Goodbye

Well it has come time to end my blog, for my Inclusive Education class has come to an end :( I definitely enjoyed this class and have realized that my future teaching career is going to definitely be full of challenges, and I know that I need to keep an open mind. As for inclusive education, I still don't know how I feel about it... But I think this normal... I hope!

Hope you enjoyed my blog!

Thank you.

Differntiating Assessment

Welcome Back!

So continuing with differentiation, this blog post is going to focus on the process and importance of differentiating assessment rather than just instruction. It is important to remember that the idea of differentiated instruction is rooted in assessment. It is crucial as a teacher to assess in different that are based on the different needs of the students. Clearly, assessment and instruction mutually support each other because the assessment gives us information about students, which shapes our planning and therefore shapes how we will go about instructing students, which will shape the way we assess our students, and I think it is quite clear of the cycle that already exists without much explanation. If you recall, there are 3 types of assessment; assessment as learning, assessment of learning, and assessment for learning. Assessment for learning is one of the important types because it is on going, and continually provides the teacher with information on where the students currently is in terms of their knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Fortunately, differentiated assessment is closely related to assessment for learning, and it is the first purpose of differing assessment, which allows teachers to constantly view how their students are doing in a non threatening way that doesn't contribute towards their final grade. This whole process of differentiating assessment also benefits the creation of students' IPPs, because you have a better idea of what helps the student to be successful, and thus it becomes much more simpler in creating the goals and objectives. The second purpose of differing assessment is to facilitate meta cognition, which is thinking about one's thinking. This is considered to be the highest form of thinking and as teachers we want students to become aware of their own strengths, and by developing awareness of their own thinking, they are more apt to do just this. There are 5 steps in planning for assessment, and they are as follows. Firstly, you need to determine the purpose, so what do we want the students to achieve? Secondly, you need to establish a focus, which means that you need to make the curriculum more meaningful for the student so that they will be more successful. Next, you need to select and use a strategy that will help you determine how your students are doing. So for example, have your student complete and exit card, or a journal entry so that you can easily assess their learning. Next, you need to record the results, and whether you decide to use them right away or not is your decision, but it is however important to ensure that you are recording the ongoing types of assessment. Finally, you need to interpret the results and take action, so you need to summarize what you learned about the student's learning and then you need to take action, which means that you will create a differentiated learning style for the student to help them be successful. However, as great as differentiated assessment is, it will not benefit you or your student if you do not manage it successfully. There are several points within this points to discuss, but I will write about a few that I feel are extremely important. Firstly, you need to have a knowledge of the curriculum, because if you do not truly understand the material that you are teaching, then it is very difficult to differentiate the curriculum for your students because you yourself don't even know the material that well. You also need to consider both the strengths and weaknesses of the students because it will help you in planning the instruction, since you will know what activities that student will be able to excel at, and what activities are too difficult. Lastly, you want to continuously push your students just a little but above their ability level of what they can do on their own. As teachers, we are here to support our students and push them as they grow, so ensuring that they are successful is our main priority, and this is something I have mentioned several times in my previous blog entries and is something that I truly believe in.

Thank You.

Differentiating Instruction

Hi There, and welcome back!

So in this entry we will be discussing differentiating instruction, which is a big area of inclusive education. It is essentially based on Tomlinson's elements of differentiation which is that "the teacher modifies content, process and product through students readiness, interests and learning profiles. To break this definition down a little more, it involves the teacher modifying what the student is learning, how the student will learn the information, and what the student will produce to show that he/she has learning. It also involves the student and where they currently are in terms of their knowledge, skills and attitudes, as well as what the student is curious and passionate about, and what type of learner they are. For example, the student could be a kinesthetic learner, and they learn through movement, and "hands on" activities. I think definition is very important when it comes time for the teacher to differentiate instruction, because it helps to break down the different components of learning, and helps one realize what the teacher is responsible for, and what type of individual the student is. It is crucial to consider the student and how he or she will be effected, because it definitely cause the differentiated instruction to be more or less successful. For example, if you are working with a student who is very passionate about dance and movement, and you try to teach them new information through the idea of reading and lecturing, then the chances are very high that the student is not going to benefit in any way, shape or form. This definition also suggests to me that the student and the teacher need to essentially have a relationship, so that the teacher is able to see how they changed in her instruction techniques are directly benefiting the student.

To conclude, differentiated instruction is something that is very important for teachers to do because it helps to provide students with success, which as I stated in my previous blog entry is important for all students to feel, and as a teacher this is your main priority. So yes, I think it is important to find a way to relate the content to your students in a way that is going to help them learn the best. Don't just teach in one way, and hope that all your students grasp the material.

Classroom Adaptations

Hi There,
I know it's been quite awhile since my last blog entry, I apologize! You will notice that the last few of my entries are all posted today, and this is due to the fact that I have been blogging on a word document from home, where I am still blessed with lovely dial up internet, so posting a blog would be an all day event! So I am taking the time now to transfer everything over to my Inclusive Education Blog, finally!

