From Disability To Possibility

Throughout the semester, the class read & reflected over the chapters in Patrick Schwarz' book, "From Disability to Possibility" published in 2006. This book shines light on the important concepts & topics within the inclusive education system through his own personal experiences with individuals with disabilities.

Diversity is Good

My takeaway on this chapter is something I have always agreed with and is one of the many reasons I chose to pursue this career choice. The importance of diversity is not often voiced when it comes to it being about people with disabilities. What spoke to me the most was how on page 4, the beginning of Andrew’s story, the school he attended due to his disability was categorized as a “segregated school.” When people think of the word “segregation”, they often think of racism and how black people had their own schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, stores, etc. What they don’t think of, or immediately think it’s similar to, is the normalized split between special education and general education. By doing this, people with disabilities are robbed of so many social skills and life experiences and nondisabled people create this sort of barrier between them and people with disabilities. They grow up uneducated on the topic of people being different than them thus creating themselves a future that consists of judgement, doubtfulness, and arrogance towards surrounding people with disabilities.

The act of educating someone on diversity is something that can be taught at both a young and mature point of someone’s life, but it’s best to start when they’re young.
The pity comments given by people towards a future/current special educator shows their lack of education and goes to prove the demand for inclusion.
The importance of advocating for people with disabilities to be commonly accepted more often into a general education school and for jobs when they’re older.

Ch 1

Special Education is a Service, Not a Sentence!

What I understood from this chapter was that special education is something that is physically, emotionally, and mentally given to someone that has a disability. This chapter talks about how special education is used as a place for students that have disabilities and are isolated from everyone in general education. When you isolate someone from anything, they are unfamiliar with what is behind the closed door they are not allowed through which is robbing them of new skills, lessons, and even relationships for their future.

People with disabilities are put into a special education classroom and are learning, but they aren’t learning how to work with others, new social skills, or learning how to adapt to new environments.
General educators who’ve never had a student with a disability in their class are not aware of how to educate the range of diverse learners (students with disabilities) and when they do have the chance to teach someone with a disability, they cannot professionally do so because of the lack of experience they have.
Educators who have a mix of general and special education in their classroom have a greater learning diversity in their classroom for not just the teacher but for other students in the classroom.
Students who are suddenly put into a new environment tend to act out, but when you give them little everyday tasks, they start to create a new routine that eases them into their new environment.
Educators try to teach fairness in the classroom, but fairness is sometimes not fair when a student needs something specific but gets something that everyone else has to be “fair.”

Ch 2

No Double Standards

No Double Standards spoke to me through the major points of ridding away with the segregated classrooms and communities. The stereotype of general educators only teach the general population and special educators only teach the students with disabilities is what needs to be changed in the education world for the sake of faculty and students. The teachers need to adapt to differentiated instruction for the students that need it in the classroom, but they need to display it within the lesson rather than through individual adaptions and one on one lessons. The importance of giving everyone equal opportunities to succeed is the same idea that everyone needs to have consequences for their actions if you have a disability or you don’t. The fairness plays a big role, but it’s not about giving everyone the same exact thing, it’s about giving them what they need.

The knowledge of curriculum is super important because it is always changing and improving. If the educator does not keep up with this, then the students will be neglected of what they are truly supposed to learn and how they are supposed to be taught.
Individuals with disabilities need to learn from their mistakes, but they never do if they are being brushed off and babied because of their disability. They do not learn, and they will continue the behavior.
The general education and the special education are very similar when everyone views them as different and treats them as such. They are much more alike than they are different, and the public needs to be educated on that.

Ch 3

A General Education Shouldn't Need to Be Earned

This chapter has a lot of valid points when it talks about the importance of special education combining with general education. The reason this is so important is because when these two educations are segregated, it takes away skills and relationships with the general population from children with disabilities and vice versa. A lot of the time when a student with disabilities is in general education and they have a behavioral issue, they’re put back in special education as a form of “punishment.” There needs to be a requirement where these two educations are combined to teach everyone how to work with each other.

Even though it is a good idea for general education to be a requirement for everyone, sometimes it is not the best idea when the general educator does not know how to teach different disabilities due to lack of experience.
Special education serves many purposes but the biggest mistake people make is sending a child with behavioral problems from general education into special education thinking it will “help” them.
In the real world there is not a different shopping mall, grocery store, restaurant, park, or swimming pool for general education children or special education children, so there should not be two different educations in the school for children with disabilities and nondisabled children.

