Week 8- Made it.....phew!

Week 8! Amazing that it's gone so quickly.  Truthfully, my writing well is feeling a little dry at this point of the course.  To try something different for this entry, I am going to do a little Bible study and find some passages that I think connect to the material we have been studying in this course.  It will be a nice little evening Bible study for me, and also a nice review of the whole course. Here it goes!

John 9:2-7  And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud.

Students with disabilities have gifts each and everyone of them.  They are not disabled because of some fault of their own, but rather, are the way they are so that God's great works can be displayed in them.  Sometimes this can mean through miraculous healing, and sometimes it's through sharing their God given gifts. As a teacher, I need to see each of these students as people who are part of my classroom community that have wonderful gifts to contribute to the community. 

Luke 14:12-13 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind...

Jesus gave everyone clear teaching to especially look after and minister to people with disabilities.  He came to Earth to especially minster to these people, and as Christians, so should we. This verse is a great reminder of this.  

Matthew 18:4-5 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

Each child that I teach is Jesus. Receiving is such a beautiful word. How humbling that I am given 25 students each September.  I must receive each and every one, no matter what difference.  What a beautiful opportunity. 

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

There is not one student in my class lacking gifts that our community needs. Each has a role to play.  No role is more important than another. Inclusion is essential, so that students with special needs can play their essential role.  Without them, we are an impoverished community. 

Good Night! =)

Week 7 Part 2- My adventures in Summer ELL

I am currently teaching a summer ELL program.  This is my first time teaching ELL, and so far it's been very enjoyable.  I have 14 lovely 15-17 year old Japanese students in my class. The interesting thing is that I have two students who obviously have some kind of learning issues.  One, I suspect is overall very low. Academically, he is quite low, and he also has some interesting mannerisms that make me wonder. My other students is probably on the Autism Spectrum.  When I asked their Japanese chaperones (the students' teachers) if any students in my class had any particular learning needs, they told me no.  When I asked specifically about these two students, they denied that they had any particular learning needs. I found this quite baffling!  After the second day of class, I asked our program director (who lived in Japan for many years as a teacher), what was the Japanese approach to students with disabilities.  She told me that they completely ignore the fact that any student is different than the rest.  In Japanese culture, you do not want to be different than the next, so any learning disability, or even physical disability is not talked about-ever!

 This experience has provided a little light on to a few experiences I have had in the past with immigrant families, who have not wanted to send their children through the processes of taking an Ed Psych assessment, although their children clearly needed it.  I am learning that the reality is that our view of special education, disabilities and learning challenges is cultural.  As a teacher, I will need to learn to be culturally sensitive to my families, while at the same time, advocating fully for my students.  

Week Seven Part 1- Learning from Others

Here are some of the points that I learned this week, while participating in my classmates' activities and reading their presentations: 

Down Syndrome:

•           More than one type of down syndrome
•       Each is affected differently by the condition
•     some children with Down's Syndrome can be very intelligent, and can even get post secondary education and jobs later in their lives.

Autism Spectrum:

• there are three types of autism that I have never encountered (that I know of):

1)      Rett Disorder

2)      Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

3)      Pervasive Developmental Disorder

•         Learned what is echolalia- repeating what others say, obsessively
•          There are many factors that cause autism
•        Students with Autism can have verbal language skills, then one day appear to have lost them all. Their language is never again fully returned.

Inclusion in PE

• 5 ways to adapt in PE:

1.   Movement Form

2.   Environment

3.   Equipment

4.   Rules

5.   Instruction

Hearing Impairments:

•           Out of 28 million people who are hearing impaired or deaf, only 1 million of them are children.  This means many people lose their hearing after childhood.
•          Hearing impairments causes delays in reading and spelling
•        Arrange classroom in the shape of a U

Parents’ Involvement:

•           Parents have become more involved in educating their child over time
•           Parents want to hear both successes and failures
•           Parent may be more concerned with opportunities for social interactions than academics.

Gifted and talented

•           Strong leadership skills is considered for the criteria… I didn't know that
•           Made me realized that of the six types that are identified, very few of these kids are having their needs met… overall they sound like an unhappy group, overall.

Ell and Disabilities

•           90% of students diagnosed with learning disabilities are also ell!!! 
•           Early literacy instructions focuses on print awareness, rather than vocabulary, that ell learners need.

