“I just need to know them very well”: connecting with young special needs students - Travis Yuan | S1E11

Travis is a special education teacher who trained as an early childhood educator. We talk about building relationships with special needs kids and what Travis learned by migrating from Taiwan to New Zealand.

Key topics

• What happens in a special needs classroom and why every day is about both careful planning and also throwing the plan away most days
• How Travis helps kids learn and grow through play and how he gets to know them by exploring their interests together
• What Travis has learned by migrating from Taiwan to New Zealand and why he made sure he was a top student all the way through school in Taiwan so he could get out of the system as soon as possible.

Detours and tangents

• Why Travis left early childhood teaching to become a flight attendant and how he celebrated a 50-hour birthday across timezones and continents
• Travis' many hobbies, from making his own clothes to learning new languages to connect with far-flung friends and relatives

Episode Summary
Visit the Grokkist podcast hub for a full digest of this episode including highlights and links to stuff we discussed: https://grokk.ist/stillcuriouspodcast/s1e11-travis-yuan/

Recorded 16 November 2021

Website: grokk.ist/stillcuriouspodcast | Email: podcast@grokk.ist | Socials: @grokkist
Music: Kleptotonic Swing by Tri-Tachyon