Ch 4

Inclusion May Not Be Easier, But it's Better

What spoke to me in this chapter was mainly the focus of how to design different supports and approaches to learning for all students in the classroom and school district. Curricular adaptions are important in education because all students deserve to be included in lessons. Activities, extra curriculars, etc. while still grasping the material in ways they know how to learn

Allow students with disabilities to be included in the same classroom as other students in their school to build social skills.
Solve problems immediately after they occur.
Plan courses carefully and included the students’ progress of their education into the course.
With your staff, come up with ways you can work as a team to help all students.
Accommodate for students with disabilities and how they can actively participate with everyone else in the classroom.
If a student is unable to succeed, then make changes to the lesson, classroom, etc. and don’t give up on them.
Design activities that include all students and if some errors occur, redesign until everyone is successful.
Instead of assisting in everything, allow the students to attempt at learning on their own or attempting a new skill.
Use a students behavior as a form of communication instead of punishment. They might be trying to tell you something but are not able to properly communicate what.
Allow ALL students to be able to participate in any club, organization, sport, team, etc. The more that is offered, they more they are inclined to engage in the classroom.

The Dignity of Risk Applies to All People

This chapter spoke to me and showed the importance of allowing people to take risks to learn for themselves and grow as people. Ben took a risk by crossing the street and got hit by a car, but his mom and his team did not let that stop him from continuing to go out on his own. The dignity in taking a risk is something everyone has gone through, but if you take that away then no one will learn anything for themselves. Individuals with disabilities deserve every right to take the same risks everyone else does who does not have a disability. If we take that away, then we are taking away their right to learn and grow.

We do not want to promote unsafe situations, of course, but taking away a right from a person with a disability that everyone else shares would be terribly wrong.
In the name of special care, special safety, of special protection, we sometimes take the dignity of independence, choice, and freedom away from people with disabilities.
We create a double standard, not letting them do things that nondisabled people take for granted, things that are often the rites of passage into maturity or adulthood.
Without the dignity of risk, the student experiences constant care and supervision, little opportunity to acquire important skills, and the promotion of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is the worst disability of them all.
We need to teach safe behavior, safe skills, safe habits, safe experiences, rather than not teaching them at all to avoid any risk that could potentially happen due to their disability. We need to accommodate to their needs when it comes to letting them take risks, not take away their right to learn the risk all together.
Learned helplessness teaches students with disabilities that they cannot do everything that everyone else does and this develops poor self-confidence and low self-esteem
The dignity of risk is an attitude that must be championed by people with disabilities, their family members, their teachers, and other educational professionals.
Those who understand the dignity of risk can change the system and the world by thinking outside the “benevolence box” and preserving in a logical, step-by-step, yet progressive manner that invites everyone on the educational journey and helps everyone complete it successfully.

Parents: The Gold Standard

In this chapter, what spoke to me was the importance of being on the same team as the parents and the student. If there is not a good relationship or the same level of support between the family and the school professionals, then the students’ education is not in the hands of good people. The gold standard of this chapter is to promote same side support of the student that both sides can agree on. The family knows their child best, and it is the educator’s job to be on that same level of knowledge and support for the sake of the students’ education.

Inclusive education is a new way of doing business for the entire team.
With the help of others, children are encouraged to venture out and become independent without the help of an adult.
Parents are not the enemy; attitude is the enemy.
The center of education should be the student, and the center of the student should be their family. The job of the educator is making this process work.
Encouraging collaboration of all members of the educational team is the main goal.

Get Rid Of Labels

In chapter 8, the concept that spoke to me the most was the detrimental factor labels have on not only the students’ education, but their lives. Labels affect the students’ education by showing them that all they are and all they ever will be is their disability. For example, Nick was a student labeled as someone with behavior challenges and a learning disability. This affected his education by not having anyone that sees beyond those labels, until he met his first-year teacher that met with him second period every day. He was shown support and genuine interest in what he wants to do in life. Once he was comfortable around his teacher, he started to show a bit more effort at school, other than in his math class. He found someone that truly believed in him which made him want to graduate and start his life after school due to having someone support him for who he is, not what he has.

Labels serve no meaningful purpose in the classroom, family, or student’s life.
Students need to believe in themselves for who they are, not what they have. The belief starts and comes from the educator.
Taking the time to learn about the student beyond their disability is one of the most important things a teacher should do.
Keep labels out of every day school interactions and learn the student for who they truly are, not what they are diagnosed with.

Make Education Real!

What spoke to me in this chapter was the importance of when to teach life skills and how to go about teaching them. While academic education is severely important, the knowledge of how to brush your teeth, make personal meals, carry on conversations is extremely important to know. A lot of educators don’t focus on this because they believe that it’s supposed to be the parents’ responsibilities, but in order for something to be taught it needs to be reinstated both at school and at home to be learned.

