Camelot Teacher Profile: Dan Leaf
Dan Leaf is a high school multi-needs teacher at Camelot Hoffman Estates. He received his certification in 2008 as a Learning and Behavior Specialist after graduating from Elmhurst College in suburban Chicago. Dan came to Camelot a year and a half ago after teaching at a therapeutic day school for SED high school kids for two years and then one year working with elementary school kids. Before becoming a teacher, Dan worked as a therapeutic day school aide for eight years and that’s where he realized that teaching students with special needs was what he wanted to do for a career. The students Dan teaches range from 14-19, all have autism in addition to other cognitive impairments or developmental difficulties.
In your 1.5 years at Hoffman Estates, is there a student you have worked with and seen progress over that time?
There has been more than one but one student in particular comes to mind. At the beginning he was social but shy, not willing to ask for help, had a communications device but just didn’t have the impetus or drive unless he was asking for something like wanting to watch TV. Now he is going out and engaging in conversations, he’s going into the community and participating, he’s buying supplies for the classroom, he works two vocational training jobs in the community. He’s using that opportunity to interact with complete strangers. From a year and a half ago, he has gone from occasional communication to now seeing that he can use his communication device to communicate his wants and needs and be an advocate for himself. It’s awesome to see these kids become aware of their own potential and take steps to realize that potential.
Seeing that kind of evolution must be very rewarding. What do you like best about your job?
I consider this my dream job. Some people look at our population and say they’re not going to be able to do much. I don’t see it that way. They’ll do as much as we let them do. It’s kind of like being an advocate for them and showing the kids that through work experiences, through practical, functional curriculum, as well as academics the expectations shouldn’t be any different from anybody else. I love seeing these kids stand up and say I have a voice; I can contribute.
You seem to have a guitar in your photo. How does that come into your teaching?
Back when I was an aide at another therapeutic day school funding ran short and the music therapy class was cut. My mom was a music teacher so I am kind of predisposed to music. We have regular music time here at Camelot but we don’t have in-class music time so once a week I bring in the guitar and incorporate music into the teaching. I’ll play and we have the kids clap along. We can sing along and play and they can get up and stomp in rhythm. They all enjoy it. It does provide sensory stimulation. We have a couple students who are really big Beatles fans so they tell me the song and I have a week to learn it and play it the following week.
Why do you think Camelot therapeutic day schools are so important to your students’ families?
It really comes down to the time and attention that we can focus on students, not only as an entire class but meeting each student where he or she is at individually as they come in the door until the end of the day. In addition to providing a quality education, it’s the support from teachers, administrators, related service staff like speech, social workers and counselors, and it extends beyond the school building. I talk to all my students’ parents more than once a week. The parents send me notes each day about their kids’ experiences the previous day. We provide a level of support that is critically important to these students and their parents. .
