Special education teacher Sally Green has won an international award for her work with students in an autism class. BEN WYLD discovers how she did it.

Whether it’s a red pen, a ruler or glue stick, Sally Green is likely to have tucked away whatever one of her students might ask for.

“I’ve got this very well-stocked pencil case which has got all the things in it that they might need and which they should have in their pencil cases but may have lost, left at home or perhaps even destroyed,” Mrs Green says.

The all-purpose pencil case is an apt symbol for Mrs Green’s award-winning approach to teaching her select group of students. At Lucas Heights Community School, Mrs Green works with five high school students on the autism spectrum and supports their learning, emotional and social needs in mainstream classes.

School principal Deidrei Bedwell says in the 12 months Mrs Green has worked with students in the school’s autism class she has “transformed the school’s culture” and positively changed lives. So much so that a parent at the school nominated Mrs Green for an international award – which she recently won – in recognition of those who provide outstanding support for people who have Asperger’s syndrome or autism.

Mrs Green was one of only six winners, and the only Australian, to receive a 2008 Spirit of Support Award from the American educational company Coulter Video.

“I had no idea [about the award nomination],” Mrs Green says. “It was a total surprise for me but I’m very chuffed, very pleased and very proud … I really love helping people who are square pegs trying to fit into round holes.”

It is a challenge Mrs Green, a trained special education teacher, faces each day at Lucas Heights Community School, which established an autism class last year as part of a Sydney region initiative.

The students she works with all have high- functioning Asperger’s syndrome (a type of autism), and exhibit the disorder’s common traits, which makes learning in a mainstream class problematic.

Typically the students, who are in Years 7 to 10, can be sensitive to noise, find it hard to concentrate for extended periods of time and are unable to “read” social situations. They have difficulty with organisation skills and have what Mrs Green calls “receptive and expressive language disorders”.

“So for example a teacher will say, ‘Okay, I want you to grab these text books, open up to page 62, write down the heading, start summarising the passage and make points’,” Mrs Green says.

“They may have heard and understood the bit about getting their text books, but they are just not able to process that amount of auditory information effectively.”

As part of her role, Mrs Green works with the students in a small class setting for four periods a week. She has established a lunch club to give her students a “safe haven” and alternative to the playground, and attends mainstream classes with each student.

During the classes she receives copies of assignment tasks so she can help the students and their families plan an effective study schedule to ensure the task’s completion.

Often, when sitting alongside her students in their mainstream class, she provides organisational support and prompts.

“Just so they’re managing to keep up and [have the] chance to listen and observe and see what’s going on [in the classroom],” she says.

She also keeps a watch for signs of sensory overload or waning concentration. It is in this capacity, acting as an advocate for the students to their classroom teachers and peers, where Mrs Green believes she makes the biggest difference.

She has worked hard to increase awareness of Asperger’s syndrome within the school community by speaking at assemblies. In the playground she acts as a “trouble shooter”, talking to mainstream students who may be having difficulty understanding the sometimes eccentric social and behavioural habits of students with the illness.

During staff meetings and in one-on-one conversations, Mrs Green assists teachers to modify their classroom practice and assessment tasks to accommodate her students’ learning difficulties.

Often it involves subtle changes such as writing instructions on the class whiteboard or blackboard and speaking more slowly to assist the students’ understanding. The language of assignment tasks is simplified to help a student understand what they are required to do.

“The Lucas Heights staff are doing a fantastic job of taking all this on board. There’s been much more dialogue which is brilliant,” Mrs Green says.

“[But] I’m also very conscious of the fact that I’m going into people’s classrooms and I respect that.” Mrs Bedwell says

while Mrs Green is “unassuming” about her role, those little hints and tips ensure the school is “best catering for those students with autism”.

“Her absolute passion is that schools should be able to provide the best opportunities for children with autism,” Ms Bedwell says. “She’s a gem, an absolute gem.”

Twelve months ago Belinda Russo admits her family was struggling. Her then 15- year-old son Aaron, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, was diagnosed with depression. Juggling the demands of school with home life had become stressful.

“Typically Aaron would bring an assignment out the day before it was due,” Mrs Russo says.

“We would work on it that day from 5pm to midnight. That in itself creates a stressful environment and it’s not a true indication of what he’s capable of because everything is last minute.”

At that stage, Mrs Russo – who has given up work to support her son – says the family’s goal was to help Aaron complete his School Certificate.

“But now we’ve done a complete turnaround, Aaron is staying for Years 11 and 12, he’s looking at what vocational education and training course he can do next year… he’s motivated to learn,” she says.

“The turnaround really is like night and day. We now have a happy 16-year-old who is going well at school.”

Mrs Russo says Aaron now enjoys a fuller social life with regular invites to watch movies with friends at the local cinema. He has even started guitar lessons.

“He’s got a little bit of confidence to try something new whereas before he simply failed at everything and he said ‘I can’t do that’,” she says.

The change, Mrs Russo believes, is the result of Mrs Green’s work at the school which led her to nominate the teacher for the Spirit of Support Award. Mrs Russo, who regularly visits the Coulter Video website for material to support her son, says she had no hesitation in nominating Mrs Green.

“She has been instrumental in turning my son’s life around. It sounds very dramatic but that’s how it has been,” Mrs Russo says.

“She really is an advocate for those kids at school … she gets extensions on assignments if they need it, she provides tutorial support, she provides classroom integration, she provides a network of support between parents at home and school. There is no truer or more deserving teacher that I know. I think she is the best of the best in Australia.”

But the teacher herself simply sees her work as an extension of her empathetic nature.

A special education teacher since her first full-time appointment at James Meehan High School in 1996, Mrs Green – who had formerly worked as a professional singer – found she was always “drawn to people who need that extra help”.

Another influencing factor while growing up was living with and supporting her father who had a physical disability.

“He had polio as a young boy – he was a really proud man and for him to have to deal with his disability I could see how hard that was at times,” Mrs Green says.

“He wouldn’t use a wheelchair, he walked on crutches and I remember dad falling over or going to sit on a chair and missing it. It didn’t happen often … but my heart just bled, so I think I’m naturally an empathetic person.

“That’s what motivates me … there are plenty of people who want to teach mainstream, but there’s not many who want to teach special education and those of us who really want to teach those kids can really make a difference.”