Jan 21

1. First, provide brief reflection on those learnings from the course that you feel have been most helpful in your development as a teacher:

I have learned much in this class about how to approach, interact, and help students with disabilities of all kinds. I have also started to learn what it is like to be disabled in other ways aside from my own personal learning disabilities. This insight will be a extremely helpful tool throughout my teaching career and my life.

2. Second, provide brief reflection on those learnings that still need 'brushing-up' -- possibly on your own or possibly in class.

One aspect that I think I will need a lot of getting use to will be the people first language. Not that I don’t agree with it, I do, but it is faster and easier to say the “disabled child” then the “child who has a disability”. It will take time and effort to accustom myself to using the longer yet more people first approach. I am also curious to know if people first language should be used for more positive titles such as “honors student” or “Dr. Smith”. If it is more appropriate for negative then why not for positive?

3. Finally, provide brief reflection on specifics you hope to see in the last half of the class.

I think it would be good to see actually blank IPP forms and documents so we will know what to do with them when we come across them out in the schools. I feel this is very important so that we can maintain our professionalism.

Today in class we had our test and I thought it was a good solid test that tested us on the useful and core knowledge of the subject matter. I was worried about it going in because of the amount of material we had to study for the test and in the end I felt like my studying was too broad and that I could have focused in more.

Jan 16

What are three key areas within differentiated instruction that you envision that you will need to focus upon initially?

One area of differentiated instruction that I thought to be useful was idea of setting up a system for getting help. This would allow a series of steps for the students to follow to try to get help with their work without going directly to the teacher. Too often in classrooms the teacher is made out to be the only source of information and help. Another great aspect I saw was in Describing tasks, making sure not to overwhelm students with multiple sets of instructions but instead having written or recorded instructions that are clear and precise. Also the idea of using time and space flexibly, making sure that you can use the classroom as a whole and that you can allow more or less time for activities if needed. These are three area’s which I plan to implement into my teaching right away if possible.

I cam into today’s class feeling much better then I did last class. But I found that a lot of the other students were on edge. The professor told us about the cancellation of the IPP workshop and that we would be making the time up through extra work we would be given; this upset a lot of people. We already have lots of work we have to get done and schedules to keep. This is a very intensive and condensed program and many of us have planned out our semester in an attempt to balance home life and school. When changes are made to that and work load is increased it is a natural thing to be upset.

Once the beginning introduction to class was over we began to watch the rest of the video on differentiated class rooms. It was very interesting and informative and I got a lot out of it. It was interesting to see the junior high/high school take on differentiated class rooms; since that is the grade levels in which I wish to teach. After the video we went through a lecture and discussion on differentiated instruction. This lecture and discussion fell apart for me on a few levels. The biggest was when some issues were raised in which a student disagreed with the professor and the discussion erupted a bit. Should students and parents be told about codes, was the big question. I fully agreed that they should know; at least once the student has reached an age to understand the problem. Yes there is the whole issue of students and parents being upset but when it is for the sake of the student’s growth I say do it! We have no problem giving students numbers and labels that represent them in other ways; ie. report cards, letter grades, honor rolls, probation.

Teachers can do everything in the world to try to help students, but in the end students are the ones who have to walk through the doors teachers open. It is much easier to take the steps to help yourself if you understand that you have a problem. I was terrible in school until I found out about my disability; I thought I just wasn’t smart. But after finding out about my problem I was able to see it and over come my learning disability and realize how great I could really be. As well having the number from the coding system I think would help kids discuss their personal learning problem with a teacher without having to speak in private. If I went up to a teacher and wanted to let them know that I have ADHD without the whole class finding out by saying “Mr.Teacher I have ##”. Society has become to sensitive for it’s own good in some ways. I just hope that it doesn’t continue to becoming so sensitive that people are afraid to speak without a script for fear of offending someone.

Jan 14

What are John Elder Robison’s strengths and what are his challenges?

John has Asperger’s syndrome, this causes him to have socialization problems. He was strong enough too tough through it most of his life until he was finally diagnosed with his condition. People did not understand him and drew preconceived notions about him. People told him he was bad and that he could become a criminal if he didn’t change. But he couldn’t change it was part of who he was.