So, to start off I am going to discuss the incorporation of classroom adaptations, which is something that we have briefly touched on in the past, but today I will have the opportunity to go into a little more detail. This time however, these adaptations are focused on the level of the total class, rather than just the individuals. The two main principles behind adaptions at the level of the total class is to maximize student engagement, hence freeing up time for us teachers. If students are engaged in class, then clearly you're not only being a successful teacher by providing them with exciting lessons, which allow them to feel successful, but you also have more time to continue planning engaging lessons for your students. Personally I feel that this is most definitely a "win win" situation! One area that I feel is important to discuss is adaptive questioning, because as a teacher you're constantly questioning your students, so you should do it in a positive way. An example that Robert Lavoie presents in his videos is to have a secret code essentially with your students so that they know when you are about to question them, and they can be successful in answering the questions, and it is also a way to "show off" to their peers. The teacher might tell the student that he will never call upon him in class unless he is standing right in front of his desk, this way the student knows when the teachers is standing in front of his or her desk, that a question is about to be asked, and it is time to prepare a response. I agree with this method, and think it is a very good way to do it. Another way to prepare students is to say for example "Adam, I am going to just go put this on my desk and then I am going to ask you to summarize the steps of photosynthesis", this way the student can prepare his answer before actually being asked. I like that idea of adaptive questioning is all in regards to making the student feel successful and I think this is important in any classroom. Moving onto cooperative learning, which is an area that I'm quite passionate about. It is important that students are grouped in heterogenous groups so that their skills, interests, and communication skills vary. By doing this, it allows students to develop their personality more and become more confident. It is amazing how well students do when it comes time to "peer tutoring" and how much they enjoy teaching others what they know. So as a teacher, use this to your benefit! There are 5 components to cooperative learning, they are: positive interdependence, positive face to face interactions, interpersonall and small group interactions, individual accountability and finally critical reflection. Positive interdependence relates to the idea of an individual's success being dependent on the effort of the whole group together. The cooperative group is a single unit and all students in it need to see that they have something mutually invested in the project. Next, positive face to face interactions is important because it creates a sense of community within the classroom, and it reinforces the motivation to learn. Essentially, the students should enjoy working together and experience a sense of pride when working with others. Interpersonal and small group interactions is simply just having small groups of students working together to complete a common task. Individual accountability is based on the idea that each student needs to be responsible for a certain aspect of the group project, and should be able to see how their effort alone directly benefited the project. Finally, critical reflection is important because it allows students to reflect upon their learning and realize the "Good, Bad, and the Uglies" of working in a cooperative group, and how they can improve the situation in the future, if it felt unsuccessful. I feel that if all of these components of cooperative learning are met then, the students will enjoying this type of group work more, and experience more success in your classroom. I don't know about you, but I know this is my goal as a future teacher... I want all my students to be successful, no matter where their skill level or knowledge base is. I need to incorporate Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (or ZPD as the cool kids say) and scaffolding to ensure that my students needs are constantly met.

Thank you, there is more to come!

Creating Goals

Hi there and welcome back!

Today’s blog entry is a little bit different from the rest because rather than focusing on the implementation of inclusive education, it will focus on the creation of effective goals for your students, especially when it comes time to create IPPS. The first thing to keep in mind about goals is that a ‘goal’ is more general and includes numerous ‘objectives’ which are essentially steps that teachers will use to achieve the “big” goal. Each goal usually contains three objectives that each have differing time lines. When writing goals there are five typical areas of focus, these areas are: self help skills, pro social skills, communication skills, academic skills, and work habits. When creating goals, it helps to consider any of these areas because it allows you as a teacher to create a goal that is going to significantly benefit the student. For example, if a teacher was interested in creating a goal about a student of hers who is consistently off task, and moving around the classroom when he should be working, then you would create a goal that focuses on his work habits. When writing goals it is important to ensure that they are "SMART". This means that they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time sensitive. If a goal does not include all of these elements it makes it slightly more difficult to achieve because there is some ambiguity involved. SMART goals should most definitely be included in an IPP, so that the student can work towards a specific goal, and as a teacher it will be easy to assess whether of not the goal is being achieved. By now you are probably asking yourself, "how does one go about making a goal or objective measurable?" Well, this is a common question, and the answer is to ensure that the goals include elements of "ACT How". This simply means that the goal includes an action, context, terms, and of course how. So 'action' refers to what you are going to have the student do, 'context' refers to when and where the student will perform the action, 'terms' are the criteria for the successful achievement of the goal, and finally 'how' suggests the type of assessment tool that will be used to ensure this goal is being met. An example of a goal that meets the "ACT How" requirements is as follows; "By November 30th, student will be able to correctly cursive write the alphabet in her Language Arts journal during class time by her self and achieve an accuracy of 100%.

Unfortunately my entry has already come to end, however I hope that you are more confident now when it comes time to create goals, and essentially implement them in your future IPPs.

The Use of Accomodations

Hello Again,

So quite awhile ago, before my observation week for my upcoming IPT, and even before our midterm we discussed the implementation of accommodations. Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to blog about it yet, hence why it's a little late. My apologies.