Wk 6- July 14- Challenging my students while keeping anxiety at bay...

This week, I have been thinking a about a discussion I had in a small group about motivation.  I can't remember who started it, but basically the question had to do with helping students with disabilities to stay motivated in school.  The main thread of the discussion had to do with success.  When students with disabilities ( particularly learning disabilities) experience repeated failure, it can be incredibly difficult to undo the emotional and psychological damage caused by these failures.  The result is that the student will slowly disengage in school, believing that he or she is incapable of succeeding.   A long time ago, I remember reading in some psyche text book that it takes approximately 10 positive comments made to cancel out one negative one.  As humans, we are incredibly capable of criticising ourselves, and slow to believe the best about us.

How is this impacting my thinking about the classroom, you may ask?  Students with disabilities (or even just average-low) students can experience a lot of failure in school.  While I try as much a possible to adapt and modify, (when needed), my assignment for my students, I have often had a mindset when assessing their work, that they should be compared with the class.  In a way, I think I have been mentally marking on a curve, ie. comparing what they have done with the rest of the class.  I realize now that this is completely ineffective and unfair! If a child on an adapted or modified program has done what I have asked (fully) than they should be assessed as having fully met the standards of the assignment.  I should not feel 'guilty' about giving them an "A" on a project,  if they have clearly met the criteria, although it is not the same as the rest of the class. This mindset shift is going to help me with making sure that my students with disabilities experience success.  I believe that God does not treat each of us the same. He has given each of us particular gifts and talents.  It is not fair for me to compare the work of students that have a different number of gifts and talents in the same way.

Another thought that has been ruminating in my mind this week has to do with setting expectations for my students with special needs.  Over the past four years in teaching in a middle school, a number of people, particularly my Special Educational Coordinator and a number of SEAs have commented that I consistently have very high expectations for my students, as well as students with special needs. I believe that this is a strength that I have in teaching, but I also believe that it also can be a fault. While I have seen significant growth in many students with special needs, over the years, I have also seen that these high expectations sometimes cause anxiety and stress in my students. For example, this year, I had a student in my class diagnosed with ASD.  He also was a very anxious boy.  By the end of the year, he was so paralysed with fear and anxiety, that he was almost incapable of doing anything on his own, or  even making any decisions.  While I spent many nights beating myself up over this situation, and praying a whole lot, I also can't place all the blame on myself for his anxiety.  There were a number of different factors that contributed to his anxiety, but high scholastic expectations was probably part of it. The interesting thing was that he was an incredibly bright and creative boy- one of the top learners in my class.

This situation and others have made me realize that I haven't yet fully found the balance yet. I need to create an environment that challenges my students both academically, spiritually and physically, but is also relaxing, free from fear of criticism, positive and accepting.  I often find it very difficult to know how hard and how far to "push" my students with special needs.  My experience tells me that very often they are capable of far more than you would expect, but sometimes asking that of students has unintended side effects.  I know that there is no magic formula.  Each student is different, and it requires that I get to know each of my students individually to be able to sense where this line is.  So, I guess what I am saying in all of this rambling is that I need to pray regularly that the Lord would assist me in this with my class each year.   I need his wisdom to know and challenge appropriately, each of my students.

Week 5 Part 2- June 12 2014

I got up this morning at 4:30 AM, in order to drive and reach the famous "Chief" in Squamish for 6:45, so we could hike up before the mountain got to hot.  It was over 30 degrees Celsius today, which for the West Coast is very hot.  My boyfriend and I were loving the quiet hike, ( as everyone else were still snuggled in their beds).  I got to thinking about how alive he became when he is outdoors, exploring a new place, and experiencing a sense of adventure and exploration.  This got me thinking again about my reading last week on ADHD.  I am still amazed that 80% if students diagnosed with ADHD are boys.  This really doesn't sit well with me.  I've worked with a number of students diagnosed with ADHD, but only a few have been on medication for it.  It seems like more parents are deciding to go the natural route and look at diet and herbs, etc.  Recently though, I just heard about a mom with four kids.  Three of her four are diagnosed with ADHD and two are on medication. This really breaks my heart. I am left wondering if ADHD isn't more just a product of a very boring school system where all traces of adventure and exploration have been erased. If we had more kinaesthetic learning, and if students were able to create their own adventure by exploring what's interesting to them, what would happen? This leaves me to ponder about what I can do in my classroom to change this, (without a system overhaul or a nervous breakdown).