Priorities need to be set for every student to create successful outcomes.
The end goal is for all students to successfully complete a task that they are being taught.
Spending a good amount of time on teaching a skill will help the student learn faster.
Life skills need not interfere with inclusion.
Teaching techniques for dealing with real life to all students is mandatory if we are to create a caring and cooperative next generation.

Disability is Normal

What spoke to me in this chapter was the importance of disability becoming the normal life that everyone else lives. The sympathy that people with possibilities experience is degrading to them in a way that makes them feel like the only thing people see of them is their disability. They want to be seen as more and given the same chances that everyone else gets without a disability.

Increase the chances that people with possibilities will take on active roles in their community.
Do not show extra sympathy for people with possibilities due to it making them feel that is the only aspect people see rather than the other qualities they have.
If I am trying to help someone achieve something in their life, I need to get to know them first to help them. I need to know what motivates them and makes them feel down so that I know what to use/show them while helping them.

Blogs

For a class discussion, we responded to 2 blogs with our thoughts about special education outside of the U.S. & international disability perspectives. We each chose our own country to research & reflect our findings with one another.

Media Critique

After being assigned a disability to study & research, we found a media source of public disclosure that was related to our assigned disability. We explained the purpose of our chosen media source, who the target audience was, if the setting was a negative impression of the disability, & if the source was useful. My assigned disability was Emotional Disturbance & I chose. "Who Cares About Kelsey?" as my media source.

F.A.T City

F.A.T City workshop consisted of relaying a critical message for students with a learning disability to participants of all ages, occupations, disabilities, & non disabilities. As we watched the 70 minute video, we answered a guided note sheet listing the important aspects of this workshop.

Special Education Outside the USA

In Japan, they view people with disabilities as valuable members of their community and think of them as unique rather than just different. The USA has very similar views on people with disabilities, but as for education, Japan has segregated schools for general & special education for both primary & secondary schools while the USA attempts & advocates for an all inclusive education so that no one is left out of any skills, lessons, etc.

There is no guideline that the Japanese education system follows so each school educates children with disabilities differently than the next. Japan's educators create a curriculum based on the condition of the student & determine what they specifically need to be taught. This is different than the USA education system because there are guidelines, TEKS, & goals to be met as the school year goes on.

In Japan, if a child is physically unable to leave home, then there is what they call "visiting education" & the student can attend home from school. The USA has something similar but it is not offered by the school like in Japan, we call this homeschool.

Blog 1

International Disability Perspectives

In Turkey, it is a challenge for children with disabilities to be included in the same environment as everyone because Turkey has to change its policies & come up with new tools, methods, & approaches to tend to their education. A lot of the times children with disabilities are ignored & neglected when it comes to proper care/education/social services. The children who are able to receive education often stop going to school before they finish because the educational opportunities are not suitable for every child, so they aren't receiving the education they really need.

While our education system needs work when it comes to involving both special & general education in classrooms together, Turkey's education system for children with disabilities is heartbreaking. It's clear that this country either doesn't have many resources to fully educate these children or they simply are not bothered with how everything is handled. In the USA, we have many resources to offer children with disabilities & we certainly do not leave them to struggle because we don't have the correct materials to teach them.

Blog 2

Who Cares About Kelsey?

The chosen documentary, “Who Cares About Kelsey?”, illustrates the frustration felt from the student’s point of view and the assumptions made by surrounding bystanders that are not educated on this topic, Emotional Disabilities. Kelsey struggles mentally with ADHD, trauma, and having no support system that brought her to a low point in her life. This occurs in many students’ lives, but they are unaware of the right way to seek help, like Kelsey, thus why the documentary is an accurate resource to bring awareness to this situation.

The purpose of this media source is to shine light on the often-overlooked problems students go through due to an emotional disability they unknowingly have. Kelsey struggled all her life, especially in high school, and did not learn about her disability until she was a senior in high school. She was told to attend a meeting and only went to use the meeting as an excuse to skip class but learned the root of her problems and decided to act.

The target audience this documentary is trying to reach is current students with similar struggles or parents/teachers that know of a student with these similar struggles. Students typically do not speak up and ask for help themselves unless someone initiates it first, so with the awareness this film brings, there will be an increase in students receiving help for their disability. This resource is very useful due to Kelsey’s situation being almost identical to millions of students that are experiencing similar issues. These students refrain from speaking up due to constant self-doubt in their improvement and reoccurring feeling of hopelessness in the classroom.

The documentary is not setting a negative impression of disability but is instead bringing attention to the symptoms and encouraging the idea to seek help and advice from someone to properly assist this disability. The issues Kelsey dealt with and the troubles she was often involved in could possibly set a negative impression, but this is showing what can/will happen if action is not taken. The positive side to this media source is the accuracy of how this disability looks and the struggle with taking the initiative to seek guidance for oneself. The negative ideas this documentary might promote is perhaps waiting too long to receive help and then it becoming a stressful situation depending on where you are at in life. As for Kelsey, she was a senior in high school days away from graduation trying to scramble last minute passing grades in hopes of her attending graduation. While this could be a negative reason, the fact of the matter is that help was given, effort was put forth to achieve the goal, and progress was made.