Firstly, it is important to note that an accommodation is defined as a change or alteration in the regular way a student is expected to learn, complete assignments or participate in the classroom. It is NOT a modification, because the curriculum is not being changed at all and the student is still learning the same curriculum as the rest of the class, but in a different, more suitable way. There are three types of accommodations, they are: environmental, instructional, and assessment. Environmental accommodations are the things we do to the physical space of the classroom or the implementation of adaptive devices. This could include changes such as giving the student a different chair to sit in at their desk, or if they have poor vision, you let them have a laptop on their desk to view everything you write on the board up close. Instructional accommodations are the kinds of activities you do, so this means you might have someone take notes for the student because it may take them longer to process the information if they were to write it themselves. As a teacher, you may also adjust the readings for the student, meaning you could assign them simpler/less readings but ensuring that they are still meeting the curriculum requirements. Lastly, assessment accommodations occur when you let a student write an exam in a quiet place away from other students, and possibly implement an oral examination for the student or simply increase the time available for the student to write the exam. All three of these accommodations are crucial to consider when working with a students who have disabilities because it may be the most simple adjustment that makes their day at school that much more possible for them. I think it's important that teachers understand the importance of giving the student an opportunity to succeed at the same level of his or her peers and learning the same information. As soon as you "think less" of a child, they will essentially behave in the manner. If you create high expectations for a child, they will work harder to impress you! As I have stated in a previous blog entry before, Rick Lavoie taught me that fairness is providing students with what they NEED, not what everyone else in the class receives. This makes complete sense, because how is it fair to treat a student the same as the rest of your class, who IS NOT the same, and requires extra assistance to succeed. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to ensure that all your students have an opportunity to be successful, and implementing classroom accommodations is a great starting point. However, there are five barriers that are frequently encountered when incorporating these accommodations in you classroom. Firstly, the misunderstanding of purpose which means that accommodations should not provide that student with an advantage over his or her peers, they are only reasonable changes to help the student succeed... not to give the student an "easy A". Secondly, teachers sometimes tend to select accommodations that are not appropriate for the student. It is important to make sure that the accommodations selected for the student are authentically aligned with their areas of strengths and needs. Thirdly, teachers sometimes do not include the student in the accommodation decision making. It is crucial that students are involved with these decisions so that they become more aware of what helps them to learn and what does not. Fourthly, teachers tend to use accommodations inconsistently, since the student and all other teachers should essentially be able to access the accommodation at all times. And finally, the overuse of accommodations which means that teachers sometimes use them so much that they begin to water down the curriculum, which leads to a modification instead. Keeping all of these barriers in mind, it is easy to understand how easily an accommodation can turn into a modification, and how this can actually harm the students learning rather than benefit it. So, there are three strategies that can be use to support the effective use of accommodations. These include; basing the decisions of the accommodations on the individual's strengths and needs, using a collaborative process with both the students and parents, and using the accommodations consistently and not just in your classroom. If a teacher keeps all three of these strategies in mind, then the accommodation will definitely continue to benefit the student. The funny thing is... the implementation of accommodations seems so easy, but I think that is the major problem with teachers today, they implement these accommodations incorrectly, and once something is done in the the wrong way, it is almost impossible to fix it.

Next we discussed strategy instruction in the classroom. It is the most common kind of intervention used, because it essentially teaches the students strategies to help them learn, and will eventually lead them to coming up with their own strategies that support their learning in the best way. Simply stated, strategies are things that students do to be successful. There are two basic goals of strategies in your classroom. These are, getting the student active in the learning process, and getting the student to working towards meta cognition (self awareness of ones own thinking). It is important that students make the strategy their own, because once they experience success with a strategy, they will continue to use it. This idea reminds me of the success cycles that we discussed in my introduction to education classes last year. When a student starts to be successful with something, they will obviously enjoy that feeling, and continually do whatever they did to become successful in the first place. One strategy that we discussed was the SQ4R which is a reading comprehension strategy that is commonly used by students. It stands for survey, question, read, recite, relate, and review. The reason this strategy works so well with students is because they are implementing pre-reading, reading and post-reading techniques to ensure they properly understand the reading and what is being asked.

To end this class, we finished watching the Rick Lavoie movie. This part of the movie talked about kids with learning disabilities and how they don't understand social obligations or contacts, or simple social cues. We take this skill for granted because it is second nature to us (us, referring to those who live without learning disabilities). For example, we know that it is rude to talk during a presentation, or to budge in front of other people in a line up, but kids with learning disabilities do not understand this... and become angry and upset when you become angry towards them for not following the "rules". I think this is something that everyone in our society needs to know because many people judge those people who do not follow the basic social contracts of our society. These people are looked at as being bad, selfish, or uncooperative... but they really just don't know or understand why society is ran in the way it is. Lavoie also states that kids with disabilities face two limits, these are connectic melodies, and para-linguistics. Connetic melodies refers to the fact that we have done things so many times that they have become second nature to us, but this is not the case for kids with disabilities, each time they do something that have to actually take the time to think about what they are doing in a chronological order. Para-linguistcs refers to the idea of not being able to understand how body language can change the message. This means that kids with disabilities cannot tell when you are being sarcastic, because they are unable to connect your actions with your words. This is why you should never be sarcastic with these kids, because it will do more harm than good.

Anyways, I think it is about time to conclude my blog entry. I hope you enjoyed and understand more about the usage of accommodations and learning strategies in your classroom. Thanks Again!

It's Been A While!

Hi There,

Sorry it has been quite awhile since my last post on my blog. I have been quite busy with my observation week for my upcoming Introductory Professional Term beginning November 15th. It was very exciting be in the school, and although I am not able to really talk about anything that specifically happened due to FOIP issues, I just wanted to comment on the fact that I was able to witness almost everything we have already discussed in the class in just 4 days. I found it very cool to apply what we have been learning and view it in the real world. It made me realize how important classes such as this one is, and actually inspired me to become more confident in working with kids with disabilities so I will be more competent and confident in the future.

Thank You.

The IPP Process Continued

Welcome Back!

In this blog entry I am going to finish the discussion the I started the other day about the creation of an Individualized Program Plan. It is important to understand that when a IPP is created, it's not something that is created in a couple hours. In fact it actually takes several weeks, maybe even months to properly prepare one in which the student will be most benefited by the program you and your team have created. In yesterday's class we began to discuss the usage of basic classroom assessment techniques in this process, and I feel it is an essential topic to discuss.