July 5, week 5 part 1

I had a amazing experience yesterday, one that I want to share while it's still fresh in my mind. While at the Portland Blues Festival, on July 4th, a group of musicians and singers called "United by Music," got up on the stage.  With them, where a number of other musicians and singers that I recognized from previous performances both this year and previous years.  The  group was introduced only by saying that they were musicians united by music.  The audience was asked, "Imagine a world where there was no discrimination, and everyone was united by music." Once these singers and musicians began to play, it quickly became obvious that each one had some type of disability.  There were a number of blind players, but also a number of singers with multiple disabilities. The main feature singer was a woman who was blind and also had other challenges that I am not sure of.  She was very short, making a number of people around me wonder if she was a child, (which she was not). When she started to sing, everyone was blown away.  She was the first person I saw at the festival that got so many people off their feet in a standing ovation when she was done.  Her song was absolutely beautiful, so much so, that it made me cry.  It was so beautiful to get to see her using her musical gifts, even if she didn't fit the image.  It was amazing to see the way in which the crowd reacted to this group of musicians. Everyone was very enthusiastic and supportive. At the end of the performances, they said that they are looking for more people with talent to join their group.  I wanted to join. Why am I sharing this story, you might wonder?  I am sharing it because it was a lightbulb moment for me. Like everyone, people with disabilities have God-given gifts and talents that need to be shared.  That's why God gives them to us- for sharing.  Inclusion in classrooms, is one way for children to share their gifts with us.  Whether disabled or not, we all have gifts.  How beautiful it is, to see them being used.

June 27^th,

Chapters 4 and 5 this week have been very helpful and practical.  Chapter 4 focuses on children with ADHD and chapter 5 is about students with intellectual disabilities.  These are two types of disabilities that I see in my classroom all the time, so the information is quite practical.  The biggest lightbulb moment I had with chapter 4, was when I read that students with ADHD often have very poor working memory.  This was very helpful to learn because in the past, I always thought that if I could just get that student to focus for just one moment, then they would be able to complete this triple-digit division problem, or that multi-step science question.  I see now that students with a low working memory, might not be able to do these types of tasks without some kind of adaptation. I had a student in my classroom this year who was the most distracted student I have ever met. He was diagnosed with ADHD previously, but was now being assessed for autism as well.  Through the psychological assessment, it came out that his working memory was in the 0.5 percentile range.  This explained a lot for me, why he couldn't focus on anything! He couldn't remember much that was said around him.   This situation has taught me that it is important for me to be active in helping my students with ADHD by realizing that without such accommodations such as using a calculator, working in a quieter room, having a written instruction list, breaking instructions down into steps, they might not succeed. 

As the text book suggests, there are many students with intellectual disabilities in my school.  I think, because we are a private school, a greater number of parents of children with special needs enrol, hoping for a more positive outcome for their children.  Consequently, I get the privilege of teaching many students with intellectual disabilities (more than the average percentage).  This past year there were three in my grade level. This year was also the first year that I worked with a child that has an intellectual disability and also behavioural challenges.  I wrote about it in one of my responses to the questions from chapter 6.  It was absolutely heartbreaking halfway through the year, when this child was asked not to return to the school.  Knowing the special challenges this child faced, (intellectual disability due to exposure to drugs and alcohol in uterus), and knowing the difficult home situation, the school had to make the decision to not accept back, this student, after an aggressive situation where the student physically assaulted someone.  This child needed the acceptance and love of the school community, more than any other child in the school, but the decision had to be made, to put the safety of the rest of the school before the needs of the child.  This was an incredibly difficult dilemma for the administration and the teachers involved.

 Looking back, I can pick out some strategies from the text that might have been helpful in this very difficult situation.  For one, it would have been nice to see if the “cool down pass,” helped him, (instead of just watching him get up and take off, whenever he felt like it), creating a “safe person,” in the school, might have been useful, and giving more opportunities for him to learn social skills in school might have helped him interact with his peers more appropriately.   One thing the school did right was try to get more “wrap-around” support from the child’s community.  Because the Mom was not allowing many people in the community to be involved in her son’s life, the school made a stipulation that this student could only return to the school if a social worker became involved, if he began seeing a behavioural therapist, and a number of other stipulations that have helped this student gain more support from his community.  The family is now working on these, to be able to bring the student back to our school in the future.