Describe some of the approaches you would use as John's teacher when he was a youth.

Unfortunately when he was a youth people were very biased and did not know about certain conditions. Teachers had less training and corporal punishment was still allowed. I would like to think that I would have not been abusive to him, but when the education system is breathing down your back to do something we teachers willing fall in line. Even now we are doing it. Who is to say that all the sensitivity and inclusion won’t turn out to be a terrible idea later on down the road? I could make the future generations soft or all students could lose out on experiences because too much funding was given to special needs. Not that I am saying this is true but something like this could happen. But as for John in a class room today. I would show understanding and take the time to understand him and his condition better. I would work towards having him become part of the classroom community just as if he was any other student. As well if possible I would educate the class on such conditions as Asperger’s syndrome. People are more tolerable of things which they are knowledgeable about; people fear that which they do not understand.

Today I was not having such a good day. I had a rough weekend which spilled over into this Monday class. The book store had been out of the text book I need for this class so I had not gotten the readings done. As well spent the first half of class doing jigsaw chapter work from the text and we had not been told that we need to bring our text book to class. How can the university expect us to be able to do our work if they do not provide enough of the required text books for everyone? It is craziness.

The first thing we did was the jigsaw chapter work. The group moved at much to fast a rate for those who didn’t have text books. I got nothing out of any of this work and it only succeeded in frustrating and confusing me. It is a good thing I use to be a psych major before my last degree and that I was able to later catch up on all the work and readings I missed. University should not be about killing your students with work, but about training and understanding. I feel like I am working against the school instead of with it and that is a horrible feeling for any student. It is hard to try to live up to the expectations we are told we have to live up to when the education system teach us doesn’t follow the same standards of teaching.

After this we watched a video about differentiated classrooms and how they function. It was very informative and I got a lot out of it. Though the differentiated classroom is idle it can be a very hard environment to maintain day after day; especially if you have a difficult class. I would not go out and try to turn any class I teach into a differentiated class right away. A classroom is something that must develop and evolve. There is no one right way to run a classroom. But I do believe that elements of the differentiated classroom would be great additions to many classroom environments.

Jan 9

How will this change of models affect your classroom?
It will make it more challenging but if handled well with aid and training can be an extremely rewarding experience for all. Yes the work load will increase but the difference I can make as a teacher wil be that much greater.

What are your thoughts with regard to these changes?
I think inclusion is a wonderful thing for all students disabled or not. It will create awareness and will help everyone to learn to grow together into a more accepting and understanding society.

Do you have initial ideas on how you will accommodate these changes?
With the help of aids and inclusion of these students needs into lesson planning; hopefully in a way so it does not take away from the education of any other students. Equality would be the purpose of inclusion in my classroom, not slowing down or completely changing the learning process of the entire class for one student.

Today in class we did a most interesting station group workshop of sorts. We were in groups at our tables and had to go through several stations. In these we were given simple tasks with difficult restrictions. These tasks helped us to get a better feel for what it is like to be disabled or have a learning disability. We a station that had us doing eye tests with disabling goggles on. We had a station that had us trying to cut shapes out with our off hands while wearing heavy gloves.
I think the station that hit me the most was the reading station. At the reading station we had to read several different types of material that helped use understand how reading disabilities made students feel. It has always been hard to understand how students have so much trouble with reading and understanding what they are reading. I have never been much of a reader myself but I have never found it hard to do. Struggling through some of these reading exercises really helped me gain insight into these students. I only hope I can keep this understanding with me as I go out into the teaching world. Then among these reading challenges I found one that I had always heard about and seen throughout my life, it was braille. I had never actually tried to read it before this time though and I was fascinated by it. I tried really hard to read it but my group had to move on before I had read the whole passage. This was a little upsetting cause I really wanted to continue trying. I will have to go to the curr lab and see if I can find some learning braille books. I should have figured that I would like braille though since I have always liked sign language as well. As a teacher and an actor learning how to communicate in more ways then just seeing and hearing is very interesting to me and I hope to explore these further.