Firstly, it is important to note that assessment tools are more so research instruments than anything else. They are tools that help teachers discover how well their students have learned the material over the year, and what changes the teacher could make and benefit from. One example of a simple assessment tool that a teacher could use to evaluate a student's social skills is the "Getting Along With Others Inventory", which is a tool that we actually had the opportunity to complete in class. It essentially generates data for teachers about how a child thinks about their social skills and compares it to their actual social skills that are observed by the teacher on a daily basis. This inventory acts as a self reflection for the student, which is also known as "Assessment as Learning". If you recall, there are three different forms of assessment, the other two are "Assessment for Learning"(on going assessment) and "Assessment of Learning" (a cumulative exam). You may now be asking yourself why teachers feel it is necessary to collect classroom assessments rather than just relying on the specialized assessment data that is collected by a psychologist for the creation of the IPP. Well, teachers feel it is necessary to collect supplementary information because it helps to confirm that the IPP team has indeed created a successful program for the student to follow. Another reason is that the specialized data may simply be out of date, and does not really look at how the student functions within the classroom. For instance, the student may be much more successful at writing an exam during class time rather than in the presence of a psychologist. No, I am not saying that this is usually the case, in fact it is very rarely the case - but it is however important to reflect upon the assessment strategies used and ensure that they are representing the student in the best possible way. One assessment strategy that is most commonly used in this situation is classroom observation. This way, it is possible to see how the student interacts with the other students and classroom material on a daily basis. It is however important to note that a classroom observation doesn't just occur over a few days, it should actually be conducted over several months, of even an entire school year if possible. This way, you be as objective as possible, and be confident when determining the student's barriers to learning, as well as any strengths that the student may demonstrate throughout the year. It is almost important to use ecological assessment when observing the student because it gather information across environments to check for environmental influences. For example, there may very well be another kid that is setting "your" particular student off and causing him to act out in class, and be very unproductive in managing class time. If this is the case, it is very simple to remove that student from that particular environment and assess how he does away from that student, or classroom. Now there are four types of methods that are used for observational methods, these include anecdotal records, event recording, duration reporting, and rating scales. Anecdotal records are when the student does something, either good or bad, you write it down. For example, "Sally got out of her desk after I told her to stay seated in her desk, and sat on the ground and then looked at me for my reaction". Next, event recording is when you are focused on a particular behaviour that the student exerts, so every time he/she displays that particular behaviour you will put a check mark next to it, in essentially a chart format. For example, Amanda Wright from our EDPY class gave a funny example from when she was an EA back in the day, and she was working with one student who had a problem with picking her nose. So every time she picked her nose, Amanda would have to put a check mark next to that behaviour. Next, duration reporting is when you record how long a behaviour happened for. So, back to Amanda's example, she would put a check mark and then write how long the little girl picked her nose for. (Oh wow, what a funny situation!) Finally, the use of a rating scale looks at the extent to which the behaviour is occurring and how bad it is. My personal example of this is from when I was volunteering at Mattie McCullough School last year (still a volunteer there presently) and there was a grade 5 student with aspergers disorder. His teacher would record his behaviour every 15 minutes, and then record how badly the behaviour was occurring and rate it in comparison to previous episodes from the day so far. Overall, when observing any type of behaviour is important to ask yourself, how often does it happen, is it random or is there a pattern, and is the behaviour intense enough to interfere with the learning tasks at hand.

To conclude, I think it is important to understand how important other types of classroom assessment really are in the creation of an IPP because it will help to create a program that is most helpful for the student. I also think it is important to observe the student in many different ways, over a long period of time, so that your IPP team is not creating an entire program centered around one random behaviour, that may or may not be displayed again.

Thanks Again.

Video: Rick Lavoie

I figured I would also post a short clip that I found on You Tube of Rick Lavoie talking on "The Today Show", he briefly discusses some of his beliefs that he discusses in the FAT city movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JsG7GJfvJI

Thank You

FAT City Movie, Continued

Hi There (again),

In today's class we continued to watch more of the Rick Lavoie's FAT City movie that I discussed in my last blog entry. He brought forth some very interesting points, and I feel they are important enough to discuss on their own. For this reason, this blog entry will focus on the video, and then I will return to the discussion of IPPs in the next entry.