My reflection this week is about a student that taught me a lesson this year.  I am the student worship team leader at my school.  I get to lead a team of 11-13 year olds to lead workship for my school during chapel times. There is a boy in grade 8 who has Down’s that had been asking me for two year, if he could join the worship team and be a drummer.  This incredibly lovable boy, who brings joy wherever he goes, can’t hold a beat to save his life.  For two years I made some excuse why he couldn't join.  This past year, his mom (who happens to be a teacher in our high school) came to me an advocated for him to be on the team.  At first I was quite nervous.  I wasn't sure how it would go.  It was already quite a challenge to get all these young musicians to work together to make beautiful music (and beautiful is the operative word here...), so how was it going to be with the student on the team now.  Well, all my fears where for not.  Within a week or two of practising, I had figured out some percussion instruments that he could play.  While he still couldn't keep a beat, I know that his playing please the Lord, immensely.  I could see that he was using his God-given gifts to bless the Lord and others around him. What a joy!  He was a lot of fun to have on the team, and I am so glad that his Mom pushed for it.  My learning from all of this is that I can’t pre-judge a situation before I actually try it.  I had put this student into a box that he didn't belong in.  Thankfully, I had the opportunity to have my mind renewed and some boxes deleted.

            

June 20^th, 2014

            One of this week’s topics was on preparing a classroom and accommodating for students with visual impairments.  I found this fairly interesting, but also hard to take in, because I have not yet worked with a student with a visual impairment.  I found that the module had lots of great suggestions to teach a child with this type of disability.  I have not yet seen a TVI in a Canadian school, so I wonder how many there are, and at what rate are students with visual impairments included in Canadian schools. I wonder if most visually impaired students in my province go to a particular school for the blind.  I know there is one in my city.  I would be curious to see how many students with visual impairments are actually included here.

            As I read about inclusion, and am asked to examine my own attitude towards inclusion, I am finding that although I fundamentally agree with inclusion, I am also harboring amounts of anger towards inclusion in general.  I am a teacher in a private Christian school that receives a greater percentage of students with special needs than your average population.  Through inclusion, I have experienced great joys and successes through seeing my students grow and achieve, but the other side of the story is that it sometimes feels like many students with special needs take up the same amount of time as ten “regular” students.  With all the IEP review meetings, special report card writing, accommodations and modifications to learning material, and especially the amount of time it takes to communicated with your Special Educational Assistant, I often end up feeling frustrated and tired.  While I believe that these students deserve to be included in the classroom like all other students, my attitude demonstrates that I often feel begrudging towards have to do the extra work and effort it takes, to make their inclusion really successful. This does not feel good to admit.

            The instructions for this week’s journal state that I should write about inclusion from a biblical perspective.  We have yet to talk about a biblical perspective in this course.  I very much look forward to that, when we do.

            I guess my biggest take away so far is that fact that all students in the classroom benefit from changes made in the classroom to accommodate students with special needs. Good teaching practices for a student with a disability, will most likely be helpful to all students.  It is time to stop whining about the extra work for the few children, and remember that all will benefit. I am thinking, for example about my three autistic boys I had in my classroom this year.  None of them where capable of taking notes (of any kind). I would sometimes forget to photocopy notes for these three boys.  I need to remember that it will be beneficial for all my students to do these kinds of accommodations.  For example, I could give the photocopied notes to my ELL student, as well as the two students who were away that day.

Truthfully, I am feeling a little frustrated by this week’s topic.  Chapter two in the text concentrates fully on American Law to do with people with disabilities, especially pertaining to education.  While I fully understand the need to know about the legal processes, as a Canadian, it is difficult to see the usefulness and applicability of knowing these laws for my future career.  While I fully understand that I have chosen to take an American program, I wish that I could learn more about Canadian laws.  I tried to do a little research on my own, just using the internet as a resource, but quickly got bogged down.  I hope at some other point in this course I will have the time and ability to answer these questions about Canadian Laws that are still left unanswered.