most important milestones usually have to do when they achieve a form of independence.

"I just feel like when students can really do things independently, that's always the goal."

“One of my students, his name is Chris and he's in high school. It wasn't that he was not capable of doing the work, but he had a difficult time transitioning to high school and he started to be completely overwhelmed with his coursework, and started struggling with failing grades. So I just helped him just really organize everything. He had trouble with planning in general, like keeping an assignment notebook. So we came up with the Google doc that he refers to now all the time. In the beginning I was the one having to fill it in all the time. But eventually he just started to take that over. After a while he said to me, ‘oh, can I do it this time?’. I didn't even prompt him or ask him if he wanted to do it? He volunteered himself. That was really, really awesome. He became very diligent, and started to get all As and Bs in all his classes. I was really very pleased with his progress and honestly I just feel that when students can really do things independently, that's like always the goal.”

Gradual progress

Every child is different, and Progress Parade is really about figuring out the best plan to help children with learning challenges reach their individual goals.

“Everything always works out. Maybe it’s just that your son or daughter needs just a little bit of extra support. And sometimes that support doesn't have to be forever. Sometimes it can just be a little boost that they need. And maybe they just need that boost three times a week and they need that for, you know, three months, just really consistently just pouring it on and then sort of just gradually let it go.”

---

Cindy Stremmel has more than 30 years experience working as an educator and Executive Functioning Coach with Elementary and High School students. If you’re looking to be matched with an online tutor with Cindy’s expertise, book a free consultation with Progress Parade.