So once again, I learned some new information from the film, which was then followed by a pretty fulfilling class discussion, and it was interesting to hear everyone else's thoughts. One of the things that Lavoie mentioned several times in this portion of the film was based on the idea of "kids seeking attention". I've grown up in a society that has taught me that when kids are pouting, acting out, crying or displaying some other unusual emotion, that they are just doing it for attention, and to just ignore the child/person. Well Rick Lavoie says... "If they are asking for attention, that you better give them some attention!" This actually makes complete sense, especially for teachers... why would we ever deny the students of something that they need?? However, this made for an interesting discussion in class because we realized that yes, it is in fact important to give the student attention, but at the same time you don't want to give the student attention as an "award" for misbehaving in class, because all that will do is teach the child that if he/she misbehaves, then they will get the attention that they need. So it is crucial that you see and understand that the child needs attention, and it is also important you give them that attention they are seeking, but you need to ensure that it is at an appropriate time so that the child doesn't actually develop a bad attitude. So yes, this all makes sense, for quite obvious reasons...however I am just a little unsure about when exactly that 'right time' is! I'm assuming as I gain experience in the education world, that it will become an instinct - but then I get concerned because I know that their are obviously teachers still out there who are either rewarding this bad behaviour or ignoring it all together because they were taught the same thing I was! Next, Lavoie discussed the idea of schools and how they are dealing with their students who have learning disabilities. Many schools are providing the accommodations that the students need, but they are not going out of their way to help the student work towards improving their specific disability. What is actually happening is that schools are for example putting books on tape for kids that have a learning disability and cannot read, which is helping them out because they can still learn the necessary information, but the school has not took the time to realize that the student still cannot read. So schools need to provide those accommodations, but still be prepared to help the student out. So in this example, the school needs to actually ensure that yes, the student has access to the book on tape, but that maybe an educational assistant is working with the student on a daily basis, so that his reading ability begins to improve. This whole situation relates to the term, compensatory education because the problem still exists but the school is simply just covering it up to make it less obvious. Lavoie then went on to discuss "Difference of Diagnosis", which means that people can have the same symptoms but be suffering from something completely different. Doctors are able to look at two people with similar symptoms and understand that they may have different problems, however teachers are horrible at grouping students and labeling them. For example, if 5 kids have their heads laying on the desk, a typical teacher simply believes that they are all just being lazy! However, this may or may not be the case. 1 of those 5 kids could be being lazy, but the other 4 may be suffering from learning disabilities and cannot concentrate in your classroom because you have not provided them with any accommodations to help them succeed. When reflecting back to my childhood, this definitely makes sense, because I remember the teacher always having the attitude that those students were just being lazy, but I now know different, and I really hope that if those teachers are still teaching then they know about this term, difference of diagnosis. This then leads right into the next thing that Lavoie mentioned, which was in regards to teachers following the belief that all students need to be treated fair, and this means that all students receive the same attention. However, Lavoie states that "there is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of individuals", which makes complete sense and also relates back to what I discussed in the beginning of this blog post. As a teacher it is your job to make sure that ALL of you students are being successful, so if you are providing them with all the same materials and attention, how does the kids that actually do require more attention benefit at all? If those students require more assistance... shouldn't they be granted more help!? Definitely some thought provoking questions for sure! The last two things that Lavoie mentioned in this part of the film deals with 'disabled kids' and their inability to visualize specific things, and finally kids with Attention Deficit Disorder. So until today, I didn't know that kids with disabilities are unable to visualize certain things. For example, when I'm cleaning my car, I am able to visualize what my car looks like clean, so I will continue to clean until my car matches the car in my visualization. However kids with disabilities are not able to picture that clean car, clean room, or an event that happened in the past, and this is why they struggle so much in retracing their steps. Lastly kids with ADD seem to act out a lot in class, and Lavoie taught me today that this is because these kids need to be constantly stimulated, and when they are not... they act out so that they can become re-stimulated! Ah, yes makes perfect sense now! So all my questions about kids and learning disabilities have been answered now, and I know everything there is to know now! Right!?.... Ah, not even close - Now I just a million more questions buzzing around in my head because, with all this new information I now feel even more uneasy about inclusive education. Well, good thing I still have quite a few more classes left :)

Fortunately, Rob did provide us with two good hints to use with these students to help them focus better in class. So when these are reading, it is important that they stop after each paragraph and essentially summarize what has happened so far since they struggle to comprehend large amounts of information and they put all their effort into reading the words, rather than actually understanding what they are reading. Secondly, it's a good idea to provide kids, especially those kids with ADD, something to play with on their desk like a plastic slinky or something. This way, they stay stimulated, and find it easier to focus, and they don't feel it necessary to distract the students around them. Two hints that I feel well benefit me huge in my future career (yay!), thanks Rob!

And this also concludes this blog entry, I hope you enjoyed.

The Individual Progress Plan

Hi Again,
So this week we are discussing the whole idea behind the Individual Progress Plan (IPP); what they essentially are, why we use them, and how to go about creating one. Our group project that we are in the middle of right now for this particular class is actually based around this topic, and we are working on the creation of an IPP for a specific case study. There has been much debate about IPPs recently, and whether or not they are appropriate to use in the classroom. Currently, the students who are 'coded' and involved in a special education program have an IPP, but there is definitely talk about the idea of every student in the classroom having an IPP, and this is something that I briefly mentioned in my previous post. The latter part of this statement is something I am a little unsure about, and something I personally believe is not really necessary. The creation of one IPP is strenuous enough, I cannot imagine creating 30... with 25 of them not even referring to a specific special education program! In this particular blog post I am going to discuss and reflect upon our classroom material from yesterday, and within the next few days, I plan to post another entry that is in regards to the textbook, which will act as supplementary material.

