I have always been aware of disabilities in the
classroom and how they affect students, teachers, and teaching strategies. I
saw a few things in this video that I did not know and did not think could be
done for people with disabilities and I was pleasantly surprised. After
watching this video, I can say that it was appropriately named “Enabling
Dreams.” We have so many brilliant minds working towards improving the educational
experience and just overall living experience that disabilities almost do not
come across as a hindrance because we can now work through them effectively.
One of the examples of full-inclusion that I observed in the video was when the teachers of the younger children were using the assistive technology. The use of such technology will always be the first opportunity for students to be successful participants. I personally feel like some features of a lesson plan that would set students with disabilities up for success would be to allot more time for certain parts of the lesson. By allowing more time for the students to understand and work with what they have, more learning and teaching will be going on. It is also very important to have time for questions during each part of the lesson. Students should also be addressed directly so that they understand that they are being spoken to and they better understand what they are being asked to do. The biggest thing that I feel is required in a lesson to help students succeed with disabilities in a lesson is encouragement and understanding. We need to encourage our students to grab life by its horns and we need to help them understand that they can do whatever it is they are tasked with, they can complete. You can see an example of this when Vishal Saraiya runs for president of the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internet Networking, and Technology (DO-IT) program’s student body. This young man has the encouragement from his teachers and parents from seeing what he can do with the help of assistive technology, and he understands that he has boundless capabilities.
If I were to design my lesson plans while keeping in mind students and their disabilities, I would start by planning ahead. I would see if any of my students had disabilities, what their disabilities are, what is included in their Individualized Education Program (IEP), and how it could potentially restrict the student or provide constraints during the activities and lessons that would be included in my class. There is a universal design of instruction that would help to create a skeleton for your lesson plan and it also includes how to embrace students with disabilities. According to the MESA Curriculum Addendum and their article that is titled, How to Fully Include Students with Disabilities, “Universal design refers to the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation.” So with that, one of the first steps I could take to starting a lesson plan while keeping in mind my students with disabilities, I can start off by designing my curriculum or my class activities by using this “Universal Design.”
After designing the lesson plan to accommodate all of my students, I could then teach the children about each other. I would use the idea of having the students work together. My mom is a teacher at Southern High School and she has been teaching Adaptive Physical Education with the idea of having peer involvement since she started teaching there in 1997. It is because of her that I feel like this would be a great idea. I think that students who have disabilities can sometimes feel alienated or they may feel like an outcast by their peers because of what they have to go through. I feel like there are a lot of positives when you incorporate all of your students together. By working with their peers, students with disabilities may not only improve in academically but perhaps also socially. According to Wang (2013), "students with special needs or disabilities can strive with the help of team building and or group participation." Full inclusion is the best way to go unless the safety of students may be compromised.
“How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams” is a great short video and I feel like it is a testament to the amazing things that every student can do. The human spirit can be fire that is impossible to put out if it is kindled the right way. Being a teacher is all about learning over a lifetime while also sharing what you have experienced and what you know with every single one of your students in any way that you can. All children deserve a great educational experience, there are no permanent roadblocks when teaching, only temporary ones. My personal experience with assistive technology helping out students with disabilities is that I can see how much it helps. There was so much more that the students were able to do with the assistance and the overall learning experience was much improved and that’s what we want as teachers. We want to improve the learning quality for our students and give them the ability and hunger to be a lifelong learner.
One of the examples of full-inclusion that I observed in the video was when the teachers of the younger children were using the assistive technology. The use of such technology will always be the first opportunity for students to be successful participants. I personally feel like some features of a lesson plan that would set students with disabilities up for success would be to allot more time for certain parts of the lesson. By allowing more time for the students to understand and work with what they have, more learning and teaching will be going on. It is also very important to have time for questions during each part of the lesson. Students should also be addressed directly so that they understand that they are being spoken to and they better understand what they are being asked to do. The biggest thing that I feel is required in a lesson to help students succeed with disabilities in a lesson is encouragement and understanding. We need to encourage our students to grab life by its horns and we need to help them understand that they can do whatever it is they are tasked with, they can complete. You can see an example of this when Vishal Saraiya runs for president of the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internet Networking, and Technology (DO-IT) program’s student body. This young man has the encouragement from his teachers and parents from seeing what he can do with the help of assistive technology, and he understands that he has boundless capabilities.
If I were to design my lesson plans while keeping in mind students and their disabilities, I would start by planning ahead. I would see if any of my students had disabilities, what their disabilities are, what is included in their Individualized Education Program (IEP), and how it could potentially restrict the student or provide constraints during the activities and lessons that would be included in my class. There is a universal design of instruction that would help to create a skeleton for your lesson plan and it also includes how to embrace students with disabilities. According to the MESA Curriculum Addendum and their article that is titled, How to Fully Include Students with Disabilities, “Universal design refers to the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation.” So with that, one of the first steps I could take to starting a lesson plan while keeping in mind my students with disabilities, I can start off by designing my curriculum or my class activities by using this “Universal Design.”
After designing the lesson plan to accommodate all of my students, I could then teach the children about each other. I would use the idea of having the students work together. My mom is a teacher at Southern High School and she has been teaching Adaptive Physical Education with the idea of having peer involvement since she started teaching there in 1997. It is because of her that I feel like this would be a great idea. I think that students who have disabilities can sometimes feel alienated or they may feel like an outcast by their peers because of what they have to go through. I feel like there are a lot of positives when you incorporate all of your students together. By working with their peers, students with disabilities may not only improve in academically but perhaps also socially. According to Wang (2013), "students with special needs or disabilities can strive with the help of team building and or group participation." Full inclusion is the best way to go unless the safety of students may be compromised.
“How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams” is a great short video and I feel like it is a testament to the amazing things that every student can do. The human spirit can be fire that is impossible to put out if it is kindled the right way. Being a teacher is all about learning over a lifetime while also sharing what you have experienced and what you know with every single one of your students in any way that you can. All children deserve a great educational experience, there are no permanent roadblocks when teaching, only temporary ones. My personal experience with assistive technology helping out students with disabilities is that I can see how much it helps. There was so much more that the students were able to do with the assistance and the overall learning experience was much improved and that’s what we want as teachers. We want to improve the learning quality for our students and give them the ability and hunger to be a lifelong learner.
University of Washington. (2015). How To Fully Include Students with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/accessstem/accommodations/mesa-curriculum-supplement-how-fully-include-students-0
Wang, K. (2013). 7 Ways to Include a Student with Special Needs in Physical Education. Retrieved from http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2013/11/12/7-ways-to-include-a-student-with-special-needs-in-physical-education/
Hi:
ReplyDeleteExcellent writing, but you missed a few opportunities with which to incorporate hyperlinks.