“Who Cares About Kelsey?” is an accurate documentary dealing with personal issues, negative tendencies, and past trauma that creates a mindset filled with doubt, constant failure, and no motivation towards improvement until someone comes forward and helps you in the right direction. This is a common issue that people don’t realize is happening until they see it first hand, like Kelsey saw when she was first told what was wrong, then shortly after became more involved in her improvement rather than her struggle.

Source Link

How Difficult Can This Be? F.A.T City Workshop

F.A.T. City Workshop: How Difficult Can This Be?
by Richard Lavoie

F: Frustration____

A: Anxiety______

T: Tension______

Processing:

Name 2 ways delayed processing effects a student’s performance

The student processes questions longer than other students which causes them to answer late and fall behind in the lesson.
The student has trouble with anxiety of being called on during the lesson along with the difficulty to process the questions in general.

Risk Taking:

Name 2 ways you as a teacher can reduce the fear of academic risk-taking during class.

If the student answers correctly, then give them an immediate, positive response to let them know they got the answer right and are on the right track.
If the student answers incorrectly, then avoid putting them down and instead praise them on their effort then explain what the right answer is so they are aware.

Visual Perception:

A) What do teachers often do when a child cannot do academic tasks students say they cannot do?

What is the picture?

- The face of a cow.

Tell the student to look at something harder.
Reward them with something if they get the answer right/Take something away if they get the answer wrong.
Blame the victim for not trying hard enough.
B) What is the difference between seeing & perceiving?
Seeing is the act of just looking at the material

Perception is the act of processing and understanding what you are seeing.

Reading Comprehension:

What is necessary for children to be able to comprehend?

Background knowledge of what they are reading is necessary for the student to comprehend.
Direct instruction is needed for the student to be able to understand.

Effect of Visual Perception:

Write a title for the picture.

Beneath the Skin

List 2 tasks that are difficult for children with learning / mild disabilities.

They struggle with understanding what they have done wrong.
They have difficulty with perception and will misjudge the situation.

Cognitive Processing:

Explain the difference between an associative and a cognitive processing.

Associative Process / Activity is when you can do two or more things at a time.
Cognitive Process / Activity is when you can only do one thing at a time.

What are the two lessons when the group is telling a story?

They were very quick to turn each other in.
It’s very difficult to talk that way which is why giving the student with a LD time to process what they are trying to say is important.

Auditory / Visual Learners:

List two examples of problems or struggles associated with auditory vs visual learners:

Students struggle with understanding written instructions.
Some students have the hear the instructions for them to understand.

Fairness:

What does fairness mean?

- Everyone gets what he or she needs.

Paragraph Reflection:

F.A.T. City Workshop was a very educational video that provided realistic examples for the audience to be able to understand what it’s like having a learning disability. The video portrayed the struggles a student with a LD has in the classroom and how poorly teachers tend to react to them. The do/don’t approaches for working with a student that has LD Rick Lavoie demonstrated were very eye opening since his “don’t” examples are the only ones I have ever seen occur in the classroom. This goes to prove that many teachers do not accommodate for the students that need extra time processing information, reintroduce instructions for students that didn’t understand the written ones, or thinking a student is being disrespectful when they say they don’t understand what they did wrong.

1) Visual Motor Integration are difficult for students with LD.

2) Students with LD struggle with storage and retrieval in their brain. They often cannot get the information out or when they do get the information out, they put the information in the wrong place when they’re done.

3) Students with LD need a TEACHER that is willing to TEACH them. They learn best when things are demonstrated or said aloud to them so they can fully understand the instructions.

4) Students with LD are often distracted by everything surrounding them but are often categorized as not having an attention span at all.

5) Students with LD struggle with anxiety and the unknown of what will happen in class (i.e., getting called on.)

As a teacher, I will make sure any student of mine with a LD never feels as if I’m not there to help them. If they need any sort of reintroduced instruction, then I will reword them in any way until they understand.
I will allow my students with LD extra time to process information/questions and never make them feel rushed.
I will never punish or talk down on a student for getting something wrong, I will redirect their thought process until they are on the right track to getting the right answer.
I will always praise the student with LD for their effort instead of negatively telling them that they need to try harder in the classroom.
I will make sure the student has some sort of prior knowledge to the material and if they don’t, I will explain the material so they can understand it better instead of being confused and left behind in lecture.

Guided Notes

Video