Anyways, we spent yesterday class as I mentioned talking about the creation of an IPP, and essentially broke up the IPP, and discussed all the parts of the document, which is clearly important to be comfortable with, so that we are competent when we are to make them in the future. According to our textbook, "an IPP is a written plan, developed for a student, which describes the program modifications and adaptations for the student and any services that are to be provided" to help the student succeed. An IPP includes 12 separate sections that are all very specific and relate to the child through assessment procedures that have been completed, to strengths and weaknesses that he/she displays in class, to classroom accommodations that are to be made, and of course the goals that the IPP team would like to see the student achieve in the upcoming school year. I guess you could say that the IPP is essentially a recipe of how the teachers and support staff will help the student to achieve. We reviewed SMART goals and ACT HOW objectives for the purpose of your long term planning in an IPP, and I felt that this was important since it refreshed the whole idea of goal setting in our minds, and made the idea of goal setting a little less abstract. It makes sense that goals need to be so specific in a report such as this, because your goals essentially provide you with the details you need to provide specific accommodations for the student, and to go about creating this individualized program for the student so that he/she is able to succeed in your classroom. I do actually have one section on the IPP that I consider to be my "favorite" I guess you could say, and this is the Planning for Transition section. I like the fact that the IPP team is actually concerned about the student's move to the next school, and feel it is important to create a plan on how they will go about making that student more comfortable at the new school. This shows that they are not only worried about the student's current progress, but also the progress that he/she makes in the future, which will demonstrates the whole "caring characteristic" of a teacher. I also like the fact that IPPs keep track of any progress that the student has made over the year because it keeps the report relevant, so that the student's teacher next year can look over the IPP and know exactly what was done, and what helped the student to succeed and where the student is currently sitting in comparison to where he/she was last September. Finally, the informed parent consent section is actually quite important, because it reminds us how essential it is that parents are involved in their child's education. Parents need to by law agree to the IPP that is created, but a responsible parent should actually also become involved with the program, and agree to help their son/daughter along the way, so that the teacher's hard work is actually paying off. This made me think about all the parents in our society who are not involved in their child's education, and how important it truly is. For example, last year I was working with a 10 year old boy name Jeremy who was a code 54 (simple learning disability) and was performing at about a grade 3 math level (probably even less), and it frustrated me that his parents refused to become involved, and essentially left all the work to the teacher. It was clear that Jeremy needed to be working on his math questions at home, and sitting down with his mom or dad for even an hour a night, and reviewing important concepts, but it was clear that this wasn't happening, and it just become very frustrating because it seemed like our progress never really stuck. Unfortunately, this may be something that I have to get used to as a future teacher!!

Next we viewed a film called "Beyond FAT City: A Look Back, A Look Ahead" which is a 'sequel' of the popular movie, FAT City that Richard Lavoie released in 1989, and has since been a huge success in the education world. We watched the original film last year in our EDPY class, so I'm finding it quite interesting to view this film, and be reminded of Rick Lavoie's beliefs, and how true and down to earth they really are. FAT stands for Frustration, Anger and Tension, which are the emotions that students with disabilities face on a daily basis. Rick Lavoie is a brilliant man who has developed a set of beliefs essentially that a teacher should use when working with kids who have disabilities. The whole idea behind these films are to help teachers to develop sensitivity when dealing with kids who have disabilities. Rick Lavoie does not believe in showing teachers how to deal with these kids, he simply wants teachers to understand that these kids are just amazing as the rest of the kids in your class, and they deserve your attention! One of the important lessons I learned from his film thus far (haven't finished it yet) is that it is important to never tell that student you know what they are going through! Feel free to tell the student that you are there to help them in anyway that you can, but never tell them that you know how they feel, because you don't, and never will! He also pointed out that as teachers we have to remember that we like school!! If we didn't like school, we wouldn't have become teachers, and we wouldn't have done good in school, and so with this in mind it is important to remember that school is something that us teachers have never dreaded, and that we cannot treat these students with this in mind, because school is the last place they wanna be! Lavoie also pointed out the kids would rather look bad than dumb to their classmates, and this makes complete sense when it comes to the who dilemma of kids acting out in class. It's because teachers pick on them, make them feel uncomfortable and embarrass them in front of their peers, and they don't want to be judged by their classmates. This is why when a teacher calls a specific student (who has a learning disability) to the front to essentially embarrass them, they will probably hit a student on the way up to the front. This way, he/she will get in trouble for hitting the kid, be looked at as bad, and the teacher will not make the student "perform" in front of the class. After this was mentioned in the film, it made complete sense because I then reflected upon my childhood, and remembered all the kids that acted out in class, and this was probably the reason, 90% of the time! After we finished the first part of the video Rob asked us to to reflect upon Rick Lavoie's beliefs and how we would use them in our own classroom. I think the biggest one for me is the idea of being a compassionate teacher, and being their for the student in anyway that you can, and avoiding any possibility of embarrassing the student because that is just going to make the situation worse. I also think it is important to get to know the student (with disabilities) and make sure he/she feels comfortable in your presence and that you two have an understanding amongst each other. For example, come up with an agreement with the student that you will never ask him/her a question in front of the class unless they volunteer themselves and raise their hand. I think if the teacher has understanding with the student, then the class is going to run much smoother, and the students with disabilities may actually enjoy being there!

I hope you enjoyed this entry, and I will be posting a few more in the next couple of days that are related to this topic.

Thank You

Service Delivery Models

The next topic we have discussed in class is related to the idea of delivering special education to your students. There are several different methods, that all have their place in the education system, but some are more popular than others, and I feel it is important to discuss this different options.

