While growing up in Indonesia, Nuril Kingsley’s father was the chief of their village. So, from a young age, she learned about the value of serving others and treating them with dignity.
It’s something she kept in mind around the time she learned her son, Danny, is autistic. He joined a Fairfax County Public Schools , but struggled. So, she homeschooled him, serving as both a parent and teacher.
When Danny was prepared to return to a classroom, one of his teachers recognized him as someone who needed to be understood and supported, not as a problem or troublemaker.
Those experiences made an impression on Kingsley, who ultimately decided to return to school herself to learn to become a teacher. Now in her eighth year, she’s making a difference for students like Danny.
“What I remember was 鈥� ‘I learned so much from this process and I don’t want to keep this for myself. 鈥� I want to share it with others,'” Kingsley told 海角精品黑料.
In the school system’s enhanced autism classrooms, there are typically eight or fewer students and one teacher with two instructional assistants. The students are different ages across grade levels and have varying needs.
The curriculum is standard. So a recent first grade lesson about past, present and future tenses was the same unit that other first graders across the county are learning.
“Our EAC classes are some of the most challenging classrooms and positions that we have as teachers in FCPS,” Fairhill Elementary School Assistant Principal Maura Cotter said. “So it is really incredible that Nuril has used her life experiences and her home experiences to then guide her and have herself go back to school, and then take those experiences and bring them into the classroom. She uses her personal experience in all of her decision-making.”
Kingsley’s experiences are particularly helpful when working to understand students’ behaviors. Communication can be interpreted differently, Kingsley said, and it can sometimes lead to a student becoming frustrated.
Some kids use gestures or sign language to communicate, while others may have an assistive technology device.
“Instead of telling them to stop, I have to reflect on, ‘what do they know?'” Kingsley said. “‘What do they already know? What skills do they already have? Do they understand about feelings? Do they understand asking for help or asking for a break?’ If they don’t, that is my job to teach them.”
Kingsley’s classes typically involve visuals and a lot of hands-on activities, which she learned about when helping Danny. He gets anxious easily, she said, and before trips in the car, she writes stories for him about what it means to travel in the car and on the highway without opening the door. They also have conversations about how to behave in public places.
“It really, really reduced the anxiety so much,” Kingsley said. “And I use that a lot with my students here.”
During a recent class, student Kiaan described his relationship with Kingsley as “good.”
With help from parents and her colleagues, Kingsley launched a parent-teacher support group, bridging a gap she noticed while navigating public school with her son.
“Being able to share what has been successful with my son, with my students, that’s something that really, really resonates with me,” Kingsley said. “This is a path of service for me, because I believe that work that is done in a spirit of service is like worship. That’s what keeps me going every day.”
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