Firstly you have your traditional special education classrooms, which are those specialized classrooms within a school where the students with learning disabilities are placed all day long. This classroom has a very highly structured environment, and surrounds the idea of operant conditioning. This means that when the student acts in a desirable way, he/she receives a reward and when he/she acts in an undesirable way, then the student will receive a punishment or consequence. The whole idea behind this program is so that the students not only learn their required program of studies but they also learn how to manage their behavior, and make appropriate decisions. Some other advantages of this program are that the teacher is trained in delivering special education, which is very beneficial, because most teachers are generalists (like me) and don't have any experience with special education rather than the minimal requirements taken in university for our degree. Because of their training, these teachers are able to use a variety of instructional methods and different motivational strategies which they learned in school, and have a much better chance at getting those students with disabilities to get the required work done. Now, you look at a teacher like me (well the one I will be in two years) and I have no experience in this area, and although I will be very confident in dealing with the "regular students", I know that when it comes time to deal with the children who have learning disabilities... Unfortunately, I will not be very confident. In our textbook it says that some students report feeling safer and more comfortable in a contained setting, as well as believing that this type of program emphasizes their skills, confidence, and self esteem. I would definitely have to agree with this! I personally can't imagine being a child with a learning disability and being put into a regular classroom, and I think that the student is also able to receive much more assistance when in the special education classroom, since it is a one-on-one approach. But then... after looking at the disadvantages of this type of program, it actually makes sense why they are trying to avoid this type of an isolated special education classroom. So, it is quite evident that I am still on the fence regarding this whole argument! Some of the disadvantages of this type of program that really stick out in my mind are that the students in most cases are completely isolated from the other students. In some schools, it's even as severe as the special education students arriving and leaving the school at a different time, having different breaks, and a different lunch break from the regular students. This causes these students to have no other role models to look up to either than their teacher and they are unable to form relationships with "regular students" even if they wanted to because they are kept in isolation. Because of this, they do not have access to any spoken languages and social models outside of their classroom and really lack a sense of "belonging" to the school or even the community.

This is why most schools have recently moved from these isolated special education classrooms to the "resource room", or "withdrawal models". This has probably been the most popular method since the 80s. This is the type of program which allows the student with disabilities to still be part of the regular classroom, but then is pulled out of class to receive extra assistance with the classes that are causing them the most difficulty. I think it is clear that this program would be favored over the previous one because the students are still able to interact with the "regular students", and because of this, they have other role models to look up to. It also allows teachers to collaborate with each other and view the student in different environments and understand where he/she excels the most, and with what types of materials. This allows you to essentially customize your instruction for that particular student better. The problems with this model is that it can disrupt the classroom's daily routine. Not only does it disrupt the student with disabilities because suddenly the student is pulled out of class, and he/she may really be enjoying what they are doing in the regular classroom. It disrupts the teacher's routine because the teacher has to essentially plan their days around that particular student so that he/she doesn't miss out on any crucial material. However, no matter how well planned the teacher is, the student will probably still be late in returning back to the regular class, or miss important information well he/she is gone. Lastly, it interrupts the rest of the students in the class, because suddenly, one of their friends is gone! It is important for the teacher to plan the "pull out" in a way that the student is not stigmatized, since the rest of the class clearly notices when the student leaves. I remember being in elementary school, and my school handled it quite well, and now that I'm older and have reflected upon it, they did it in quite a brilliant way. I don't remember exactly how they had the students leave the class, but I do remember discussing with all my friends that we thought they had to have been very intelligent, because they get to leave during important classes, and usually came back with suckers! I remember being quite jealous of those two girls... But essentially, it is important that schools are operating the withdrawal system in this manner, so that students are not viewed at as "different" in a cruel way. But overall, I think this method is quite beneficial for students with disabilities because they are still able to live a "normal childhood".

The last service delivery model is of course the inclusive classroom. This model is most preferred right now because the students become a member of the classroom, of the school, and of the community. However, as I have discussed several times already in my blog, many teachers feel unpreparred for inclusive education, and are uneasy about the idea of delivering the same curriculum to what could possibly be a classroom with a huge variety of students all sitting at different levels. Currently, teachers are using documents called IPPs (Individuals Program Plans), which help to create an individualized approach of teaching the student with a disability. This document is great because it helps you keep track of the student's progress, as well as your progress with the student. However, teachers are finding that they are having to create more and more IPPs in their classrooms, and many feel that it is a timely process, especially when you include all the meetings and testings that also have to take place. Now... there is talk about a new program being implemented along with this whole inclusive education movement in which teachers will have to create IPPs for every single one of their students in their class.... One word comes to mind - AHHHH!

Upon skimming through the textbook, I came across some other material that I found to be very interesting, and I figured that it would be appropriate to discuss it in this blog entry as well. It was talking about disabilities anD how conventions of language have changed, and what are considered to be acceptable. Firstly, it is important to name the people first. This means that instead of referring to the student as a disabled child, it is important to refer to him/her as a child with disabilities. This puts emphasis on the child rather than on the disability. Secondly, it mentioned the importance of taking shifts in social meanings of terms in account. This means that in the past it was okay to refer to people with hearing difficulties as "deaf", but with more research being done in this area, it is clear that these people experience different "ranges of sound" so it is more appropriate to call these people "hearing impaired", since their disability is somewhat difficult to "pinpoint". The text also talked about the importance of avoiding derogatory terms, and although our elders may call people living with disabilities, "retards", this does not mean it is okay for us to do the same. Yes, these terms once did have meaning, but it is important to realize that they have now become insults, and have the ability to hurt these groups of people badly.

But yes in conclusion, I think it is quite evident that there is still a lot of uneasiness about inclusive education, and I am quite excited to learn more about it in the upcoming years. As of right now, I am still not completely convinced with this whole inclusive education "thing"... even though it is the more appropriate way to deliver instruction, and does have several benefits. I'm sure my opinion on it will change after learning more about it.... well I at least I hope so... because it's looking like I'm stuck with it! Oh Oh!

Hope you enjoyed, and there will be more to come.

Disabilites - Attitudes and Beliefs and Who is Responsible?

Well hello again! Okay, so I promise that this time, and for the rest of my posts, I am going to actually accomplish something and discuss the class material from my Inclusive Education Class.

So as I briefly mentioned on my previous post, everyone is considered to be responsible for helping kids with disabilities because everything and everyone is so interconnected in the education system, that something like this is simply unavoidable! This I definitely believe... it's just a matter of getting everyone to actually come together and benefit these children. Inclusive Education has been something that has been in the back of people's minds for quite a while now because it really is the right thing to do. In class we discussed the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education which was created by UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1994, which actually provides some good reasoning behind this whole fight for inclusive education! I definitely agree with several of the points in this statement. For one, inclusive education will reduce discrimination not only in our classrooms, but in our societies as well and create communities that are all around more welcoming. This I think is one of the most important reasons, because this past summer I have realized how unwelcoming our society really is after traveling to Kenya and interacting with the people there. This statement also suggests that inclusive education provides an "effective and efficient education to the majority of students", which is definitely important, because all students have a right to receive a good education, according to the Canadian Charter of Rights. So why are we denying our students of that?... The statement also says that it is cost effective, which is great and everything, but probably the only point that I struggle with because I don't really understand why the education of our children, our future leaders has to be "Cost Effective"! Anyways, I could get into another long rant about that, but I won't because I will probably begin to contradict myself!... So, Moving on!

We also discussed some attitudes and beliefs that exist about disabilities which was something that I found to be very interesting because it basically places teachers on a "Bipolar Continuum" and has teachers on one end with a pathognomonic perspective, and on the other end with a interventionist perspective. Essentially the pathognomonic perspective is one that surrounds the idea of labeling the students or the pathology of the student. These teachers believe that their disability is a disease that is an internal stable trait within the child, and that the child and this "disease" are inseparable. These teacher's usually want nothing to do with the child, and feel that "fixing the child" is someone's responsibility aside from their own. Then you have the interventionist perspective which is definitely the more caring side of the continuum and one that I plan to hold as a teacher. These teachers believe that it is their responsibility to remove barriers and provide accommodations for the student so that they can help the student achieve. This perspective looks at the idea of the child's disability being created in part by their social conditions. I definitely agree with this because, in my experience, kids with disabilities have better moments than others. This means that their condition worsens or improves depending on their surrounding environment. In remember being in grade 5 and there was an autistic boy in my class. When I would see him at school with his EA, his condition seemed very very severe, he was constantly acting out in class, so I assumed he was like that at home as well. But then I remember seeing him with his family outside of school one day, and he was a completely different person, so much so that it didn't even feel like the same boy! That is when I learned that a person's environment is definitely influential on the type of person you are... and I think this definitely applies to this perspective. Another belief system that is often talked about when discussing disabilities is the idea of 'Nativist vs. Nurturist' or more commonly referred to as 'Nature vs. Nurture'. This looks at the idea of an individual being born with a specific ability that is genetically predetermined, and there is nothing you can do to change this. As you can see this belief is closely related to the pathognomonic perspective. Where as the nuturist belief looks at an individual developing abilities based on his/her environment, which is closely related with the interventionist perspective. I think this whole debate on 'Nature vs. Nurture' is quite interesting because many people feel very strongly about their particular belief, and it in turn shapes the kind of lifestyle they live when in a position that requires them to be a leader. I think it is quite evident that a person's beliefs definitely influences how they teach their students. However, it is also important to note that people don't really know how they are going to truly behave or what they are going to truly believe until they are put into the situation first hand. So, I guess we will wait and see!!

We ended our class with a discussion about inclusive education as a whole, and it became clear to me that I am not the only person who is nervous about implementing inclusion in the classroom. I think it is a scary thing for new teachers to comprehend - and it relaxed me to know that I'm not the only one having these doubts. So, I know that as my studies continue, I will begin to feel more and more confident... but for now, I just have to be a "sponge" and soak up all the information that I can!

First Class!

So - this is my very first blog entry for my Inclusive Education class, how exciting!
We have only had two classes so far, but I think it is going to be a very interesting class, probably with several debates on a daily basis as well! I can already tell that I am going to enjoy this class, and it is going to be very beneficial to my future teaching career because I will be able to implement an inclusive environment much more comfortably in my classroom.

During Tuesday's class we discussed several topics, some of which included disabilities and who is responsible for them, as well as attitudes and beliefs about disabilities. We learned that technically everyone is responsible for kids who are living with disabilities. This point makes sense because everyone and everything is so interconnected within the education system that it really is everyone's responsibility to make sure that the student is being as successful as possible. But, the question is... are we all doing the best we can? Are the students actually receiving all the assistance they need?

See the problem that is happening right now is that teachers are still not 110% percent comfortable with this whole "Inclusive Education Thing", and don't know how to go about incorporating it in their classrooms, or even making these kids with disabilities feel welcome. Personally, I feel the idea of inclusive education is great because it's making kids learn the importance of equality and preventing discrimination in our upcoming society. However, as a new teacher in less than two years, I begin to feel a little apprehensive about it because not only will I be dealing with everything already on my plate, which includes learning how to be a great teacher - I also need to learn how to work in an inclusive classroom and make these kids feel welcome! I will have to ensure that I'm using a differentiated learning approach in my classroom so that all my kids are benefiting... and the whole thing just starts to a stress a new teacher out - even though it is technically the right thing to do. Okay, but here is another way of looking at it - have we ever asked the kids what they want? If you look at the statistics and talk to these kids, it is quite clear that the majority of them are doing better in these segregated schools because they are receiving the support and one on one assistance they need!

Well, this concludes my first post, because I was planning to discuss what we have learned in our class so far, but I instead decided to create a little debate! Oh well! Another one is coming right away, where I will actually force myself to talk about the material we are covering in our Inclusive Education Class!